James Tyler Guitars
Encyclopedia
James Tyler Guitars is a manufacturer of boutique electric guitar
s. The company is located near Van Nuys, California
and was established in 1972. It was long regarded as LA
studio musicians' "business secret", and consequently reached the public eye through studio musicians like Dan Huff, Michael Landau
, and Neil Stubenhaus
. The company is known for creating instruments "flawless in design and construction" with an easily recognisable yet somewhat controversial headstock, and creative guitar body finishes with names like "psychedelic vomit", "burning water", and "caramel cappuccino shmear".
for some of Los Angeles
's studio musicians, namely Dean Parks
, Michael Landau
and Dan Huff. In 1987 the first production model was released called the Studio Elite, a hot-rodded Fender Stratocaster
that James Tyler describes as "a guitar with all the good stuff." All the woodwork was done by hand, and it featured the "hockey paddle" headstock that some find "a little over-powering" and has been regarded as a feature people either love or hate, but made it certain that the company does not infringe on Fender's trademark headstock design. Additional standard features are a Demeter mid-boost circuit with a gain control and a preset switch and a neck finished in such a way that it feels like it has been worn-in through years of use even though it is brand new, similar to what Music Man
did with their Eddie Van Halen
signature model guitars.
Their second model, the Ultimate Weapon (available with 2 or 3 humbuckers and a Floyd Rose
locking tremolo), was introduced in 1993 and was also based on the Fender Stratocaster but featuring a more contemporary look. The latest incarnation of the guitar, the Ultimate Weapon HD, introduced in 2007, came with a pickguard, an H/S/S pickup layout and a Wilkinson vibrato. Tyler describes this model as "a Studio Elite wearing an Ultimate Weapon suit." In 2006 they introduced two models named Mongoose and Mongoose Retro, the former leaning towards Gibson
-style design, while the latter is more of a Fender-design, both being "a sort of Les Paul-meets-Telecaster" and taking over for the then discontinued Telecaster
-styled Tylerbastar line. By now the manufacturing process had also started to utilize a Fadal digital CNC
machine for routing the guitar bodies, allowing for additional optional features like a hollow body. The company now also winds their own pickups, while earlier they used standard and custom pickups from manufacturers like Seymour Duncan
, DiMarzio
, Lindy Fralin
, Tom Anderson
and John Suhr
.
The company's first original finish was created in 1991 for Michael Landau as a joke that Tyler has commented "unfortunately, the world took it seriously". It got named "psychedelic vomit" and has been described as "completely mad and random". The second finish was created in 1993, again for Michael Landau, and was named "burning water", and is a combination of different colours that has been described as "a mass of swirls in different metallic colours". In 1998 the first "shmear" finish was created, a paint job that uses layers of different kinds of paint and takes about a week to finish. One reviewer called the Candy Cherry Red Shmear finish "not for the faint hearted."
In 2008 the company released a series of guitars using the brand "Joe" and only made them available to the Japanese market. These guitars can be regarded as a stripped-down version of the Studio Elite and the Strat
-style Classic models, and according to James Tyler are "all about attitude."
A Tyler-designed series of Line 6's Variax
line of guitars was announced in the spring of 2010.
The company also produced a limited number of custom-built bass guitars between 1992 and 2006, used for instance by David Hungate
and Neil Stubenhaus
.
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
s. The company is located near Van Nuys, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and was established in 1972. It was long regarded as LA
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
studio musicians' "business secret", and consequently reached the public eye through studio musicians like Dan Huff, Michael Landau
Michael Landau
Michael Landau is a prolific session musician and guitarist who has played on a large number of albums since the early 1980s with artists as varied as Seal, James Taylor, Helen Watson, Richard Marx, Steve Perry, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis...
, and Neil Stubenhaus
Neil Stubenhaus
Neil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist.-Career:He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. He studied at the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in 1975...
. The company is known for creating instruments "flawless in design and construction" with an easily recognisable yet somewhat controversial headstock, and creative guitar body finishes with names like "psychedelic vomit", "burning water", and "caramel cappuccino shmear".
History
During the 1980s the company did primarily repairs and modifications of guitars, but built some custom guitars based on parts from other manufacturers such as KramerKramer Guitars
Kramer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. Kramer produced aluminum-necked electric guitars and basses in the 1970s and wooden-necked guitars catering to hard rock and heavy metal musicians in the 1980s; Kramer is currently a division of Gibson Guitar Corporation...
for some of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
's studio musicians, namely Dean Parks
Dean Parks
Dean Parks is an American session guitarist and record producer from Ft. Worth, TX.-Albums:Dean was member of The North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher in 1970. Dean is best-known through his many contributions to albums by Steely Dan...
, Michael Landau
Michael Landau
Michael Landau is a prolific session musician and guitarist who has played on a large number of albums since the early 1980s with artists as varied as Seal, James Taylor, Helen Watson, Richard Marx, Steve Perry, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis...
and Dan Huff. In 1987 the first production model was released called the Studio Elite, a hot-rodded Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
that James Tyler describes as "a guitar with all the good stuff." All the woodwork was done by hand, and it featured the "hockey paddle" headstock that some find "a little over-powering" and has been regarded as a feature people either love or hate, but made it certain that the company does not infringe on Fender's trademark headstock design. Additional standard features are a Demeter mid-boost circuit with a gain control and a preset switch and a neck finished in such a way that it feels like it has been worn-in through years of use even though it is brand new, similar to what Music Man
Music Man (company)
Music Man is an American guitar, and bass guitar manufacturer. It is a division of the Ernie Ball corporation.-Early years:The Music Man story began in 1971 when Forrest White and Tom Walker talked with Leo Fender about starting a company they would call Tri-Sonic, Inc...
did with their Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
signature model guitars.
