So...Ty Tabor tone?

[kelldammit 4]

I'm looking to deal with Ty Tabor's guitar tone from "Out of the Silent Planet". i know he used some gibson combo amp that he refused to name so that he could still find 'em cheap in pawn shops.

Anyone had any luck replicating this sound?  i know it's a fat strat and there's some chorus on there...but the amp?

[shredzilla1964 6]

He used some kind of lab series amp, and a midiverb 2 for chorus

https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/the-secrets-behind-ty-tabors-guitar-tone-on-out-of-the-silent-planet-by-kings-x

[cruisinon2 2,211]

12 hours ago, kelldammit said:

I'm looking to deal with Ty Tabor's guitar tone from "Out of the Silent Planet". i know he used some gibson combo amp that he refused to name so that he could still find 'em cheap in pawn shops.

Anyone had any luck replicating this sound?  i know it's a fat strat and there's some chorus on there...but the amp?

 

As stated above it was a Gibson Lab  Series... frankly, those things were terrible solid state amps, lol. But Ty is a monster, and with a Fender Elite Strat (with the funky push-button pickup switches that were only made for a couple of years in the early 80's) he managed to get a very unique sound... its tough to replicate. I've been trying for 30 years, lol. I'm afraid you won't find a similar amp model in Helix. I've gotten reasonably close using the Soldano crunch (I think).

 

I got King's X tickets in a couple weeks... I'm stoked!

[DarthHollis 228]

His pickups in those guitars were unique and heavily influenced his sound. That's something people knew about but for some reason never considered to be such a huge part of the overall tone.  The Gibson Lab Series amps were a hidden secret for years.  BB King famously used them as well. When it came out that the Lab Series was what Ty was using, people assumed that it was the key to his tone. 

IMO it has mostly to do with the pickups and Ty's fingers.  He's using Mesa Boogies now as well as other guitars and it still sounds like him.

Ty is also a master of FX and used stereo imaging, double tracking, etc to his advantage.

[jester700 16]

I always thought he often sounded like he was using two single coil pickups in series. It had a bit of strat cluck but with more fullness and power. That's how I approximate his sound, but I'm no purist.

[sonicvent 1]

I got to meet Ty last year and talk about his rig, which was not much at all. He played a solid state Orange CR120H head into 2 4x12 cabs. There wasn't much on his pedal board. A mojo hand rook royal distortion, line 6 DL4 echo pedal, a sweet sound ultra vibe and a boss tuner. Guitar was a single fender strat with single coils pickups all night.

 

So, no tricks to his tone, and he sounded just like Ty Tabor all night! I was blown away with the solid state Orange head that's  $450 at guitar center, LOL. I mentioned it to him and he shrugged his shoulders and said "it works".