King's X...Amp and IR?

ZoonDog

Member
Hey all...been attempting to get Ty Tabor's tone from the tune "It's Love"...I believe he used a Lab Series amp that has a built in compressor to record this tune, but I could be wrong. Have been trying a JCM800 with a little compression before amp but can't seem to get the tightness he achieves. Anybody been able to get close? or any suggestion appreciated. Thanks!
 
I've never tried to cop his tone, but I always felt like one of the Bogfish models (I don't recall which one) had a similar character. Might be worth a shot trying them.
 
Is there great live King's X stuff on YouTube? What would you fans suggest as an entry point?

I'm not completely unfamiliar, and I like a lot of what I've heard, but this thread is inspiring me to take another run at them.
 
Is there great live King's X stuff on YouTube? What would you fans suggest as an entry point?

I'm not completely unfamiliar, and I like a lot of what I've heard, but this thread is inspiring me to take another run at them.

I only got into them a couple years ago. I started with Dogman (heavier grungier album) and Gretchen Goes to Nebraska (more prog rock). The first five albums are all really good, after that it drops off for me.

This is a really good live video, although the band isn't in their prime (Dug is nearly 70 years old at that point!). But a good retrospective and cool to see the crowd react.

 
May be a good time to request a Lab Series L5 model again. It was on the
wish list a while back. I have one in the shop that was given to me. Not sure
what the prognosis is yet. If it comes back in good shape, I'll try to get a capture of it.
 
May be a good time to request a Lab Series L5 model again. It was on the
wish list a while back. I have one in the shop that was given to me. Not sure
what the prognosis is yet. If it comes back in good shape, I'll try to get a capture of it.
What is so different/unique about the Lab Series L5 that can’t be made from another amp with modifications?
 
Well if it saves anyone some time, I just watched (skipped through some of it as well) the 1.5hr. interview with Ty on EveryoneLovesGuitar channel, and he doesn't go into his tone, other than to say he was secretive early on because he was using the Lab Series amps, and he didn't want them to suddenly get scarffed up, because they stopped making them, and he hadn't yet acquired however many he wanted for himself, so he'd have backups as needed.
And this is cool: People would run up on stage and snap a quick picture of his rack, then run off! You know you have a very unique tone when people start doing that kind of stuff, haha! So he'd start messing with them, placing fake shit in his rack, taking the guts out of some old flanger pedal, and having a cable plugged into it, while it did nothing, and having the tech tell people, "This. This is the secret to his tone." Priceless!

I suppose the majority of guitarists aspire to create a unique voice for themselves, that, hey, let's be honest, definitely starts with the guitar tone, but also includes how you play. The tone can be copped, and so can the feel of that player's style, but I'm of the opinion the best reason to do so (other than being able to do a faithful recreation of it for cover songs) is so you can then take the parts of different players you love, and mix them together in whatever proportions you like, with the end goal of creating your own unique flavor, that, hopefully, others will be able to recognize with only hearing a few opening notes of any given song!

And to that end, an Axe Fx III or FM3 are fantastic tools to be able to do that!
 
Hey all...been attempting to get Ty Tabor's tone from the tune "It's Love"...I believe he used a Lab Series amp that has a built in compressor to record this tune, but I could be wrong. Have been trying a JCM800 with a little compression before amp but can't seem to get the tightness he achieves. Anybody been able to get close? or any suggestion appreciated. Thanks!
The amp block has an Output Compressor in the Dynamics page. Offers some different feeling compression than using the Compressor block.
 
I only got into them a couple years ago. I started with Dogman (heavier grungier album) and Gretchen Goes to Nebraska (more prog rock). The first five albums are all really good, after that it drops off for me.

This is a really good live video, although the band isn't in their prime (Dug is nearly 70 years old at that point!). But a good retrospective and cool to see the crowd react.



That's a great one..... and shows how into it their fanbase is with the singing.

(@Dave Merrill !) You can stream this show from London.
I feel the audio and video is superior (maybe the best ever captured of them live ).
It was part of a live DVD release.




