Ty Tabor Rackmount EQ

[Krinkle]

I know it's hard to see but does anybody know what the brand and model of the graphic eq in this picture is?

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attachme ... -tabor.jpg

 

[Jordon]

Nearly impossible to tell from that picture. White fader knobs make me think Ashly, but I have a feeling I'm way off.

 

[Krinkle]

Yeah, I know. I'm just hoping that someone who has owned one or is familiar with that model will be able to tell without needing a lot of detail/resolution. I'll check out Ashley, thanks.

 

[snowdog]

Not sure what that is. The last pic I saw of his rig he was not using it, he had some Egnater modules a Randall power amp and an Axe-FX and that was about it.

I'm guessing from that pic, that rig is post Dogman era, any particular sound of his you are going for?

Here's a video of him from 2009 Namm, with a rig rundown.

 

[JTyson]

I think Jordans right, it looks like an Ashly. Dosent look like hes cutting or boosting much with it. I believe that is an old pic, his stuff is mostly whats in that vid now

 

[Luckett]

I saw that rack up close on the Ear Candy tour. Ty Tabor's tech, Greg Howard, at the time gave me a run down of all of Ty's gear. I think it was an ART, Ibanez, DOD or something like that. I can't remember exactly but I do remember that it was nothing expensive, just a cheaper eq. I do remember Greg saying that he was barely using it, only to eq a few freq.. So any 31 band eq would suffice.

You might try to cantact Greg Howard at 3 Monkeys Amplification. If anyone can remember it'll be him.

 

[ramblin390]

this guy goes into his set up and eq settings in 1 of his vids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIlcZ1ES ... ure=relmfu

 

[Krinkle]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not desperately looking for this eq. I'm just putting together a "Gretchen" rig and I was thinking about adding an eq.

It looks to me like it is set mostly flat except for the highest frequencies. So he's basically trying to get rid of some hiss. There is a fair bit of hiss with the rig I have and I was thinking of doing the same. Of course any eq would do, and I could probably find better but I'll keep poking around to see if I can figure out what this one is. I did quite a bit of searching last night but it didn't turn up. I have the 95 GP mag where Ty states that he boosted 250Hz and below with a graphic eq, but that was because the L5's bass was "nasty", and this rack has the DR so it wasn't needed I guess.

I have as close as I believe I can get to a Gretchen rack, I'm just thinking about whether I should get a noise gate type of device or go with a cheap eq just for kicks.

Right now my signal chain is;

MIM strat converted into an Elite->L5 preamp (using preamp only)->Alesis Midiverb II (preset 62)->splits stereo out of the MVII to two Ibanez DD-200 delays->Crown Micro-Tech 600 power amp->Peavey 412MS cab wired stereo

The tone is pretty much exactly like GGTN, but there is some hiss and I'm thinking that I should be able to cut some of it.

I converted a MIM I had lying around, I bought 3 Elite pickups off eBay and made the preamp circuit board. I modified a regular pickguard to fit the PUPs and I routed out underneath to fit the preamp. At first I had a regular audio volume pot but I wasn't easily getting the exact clean roll off that Ty gets. A quick search (which I should have done before I wired the guitar) and I found that Fender still sells the same pot, so I ordered 2 (1 spare and to play around with and investigate the taper). I'm going to install it soon, but I am having too much fun plaing and enjoying the tone. The slightly different taper on the pot just means that I have to be a little more deliberate when I roll it off to find the sweet spot. With the current taper it passes through the sweet zone too fast and you have to do smaller adjustments to get to the right spot.

 

[JTyson]

Thats awesome, if there was ever a tone I would seriously like to chase down, its the GGTN tone. I think I can remember reading back in those days that he ran a McCintosh (tube??) power amp, do you still get close with the crown?
I would imagine the Elite pups into the L5 front end was the mainstay of it
Great stuff, we will require clips ASAP

 

[MisterBulbous]

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but is there a modern-day substitute or clone of the Fender Elite pickup system?

