TY'S EQUIPMENT
TY'S EQUIPMENT
Ty Tabor has gotten some of the most beautiful electric guitar tones in rock music history. My favoutrite "Ty tones" are found on King's X second album, "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska." Ty has gone through some equipment changes in the past few years and I will be disecting some of those "rigs" from knowledge I have acquired of his equipment from guitar magazines, personal wisdom, and from a conversation I had with Ty after the King's X "Ear Candy" show in Toronto, Canada. (August 19th, 1996)
As far as I know, the only piece of equipment that has remained constant throughout Ty's gear history with King's X is his pick! (SERIOUSLY!)
(I am the proud owner of one of Ty's guitar picks that I got from Ty's guitar tech, Greg Howard, at the 1996 "Ear Candy" show in Toronto. I saw Greg hanging around after the gig as he waited for gear to be packed into the King's X tour bus and decided to ask him if he would have an extra pick. He told me to hold on and that he would check for me. He brought out two guitar cases with Ty's guitars inside and gave me a pick that was "held" by the pickguard on Ty's Zion Signature Series Guitar. IF YOU'RE READING THIS GREG: THANK YOU VERY MUCH! )
Ty's pick is one of the most unique picks I have ever come across! The pick is dark green and made out of Nylon. The "handle" side is thicker than the tip side, and is perforated with little grooves. I guess this helps improve the "grip" of the pick. It has a 6-sided star design on the handle side, and according to an interview with Ty in Guitar Player Magazine, the pick was once marketed by Mel Bay.
Ty basically uses nickel-wound electric guitar strings gauged
.09-.042 (.09 .11 .16 .24 .32 .42). Ty formerly used GHS Guitar
Boomers but switched to DR Hi-Beams around the Dogman era.
(DR Strings are hand-made guitar strings unlike conventional,
machine-wound guitar strings.) I find DR strings to have a thick
tone and are fairly flexible and good for bending. Ty has a
beautiful vibrato and loves to bend strings so I guess these
strings help him to achieve the playability he's looking for.
Ty has informed me through e-mail that he uses bronze-wound
Martin "Marques" on his acoustic guitars in a .10-.46 gauge.
The electric guitar sound you hear on the first four King's X albums consist of basically one guitar: The Fender Elite Stratocaster. These guitars were manufactured by Fender from 1983-1985. (For more information, check out Fender's, "The Fender Stratocaster" book. This is the most information I have ever found on these guitars and the book contains some pictures of the Elite Stratocasters as well.) These guitars consist of many unique features, the most important being the active-mid boost pre-amp which boosts the pickups sound by 25db. The pickups were unique only to the Elite Strats and were not made available individually. Ty has stated that he mainly used the bridge pickup on the Elite Strats for his rhythm sound but does use all pickup combinations as well. (The Elite Stratocasters came with 3 push-button pickup selectors instead of the standard 5-way switch found on most Strats and this allows for any pickup combination available.)
Since the Dogman album, Ty has used the Zion Ty Tabor Signature Model electric guitar. The guitar consists of many features similar to the Elite Stratocasters but are updated to Ty's current tastes. The body consists of basswood with a maple top and electronics are supplied by 3 Joe Barden Strat Deluxe Pickups. Like the Elite Strat, the Zion "looks" like Ty's old guitar with its deep red finish, black pickguard, and rosewood fretboard. The BACK of the neck has fret dots, as well as on the fingerboard, and everything is topped off with Schaller Locking Tuners.
(For a review of Ty's Zion Signature Series guitar, check out Guitar Player's June 1995 issue.)
The amplifier used on the first 4 King's X albums (and on some parts of Ear Candy) were created with the Gibson Lab Series L5 combo amplifier. The L5 was a 100 watt solid-state amplifier with 2, 12" speakers, made by Gibson and distributed by a company called Norlin. This amplifier is quite rare and was made from roughly 1978-1980. (Don't quote me on that though! This is by my own deductive reasoning!) In my mad quest to find an L5, I searched for over 5 years in local Toronto guitar stores, pawn shops, and classified ads finding only 3 models. An L2 bass head and cabinet, a smaller guitar combo with a single 12" speaker, and finally an L5 on January 4, 1997. (Currently my only guitar amp.)
The L5 has 2 channels and 4 inputs. Ty revealed in the May 1996 issue of Guitar Player Magazine that he used the "LO" input on the second channel and did not use the compressor or the bright-switch. Ty basically left the distortion of the L5 on at all times and to have a "clean" sound, he would roll back the volume knob on his guitar.
Although the L5 is a combo amplifier, Ty used his L5 as a "head" and powered it with a Crown Microtech Power Amp. He then ran it through Marshall cabinets. (Ty favors slant cabs for live playing and bottom cabs for recording.)
Around the Dogman era, Ty began using Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amplifiers. This changed the "King's X Sound" dramatically. (This was also the time Ty switched from using the Fender Elite Stratocasters to his Zion Signature Series Model guitar and switched from GHS Guitar Boomers to DR High Beams as well.) The tone got much "heavier" and "grungier." (Quite appropriate, actually, with the "theme" of Dogman.) Ty also began using Mesa Boogie's 2:90 power amp and Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier guitar cabinets. (Loaded with 30-watt Celestion speakers.)
King's X 1996 release, Ear Candy, was also a period of equipment change for Ty. He used a 100-watt, 30th Anniversary Marshall Head to record the album. He also used many different amps and guitars for the recording of Ear Candy, but the Marshall became Ty's main amp for the Ear Candy era and the subsequent tour.
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