We are 72 guitarists in, 28 more to go. We have another genius on the guitar, technically skilled and super fast:
Glenn Raymond Tipton was born October 25, 1947 in Blackheath, England. Tipton has been featured as one of two lead guitarists for the heavy metal group Judas Priest.
Tipton's brother, Gary, played guitar in a band called the Atlantics. Glenn was taught to play piano by his mother but did not learn to play guitar until age 19. His first guitar was a Hofner acoustic. Glenn's first group was called Shave Em' Dry, which became Merlin, which changed their name to the Flying Hat Band. After that group broke up, Tipton joined Judas Priest in May of 1974. The group was recording the album RockaRolla, and Tipton added his guitar parts.
Glenn wrote several songs on the album Sad Wings of Destiny and his guitar work is displayed on "Tyrant", "Dreamer Deceiver" and "Victim of Changes". The album British Steel in 1980 was Judas Priest's breakthrough. The group continued to flourish with the albums Point of Entry, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith, Turbo, Ram it Down and Painkiller.
After lead singer Rob Halford left in 1992 the band split, but returned with Tim "Ripper" Owens in 1997. With the lineup, Judas Priest recorded Jugulator and Demolition. Tipton also released his first solo album Baptizm of Fire in 1997. A second Tipton album, Edge of the World, was released in 2006.
Halford rejoined the group in 2003 and they released Angel of Retribution in 2005 and Nostradamus in 2008. In 2010, Judas Priest went on the Epitaph World Tour.
As Tipton gained experience, his solos became more complex and in some, you can hear a classical influence. They are technically accurate and aggressive, yet melodic, making use of harmonic minor scales, pentatonic scales and sweep-picking arpeggios, legato picking, tremolo/alternate picking, hammer-ons and pull-offs. In 1978, Tipton began to use tapping into his playing. Glenn's style uses blues-based phrasing with medium vibrato. Tipton's is a warmer tone with more bass.
Tipton has been influenced by early blues players as well as the Spencer Davis Group. He also listened to the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Deep Purple and was influenced by the guitar playing of Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer in Fleetwood Mac and Rory Gallagher.
Tipton began his career playing a 1960's Fender Stratocaster until 1978. He then started using a black Gibson Les Paul Custom and a modified Fender Stratocaster with DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucking pickups. He also added a Gibson SG Special with a chrome pickguard and stock PAF humbucers. In 1984, Tipton switched to a Hamer Phantom GT and a signature model of this was developed and sold in the mid-1980's. Glenn also has a Fender Telecaster that he uses in the studio, an ESP Eclipse acoustic, an Ibanez 7621 seven-string, a Gibson Explorer and a Roland G-707 synth guitar.
Tipton has used Marshall Amplifiers throughout his career. He has employed Regular Vintage 50 (with EL34 output tubes and a Range Master Treble Boost) and 100, then used the JCM 800 head when it came out in 1982. Later, Tipton was endorsed by Crate amps (he used Crate heads and cabinets) and he used Rocktron preamps. Then he switched to a large rack with multiple preamps and a Marshall 9100 power amp. In 2008, Glenn began using ENGL amps: the Preamp E580, the Poweramp 850/50 and the ENGL Invader.
In the early part of his career with Judas Priest, Tipton used a Peter Cornish custom pedalboard with an overdrive unit, flanger, MXR distortion unit, MXR Phase 100, MXS digital delay, MXR 12-band EQ, the Maestro Echoplex, line boosters between each effect to preserve the signal, and a Rangemaster-based treble boost connected to the bass channel of his Marshall amp. About the time Halford reunited with the group, Tipton only used a Crybaby 535Q Wah, Digitech Tone Driver, DigiTech Main Squeeze and a Yamaha midi board controlling other effects in a rack unit.
Tipton currently uses a rack system with a Korg rack tuner, Furman power unit, Donlop Rackmounted Crybaby, Rocktron Intellifex and Yamaha XPS-90 multi-effects units and a dbx 166A compressor and noise gate.
Tipton was ranked #19 on the Hit Parader list of 100 greatest metal guitarists, a more genre-tailored list than Inside the Rock Era. Kerry King credits Tipton as a great guitar influence and has said he one of rock's most underrated guitarists. Of course that was before we came out with this list. Glenn Tipton ranks #28 for the Rock Era*...
