GearFlipper
Senior Member
- Messages
- 595
Ty Tabor in the house! I pulled the trigger a couple weeks back on a trade with Wes over at Rebel Guitars for one of the brand new Guilford Ty Tabor models. First let me say that Wes was a pleasure to deal with, we worked out a fair trade, shipped our guitars same day on the honor system. I had been eyeing these since NAMM 2 years ago, but they are pricey and I didn’t want to drop that kind of coin sight unseen, with Wes being open to a trade, it just worked out perfect.
The guitar has a medium sized neck, not a Tyler ’59 thickness, but still substantial, although it feels pretty fast. Its got a proprietary finish process on it that Guilford calls their “Shed Neck”, to me it just seems like an oil/wax blend, but it is quite comfortable, looks a little grungy, but in a cool worn in way. The neck is 2 piece maple, set in, and has a nice flame to it. The joint looks a bit like the PRS 513, in that the body wood extends under the heel cap. It is fitted with 2 of the Duncan P-Rails w Alnico magnets, volune, tone, 3 way LP style selector on the horn and a mini 3 way that controls the P-Rails down by the Vol & Tone knobs. The pots are super fast, you can do Cathedral swells all day long. The Duncans sound killer, humbucker is completely legit, fairly hot but not a flamethrower, no weird EQ curve either. P90 mode has less output as you’d expect, nice glassy top end and about 80-85% of the goodness you get from a real P90. Single coil mode has even less output than the other two modes. When using a single pickup, neck for example, its sounds more like a single than a Duncan Hot Stack, but less realistic than a DiMarzio Area. Definitely useable, but not a strat. The secret to the singles is to use both pickups together. In the middle position you get this killer cross between middle position Tele and Pos 4 Strat. Its one of my favorite settings. Guys who use the vol knob for gain adjustments will like these pickups cause they totally clean up in the lower power modes and then deliver the gain in humbucker mode.
The construction of the guitar is somewhat unique. Mahogany body w/ “Tone Vents”(a form of weight relief), maple top, Maple neck 25.5” Comfortable tummy cuts and an arm contour that is angled more forward so it sits perfect for live use. Mine has a nicely figured top, but not overboard, finished in Manalishi Green which looks a lot like PRS’s Eriza Verde, of which I am a huge fan. It has mini Shaller tuners which are super smooth, although I would have preferred locking tuners. Tone Pro’s wrap tail bridge rounds out the hardware.
Its built like a tank but I do have some niggles with fit and finish. The guitar lists for $4799, street is like $3400-ish and at that price point, it should be perfect. The finish falls short of PRS quality, in fact, its not quite Gibson quality. It reminds me of the Teye I owned for a few months, finish needs more buffing, fine scratch marks everywhere, etc… . This is definitely a guitar built by one guy and while Guilford designed a killer guitar, the finish is so thin and open pore that it doesn’t quite do the guitar justice. Where the unfinished maple neck joins the body the finish lines/masking aren’t sharp, looks like they may have been cleaned up post finish with an Exacto. Aside form those beefs, it’s a fine guitar, unique take on the LP vibe and one that I imagine will be in the stable for a while.
The guitar has a medium sized neck, not a Tyler ’59 thickness, but still substantial, although it feels pretty fast. Its got a proprietary finish process on it that Guilford calls their “Shed Neck”, to me it just seems like an oil/wax blend, but it is quite comfortable, looks a little grungy, but in a cool worn in way. The neck is 2 piece maple, set in, and has a nice flame to it. The joint looks a bit like the PRS 513, in that the body wood extends under the heel cap. It is fitted with 2 of the Duncan P-Rails w Alnico magnets, volune, tone, 3 way LP style selector on the horn and a mini 3 way that controls the P-Rails down by the Vol & Tone knobs. The pots are super fast, you can do Cathedral swells all day long. The Duncans sound killer, humbucker is completely legit, fairly hot but not a flamethrower, no weird EQ curve either. P90 mode has less output as you’d expect, nice glassy top end and about 80-85% of the goodness you get from a real P90. Single coil mode has even less output than the other two modes. When using a single pickup, neck for example, its sounds more like a single than a Duncan Hot Stack, but less realistic than a DiMarzio Area. Definitely useable, but not a strat. The secret to the singles is to use both pickups together. In the middle position you get this killer cross between middle position Tele and Pos 4 Strat. Its one of my favorite settings. Guys who use the vol knob for gain adjustments will like these pickups cause they totally clean up in the lower power modes and then deliver the gain in humbucker mode.
The construction of the guitar is somewhat unique. Mahogany body w/ “Tone Vents”(a form of weight relief), maple top, Maple neck 25.5” Comfortable tummy cuts and an arm contour that is angled more forward so it sits perfect for live use. Mine has a nicely figured top, but not overboard, finished in Manalishi Green which looks a lot like PRS’s Eriza Verde, of which I am a huge fan. It has mini Shaller tuners which are super smooth, although I would have preferred locking tuners. Tone Pro’s wrap tail bridge rounds out the hardware.
Its built like a tank but I do have some niggles with fit and finish. The guitar lists for $4799, street is like $3400-ish and at that price point, it should be perfect. The finish falls short of PRS quality, in fact, its not quite Gibson quality. It reminds me of the Teye I owned for a few months, finish needs more buffing, fine scratch marks everywhere, etc… . This is definitely a guitar built by one guy and while Guilford designed a killer guitar, the finish is so thin and open pore that it doesn’t quite do the guitar justice. Where the unfinished maple neck joins the body the finish lines/masking aren’t sharp, looks like they may have been cleaned up post finish with an Exacto. Aside form those beefs, it’s a fine guitar, unique take on the LP vibe and one that I imagine will be in the stable for a while.
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