James Tyler Tylerbastar Gumbo w/Bacon

"This Tylerbastar is unique to CR guitars - and it all came about from a series of conversations I had with Jim Tyler. He and I talked about how cool it would be to have a guitar built with the idea of it based on a real working musician. We decided it would be really cool to conjure up a hardworking jazz/ blues organ trio player who loved the Tele but wanted more greasy soul in it. It was hauled from gig to gig, played in hundreds of venues, and had to have the muscle to drive an organ trio. That meant a humbucker neck pickup for jazz and funk and, because the player was a real working musician, he switched out the pickup on the road and just ditched the pickguard."

"We even gave him a name. Eddie 'Gumbo' Gillette. (It was a lot of fun imagining his career.) Jim loved the idea, and agreed to make a couple only for CR guitars.

"Jim didn't do a regular relic, thinking that would be way too disrespectful to the guitar. Instead, he gave it his bacon finish, an homage to the relic concept with the satin finish and bare arm contour, but with a thin satin finish over the worn looking areas.

"This guitar is a CR Guitars, Craig and Jim concept that we created to show respect to the hard living and hard working players who bust their ass and their guitars to make a go at it. It has been infused from the start with soul, grease, hair and sweat - in a way that only Tyler with his own spirited point of view could pull off. If I was born a Tele, this is what I'd look like!! (And sound like.)" -- Craig

To start with... wow! This is one of the incredibly rare 6.5 pound solid body guitars. There is no pressure on your neck when strapping on this guitar, and it feels like it immediately becomes a part of your body. Tyler will only build these “Gumbos” when he can source out exceptionally light and resonant ash they need to sing unplugged as well as plugged in.

And while were on it, let's talk about the electric tone. This guitar is alive, and the bass, mids and treble are uncommonly balanced and alive. This is the kind of guitar that brings a big smile to your face when you play. Part of what allows Tyler to achieve such consistently amazing instruments is that he hand winds his own pickups, so he is able to custom tune each pickup to each guitar. The pickups in this guitar are really sweet, and the humbucker just sings, great for any kind of music. The sweet woodiness of this guitar really comes through my '64 Princeton. The "Keith" pickup combo is further enhanced by a mini toggle switch to split the neck pick up, which means that you can get all the traditional T-style goodness from the neck pickup too.

And let’s not forget about Tyler's necks, Tyler's wonderful necks. As always, no dead spots, and no choking. The satiny finish along with Jim’s legendary neck profile makes this a guitar that I look forward to pulling out of its case to play; it just feels so good!

This guitar is pure soul, and captures the essence of the original T style guitars built in the early '50s. But James Tyler's few tweaks have brought this venerable design a leap forward. For example, the ergonomic arm contour relieves the pressure on the picking arm, and makes the guitar feel closer to your body. For playing up high, Tyler's gently relieved heel gives much more comfortable access. And the addition of the coil split mini-toggle increases the versatility exponentially.

It's difficult to put this guitar down when you start to play it. It just melts into your arms and gives voice to your own inspiration. I love this guitar, and if you like T-style guitars, I think you will too.

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.