#28: Glenn Tipton
45 years as an active guitarist
Glenn Raymond Tipton was born October 25, 1947 in Blackheath, England. Tipton has been featured as one of two lead guitarists for the heavy metal group Judas Priest.
Tipton's brother, Gary, played guitar in a band called the Atlantics. Glenn was taught to play piano by his mother but did not learn to play guitar until age 19. His first guitar was a Hofner acoustic. Glenn's first group was called Shave Em' Dry, which became Merlin, which changed their name to the Flying Hat Band. After that group broke up, Tipton joined Judas Priest in May of 1974. The group was recording the album RockaRolla, and Tipton added his guitar parts.
Glenn wrote several songs on the album Sad Wings of Destiny and his guitar work is displayed on "Tyrant", "Dreamer Deceiver" and "Victim of Changes". The album British Steel in 1980 was Judas Priest's breakthrough. The group continued to flourish with the albums Point of Entry, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith, Turbo, Ram it Down and Painkiller.
After lead singer Rob Halford left in 1992 the band split, but returned with Tim "Ripper" Owens in 1997. With the lineup, Judas Priest recorded Jugulator and Demolition. Tipton also released his first solo album Baptizm of Fire in 1997. A second Tipton album, Edge of the World, was released in 2006.
Halford rejoined the group in 2003 and they released Angel of Retribution in 2005 and Nostradamus in 2008. In 2010, Judas Priest went on the Epitaph World Tour.
As Tipton gained experience, his solos became more complex and in some, you can hear a classical influence. They are technically accurate and aggressive, yet melodic, making use of harmonic minor scales, pentatonic scales and sweep-picking arpeggios, legato picking, tremolo/alternate picking, hammer-ons and pull-offs. In 1978, Tipton began to use tapping into his playing. Glenn's style uses blues-based phrasing with medium vibrato. Tipton's is a warmer tone with more bass.
Tipton has been influenced by early blues players as well as the Spencer Davis Group. He also listened to the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Deep Purple and was influenced by the guitar playing of Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer in Fleetwood Mac and Rory Gallagher.
Tipton began his career playing a 1960's Fender Stratocaster until 1978. He then started using a black Gibson Les Paul Custom and a modified Fender Stratocaster with DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucking pickups. He also added a Gibson SG Special with a chrome pickguard and stock PAF humbucers. In 1984, Tipton switched to a Hamer Phantom GT and a signature model of this was developed and sold in the mid-1980's. Glenn also has a Fender Telecaster that he uses in the studio, an ESP Eclipse acoustic, an Ibanez 7621 seven-string, a Gibson Explorer and a Roland G-707 synth guitar.
Tipton has used Marshall Amplifiers throughout his career. He has employed Regular Vintage 50 (with EL34 output tubes and a Range Master Treble Boost) and 100, then used the JCM 800 head when it came out in 1982. Later, Tipton was endorsed by Crate amps (he used Crate heads and cabinets) and he used Rocktron preamps. Then he switched to a large rack with multiple preamps and a Marshall 9100 power amp. In 2008, Glenn began using ENGL amps: the Preamp E580, the Poweramp 850/50 and the ENGL Invader.
In the early part of his career with Judas Priest, Tipton used a Peter Cornish custom pedalboard with an overdrive unit, flanger, MXR distortion unit, MXR Phase 100, MXS digital delay, MXR 12-band EQ, the Maestro Echoplex, line boosters between each effect to preserve the signal, and a Rangemaster-based treble boost connected to the bass channel of his Marshall amp. About the time Halford reunited with the group, Tipton only used a Crybaby 535Q Wah, Digitech Tone Driver, DigiTech Main Squeeze and a Yamaha midi board controlling other effects in a rack unit.
Tipton currently uses a rack system with a Korg rack tuner, Furman power unit, Donlop Rackmounted Crybaby, Rocktron Intellifex and Yamaha XPS-90 multi-effects units and a dbx 166A compressor and noise gate.
Tipton was ranked #19 on the Hit Parader list of 100 greatest metal guitarists, a more genre-tailored list than Inside the Rock Era. Kerry King credits Tipton as a great guitar influence and has said he one of rock's most underrated guitarists. Of course that was before we came out with this list. Glenn Tipton ranks #28 for the Rock Era*...
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