Tim Henson's Gear Collection

This is one of the guitars presented in Tim’s studio tour posted on his YouTube channel. Tim says this is one of the original six AZ guitars, that he had repainted pink.

This is one of the first six AZ guitars that ever existed. I had the LA custom shop refinish it to “clitoris” pink.

It’s nice because we have white on white on white. White strap knobs, white knobs, white pickups, white inlays, white logo.

Tim Henson – Studio Tour – YouTube

The guitar is also among the ones that Tim uses live on tours with Polyphia, as can be seen in various concerts posted on YouTube.

Based on his Instagram and Twitter posts, Tim started using this guitar sometime in early 2021. At first, the guitar was just a plain silver model with custom ornate fretboard inlays. Tim calls this design the “Tree of Death”, and it takes inspiration from Steve Vai’s famous “Tree of Life” guitar.

Likely, this was a prototype or an early production model of Tim’s 2022 signature model from Ibanez, the TOD10.

By the time Polyphia released the music video for their song “Neurotica” the guitar underwent some major design changes. The top of the body was covered entirely with a huge metal-looking piece designed and made by an artist called Nusi Quero. This sort of design is also seen in Scott LePage’s and Clay Gober’s instruments.

This guitar is a one-off made for Tim at the Ibanez custom shop in LA, based on his old signature model, the THBB10. The body of the guitar was however based on the RG8 model, based on the overall shape, the control layout, and the bridge piece.

The overall design of course is all about the THBB10, with the black finish, roasted maple neck, acrylic/ abalone split block inlays, and gold hardware.

Tom was seen using this guitar in two videos posted on his personal YouTube channel. In the first video, posted in 2020, he played the song “God Hand” and gave a little tutorial on how to play it. In the second video, posted in 2022, he used the gutiar to play the song “Reverie”.

This is Tim’s own Signature guitar from Ibanez, first introduced in 2019. Since its release, it became his main guitar, although he doesn’t use it exclusively, and still picks up his older guitars depending on the occasion.

The Ibanez THBB10 (Tim Henson “Black Beauty”) features an American basswood body, a roasted maple neck, and a roasted maple fingerboard with acrylic/abalone/acrylic block inlays. It’s produced in Indonesia, and it’s available in only one finish – black.

As far as hardware – the guitar is equipped with custom DiMarzio Notorious pickups – which are Tim’s own signature pickups. There’s a mini-humbucker in the bridge and single coils in the neck and middle positions.

This is the guitar that Tim used on “Ego Death”, both in the original music video and on the play-along he released on his personal YouTube channel.

The Ibanez RG8527Z is a seven-string model from RG series. It features a flamed maple top and African mahogany body, as well as its titanium-reinforced maple neck with a 24-fret rosewood fingerboard. The guitar is equipped with Dual DiMarzio PAF 7 pickups, Edge Zero 7 tremolo bridge, and Gotoh tuning machines.

It was first introduced in 2010, but some changes were made to the design over the years. In 2018 the titanium neck reinforcing rods were removed and a new Rhodonite Pink finish was added and was available exclusively by retailer Ishibashi in Japan, and in 2020 the fingerboard was changed to Macassar ebony.

Tim was seen playing this guitar in one of the earliest videos posted on his YouTube channel – on Feb 4, 2015. Tim would’ve been around 20 years old at that time. However, there are videos of Tim with the guitar going as far back as 2009.

Based on the looks, the guitar is an RG350SP3 model which features pretty unique specs. The fretboard is maple, which seems to be very rare on these models, and the two humbuckers seem to be non-original to the guitar.

The humbuckers on Tim’s guitar have the “dual-rail” design, which doesn’t seem to be something that Ibanez fit on this model from the factory. Therefore, Tim likely installed these himself.

Again, this is one of the guitars presented by Tim during the tour of his studio posted on his YouTube channel. According to Tim, this was one of the first guitars given to him by Ibanez.

This was one of the first guitars I’ve ever got from Ibanez. This was the first guitar that I ever had customized by the LA Custom Shop. It’s just a beautiful guitar. I don’t play it too much, it’s kind of here just for the looks and sentimental value.

Tim Henson – Studio Tour – YouTube

The guitar is an Ibanez RG652AHM Prestige finished in Nebula Green Burst. It features an ash body, a five-piece maple/walnut neck, and a bound Birdseye maple fretboard. Originally, the guitar had all-black hardware and black pickups.

This was one of Tim’smost widely used guitars before he got his own Signature model. Apparently, he liked the pickup sound on the guitar so much that he based his own signature pickup set on it.

It’s just a Prestige Talman, there’s nothing really too special about it – other than it kicks ass and sounds really awesome! I used to use this guitar a lot, but then I got the Signature – which I based the pickup sounds off of this particular guitar.

