Look up kk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

KK may refer to:

People[link]

• KK (musician), an Icelandic musician
• KK Null, a Japanese musician
• Kenneth Kaunda, a Zambian politician
• Krishnakumar Kunnath, an Indian playback singer
• Kishore Kumar, an Indian playback singer
• Kay Kay Menon (Kay Kay), an Indian actor
• Kailash Kher, an Indian playback singer
• Karishma Kapoor, an Indian actress
• Kareena Kapoor, an Indian actress
• Katrina Kaif, an Indian actress
• Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, a Turkish politician
• Kevin Kerrigan, a British record producer and musician
• KK, a rapper from the group 2nd II None
• Kerry King, an American heavy metal musician
• Kristin Kreuk, a Canadian actress
• Kevin Keegan, an English football manager and former player
• K.K. Downing, an English guitarist (Judas Priest)
• Kris Kross, an American rapper
• Kim Kardashian, an American entrepreneur and socialite
• Keira Knightley, an English actress and model
• Karolina Kurkova, a Czech model
• Kelly Kelly, a ring name for Barbara Blank
• Kris Kindle, Secret Santa
• Kazuya Kamenashi, a Japanese male idol
• Kevin Keegan, an English football legend

Places[link]

• KK, the code for County Kilkenny, Ireland
• Kinnickinnic River (Milwaukee River)
• Kota Kinabalu, a city in Malaysia
• Krispy Kreme, a donut restaurant
• an informal abbreviation for Karnataka, a state of southern India (ISO 3166-2:IN)

Other[link]

• Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, a Seattle indie band
• KK Slider, a character from the Animal Crossing video game series
• Kiddy Kong, a character in the Donkey Kong series
• Atlasjet IATA airline designator
• Kabushiki gaisha, a Japanese corporation or public company
• Kazakh language ISO 639 alpha-2 code
• Kenyon and Knott, a pronunciation dictionary of American English
• Kernewek Kemmyn (Common Cornish), a variety of the Cornish language
• Kinakuta top-level domain name
• k.k. or k.-k., meaning "imperial-royal", pertaining to the Austrian Empire before 1867 and to the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867–1918
• Kvinner og Klær (Norwegian: "Women and Clothes"), a Norwegian weekly magazine

• Basketball Club, in several Eastern European languages; for example:
  • KK Union Olimpija, Slovenia
  • KK Cibona, Croatia
  • KK Partizan, Serbia
  • KK Atletas Lithuania
• a term used by many Folk Nation gangs in Chicago standing for "King Killer" and referring to a person who murders a Latin Kings
• a defunct line on the New York City Subway, now called the J
• a generation of Jeep Liberty, and, overseas, a generation of Jeep Cherokee, made from 2008 onwards

See also[link]

• Okay, or OK, an acceptance of something
• Kirkpatrick number, a numbering system for Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas; see List of solo keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2010)

Glenn Tipton
Glenn Tipton in 2005
Background information
Birth name	Glenn Raymond Tipton
Born	(1947-10-25) 25 October 1947 (age 64) Blackheath, England
Genres	Heavy metal
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, keyboards, vocals, bass
Years active	1968–present
Labels	Columbia, Atlantic
Associated acts	Judas Priest, The Flying Hat Band
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Hamer Signature Models

Glenn Tipton (born Glenn Raymond Tipton, 25 October 1947, Blackheath, England) is one of the Grammy Award-winning guitarists and occasional keyboard player for the heavy metal band Judas Priest.

Early Life and Career[link]

Glenn Tipton in 1984

Glenn Raymond Tipton was born on October 25, 1947 to Olive and Doug Tipton. Glenn attended Olive Hill Primary School when he was about five years old. His brother, Gary, was a guitar player for a local band called the Atlantics. Early on, Glenn was taught to play the piano by his mother, but he was never fully committed to his practice. Glenn learned to play guitar at age 19 with his first guitar being a Hofner acoustic guitar. He would then play on a Rickenbacker until he was able to afford a Fender Stratocaster.^[1] This guitar would become his main live guitar until it was stolen at a show. Glenn soon bought a black Stratocaster from someone for a cheap price. Tipton also bought a Gibson SG afterwards with money he received to replace his old guitar.^[2] Both of these guitars can be seen when Judas Priest played on the Old Grey Whistle Test.^[3][4] Tipton's first band was Shave Em' Dry, which became Merlin, which became the Flying Hat Band. This band soon broke up due to management issues. In May 1974, Tipton joined Judas Priest. This was during the recording for Rocka Rolla, so Tipton quickly added his guitar parts to the album.^[2] On Sad Wings of Destiny, Tipton showed off more of his guitar work on songs like Tyrant, Dreamer Deceiver and Victim of Changes. Tipton also presented his own songwriting on the songs Prelude, Epitaph and The Ripper. Epitaph and Prelude include some of Tipton's work on keyboard instruments. The year 1980's British Steel was Judas Priest's commercial breakthrough. This album combined the band's trademark heavy metal sound with pop-style song structures and hooks. United and Breaking the Law were some of Judas Priest's first guitar-driven songs not to include any solo sections. Judas Priest's popularity progressed through the 1980s with their albums Point of Entry, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith, Turbo, Ram It Down and Painkiller. Rob Halford would leave Judas Priest in 1992 and the band would separate. Judas Priest would later return with Tim "Ripper" Owens in 1997. This new version of the band recorded the albums Jugulator and Demolition. Both of these albums experimented with new sounds that distinguished them from the records with Halford. Around this time, Tipton released his first solo album, Baptizm of Fire in 1997. The follow-up album Edge of the World was released in 2006. In 2003, Judas Priest would reunite with Rob Halford and release Angel of Retribution in 2005 and Nostradamus in 2008. In 2010, Judas Priest announced their Epitaph World Tour, which is to be the last major world tour. Despite the announcement, Judas Priest still wishes to record another album an possibly more in the future.

