Jerry Neal

Description:

Screen Name:

Jerry Neal

Sex:

M

Age:

56

Studio Musician:

No

Level Of Commitment:

Committed

Years Playing Music:

35

Gigs Played:

10 to 50

Tend to Practice:

More than 3 times per week

Available to Gig:

6-7 time(s) per week

Most available:

Days

A lot of lead guitar, very vocal, very emotional, with a lot of different and unusual sounds, very bluesy, very melodic, with a lot of gospel flavor, often almost completely or completely improvised, always trying new and different things. It would probably be pretty accurate to say my playing most resembles the emotional and tonal qualities of Carlos Santana, though some people seem to think I sound like Hendrix. I'm not interested in Santana's commercial direction, though. Gospel music is very important to me, but so is making really good, innovative, kick-ass music that isn't necessarily commercial, so people like Eric Johnson, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, and Mike Bloomfield tend to be more my heroes than someone like Eric Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughn--though I do like a lot of early Clapton. I don't sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn at all and don't even try to duplicate his licks and his tone--after all, everyone else has done that for the last 10 years.

Influences:

Carlos Santana, Eric Johnson, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, Eric Clapton, John McLaughlin, Mike Bloomfield, Albert King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin. If there's a rock or blues guitarist you could mention, I've probably stolen some sound or some trick from him: I usually don't use other people's licks.

Equipment List:

PRS Santana SE with 3 EMG 89 dual mode pickups (single coil and humbucker), each pickup with its own 3-way switch, Afterburner 20db preamp and GHOST acoustic pickup system, graphite nut, Planet Waves locking tuning pegs, and a transparent pickguard. White Stratocaster copy with maple neck with 3 EMG SAs, each pickup with a 2-way switch, EMG 29db Preamp, RPC, SPC, and Washburn Wonderbar tremolo (set up left-handed, no tremolo cavity), Schaller locking tuning pegs and graphite nut. Mesa-Boogie F-30 two channel, all-tube 3-mode amplifier with amp stand for larger gigs, and a Pignose Hog-20 for smaller ones. Effects include an Ebow Plus, a JetSlide, a Danelectro Talk Back Reverse delay pedal (for making the guitar sound like it's played backwards), a Dunlop Jimi Hendrix wah-wah, a Voodoo Labs MicroVibe (Univibe pedal), and a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal (which is rarely used because it doesn't sound as good as twiddling the knobs and preamps on the guitar through the Boogie), and a Tascam 424 Mk III PortaStudio 4-track recorder.

Audio/Video Downloads

1. Amazing Grace.mp3
2. O Come All Ye Faithful.mp3
3. Samba Pa Ti Excerpt.mp3