Neal Schon is no stranger to showing off his incredible collection of electric guitars on his Instagram, but his latest – a nine-string Ibanez – is certainly the most surprising.
As is always the case with the Journey guitarist, the instrument’s origin story is full of intrigue. It seems he just can’t buy off-the-shelf axes.
“Decided to pick up my nine-string beast that [memorabilia collector] Alan Rosen picked up for me many years ago before they had eight- and nine-string guitars,” he writes. “This was a one that came from the Ibanez Japan Custom Shop. I need to change the strings as they’ve been sitting for a while.”
Schon has posted a series of clips in all, and they show him shredding through the octaves. Sadly, he doesn't go full djent, but there are occasional grumblings from the guitar's low end, and his phone's microphone struggles to handle the bass it delivers.
The guitar is equipped with hot rail humbuckers, and a fixed bridge (what psychopath puts a Floyd Rose on a nine-string?). Schon has also revealed the string set he’s aiming to saddle the guitar up with: 9-11-16-24-34-44-54-64-74.
A third video, which has the seal of approval from Testament's jazz/thrash maestro Alex Skolnick, is a “meditative nine-string extravaganza”. His phone takes a tumble midway through, but otherwise it's the pick of the bunch.
The trio of clips shows he’s having a blast playing what is arguably the wildest axe in his collection. Whether or not it will gain employment in the studio with the 71-year-old is to be seen.
Last year, Schon used his Instagram account to tease a new Floyd-Rose-loaded Gibson Les Paul Supreme that could be a signature guitar after rekindling his relationship with Gibson.