I was fortunate enough to see them 3 times. Gretchen tour the first time, Faith, Hope, and Love
the second, and the Dogman tour in 95 or thereabouts. Saw Eric Gales at 14 open for them once.
Hang out after a show and they would come and chat with anyone there.
 
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Hey all...been attempting to get Ty Tabor's tone from the tune "It's Love"...I believe he used a Lab Series amp that has a built in compressor to record this tune, but I could be wrong. Have been trying a JCM800 with a little compression before amp but can't seem to get the tightness he achieves. Anybody been able to get close? or any suggestion appreciated. Thanks!
Try this preset! it's not totally finished but you did post that you were looking for the early tones! The other thing you need to consider is his guitars. He did use the preamp section from the Elite series Fender guitar. So Pre EQ is a major factor coupled with the Lab series sound.
I don't have an I/R but if I recall Ty did use V30 speakers in the early stuff.
 

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Found this
GUITAR: c. 1983-84 Fender Elite Stratocaster with rosewood fretboard and Elite Alnico V single-coil pickups (bridge and middle pickups engaged), master volume: 10-5, TBX: 10, MBX: 10
AMP: c. late-Seventies Lab Series L5 head (channel 2, Lo input, Bright: off, Volume: 9, Bass: 6, Frequency: 3.2kHz, Midrange: +2.5, Treble: 8.5, Multifilter: 6, Reverb: 1, Compressor: off, Master Volume: 5.5) [*Lab Series controls are marked from 1 to 9, so in these examples 1 is the same as a normal 0 setting and 9 would normally be 10; the midrange is cut/boost from -4 to +4], Crown MT600 power amp, two Peavey 4x12 cabinets with Celestion G12K-85 speakers
EFFECTS: Alesis MidiVerb II (preset 62/Chorus B, Input: 6, Mix: 4, Output: 5), Ibanez DD200 digital delay (Channel A Feedback: 4, Delay Level: 8, Delay Time Range: 64ms, Time: 3, Modulation Width: 5, Modulation Speed: 2; Channel B Feedback: 4, Delay Level: 5, Delay Time Range: 512ms, Time: 5.5)
STRINGS/TUNING: GHS Boomers Extra Light .009-.042/Dropped D (D, A, D, G, B, E, low to high)
PICK: G&G Guitars (Mel Bay) 0.5mm green nylon
 
Try this preset! it's not totally finished but you did post that you were looking for the early tones! The other thing you need to consider is his guitars. He did use the preamp section from the Elite series Fender guitar. So Pre EQ is a major factor coupled with the Lab series sound.
I don't have an I/R but if I recall Ty did use V30 speakers in the early stuff.
played around with this before. It's better than anything I'd come up with but I dont think it's quite there yet. Still a great sounding preset though!
 
I went down this rabbit hole a few years back on the AXE II forum. There are some good YouTube vids and print interviews out there. The one thing that sticks with me from pursuing this is even if you find the Lab5 settings he used, there was something "broken" on the amp he used, which kept it always on the verge of ruin due to how he was running it. I wish I could be more specific on the details, but hopefully you'll find the info from straight from the horse's mouth on the webs. Maybe someone else here knows the source I'm referring to and can point you in that direction. Long reply longer, even if we get a Lab5 model, it might still be difficult to reproduce Ty's tone.
 
played around with this before. It's better than anything I'd come up with but I dont think it's quite there yet. Still a great sounding preset though!
If you mess around with the PEQ say 500k and bump it 8db that might get you a little closer. You will have to play with the Q, not sure how wide or narrow it is in the actual presamp.
 
One more thing to take into account is that Ty has never really been into
channel switching amps, runs one sound and then uses his volume control
on the guitar to vary gain, volume, and saturation. His is a somewhat dark
and smooth tone. Just don't hear a lot of clipping in his rhythm tones. That
suggests to me that he is playing with both the tone and volume on his
guitar rolled back. Experimenting with that can be really fruitful. :)
 
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