Tone in Journey's Who's Crying Now solo

  • Thread starter Thread starter abrackas
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crwnedblasphemy":3pcwl309 said:
Lmao....ruffles....the one with ridges.
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Built in french tickler... :hys:

Ok....I promise no more nonsense and derailing the thread. :D

But seriously Neal is one of my favorite players. I still listen to them almost daily. Older stuff though.

 
I had the privilege of meeting Steve Perry and picking his brain. He told me the whole story on how that solo came about. He recalls it being a Fender Twin Reverb with a wah pedal slightly opened. They were supposedly working on something else and at the end of the day, Steve wanted to go back to Who's Crying Now as had an idea for a melody for an outro solo... Neal plugged into a Twin and Steve sang him the melody to the intro part. Neal improvised the rest. Steve was very taken by the beauty of the solo and called Herbie Herbert (manager) to come down immediately to hear it. In the end, the label wanted to cut the solo out as they thought it was too long and radio wouldn't touch it. Steve fought for it and said "over his dead body." Steve won the battle and the rest is history.
 
It always sounded to me like there was something humping the mids up in that solo. When I hear cover bands do that and the guitar player puts his neck pickup on I say " NO NO NO"
 
To me it sounds like it has a compressor on it. I could be way off but that's what I'm hearing.
 
sunjive":3vpae6ue said:
I had the privilege of meeting Steve Perry and picking his brain. He told me the whole story on how that solo came about. He recalls it being a Fender Twin Reverb with a wah pedal slightly opened. They were supposedly working on something else and at the end of the day, Steve wanted to go back to Who's Crying Now as had an idea for a melody for an outro solo... Neal plugged into a Twin and Steve sang him the melody to the intro part. Neal improvised the rest. Steve was very taken by the beauty of the solo and called Herbie Herbert (manager) to come down immediately to hear it. In the end, the label wanted to cut the solo out as they thought it was too long and radio wouldn't touch it. Steve fought for it and said "over his dead body." Steve won the battle and the rest is history.
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TY sunjive!

I remember listening to a long radio interview Steve did semi recently (within the last five years) and one of the tidbits that I enjoyed him talking about was how he helped Neal with his solos and melodies. He said something to the effect, which I agree 100%, name a solo or guitar part he's done since Steve left that is really good." Is it coincidence the best solos were when Steve was in the band? Some of the live solo/noodling stuff I've seen I'm not that impressed with the more recent Neal. He's a good guitarist but even better with help from someone like Steve.

EDIT: Found the link - The interview question begins around 19:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXpOSUntP-U
 
Schon's work in Journey was just Great.

Can't imagine anyone doing it better, really focused, great musical solos that were so definitive they became
part of the,Song and beautiful Tones.

Who's Crying Now is a good example.
 
danyeo":c8xx3p8r said:
It always sounded to me like there was something humping the mids up in that solo. When I hear cover bands do that and the guitar player puts his neck pickup on I say " NO NO NO"
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Yeah, he stays on the bridge humbucker of his P90/humbucker Les Paul in this live clip from the Escape tour. It may have even been recorded with this guitar. I used to think it was the neck P90,too, but the Twin Reverb/wah story sounds believable-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s1wk3ncn3r0
 
sunjive said:
I had the privilege of meeting Steve Perry and picking his brain. He told me the whole story on how that solo came about. He recalls it being a Fender Twin Reverb with a wah pedal slightly opened. They were supposedly working on something else and at the end of the day, Steve wanted to go back to Who's Crying Now as had an idea for a melody for an outro solo... Neal plugged into a Twin and Steve sang him the melody to the intro part. Neal improvised the rest. Steve was very taken by the beauty of the solo and called Herbie Herbert (manager) to come down immediately to hear it. In the end, the label wanted to cut the solo out as they thought it was too long and radio wouldn't touch it. Steve fought for it and said "over his dead body." Steve won the battle and the rest is history.
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I reached out to Neil recently, and he said there was no Wah. Just a little Roland amp and a less Paul
 
abrackas said:
TY sunjive!

I remember listening to a long radio interview Steve did semi recently (within the last five years) and one of the tidbits that I enjoyed him talking about was how he helped Neal with his solos and melodies. He said something to the effect, which I agree 100%, name a solo or guitar part he's done since Steve left that is really good." Is it coincidence the best solos were when Steve was in the band? Some of the live solo/noodling stuff I've seen I'm not that impressed with the more recent Neal. He's a good guitarist but even better with help from someone like Steve.

EDIT: Found the link - The interview question begins around 19:20
Click to expand...

It says the video isn't available anymore :(
 
The solo to Who's Crying Now always made that my favorite Journey Song. I will never forget the week of Thanksgiving 2000. i was living in Memphis and that's when I learned the solo. It's one of the few solo's I wanted to learn after my teenage years. I have mostly done originals since then and this was a rare example. Superb guitar work and the tone always stood out to me too. The way the tone in the long vibratos reacts with the delays/reverbs is epic.
 
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Here’s a recording i did with my iPhone. It doesn’t pick up the sound that good but this is as close as I’ve got it for achieving that tone. I’ll answer questions in the comments
 
Killer616isg said:


Here’s a recording i did with my iPhone. It doesn’t pick up the sound that good but this is as close as I’ve got it for achieving that tone. I’ll answer questions in the comments
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That sounds great!

What guitar, amp, effects and settings did you use?
 
Sounds to me like it’s plugged right into the board with maybe some kind of preamp in front of it.
 
mrmega said:
That sounds great!

What guitar, amp, effects and settings did you use ?
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I used a Less Paul on the bridge pickup setting into a boss katana on the clean channel with a little bit of gain.
The key is to add quite a bit of compression and to adjust the sound with an EQ (which was probably done on the board)
Neil Schon used a Roland amp for this solo, so a solid state amp will be fine.
 
Killer616isg said:
I used a Less Paul on the bridge pickup setting into a boss katana on the clean channel with a little bit of gain.
The key is to add quite a bit of compression and to adjust the sound with an EQ (which was probably done on the board)
Neil Schon used a Roland amp for this solo, so a solid state amp will be fine.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Did he use a cube? The Eagles used a cube a lot of The Long Run.
 
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