James Tyler L.A. Studio Classic

I've been playing Tylers for over 30 years, and I was one of the first session guitarists on the East Coast to get on board. What pulled me in was Mike Landau. Watching Mike play his early Tylers was enough. I had to have one, and I've never looked back.

This is the second L.A. Studio Classic I've had built with this particular recipe. The first didn't last long, and players kept asking about it well after it was gone, so I went back to Tyler and had another made. Like the first, it's a tip of the hat to Mike's Coma Strat. The body is the lightest grade of alder, and the guitar is acoustically alive in a way that reminds you why wood selection matters. Pick it up unplugged, and it sings. That resonance carries straight through when you plug in.

The vintage natural semi-gloss is a rare finish in the Tyler world, and Tyler does it beautifully. It's thin enough that you feel the wood under your hands rather than a coat of finish, which gives the guitar a broken-in feel right out of the case. Paired with the quartersawn maple neck in the ST64 profile, it feels immediate and comfortable from the first note.

The pickups follow the original Dann Huff "Black" model spec, with Duncan Classic Stacks in the neck and middle and Tyler's "Secret" humbucker at the bridge. Add the series/parallel switching and the push/pull on the tone control that combines neck and bridge, and you have a guitar that covers a lot of ground in the studio. As Jim would have said, "those who know, know."

What I keep coming back to is how much the wood does the talking. No wild finish, no visual flash, just a great piece of alder doing what great alder does. That's what drew me to those early Tylers in the first place, and this one has it.

If you'd like to find out more about this item, just call or e-mail me. It would be my pleasure to talk to you about it.

ABOUT TYLER GUITARS
James Tyler has had a guitar in his hand almost every day since he first picked one up the summer after seventh grade, in 1964. In college, Jim studied Architecture, Design, Music, Photography and for a couple years, Theology. He paid his way through these years of collage doing guitar repair work at local guitar stores, and as a factory trained auto mechanic for Alfa Romeo, Lancia, BMW and Fiat. Later into the 1970’s, he got connected with the guys at Norman’s Rare Guitars in the San Fernando Valley, and became their main repair and restoration guy. Jim’s abilities continued to expand and soon he had enough experience and reputation that he opened his first repair shop in Reseda, CA in 1980. Since then its been a whirlwind of successes, including being chosen to be displayed among the great California guitar companies such as Fender, Rickenbacker, Mosrite and Charvel in the Museum of California's exhibit The Ultimate Guitar Show and building for artists such as Michael Landau, David Williams, Steve Lukather, Michael Anthony, and Dan Huff. James' design shapes and various ground breaking guitar finishes and most recently his line of pickups have virtually transformed the guitar building industry.