Neal Schon will auction off more than 100 of his guitars later this month.

Heritage Auctions will offer 112 guitars for bidding on July 31. You can see photos of some of the Journey guitarist's instruments below.

"These are guitars I've been collecting for a very long time," Schon said in a news release. "And it's time to let go of some of my collection to make room for new arrivals."

Among the guitars are several that were used on Journey's most prominent recordings, including the 1974 Guild F-50 acoustic Schon used to write "Wheel in the Sky" and "Patiently" with singer Steve Perry from the band's 1978 album, Infinity.

"It was my room warm-up guitar, many years before Steve Perry came into the band," Schon said. "I had an endorsement with Guild at the time, and they made me that F-50. It holds that history, and it's on a lot of famous songs. 'Patiently' was the first song I wrote with Steve Perry in my room with that guitar. I had the chords that I'd been working on, and when he started singing them, we had a song like in about a half an hour, so it does have that history. And as we grew and the audiences got bigger, and the songs became, like, treasures to so many."

Also in the mix is Schon's 1977 black Gibson Les Paul used on  "Don't Stop Believin'," a 1969 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop that the 17-year-old Schon used when he played with Santana and several ultra-rare late '50s and early '60s Les Pauls.

"Everybody's like, 'Oh, that '59 Les Paul is the Holy Grail, how can you get rid of that?'" Schon said. "And I'm like, 'If I'm not going to play, I feel like somebody should be able to really play it, that's going to totally use it and appreciate it.' I don't feel good about having them all in cases, these guitars I'm never going to really play on albums or live or anything. They're not meant to sit there and look beautiful. Somebody should be utilizing them, and I should allow somebody to, because there are not that many of them around. And, quite frankly, I'm happy with what I'm playing."

Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctions
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Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctions
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Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctions
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff

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