 

[Krinkle]

He said in the 95 GP that the Lab was sent into either a Crown MT600 or a MB 2:90. Since the 2:90 was not out when the first 2 albums were recorded, 1989 and earlier (according to replies to that question on the Boogie Board), I figured I'd try the MT600. It really sounds exact to me. I got the MT600 for $200, in perfect shape, a lot cheaper than a 2:90!

I was getting some extra breakup from my Marshall cab with 25W greenbacks so I went out and got the Peavey cabinet. I emailed Peavey support and they said this was most likely the cab he used, they weren't sure, but this is from a few engineers at Peavey who are huge Ty fans. The cab has Celestion G12K-85S speakers in it. I heard them described as, big tight bass, not quite as mid scooped as the 75W'ers, with good top end. Like a more tamed V30, which of course Ty has used for a while now. Sounded exactly like what I could use, with the L5 bass needing a boost. This was the final piece of the puzzle for me.

You are right though, the Elite and the L5 are the bulk of the tone. But you can't get there with the L5 alone, it has to go into a different power amp. I was going into a Yorkville Sound AP400 and back into the L5 speakers and it sounds really good too, except that the pots on the AP400 were too scratchy (20 years old) and drove me nuts.

As for clips, as soon as I started converting the Strat my camera broke. I am going to get (very soon) a HD video camera that takes stills as well, so I can take pics of the guts of the Start and I promise I will do a bunch of clips, all I've been doing for the last month is playing stuff off the first 4 King's X albums!

 

[JTyson]

He said in the 95 GP that the Lab was sent into either a Crown MT600 or a MB 2:90. Since the 2:90 was not out when the first 2 albums were recorded, 1989 and earlier (according to replies to that question on the Boogie Board), I figured I'd try the MT600. It really sounds exact to me. I got the MT600 for $200, in perfect shape, a lot cheaper than a 2:90!

I was getting some extra breakup from my Marshall cab with 25W greenbacks so I went out and got the Peavey cabinet. I emailed Peavey support and they said this was most likely the cab he used, they weren't sure, but this is from a few engineers at Peavey who are huge Ty fans. The cab has Celestion G12K-85S speakers in it. I heard them described as, big tight bass, not quite as mid scooped as the 75W'ers, with good top end. Like a more tamed V30, which of course Ty has used for a while now. Sounded exactly like what I could use, with the L5 bass needing a boost. This was the final piece of the puzzle for me.

You are right though, the Elite and the L5 are the bulk of the tone. But you can't get there with the L5 alone, it has to go into a different power amp. I was going into a Yorkville Sound AP400 and back into the L5 speakers and it sounds really good too, except that the pots on the AP400 were too scratchy (20 years old) and drove me nuts.

As for clips, as soon as I started converting the Strat my camera broke. I am going to get (very soon) a HD video camera that takes stills as well, so I can take pics of the guts of the Start and I promise I will do a bunch of clips, all I've been doing for the last month is playing stuff off the first 4 King's X albums!

 

[Krinkle]

this guy goes into his set up and eq settings in 1 of his vids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIlcZ1ES ... ure=relmfu

He's the reason I went out and bought the stuff. Once he proved it could be done, I was in!

 

[Krinkle]

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but is there a modern-day substitute or clone of the Fender Elite pickup system?

I don't think that there is a production substitute, the discontinued Fender Powerhouse is probably the closest thing, but here's what I found, in case anybody is wondering (or maybe I am the only one!). The pickups are all just over 7k, and I have heard that they are Alnico 5's, although I don't know if that is a fact. So maybe a swap could be possible with a current aftermarket pickup. I'm not sure if they use polepieces or blades because the pickups are potted/encapsulated. I built the preamp myself from Fender documentation and I bought the Elite pickups off eBay because I wanted to be sure and prove that I could retrofit a current guitar to get the same tone. If you are a DIY person, this is not that hard.

