Neal Schon's soaring lead tone?

  • Yes, there is TV footage of Neal with the Mace amps. Sure I even saw one where they were doing Escape stuff.
    The Mace are so rare in the UK that I have never got to try one.
    I loved all the 38 Special sounds and they are all supposed to be Mace too.
    Like you say, there only seems to be clean profiles. Love to hear some 38 Special (Special Forces) era profiles.
    My mate who has a big hire company here in the UK told me he has one in his warehouse but has not come across it yet. He managed to unearth a Sequential Prophet 5 he has forgotten he had. ? Love to have a dig around in there. ?

  • Fore a while you could get these for like $100.00 when they were completely out of favor. I got mine for $150.00 a month ago from a hoarder thinning out his heard. The "Classic" is another one in that series, lower watt and if it had the same pre section that would be cool. The first Maces were transistor distortion then they went to IC. I actually like the IC version. I talked with Peavey support and turns out mine is a transitional amp that used the same knobs as the transistor version with the "Automix".

  • I suspect his delay/reverb settings or even the amps he is using are not the secret sauce in creating his signature sound .. his soaring and singing lead tones. Although any good reverb and delay will bring fullness and depth to the tone, the secret sauce to his sound are those two mini toggle switches behind the bridge. There lies a sophisticated sustainer circuit. He explains and demonstrates it in this video.


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    The guitar he is using, a Les Paul Custom is heavily modified and looks similar (same switches and circuit) to be the one in the poster's original video and question.

  • I suspect his delay/reverb settings or even the amps he is using are not the secret sauce in creating his signature sound .. his soaring and singing lead tones. Although any good reverb and delay will bring fullness and depth to the tone, the secret sauce to his sound are those two mini toggle switches behind the bridge. There lies a sophisticated sustainer circuit. He explains and demonstrates it in this video.


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    The guitar he is using, a Les Paul Custom is heavily modified and looks similar (same switches and circuit) to be the one in the poster's original video and question.

    I believe the guitar in the original video i posted is a PRS Schon model. Yes in the last few years he's been using the Fernandes Sustainer system in his guitars. They sound great and give you infinite sustain. That's part of his tone yes. I guess what I've figured out is that most of that soaring beautiful tone is his delays and reverbs which are huge.

    Rik


    Kemper toaster >Kemper remote> 2 x Alto TS310 powered speakers Furman M-8XAR

  • The leads I love by Neil likely were not done on a sustainer system. I totally judge and have only bought tube amps that have the ability to sing into an unlimited harmonic feedback. Old Marshalls can do this well. For me, it's a litmus test of amp quality and often pure circuitry. My Backup rig, (a Digitech 1101) never did that (nice controllable feedback) although it sounded plenty good enough to play through (sometimes great) and nobody really noticed, it had a hard time "singing". That's one of the first things I tested with my Kemper was the ability to have controllable feedback & harmonic singing sustain and it does it in spades. I was like -YES! and played it that night till my eyes bleed.

    But back to the point, You can make a Kemper sustain REAL well even at low volumes without a sustainer on your ax. Neil is a great player with good technique and odd way he approaches scales. IMO that is his power.