Forum member, Barhrecords, did this! He got me thinking about Neil Young.
Now I have to do a full post. And once again you get a patch. But this patch
is really versatile and great-sounding, so its worth giving some of my remaining
attachment space for.
I know you younger readers are wondering why us old farts are so high on an old
hairy hippie, with a crazy look in his eyes, that sings like a girl. It’s not because he’s
a mind-blowing guitar player, but because his career as a songwriter/artist/musician is on
par with the Beatles!
He is a direct living link to the ‘troubadours’ of the ’30-‘40’s. The wandering
singer/songwriters of the Great Depression, like Woody Guthrie, who inspired
Bob Dylan to change the face of Popular music. Like them, the central theme of Neil’s
career has been, that the whole reason to pick up a guitar in the first place, is to write
a simple song about something that matters. And he has done that like few others.
In the late ‘60’s a music style known as “Folk Rock” emerged and became massively
popular. Neil was on the ground floor of this music explosion being a founding member
of the band, Buffalo Springfield. Thereafter, he moved on to join the already famous
trio of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. During Neil’s tenure with that group, CSN&Y achieved
super-star status. Some of the old timers on this Board can tell you just how famous,
respected, and mega-popular these guys were at that time. You had to be there
(playing their live album, "Four Way Street" for a girl, stood a good chance of getting you laid).
After internal tensions imploded CSN&Y, Neil went on to form the legendary group,
Crazy Horse. His work with them created the sonic template that became “Grunge”
in the mid-‘90’s. Widely known as “The Godfather of Grunge”, many stars of that
scene, notably Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain openly acknowledged him as
their primary influence.
His list of great recordings is staggering (34 studio albums). A partial list of his well-known songs:
Sugar Mountain
The Loner (a staple of his live shows)
Cinnamon Girl
Down By The River
Cowgirl in the Sand
Ohio (one of the greatest protest songs ever written)
Southern Man
The Needle and the Damage Done (one of the greatest anti-drug songs ever written)
Old Man
Heart of Gold
Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) (contains some of the most heavily quoted lyrics of all time)
Cortez The Killer
This Note’s For You
Rockin’ in the Free World
Fascinating Neil Young facts:
He has been inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame twice.
(once solo, once with Buffalo Springfield)
He owns a Martin D-28 acoustic, that is the actual Martin played by Country music
icon, Hank Williams (seems his son, Hank Jr., sold his father’s priceless gear to buy shotguns).
He played in a band with future funk-master, Rick James, in his early career (The Mynah Birds)
The video for his 1988 hit, “This Note’s For You” was banned by MTV for disparaging
some of the network’s sponsors. Neil then wrote them a very public letter asking if
the “M” in MTV stood for “Music”, or “Money”!
Legendary southern rock group, Lynryd Skynryd, wrote the following lyrics in their
massive hit, “Sweet Home Alabama”, directly to Neil in response to his scathing indictment
of Deep South racism in his songs “Southern Man” & "Alabama":
"Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her
Well, I heard ol' Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow"
GEAR!
Us geeky guitar players must talk about gear and Neil’s is very interesting.
Guitars: Neil used Gretsch “Chet Atkins” and “White Falcon” hollowbody
electrics in Buffalo Springfield and early solo career. The guitar he is most associated with
is a 1953 Les Paul goldtop, with an amateur black paintjob, known as “Old Black”.
The guitar has a vintage Gibson Firebird pickup, retro-fitted in the bridge. It is microphonic as hell,
and is directly responsible for the string-y, metallic tones, and feedback you hear on his recordings
with Crazy Horse.
Amplifiers: Neil has a massive collection of vintage amps, including over 400 vintage
Fender Tweed Deluxes! Incredibly, he bases his whole live tone on one very special
sounding Tweed Deluxe, upon which sits a custom-made device, called ‘The Whizzer’,
which mechanically turns the amp’s knobs to preset positions. Like a primitive
MIDI switcher.
Also, in his live rig, he feeds a direct line out from the Deluxe to a Magnatone amp.
A warm-sounding vintage amp that has true pitch-shift vibrato (vs. Fender’s volume trem).
You may remember in Pt. I of this thread I did a patch called “True Vibrato” based on
the Magnatone sound.
Hope you like the patches. The "Neil Young Rig" features a hot-biased Tweed Deluxe model
in parallel with my Magnatone model (featuring stereo pitch vibrato!) from the “True Vibrato” patch. They are connected to a Mixer block. Channel 1 is the Tweed, Channel 3 is the Magnatone. You get to mix them as you please, or isolate each amp. Try each by itself, they both sound great. When you combine the two, you’ll get distortion textures very reminiscent of Neil’s work with Crazy Horse.
These patches respond extremely well to volume knob manipulation. Try turning your bridge
PU volume to the ‘2-3’ area for rhythm, then crank to ‘10’ for leads.
EDIT: 02/13/2012 - Sneaky edit. New patch here for those paying attention.
"Touch Sensitive Tweed" is a new patch, created directly A/B'ing against a real
vintage Tweed Deluxe. I out-did myself here. Best dynamic response I've ever
dialed in.