As you can see from my modest collection of guitars, it has a bit of everything. This hasn’t always been the case. Although at several times I owned more guitars than now, there never was this amount of variety. Variety is the spice of life so I have something to suite the occasion or mood.
All these guitars have a story and there is not one amongst them that I would like to swap for another. Some have been tweaked but not much, some pickup swapping or changes to the electronics but no serious surgery.
I discovered Tyler guitars in 2004 at Real Guitars in Leverkusen. I had heard about them, seen them in magazines and loved their quirky looks. The 1st one I ever played was a Landau Classic model and it changed everything. I swore that day that I would own a Tyler some day. The feel of the Landau Classic was amazing, the neck was awesome, it was love at first sight for sure. And I have been able to find that love in all my Tylers. BIG kudos to James Tyler for the consistancy in his guitars, I have played a lot of them throughout the years and I have yet to find a bad one.
It took me a long time to get into Gibson-style guitars but I knew that I would buy a Les Paul when I could find the right one. Having played many disappointing Gibsons, I was able to get my hands on a bunch of older Japanese copies. They all felt and played really good and I particularly loved the Tokais. Their late seventies, early eighties Les Pauls are truely amazing and I got myself a great one. Getting more into the Gibson feel and tone, I also looked around for a nice ES-335. Again I was able to find the perfect one. I always loved a natural ES-335 and that’s exactly what I bought!. After playing it for 5 minutes, I knew that was the one I wanted.
There are still guitars I would like to get, maybe a Tyler superstrat with maple neck or a nice SG (Cream-era Clapton?? Angus??) but these 6 always bring a huge smile to my face.
