one thing i hate and i think everyone will agree is switching freaking guitars for every fuckin song! lol when they kicked in with unglued (not sure if it was unglued, pretty sure though) without dean switching was fucking great just a blast out of nowheres! it would have been really cool if they did it for more songs.
great show better than last years mohegan which was dreadful.
Well thing is, some guitars are tuned differently, and set up differently, and some just sound different.
In the studio, you would probably be shocked at how many different guitars and amps make it onto an STP record.
Live, it is easier to get away with less, but sometimes, it is still necessary.
For example, songs where Dean uses a Les Paul (what you mostly seem him with) can be split into two different tunings: Dropped-D, and Standard. That is the reason for the switch. In some ways, it is actually quicker to change guitars than retune, though that is debatable. However, tuning to Dropped-D could also change the guitars intonation slightly, meaning it would have to be set up a little bit differently to optimally reproduce the notes.
Further, a 3rd Les Paul is used for Big Empty, because the strings are set up much higher off of the guitar's fretboard to allow him to use the slide cleanly. This guitar also has a special strap which holds 3 slides, this way he can discard them and quickly finger the chords during the chorus, then pull another one out of the strap when it is time to go back to playing slide.
For Creep and Sour Girl--I haven't tested this theory, I am just assuming--one is tuned a half-step down to Eb (E-flat), the other to standard tuning. The reason for the difference is that Sour Girl can be played in a lower key (which is easier for Scott to sing live) than the album version, but allow Dean to use the exact same fingering--unlike piano, where he would have to use different fingering to compensate for a new key, he can retune the guitar completely to accomplish this. I know for a fact that Sour Girl is tuned down half a step. What I have not tested, however, is whether Creep, is still in its original key. I can only imagine in MUST be.
The reason for the PRS guitars is that there are two outputs--one from the electric guitar pickups, which goes through his amplifier set up, and another from a special pickup located in the bridge, which makes the guitar sound like an acoustic guitar. This output goes directly to the PA system. This gives the sound of both an electric guitar AND acoustic guitar playing at the same time.
Next, Lounge Fly is an the most interesting tuning, open D minor. This means that, unlike the standard tuned guitar, when the guitars open strings are all played together, it sounds a D minor chord (a standard tuned guitar, if I remember correctly, played the same way, sounds an E minor 11 chord).
As a side note, in 2002, I noticed Robert using an actually 12-string acoustic guitar on a stand to play the bridge part in Lounge Fly. This year, he using a Line 6, I assume their Variax model, which is a 6-string, but can simulate the sound of a 12-string.
Finally, Seven Caged Tigers is performed on a standard tuned guitar. Both Lounge Fly and Seven Caged Tigers are played live on Fender Telecasters. The difference between these guitars and Les Paul guitars are vest, but for our purposes, I will tell you it is mainly the pickups. Les Pauls use humbucking pickups, Telecasters use single-coil pickups. Humbucking pickups sound heavier and darker, single-coils are somewhat thinner, brighter, and kind of "hollow" sounding.
Even though Vasoline was recorded with a Telecaster, he plays a Les Paul live for it, probably because it makes the song heavier live, which it is. However, to stay truer to the "feel" of Lounge Fly and Seven Caged Tigers, he probably chooses to use the Teles. I cannot tell you whether Seven Caged Tigers was recorded with a Tele or not (for example, Too Cool Queenie was recorded on the album with a 50's-era Fender Stratocaster--also with single coil pickups--but he played it live with a Tele). I never see Dean onstage with a Strat, so I can only assume, as a fellow guitarist who has played live shows, that Dean either likes the way Teles feel on him versus Strats when playing live, or likes the way they sound better using his amplifier rig, or both.
Anyway, I get what you mean about the flow, but there is definitely a method to the madness.