Playing Style[link]

Tipton is known for his complex, sometimes classically-influenced solos, and he has a unique guitar-playing technique.^[5] Many of his solos are very difficult to transcribe, and his playing is notable for his double lead guitar trades with fellow Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing. Tipton's solos have maintained a consistent style for most of his career, but he has continuously incorporated new techniques into his playing over the years as he has developed as a guitarist.

In contrast to Downing, Tipton's solos tend to feature a more melodic, legato sound, making use of harmonic minor scales, Aeolian mode, pentatonic scales and techniques such as sweep-picking arpeggios, legato picking, tremolo/alternate picking, hammer-ons and pull-offs, and the solos often showcase both accuracy and aggression. However, like Downing, his playing sometimes emphasizes speed rather than precision, and Tipton has been known to occasionally use pinch harmonics and dive bombs in his solos. Tipton also has a trademark 2-strings bend/whammy dive screams for ending the solo, as evident in solos like All Guns Blazing, Heavy Metal, Demonizer, Bullet Train and Ram It Down. In 1978, Tipton began to incorporate tapping into his playing, which Downing promptly did as well. In the mid-1980s, both guitarists started to use the complex technique of sweep-picking, which can be notably heard on the title track of their 1990 album Painkiller. Both have continuously used these techniques ever since. His style is drenched in blues-based phrasing. His vibrato is medium speed, medium width — similar to Peter Green's but not quite as fast.

Influences[link]

Tipton quotes : "It goes without saying that I love playing and performing heavy metal, and have for most of my career. Going right back though, I've listened to a lot of early blues players, and I think the first band I saw live that really made an impression on me, was The Spencer Davies group. I remember going to see them play at an all-nighter at Birmingham Town Hall. Steve Winwood was a great all round vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player and I remember trying to learn 'Georgia' on the piano after I had seen them play. They had great songs like 'Keep on Running' and although you could try and categorize them as blues or R&B, they really had their own sound going for them, mainly due I believe to Steve Winwood".^[6]

Other early influences were Hendrix, Deep Purple and Zeppelin. "I still can't believe where Hendrix came from. OK Seattle maybe but he just suddenly appeared, as if from nowhere, this black guy playing guitar in a way no one had imagined it could be played. He was more than a genius in my eyes, someone very, very special. I loved early Purple and the combined sound of Organ and guitar gave them a very powerful sound, again unique at the time. As for Zeppelin, what can you say, 'Whole lotta Love', 'Communication Breakdown', 'Black Dog', and the epic 'Kashmir' again a unique band with great songs. All these bands formed an impression on me going back to those early days.^[6]

"I liked the early Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. I thought Peter Green was a great white blues player and song-writer. He not only penned such greats as 'Green Manalishi' and 'Oh Well' but more delicate compositions such as 'Need Your Love So Bad' or 'Albatross' I saw them several times and it was great to watch them perform songs like 'Stop Messin' Around' or songs featuring slide guitar such as 'Dust My Broom'.^[6]

"As I've said before, as a guitar player my main inspiration was Rory Gallagher. I saw him play in Taste many times and he really inspired me, not just musically but also in the amount of energy and feel he put out".^[6]

"I've always loved the Stones. They have so many classic songs such as 'Jumping Jack Flash', 'Honky Tonk Women', 'Sympathy For The Devil', 'Brown Sugar', or their earlier stuff like 'This Could Be The Last Time', 'Paint It Black', 'It’s All Over Now' the list goes on and on. The Stones have great attitude and that rebel quality that’s so appealing. I recently saw them at the Isle of White festival and they were as good as ever after all these years".^[6]

