Creativity Quote by Neal Schon

There is a working musician's pragmatism in Neal Schon's blunt trade-off: comfort is negotiable; tone isn't. Coming from a guitarist whose reputation was built in arena-sized rock, the line reads less like gear snobbery and more like a credo shaped by loud stages, long sets, and the unforgiving clarity of a live mix. Heavy guitars, in this worldview, are a kind of physical commitment. You carry the weight because the sound carries the song.

The intent is almost disarmingly literal - mass and materials often correlate with sustain, resonance, and stability - but the subtext is about priorities. Schon is quietly pushing back on a consumer culture that sells convenience as an upgrade. A lighter instrument might be "better" on paper, but if it loses that thick, authoritative voice, the bargain is false. The admission that they're "not that comfortable" is what makes the statement persuasive: it's not romantic mythmaking, it's an experienced player's cost-benefit analysis.

Context matters, too. Classic rock guitar tone has always been tied to iconic, often heavier instruments and the idea that great sound requires sacrifice: callused fingers, loud amps, long drives, aching shoulders. Schon's line lands because it translates that whole tradition into one clean sentence. It also hints at a larger ethic: the audience hears the result, not the strain. The discomfort is private; the tone is the point.