Their second model, the Ultimate Weapon (available with 2 or 3 humbuckers and a Floyd Rose
Floyd Rose
The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. The first of its kind, Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1977, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name...
locking tremolo), was introduced in 1993 and was also based on the Fender Stratocaster but featuring a more contemporary look. The latest incarnation of the guitar, the Ultimate Weapon HD, introduced in 2007, came with a pickguard, an H/S/S pickup layout and a Wilkinson vibrato. Tyler describes this model as "a Studio Elite wearing an Ultimate Weapon suit." In 2006 they introduced two models named Mongoose and Mongoose Retro, the former leaning towards Gibson
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
-style design, while the latter is more of a Fender-design, both being "a sort of Les Paul-meets-Telecaster" and taking over for the then discontinued Telecaster
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
-styled Tylerbastar line. By now the manufacturing process had also started to utilize a Fadal digital CNC
Numerical control
Numerical control refers to the automation of machine tools that are operated by abstractly programmed commands encoded on a storage medium, as opposed to controlled manually via handwheels or levers, or mechanically automated via cams alone...
machine for routing the guitar bodies, allowing for additional optional features like a hollow body. The company now also winds their own pickups, while earlier they used standard and custom pickups from manufacturers like Seymour Duncan
Seymour Duncan
Seymour Duncan is a company that is best known for manufacturing of guitar pickups, and currently has a line of effects pedals. The company was founded in 1976 by guitarist and luthier Seymour W. Duncan and his then-wife Cathy Carter Duncan in Goleta, California, USA...
, DiMarzio
DiMarzio
DiMarzio, Inc. is an United States manufacturer best known for its revolutionary direct-replacement guitar pickups. The company also produces miscellaneous guitar accessories, such as cables, straps and hardware.DiMarzio became known for its Super Distortion model, which was the first after...
, Lindy Fralin
Lindy Fralin
Lindy Fralin is a US manufacturer of "boutique" guitar pickups based in Richmond, Virginia. He got his start in the early 90's winding by hand on a homemade machine because he was not satisfied with commercially available pickups...
, Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson Guitarworks
Tom Anderson Guitarworks is an American guitar manufacturer based in Newbury Park, California. Due to their high quality models, use of specific tone woods, low volume production and being highly sought after by professional musicians, Tom Anderson Guitarworks is generally considered to be a...
and John Suhr
Suhr Guitars
Suhr Guitars is an American company that manufactures electric guitars and basses, guitar amplifiers, and effect units...
.
The company's first original finish was created in 1991 for Michael Landau as a joke that Tyler has commented "unfortunately, the world took it seriously". It got named "psychedelic vomit" and has been described as "completely mad and random". The second finish was created in 1993, again for Michael Landau, and was named "burning water", and is a combination of different colours that has been described as "a mass of swirls in different metallic colours". In 1998 the first "shmear" finish was created, a paint job that uses layers of different kinds of paint and takes about a week to finish. One reviewer called the Candy Cherry Red Shmear finish "not for the faint hearted."
In 2008 the company released a series of guitars using the brand "Joe" and only made them available to the Japanese market. These guitars can be regarded as a stripped-down version of the Studio Elite and the Strat
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
-style Classic models, and according to James Tyler are "all about attitude."
A Tyler-designed series of Line 6's Variax
Variax
Variax is a line of modeling guitars marketed and developed by Line 6. It claims to be the first guitar able to emulate the tones of other notable electric and acoustic guitars. It also has a banjo and a sitar tone...
line of guitars was announced in the spring of 2010.
The company also produced a limited number of custom-built bass guitars between 1992 and 2006, used for instance by David Hungate
David Hungate
David Hungate is a bass player noted as a member of Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1977-1982. Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees album of 1976 included Hungate and several other future members of Toto...
and Neil Stubenhaus
Neil Stubenhaus
Neil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist.-Career:He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. He studied at the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in 1975...
.
Artists who use Tyler guitars
- John FogertyJohn FogertyJohn Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
- Robben FordRobben FordRobben Ford is an American blues, jazz and rock guitarist.-Biography:Ford was born in Woodlake, California, United States, but raised in Ukiah, California, and began playing the saxophone at age 10, picking up the guitar at age 13...
- Dann HuffDann HuffDann Huff is an American musician, session musician, singer-songwriter and producer. For his work as a producer in the Country music genre he has won several awards including the Musician of the Year award in 2001 and 2004 at the Country Music Association Awards and the Producer of the Year award...
- David HungateDavid HungateDavid Hungate is a bass player noted as a member of Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1977-1982. Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees album of 1976 included Hungate and several other future members of Toto...
- Abraham LaborielAbraham LaborielAbraham Laboriel, Sr. is a Mexican bassist of Garifuna descent who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. Guitar Player Magazine described him as "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the father of drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and of producer, songwriter, and...
- Michael LandauMichael LandauMichael Landau is a prolific session musician and guitarist who has played on a large number of albums since the early 1980s with artists as varied as Seal, James Taylor, Helen Watson, Richard Marx, Steve Perry, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis...
- Steve LukatherSteve LukatherSteve "Luke" Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer, arranger, and session guitarist on more than 1,500 albums...
- Gerry McGeeThe VenturesThe Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...
- Dean ParksDean ParksDean Parks is an American session guitarist and record producer from Ft. Worth, TX.-Albums:Dean was member of The North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher in 1970. Dean is best-known through his many contributions to albums by Steely Dan...
- Neil StubenhausNeil StubenhausNeil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist.-Career:He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. He studied at the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in 1975...