King's X Style

Welcome to King's X style lesson !


King's X is one of the collest bands from the 90s (when we speak of guitar playing). Ty Tabor was both - using some classic rock influences and forced new experimental tools of expression. King's X has it all - groove, energy and a great way of expression. No matter how cool a modern shred can look, but bands like King's X has their specific kind of flow that is incomparable to any of modern guitar genres. I invite you to try out this one and find same flavor in playing, as a did for myslef.

Considering the period of their most popular songs, I personally relate Ty Tabor's tone with soft chorus and sort of "strat" bridge single coil tone. In this lesson I went for a strat and made a coil split. I believe it can still sound cool with a humbucker though. Just avoid too much gain from the amp - it would destroy the effect (will blurry) the moments of percussive s trums and harmonics. On the slow video I went for a raw, non-chorus tone for a better clarity for your personal, detailed playing analysis.

Important notice for improvisation.

While most of the song you can use D-minor scale, there a transposition to E-minor in the part 4 (let's call it "chorus part"). You should literally switch to E-minor scale as well.


Gear used (in order of connection chain placement):

1. SX SST57 guitar (JB Junior bridge pickup - coil split mode)
2. Presonus Inspire 1394 firewire audio interface (input gain 40%)
3. Cubase 7.5 stock chorus (sync 1/1, width 10%, spatial 75%, mix 50%...all are default settings)
4. Poulin LeXtac vst plug-in:
- Channel - blue
- Input 50%
- Gain 70%
- Pre EQ - brighter
- Bass 50%
- Middle 40%
- Treble 50%
- Contour 100%
5. Kefir impulse loader (mix 100%)
6. Impulse - Catharsis s-preshigh



Tuning - Dropped D (D6 A5 D4 G3 B2 E1)


Backing track progression:

4/4 D9# | D9# | D9# | D9# | Dm | Gm F | Ab6 G7sus4 | Gm | Dm |
D9# | D9# | D9# | D9# | Dm | Gm F | Ab6 G7sus4 | Gm | Dm |
Em | Em | G | Gsus2 | Csus2 | Csus2 | Am |
Csus2 | Csus2 | C6sus2 | D5b F |
D9# | D9# | D9# | D5b F | D9# | D9# | D9# | D5b F |
D9# | D9# | D9# | D5b F | D9# | D9# | D9# | D5b Dm |



Tempo: Main song tempo is 150 bpm. There are backing tracks available at 70, 90, 110, 130 and 150 bpm.

Time signature: 4/4

Scales used in this lesson:

D-minor



D-blues scale



E-minor scale