"As do many people, I think the Beatles were a great band. We were all lucky that fate put these guys together in our time. It totally amazes me that they came up with such an abundance of classic songs in such a relatively short amount of time. The Beatles changed everything. To start with they were the first band to write their own material. They were so prolific and the endless melodies they invented will live forever".^[6]

Tipton is a big fan of soundtrack music, something that is evident in listening to Judas Priest's metal opera Nostradamus. "I love people like Hans Zimmer," Tipton told Attention Deficit Delirium. "Some of the stuff that they do is incredible.” (He's a big fan of the Gladiator soundtrack.) "One day when I’m good enough to, I wouldn’t even call it a film score, but do music for film, I’d like that opportunity. It would be really exciting for me to do. Whether that will happen or not, I’m not sure. I would certainly welcome the opportunity to do something like that as long as it were something that I liked or had respect for visually." ^[7]

Equipment[link]

Judas Priest performing at Sauna Open Air in 2011. Glenn Tipton (far right) is playing on his signature Hamer model.

Tone[link]

Glenn's tone is your basic humbucker through a Marshall tone. Compared to Downing's tone, Glenn's tone is warmer, with more bass and lower mids. This lets both guitarists play the same parts yet remain distinct in the mix. Tipton's classic sound on albums like British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, and Stained Class was obtained using 50 watt, non-master Marshall heads with EL34 output tubes, and a Range Master treble boost — the same device Brian May uses to kick his AC-30's. During this period, Glenn also employed a MXR Distortion +, Phase 100, and digital delays, as well as an old Maestro Echoplex. In the late 1980s, around the time of the Turbo album, Priest began incorporating guitar synths and abandoned the Marshalls for what sounds like a Scholz Rockman (Turbo, Ram it Down). Starting with the comeback album Jugulator, Glenn switched to Rocktron preamps, the Rocktron Intellifex for effects, and Crate heads and cabs. Glenn's used SG's, a Strat with two DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers, and various Hamer models including a few he helped design (see above photo). Most of his guitars are equipped with Kahler tremolos. Glenn uses very light strings and picks — string gauges are .010, .013, .017, .026, .036, and .046, he uses Ernie Ball strings.^[8] Throughout his career, Glenn has used many tunings, most frequently standard tuning. Ever sice Rob Halford rejoined Judas Priest, both Glenn and KK have used E-flat tuning.

Guitars[link]

Tipton has used numerous guitars over the years. These include a 1960s Fender Stratocaster up until about 1978. During the period from 1978 to 1979, he used a black Gibson Les Paul Custom, and he started using a modified CBS-era Fender Stratocaster with Dimarzio Super-Distortion (humbucking) pickups. For the Screaming for Vengeance tour, he added a chrome pickguard. For this tour, he also played a Gibson SG Special that he spray-painted black himself. The SG also had a chrome pickguard and stock PAF humbuckers. Around 1984, he switched to a Hamer Phantom GT model, which was fitted with one EMG humbucker, a Kahler tremolo, and one volume pot. A signature model of this was developed and sold to public from 1984 to 1986. Tipton still uses this guitar model, but now with Seymour Duncan Blackouts active pickups. In 2009, Tipton took his Fender Stratocaster and Gibson SG Special out of retirement for the British Steel 30th Anniversary tour.

He has also used various guitars over the years

• Fender Telecaster - For studio use
• ESP Eclipse acoustic - For stage use
• Ibanez 7621 seven-string guitar - In the studio for Demolition
• Gibson Explorer - Could be see on the Classic Albums: British Steel documentary and was used sparingly during the Nostradamus tour
• Legends custom-built acrylic Jaguar-shaped guitar - Tipton jokingly admitted that he wanted to make a lamp out of it, but liked the tone of it and was used for recording Demolition),
• Roland G-707 synth guitar - was mostly used in the studio, used a Hamer Phantom GT with a Roland Hex pickup for stage use

Amplification[link]

Tipton has almost exclusively used Marshall Amplifiers. Tipton used Regular Vintage 50 and 100 Watt Marshall heads without a master volume until 1982, when the JCM 800 head was developed. The JCM 800 was used by Tipton and fellow Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing for many years. During the Jugulator and Demolition era, Tipton was endorsed by Crate amplifiers, using their Blue Voodoo heads in the studio and when touring. He would drop this endorsement during the 2004 reunion tour, switching to a large rack unit with multiple preamps and effects processors with a Marshall 9100 power amp.

In 2008, Tipton began using ENGL amps. Of the brand, he comments, “ENGL is the first ampline that I have ever used that not only has balls, but attitude, right out of the box”. When he first used Engl amps, he played through the ENGL Midi Tube Preamp E 580 and the ENGL Tube Poweramp E 850/50. For the Epitaph tour, he switched to using Engl Invaders that are modified to use 6L6 power tube.