Tim Henson – Studio Tour – YouTube

The Talman was used by Tim on a number of occasions in his videos, most notably in the “Saucy” tutorial he posted on his Twitter account. This could mean that he used this guitar for that particular song in the original studio recording.

Tim was seen playing this guitar in a video cover of the song “Butter” that he did with the drummer Luke Holand. The video was posted on Tim’s personal YouTube channel on June 10, 2021.

From the looks of it, this is probably something made by the Ibanez LA Custom Shop, since it does not really match any of the models that Ibanez currently sells. It obviously based heavily on the AZ model – it has the same body shape and the same neck/headstock, and the usual H/H pickup setup that you see on most AZs.

The things that separate this guitar from the standard model are some of the more premium features, like the type of wood used for the body, and the gold hardware all over the guitar, but unfortunately, the specific details regarding these features are unknown. The body top wood looks like it could be maple, but it’s hard to tell from this angle.

This is another guitar seen in one of Tim’s early YouTube videos. The video in question was apparently filmed in 2009 when Tim was only 16 years old, and it features the song “Voice of Entropy” off of the album Resurrect.

The exact make and model of this guitar are unknown as of writing this. The most likely candidate is Washburn since the guitar is equipped with the famous Wonderbar tremolo system.

The Wonderbar, also known as the Shift 2001, is a tremolo system created by the Japanese company Answer and marketed by Washburn in the 1980s. It was developed to rival the popular Floyd Rose and Kahler tremolo systems of that era. Washburn highlighted the Wonderbar’s unique feature: it mounts directly on the guitar’s body surface, eliminating the need for any routing, which gave it an advantage over its competitors.

Tim was seen playing this guitar in a few of his earlier YouTube videos (screenshots below). Most of them are dating to around 2015 it seems.

Based on the looks, the guitar is an Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci model. Based on the fact that it has some unique features, like the figured maple top, gold hardware, and a headstock finished in clear lacquer, this was likely a BFR or “Ball Family Reserve” guitar. These are basically custom guitars based on existing models, but featuring these unique features.

The guitar features, as already noted, a quilt maple top on what’s either mahogany, alder, or maple body, and a matching quilt maple headstock. As far as hardware, the guitar is equipped with Schaller M6-IND locking tuners with pearl buttons, Custom John Petrucci Music Man Piezo floating tremolo, a DiMarzio LiquiFire pickup in the neck, and a DiMarzio Crunch Lab in the bridge.

This is the 2022 Tim Henson signature model by Ibanez, officially revealed on December 1, 2022. The guitar is obviously heavily based on the AZ series, a model which Tim used extensively over the years, and is very familiar with.

The TOD10 features a basswood body finished in silver and a roasted maple neck with an ebony fretboard and custom “Tree of Death” (therefore the “TOD”) inlays. It is equipped with a pair of Fishman Fluence Tim Henson signature series pickups, which are active pickups, meaning they are battery-powered and offer higher output than passive pickups. This is a big change from Tim’s previous signature model, on which he used standard passive pickups.

Also worth pointing out is that with the release of this new signature model, Tim’s old signature Ibanez, the Ibanez THBB10, has been discontinued and you can no longer buy it new.

Tim can be seen playing this guitar in a video that he posted on his YouTube channel titled “Timi Hendrix”, with one of his first bands called the Chain Failure. In the video, Tim was probably around 12-13 years old, so this is probably one of his earliest electric guitars.

Unfortunately, the footage is so grainy that it’s impossible to tell the exact model and specs of the guitar. Based on the headstock shape and logo, the guitar was most likely a cheap Squier Affinity Stratocaster, probably fitted with a custom black pickguard, and with hardware either painted black or replaced with black one.

As far as the pickup configuration, this is also impossible to tell from the footage. It seems though that the middle and the neck pickups are single coils – at least based on how close the neck pickup seems to be to the neck. The bridge pickup could’ve been a humbucker since it seems to appear darker in color than the rest.

This is one of the guitars presented in Tim’s studio tour, posted on his YouTube channel. Tim didn’t share much about this particular guitar – he just note that it’s a stock model and that it plays really nice.

It’s a stock AZ prestige from Japan. It plays really nice, and yeah, it’s pretty.

Tim Henson – Studio Tour – YouTube

Tim can also be seen playing this guitar live on occasion, for example in his “Top 10 Riffs of the Decade” video.

This guitar was used by Tim in one of his old YouTube videos, posted on October 14, 2013. In the video, Tim is playing a cover of Javier Reyes’s song “Luz Y Cielo”.

The guitar is an Ibanez RGA8, which is an 8-string model. According to the Ibanez Wiki, it was produced from 2010 to 2013, it featured a Mahogany body, a 5-piece maple/walnut neck, and a Rosewood fretboard. As far as hardware, it was equipped with two Ibanez LoZ8 active pickups and the FX Edge III-8 tremolo.