James Tyler Guitars- an impromptu visitI'm fortunate enough to have close friends in the LA area so after NAMM, I usually take a few days off to visit. Usually we do things together but this year their were feeling the aftermath of the flu so they stayed home so we (myself and my drummer son Christoffer) were left to our own devices. We had no firm plans so one morning I got the idea of visiting James Tyler Guitars. They weren't at NAMM and since I love Jim's creations and had time so why not. I tried calling, but only got the answering machine so we decided to take the car and a map and just go there and know on the door and see if there was somebody home. Said and done! We drove up from Ranchos Palos Verdes, passed Hollywood and Van Nuys and found the address. We parked at the back of the building where there was an cool old car and walked around. The door was open and when we got in we bumped into Sarah Tyler who most graciously welcomed us two Swedes and took us on a factory tour before sitting down to discuss guitars. Here are a few shots from the factory.
Guitars in the demo room. From top to bootom: Studio Elite, Mongoose, Joe Guitar and the infamous Joe Rat.
Pick guards in various states of conclusion.
Outside the spray booth (which by the seems big enough to fit Jim's Corvette) there are guitar bodies to be found.
Pickups in the making.
Bodies ready for assembly.
More gorgeous bodies!
Just inside the doors is Jim's Corvette. Z6, I think.
Jim Tyler, me and Sarah Tyler. They made me feel at home and treated me to a nice discussion on the state of guitar from the Tyler perspective.
This is the end of a too short story with too few pictures. Thanks goes to Sarah and Jim for taking us in. Thanks for reading! And yes, the cool old car at the back is Jim's and he's going to refinish it. I hope he will post a picture of it at Huge Racks, Inc when he's done.
Mats Nermark |
