Neal Schon's Fretboard Secret Sauce

[o0Ampy0o]

I read that his secret sauce for fretboards is salami grease.

 

 

[Larryz]

I don't know about salami grease, but I highly recommend not eating ribs at backyard BBQ parties if you're going to be playing your guitar LoL! 

[Ivan May]

Who cares what Neal Schon puts on his fretboards? All that matters is that he is a great guitarist. I for one, find him to be a great guitarist in both Journey and Santana. A lot of the albums Schon did with Jan Hammer, such as Here To Stay by Jan Hammer, also kicked ass and are also worth owning.

 

Although I seem to remember reading that Martin Turner jokingly admitted to putting ketchup on the fretboard of his Thunderbird bass around the time that Wishbone Ash were recording Argus in 1972. I guess some condiments work well with guitar fretboards!!

[o0Ampy0o]

2 hours ago, IMMusicRulz said:

Who cares what Neal Schon puts on his fretboards? All that matters is that he is a great guitarist. I for one, find him to be a great guitarist in both Journey and Santana. A lot of the albums Schon did with Jan Hammer, such as Here To Stay by Jan Hammer, also kicked ass and are also worth owning.

 

Although I seem to remember reading that Martin Turner jokingly admitted to putting ketchup on the fretboard of his Thunderbird bass around the time that Wishbone Ash were recording Argus in 1972. I guess some condiments work well with guitar fretboards!!

Lighten up. I am not making fun of him. I am making light of the salami solution. I think it is just a claim to discourage theft. I saw them on a night when his guitars had just been stolen. He was using guitars borrowed from local music stores.
 

I recently watched John Waite’s documentary and noticed he did not spend much time talking about Bad English. He had given his all to that band, championing it, selling it in interviews. Last night I listened to a bunch of Bad English on YT. The two formal releases feature what I consider Neal’s best work in his more commercially appealing material. I prefer his work in the original form of Journey. But regarding Bad English, everything is well-done: production, composition, performance and mastering. In the Steve Perry era of Journey he was out of place on some songs. Like he never found a way to fit the song. In Bad English everyone seemed to be on the same page. This, listening now. I was more choosy when Bad English was a band. I liked many songs but I appreciate more of them today. Overall the material is a good platform for Waite’s vocals. I listened to the “lost unreleased material” and where the formal releases are great the unreleased material is appropriately not worthy of formal release. They seem to have managed to create a lot of good material so they did not have to put anything bad on their albums. Most albums by everyone have had a few bad songs. Their worst song included on the formal releases was still a good song.

[Sharkman]

On a serious note, either mineral oil or lemon oil are the best choices, in my far from humble opinion, to put on the natural wood of your fretboard.

[KuruPrionz]

23 minutes ago, Sharkman said:

On a serious note, either mineral oil or lemon oil are the best choices, in my far from humble opinion, to put on the natural wood of your fretboard.

I use clean the fretboard first, then a very light coat of lemon oil and after a couple of minutes I wipe that off and remove all excess with a cloth. 

It does make the wood colors "pop", I just want the strings to stay clean and not get oily. 

[o0Ampy0o]

Everyone does realize the salami is to keep the fretboard from slowing his fingers down like lube not to make it pretty or to preserve the wood like furniture polish, right?

 

I have used things to treat the raw wood (of course not if there is something on the wood) but for ease of playing I keep mine clean. In the summer I will play less because if my hands sweat it isn't as enjoyable. 

[KuruPrionz]

2 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

Everyone does realize the salami is to keep the fretboard from slowing his fingers down like lube not to make it pretty or to preserve the wood like furniture polish, right?

 

I have used things to treat the raw wood (of course not if there is something on the wood) but for ease of playing I keep mine clean. In the summer I will play less because if my hands sweat it isn't as enjoyable. 

Yes, I realize that. MPN seems to be rather fluid in terms of subject changes in threads.                                                                                                                                                         One thing I've noticed is that if my fingertips are greasy, the strings slide out from under them when I try to bend a note. Neil bends lots of notes. 

[o0Ampy0o]

True for me as well, anything that is supposed to assist speed and dexterity on the fretboard has been counterproductive for me. There is the loss of control of strings as you mentioned and some of that material comes off on my fingers. I have tried it. Then I tried to use it followed with wiping as much of it off as I can seeing whether there is any benefit while not becoming a hindrance. In the end I found that it is 100% hindrance to me.