I already had made the preamp in pedal form and was getting pretty close with my regular Strat, but again, I wanted the tone 100%, not close. So after I made the guitar I realized some differences in the way I wired the pots to the pedal and the way the preamp works within the guitar (the addition of the volume and tone pots along with the capacitor in my regular Strat makes the total circuit different than the stock Elite configuration). Now I think I can make a few small changes to get the pedal to sound the same, I just haven't had time.

I was thinking about buying a used Wah pedal and using the foot action with the Wah pot to simulate the volume rolling back to get the different tones, like Ty does on his Elite volume pot. The only tricky part would be adding resistors in parallel with the Wah pot (it's 100kL and the Elite vol pot is 50KA) and getting a taper as close as possible to the Elite volume pot. Maybe later.

 

[sandman]

Hey Krinkle, How is that Ibanez Satriani guitar I sold you? I think it was for your brother actually...Hope he is still enjoying it ! That's been a long time

 

[JTyson]

this guy goes into his set up and eq settings in 1 of his vids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIlcZ1ES ... ure=relmfu

Wow, this guy has nailed it. He's got a quick vol knob hand too
I never knew the L7, and L9 had the same pre section. Very interesting
Great song too, BTW

 

[ejecta]

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but is there a modern-day substitute or clone of the Fender Elite pickup system?

I read once where Ty said that P90's were the only "normal" pick up that he liked through a Lab Series. I agree...P90's are the only pups I like through my L5. Those elite pups are notoriously noisy.

 

[MisterBulbous]

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but is there a modern-day substitute or clone of the Fender Elite pickup system?

I read once where Ty said that P90's were the only "normal" pick up that he liked through a Lab Series. I agree...P90's are the only pups I like through my L5. Those elite pups are notoriously noisy.

I'm starting to think about a "gretchen" rig. As much as I LOVE King's X, I've never really tried to emulate his tone, but some of these YouTube demos sound so damn close. I actually have a Les Paul with P90's and I've never even plugged it into my amp! Maybe that's a good place to start

 

[ejecta]

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but is there a modern-day substitute or clone of the Fender Elite pickup system?

I read once where Ty said that P90's were the only "normal" pick up that he liked through a Lab Series. I agree...P90's are the only pups I like through my L5. Those elite pups are notoriously noisy.

I'm starting to think about a "gretchen" rig. As much as I LOVE King's X, I've never really tried to emulate his tone, but some of these YouTube demos sound so damn close. I actually have a Les Paul with P90's and I've never even plugged it into my amp! Maybe that's a good place to start

Yeah give it a shot. I think a strat style guitar with p90's will give something closer to Ty but honestly I could have his exact rig and I'll never sound like him. That said the L5's with the right guitar/ pick ups and used a a preamp is a unique sounding rig.

 

[JTyson]

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but is there a modern-day substitute or clone of the Fender Elite pickup system?

I read once where Ty said that P90's were the only "normal" pick up that he liked through a Lab Series. I agree...P90's are the only pups I like through my L5. Those elite pups are notoriously noisy.

I'm starting to think about a "gretchen" rig. As much as I LOVE King's X, I've never really tried to emulate his tone, but some of these YouTube demos sound so damn close. I actually have a Les Paul with P90's and I've never even plugged it into my amp! Maybe that's a good place to start

Yeah give it a shot. I think a strat style guitar with p90's will give something closer to Ty but honestly I could have his exact rig and I'll never sound like him. That said the L5's with the right guitar/ pick ups and used a a preamp is a unique sounding rig.

I've already tried multiple P90's, I love them, but they are pretty different. Not heard them thru an L series though, that would be a big factor. There is somthing about the Elite's that match up to those preamps amazingly well, I remember Ty saying they were very microphonic, to the point of being annoying, but they sounded great. If the Elite's are single coils, there has to be somthing to the preamp that Kringle was talking about that really makes things get into that unusually sweet spot