Chords for Ty Tabor Interview part 5 - Guitars, Amps, Effects and Alien Beans

[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Yeah, in [Eb] the earliest days [E] of Kings X, I was [Ab] using the Strat Elite [E] _ as my main guitar, [Fm] but
I was also working [G] with Hamer at the [E] time and [Gbm] Yamaha, just [Db] the [Ab] greatest people at both
of those places that [G] we were [Dbm] working with.
Actually trying to find something that sounded
a lot like the Elites but didn't have all the [B] noise, that was the original _ goal.
Played
a lot of different [E] Yamahas and Hamer, some Zions _ for a while, had some really nice [A] Zions,
and it was the closest [B] to copying _ [Dbm] the Elite and [B] with getting rid of the noise, which [E] it
did.
I've been using Yamahas _ mostly for the last [Am] several years.
They [D] came out with an
AES series, which is [Dbm] kind of like a Les Paul. _
They [Gm] sent me one that was _ [C] [B] just, actually when
I played it, I was [D] stunned _ at how it [A] sounded.
It just [E] was _ _
[D] _ [E] phenomenal _ sounding.
[A] I could use
my [E] same gear without changing anything.
_ [Eb] I just [C] plugged in and played.
_ [G] And so they took
care of me for years.
I ran across John Guilford guitars [F] a couple years back.
It was just such
a [C] fine guitar, you have to take notice, you have to go, wow, there's something really
[G] special about this thing.
So John built me some of the finest guitars I own, without
a doubt.
[F] I've been using them almost exclusively [Gm] lately.
[C] Live, I have been using them exclusively.
In the [G] studio, probably 99% of the time.
One thing also really cool that happened at the
same time I started playing these [F] Guilford guitars is that Seymour [C] Duncan came out with
a pickup called the [G] P-Rail.
It's one of the best ideas for a pickup that's ever happened
as far as I'm concerned.
[C] It's like having [F] three separate guitars now [C] on one guitar,
and you don't have to switch guitars.
It has a toggle [D] switch. _
[Am] So it's real simple.
[C] In one
toggle position, you've got P90s on your [D] guitar, basically.
[F] So you've got old, [C] Les Paul [G] tones
and stuff that [Am] are [D] classic and [Am] have that attack that you can't get [C] without a P90.
Just awesome
pickup sound.
_ [Bb] Flip it in the middle toggle position and you've [Am] got _ full blown, wide open
humbuckers.
And flip it in the front [C] position and you've got a stinking strap.
You've got
real sounding single coil.
_ I've [F] never had a guitar [C] or pickup do that before.
So the
[G] combination [C] of these [Am] John Guilford custom guitars that are [C] so fine, it's insane, _ and
[Bb] these Seymour Duncan pickups that let me go between [Am] different eras of Kings X and different
[F] tones without ever switching a [G] guitar.
Even in the same song, I can _ go to a different
tone on chorus or whatever.
It just opened up a [F] different world.
It's the most _ _ useful
[C] guitar I've had in a long time.
The way that I started using Agnator amps and even became
familiar with _ [D] Agnator amps [C] was through Randall.
_ At one point I started using [Eb] Randall amps
[Dm] when they came out [C] with their modular amps.
_ Bruce Agnator was the [Cm] person who [D] helped design
that [C] whole thing for Randall.
Totally loved the Agnator stuff and it's still [Ebm] my [D] main amp,
[C] main tone for everything. _
_ Recently, _ _ as part of my [Eb] rig, [Am] I [F] added the Fractal Audio Ultra.
_ _ _ [Bb] At first I used it [Dm] strictly [D] as my effects because it's an amp modeler that has an effects
section that is tremendous. _
Some really high end, good, clean, amazing effects.
And the
_ _ _ routing capabilities are just phenomenal in that thing.
_ It's insane how powerful it
is.
So it impressed me heavily.
_ So I added that as my effects part of my rig in the last
year and a half or so.
_ The entire Trip Magnet album, _ the entire thing, 100% of guitar tones
on that album are done with the Fractal Audio through its amp modeling.
That Fractal is
amazing and the [Dm] tones in it are amazing.
[Em] _ _ [C] _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
I started Alien Beings when I finally _ _ _ realized that because of the cycle of things with King's
X, _ _ you have to wait a certain amount of time to put another album out [C] in order to give
the full cycle of touring and promotion and things that happen, to give it that full [G] cycle
so that it grows and sells during a period of a few months.
And that's the way things
worked.
So we had to take time off.
_ _ Hence the _ motorcycle racing and stuff.
I had lots
of time to do [C] stuff in between _ [G] albums.
During that time I just started thinking, you know, _ _
it would be cool to do some solo stuff or side stuff.
It wasn't like I felt unhappy
with King's X at all.
It wasn't that [C] kind of thing in any way.
I was thrilled.
[G] I love
doing studio stuff.
[F]
I just bought some _ recording [C] gear, didn't know what I was doing, and just
started _ [G] really learning any time we were in the studio doing things, picking the brains
of people like Brendan O'Brien [F] and whoever we were working with.
And so that's how the
studio [C] started.
It was just _ meant to be a way for me to do my own thing whenever I wanted
and no pressure.
It just started _ [G] becoming something where other people wanted to record
and other things started happening.
_ I started doing lots of other projects and stuff because
I had this gear to work with and it wouldn't be a matter of a hundred grand in the studio
[C] for a few weeks.
I could just do it whenever I wanted.
[G] So it just opened up doors all of
a sudden. _
So I have been slowly but surely _ _ upgrading, building.
It's a constant upgrade.
It's a constant keeping up with what's out there.
_ I really love that.
I enjoy that.
[C] I'm
a tech freak anyway.
The studio became [G] my second job.
It is the single thing I love
most about being in a band is recording.
_ The studio is my favorite thing, [C] period, hands
down.
I love recording.
[G] I just decided to [F] give myself a situation where I could do more
of that because it's [Em] what I love.
Being that we're in Houston, Texas, which is [G] the land
of the sun, you know, it's _ plenty of sunshine and being really close to the coast so [F] that
there's a bit of a breeze too. _
I started [Em] thinking, _ you know, wind power and solar [C] power might
be something that [G] actually could pay off in this location.
_ And at this point, _ _ _ [F] Alien Beings
right at this moment is [C] 100% green with its power [G] now.
It hasn't always been, but as of
this moment [C] it's 100% green.
I have _ solar panels and wind power _ that supplement power
[G] into the house.
And so I still draw some power from the city, but the power I'm drawing from
the city is from 100% wind power because the sun's shining right now.
It's powering
these lights and _ what we're doing here right now. _
And I dig that, knowing that there's
not any _ _ pollution _ _ whatsoever from running this place.
It makes me feel good about it. _
Unfortunately, Alien Beings right now is in the process of moving.
_ So the large majority _
_ _ of everything is already packed.
All I have here right now are the bare essentials for
doing some vocals and mixing and mastering. _
[C] So this is the [F] smallest the operation [Em] has
been in many, many years.
I'm actually getting into it.
It makes me want to [G] scale everything
down now.
I'm digging that it's this condensed and that I can still do the work. _ _ _