James Tyler Guitars | Studio Elite - Cherry Sunburst Quilt Maple

Here we have another beautiful Tyler guitar that is ready to take you back in time to the 1980s session player scene, with great Steve Lukather vibes in particular. This is an incredibly gorgeous and classy guitar with a whole wealth of tones and options built-in, which we will look at below; however, it is an absolute class act, regardless of all the great electronic features.

The body is alder and features a stunning quilt maple top that gives the cherry sunburst finish a deep, cloud-like texture. This guitar comes in at just a little over seven pounds, so it still feels very light and manageable for long sessions while having enough mass to feel substantial and resonant. For the neck, we went with the popular Standard 64 shape, which is a very comfortable profile that many players find to be the perfect middle ground. The neck is incredibly stable, being made from roasted quartersawn maple, so it is not going to be bothered by changes in humidity or temperature. The fingerboard has that gorgeous dark look that we love, thanks to the Macassar ebony chosen for this build. Another great touch is the use of stainless steel frets. Not only do these feel super smooth for big bends, but they won't wear out, which is perfect as this is a guitar you may easily end up using as your main instrument for a lifetime.

To really lean into that high-performance 80s vibe, this model is equipped with a gorgoues gold Floyd Rose bridge rather than a standard two-point tremolo. This gives you total tuning stability no matter how hard you use the bar, and it is paired with gold Hipshot locking tuners, and a matching cherry sunburst headstock to complete the look.

The electronics on this guitar are where things get really interesting, and it truly is perfect for any musical situation. Pickup wise, it has a Tyler Super humbucker in the bridge, which is a great hot humbucker for rockier moments. It also has two Seymour Duncan Classic Stacks in the neck and middle positions. These Duncan pickups have a special bottom coil that actually injects negative hum into the pickup circuit, and at the end of the production process, Seymour Duncan then fine-tunes each pickup for maximum noise cancellation. Therefore you get all the great qualities of a classic Strat pickup, and none of the hum. Each of these three pickups has its own 3-position mini-toggle switch that gives you three distinct sounds per pickup. When a toggle is in the up position, that pickup is wired in series, which is the loudest and fullest sound. The centre position splits the pickup, grounding out the hidden coil for a thinner, traditional single-coil tone, though this position will have some 60-cycle hum. The down position puts the pickup in parallel, which gives you the cleanest and thinnest tone with no hum.

To make this setup incredibly useful when playing live, there is a fourth mini-toggle known as the Lead/Rhythm circuit. This is a 2-position switch that acts as a shortcut. In one position, the guitar uses whatever combination you have dialled in with the 5-way and the mini-toggles. In the other position, it bypasses everything and goes straight to the bridge humbucker in series. This is perfect if you are playing a clean rhythm part with a complex setting and need to instantly switch to a full-power bridge pickup for a lead break. There is also a small button near the 5-way switch that adds the neck and bridge pickups together. This lets you get Telecaster-style sounds or even turn all three pickups on at once, which was a secret weapon for many famous 80s clean tones, such as Billie Jean by Michael Jackson.

This guitar also features the Tyler midboost preamp circuit. This is an active circuit that runs on a battery and stays active as long as the guitar is plugged in, unless you hit the bypass button. This preamp does two different things. First, there are the circuit effects. Just by having the preamp on, even with the boost turned down, it expands the frequency range of your pickups and gives you a small 2db volume increase. This creates a high-gain, low-impedance signal that keeps your highs crisp and your lows clear, even if you are using long cables. Second, there are the midrange boost effects. The boost is centred at 100hz, which is a low-mid frequency. As you turn the midboost knob up, it thickens your tone and rolls off a bit of the high end. This is great for making a thin-sounding amp sound much fatter and smoother for lead playing.

The controls are rounded out with a bypass button. This button allows you to move back and forth between the modern, expanded tones of the midboost circuit and the traditional passive tones of the pickups with a single tap. For this guitar we opted for white buttons with gold hardware, making for a very classy look on a guitar that is packed with more tonal options than anything else on the market that we can think of. Whilst this is a pro-grade instrument, it can also handle anything for the home hobbyist, from jazz and blues right through to high-gain rock or polished studio pop.

As always, you can buy this guitar with complete confidence from us, knowing that you will receive it fully setup and in perfect condition; ready to fall in love with and give a lifetime of enjoyment to you.