Disconnector
Inspired
So . . . .
I was trolling the Wildwood site Monday and made a horrible mistake. I opened the Tyler tab and saw this -
I've never played a Tyler . . . or even seen one in person. I've read about them forever and I have heard that they have some sort of ineffable awesomeness . . . plus I LOOOOOVVEEEEE the Burning Water finish. I'm a fan of the HSS pickup setup as well (a Super HB and two JTS5500s) plus the switchable mid-boost sounded cool. I've been buying and hotrodding 80's Strats since the '80s and I've heard from several people that I trust that Tyler is the absolute pinnacle of that genre. I've been lusting and GASing for years over these guitars. Sooooo I talked to the wife who was awesomely supportive. Then I called up Lance at Wildwood, checked their return policy, and proceeded to make one of my credit card companies very very happy.
After a pretty dang short wait it arrived.
I've owned piles of PRS guitars (I still have a Custom 24 Floyd, a NF-3, and a DC-3), Fenders (my favorite right now is a '88 Floyd Strat with Anderson pickups, I have an Anderson Classic, Charvels, several Suhr Moderns and Classics, custom shop Jacksons, an Ibanez JEM - basically I'm a super Strat slut. I love them - which makes sense since I was born in 1970. I'm not bragging I just want to put this into context.
I pulled the guitar out of the case and saw that they had set the guitar up for my fave GHS 9s. I plugged it into my AFIII, cranked up the Focals, and hit a big fat AC/DC A chord.
The guitar was perfectly in tune out of the case and I was greeted by a completely pissed off ROAR. This is by far the most angry ADHD monster of a guitar I've ever touched. Just slamming, crunching, MONSTER tone. The only word I really have for it is "pissed off" - and yeah that's two words. It resonates an octave lower than any of my other guitars. Even playing a high note causes the entire guitar to rumble.
The action was a bit higher than I like so I tweaked the truss rod a bit and it dropped to exactly where I like it. The '59 neck and SS frets felt awesome! I then lost 2 hours of my life just jamming on every song that I knew. You all know what I mean right? You go into a fugue state where all that exists are your fingers and your ears. Sonic nirvana.
The combination of the singles coils in the middle and neck and the mid boost makes cleans amazing as well. You can dial up a "schmo" chorus/delayed tone, an almost acoustic tone, a slaming funk sound, U2 arpeggios, and even nice fat jazz tones with a few tweaks of the knobs. This guitar literally does it all.
I'm stunned and amazed. I've sat and played all of the my super-Strat guitars back to back and this one sounds fundamentally different. It has a deep throaty resonance that you can feel through the neck and the body with every note.
I have no idea what dark magic that James Tyler is into - but the man has the recipe for the superior super-Strat. I'm gobsmacked - and yeah I know it's a new toy but I'm telling y'all that this guitar is different.
I'll be keeping this one - and selling of a pile of other guitars that won't get play to buy another one. Maybe a Tuckerberry schmear with a Floyd? We'll see - but in the meantime I'm going to play the frets off of this thing.
EDITED TO ADD: If you have arthritic thumbs like I do, this guitar is magic in another way. There is something about the neck carve that supports the thumb differently - I can play this guitar for hours without pain. I usually get 30 minutes in before my hands crap out but this guitar just plays on for hours. If you have issues with your thumbs look into Tyler!
I was trolling the Wildwood site Monday and made a horrible mistake. I opened the Tyler tab and saw this -
I've never played a Tyler . . . or even seen one in person. I've read about them forever and I have heard that they have some sort of ineffable awesomeness . . . plus I LOOOOOVVEEEEE the Burning Water finish. I'm a fan of the HSS pickup setup as well (a Super HB and two JTS5500s) plus the switchable mid-boost sounded cool. I've been buying and hotrodding 80's Strats since the '80s and I've heard from several people that I trust that Tyler is the absolute pinnacle of that genre. I've been lusting and GASing for years over these guitars. Sooooo I talked to the wife who was awesomely supportive. Then I called up Lance at Wildwood, checked their return policy, and proceeded to make one of my credit card companies very very happy.
After a pretty dang short wait it arrived.
I've owned piles of PRS guitars (I still have a Custom 24 Floyd, a NF-3, and a DC-3), Fenders (my favorite right now is a '88 Floyd Strat with Anderson pickups, I have an Anderson Classic, Charvels, several Suhr Moderns and Classics, custom shop Jacksons, an Ibanez JEM - basically I'm a super Strat slut. I love them - which makes sense since I was born in 1970. I'm not bragging I just want to put this into context.
I pulled the guitar out of the case and saw that they had set the guitar up for my fave GHS 9s. I plugged it into my AFIII, cranked up the Focals, and hit a big fat AC/DC A chord.
The guitar was perfectly in tune out of the case and I was greeted by a completely pissed off ROAR. This is by far the most angry ADHD monster of a guitar I've ever touched. Just slamming, crunching, MONSTER tone. The only word I really have for it is "pissed off" - and yeah that's two words. It resonates an octave lower than any of my other guitars. Even playing a high note causes the entire guitar to rumble.
The action was a bit higher than I like so I tweaked the truss rod a bit and it dropped to exactly where I like it. The '59 neck and SS frets felt awesome! I then lost 2 hours of my life just jamming on every song that I knew. You all know what I mean right? You go into a fugue state where all that exists are your fingers and your ears. Sonic nirvana.
The combination of the singles coils in the middle and neck and the mid boost makes cleans amazing as well. You can dial up a "schmo" chorus/delayed tone, an almost acoustic tone, a slaming funk sound, U2 arpeggios, and even nice fat jazz tones with a few tweaks of the knobs. This guitar literally does it all.
I'm stunned and amazed. I've sat and played all of the my super-Strat guitars back to back and this one sounds fundamentally different. It has a deep throaty resonance that you can feel through the neck and the body with every note.
I have no idea what dark magic that James Tyler is into - but the man has the recipe for the superior super-Strat. I'm gobsmacked - and yeah I know it's a new toy but I'm telling y'all that this guitar is different.
I'll be keeping this one - and selling of a pile of other guitars that won't get play to buy another one. Maybe a Tuckerberry schmear with a Floyd? We'll see - but in the meantime I'm going to play the frets off of this thing.
EDITED TO ADD: If you have arthritic thumbs like I do, this guitar is magic in another way. There is something about the neck carve that supports the thumb differently - I can play this guitar for hours without pain. I usually get 30 minutes in before my hands crap out but this guitar just plays on for hours. If you have issues with your thumbs look into Tyler!
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But they are a work of art compared to Tyler 
