Joe Satriani doesn’t like using maple-necked guitars because they’re “a bit of a crapshoot”
When he’s not playing with The Jimi Hendrix Experience, he shuns them.
Joe Satriani. Image: Eduardo Peña Dolhun
Every guitarist has their preferences, and Joe Satriani has expressed a major one of his: he isn’t a fan of maple-necked electric guitars.
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During a recent interview on the Talking Shred podcast (via Ultimate Guitar), Satriani discussed why he’ll avoid maple-necked guitars, saying, “I find it’s really hard to get consistent maple neck. So, let’s say you bring eight guitars on tour, getting all the maple-neck guitars… It is just a piece of wood. I mean, when you think about it, it grows out of the ground. Mother Nature decides.”
He continues, “So, it’s a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to maple necks. I do like them, and I do use them on albums from time to time. They can be a bit bright. And again, prior to my solo career, I owned a ‘54 Strat, and I loved it.
“It had a maple neck, and I thought it was the greatest guitar, but I did not have a job then where I had to play melodies and solos nonstop for two and a half hours. And so, this job of being a solo artist has changed my needs as a guitar player. I need different pedals, amps, speakers, and guitars than perhaps the average guitarist.”
Disagreeing with Satriani is Joe Bonamassa, who said last year that he prefers maple more than rosewood when it comes to his Stratocasters, as “the notes jump off it in a different way.”
Satriani has got a busy few months coming up, too. In June, the Best Of All Worlds tour is set to begin, with the virtuoso joining Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Jason Bonham to perform Van Halen classics, as well as songs from the supergroups Chickenfoot and The Circle.
He’ll be playing Eddie Van Halen’s guitar parts, something that could be quite daunting for the big Van Halen fan – he’s discussed the pressure to “do it right,” explaining that he’d deliberately tried to avoid playing like Eddie or learning his guitar parts in the past.