Effects[link]

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tipton used a Pete Cornish custom pedalboard with an overdrive unit, flanger, MXR distortion unit, MXR Phase 100, MXR digital delay, MXR 12-band EQ, Maestro Echoplex, line boosters between each effect to preserve the signal from input to output, and a Rangemaster-based custom treble boost connected to the bass channel of Marshall 50 and 100 watt heads with no master volume.

Around the time of the reunion with Rob Halford, Tipton only used a modified Crybaby 535Q Wah, Digitech Tone Driver, DigiTech Main Squeeze, and a Yamaha midi board controlling other effects and sounds in a rack unit.

Since the beginning of the 2008 world tour, Glenn has went back to mostly using a rack system, sans the current use of Engl amp heads. He currently uses a Korg rack tuner, Furman power unit, Dunlop Custom Shop Rackmounted Crybaby, Rocktron Intellifex and Yamaha XPS-90 multi-effects units, and a dbx 166A compressor and noise gate.

Recognition and honors[link]

• He was ranked #19 on rock magazine Hit Parader's list of 100 greatest metal guitarists.
• He was ranked #28 on Gigwise's Top 50 Guitarists.
• He was ranked #9 on MusicRadar's The 20 Greatest Metal Guitarists Ever.
• He was ranked #25 on Joel Mclver's 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists.
• Sun Kil Moon released a song titled "Glenn Tipton" on their album Ghosts of the Great Highway.
• In the popular video game Guitar Hero II, a playable character called Izzy Sparks, wears clothes very similar to the ones Glenn Tipton used under the Screaming for Vengeance tour 1983.
• Kerry King of Slayer has stated that Tipton is one of the most underrated guitarists in the world. He stated that Tipton is one of his earliest guitar influences.
• Jeff Waters: "Glenn Tipton, along with partners KK Downing and Rob Halford, has come up with the most killer metal riffing, with elite, groundbreaking, original songwriting, and with blues-influenced lead guitar shredding. Judas Priest and Tipton's work are arguably more worthy of the term metal than any other, with Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath their only close rivals.

Discography[link]

Solo[link]

• Baptizm of Fire (1997)
• Edge of the World (2006)

Judas Priest[link]

See the Judas Priest discography for the complete list of Judas Priest albums, as Tipton played lead guitar for all Priest's album releases.

Contributions[link]

• Guest musician on the 1995 album Foma by post-grunge band The Nixons.
• Guest musician on the song Spirit of America by Samantha Fox
• Glenn recorded licks for the video game Brutal Legend.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Glenn Tipton Website

This article reads more like a story than an encyclopedia entry. To meet Wikipedia's quality standards and conform to the neutral point of view policy, please help to introduce a more formal style and remove any personally invested tone. (December 2007)

K. K. Downing
Background information
Birth name	Kenneth Keith Downing, Jr.
Born	(1951-10-27) 27 October 1951 (age 60) West Bromwich, England
Genres	Heavy metal
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1968–2011
Labels	Columbia
Associated acts	Judas Priest
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Gibson Flying V Hamer KK Downing Signature model

Kenneth "K. K." Downing, Jr. (born 27 October 1951 in Yew Tree Estate in West Bromwich, England) is a Grammy Award winning guitarist, songwriter and a founding member of the British heavy metal band Judas Priest.

Early life and career[link]

Downing dropped out of school when he was 16 years old. A short time later, he was told by his parents to leave, which he did. In the late 1960s, Kenneth discovered rock music and the guitar. He was heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, after whom he modelled his playing style. In the early 1970s, Downing decided to form a band with his friend Ian Hill, and this band would become Judas Priest. Downing played on every Judas Priest album from Rocka Rolla to A Touch of Evil: Live.

Playing style and technique[link]

K.K. Downing in 1980

Downing has been noted for his aggressive, rock influenced guitar solos and dual leads with fellow Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton.^[1] His solos have remained of this style for most of his career, but he has incorporated various techniques into his playing over the years. As opposed to Tipton, his solos tend to incorporate a more raw, rough-edged sound, making use of techniques like pinch harmonics, dive bombs, and tremolo picking, and often focus on speed, technical accuracy and melody. In 1978, Tipton began to incorporate tapping into his playing, which Downing promptly began to use as well. By 1990, both guitarists started to use the complex technique of sweep-picking, which can be notably heard on the title track of their 1990 album Painkiller. Both have continuously used these techniques ever since. Some of his guitar solos are on such tracks as "Victim of Changes", the 2nd solo in "Beyond the Realms of Death", "Before The Dawn", "Sinner", "Don't Go", the 2nd solo in "Painkiller", and the live version of "Breaking The Law", although naturally which solos are most notable is debated among fans. Notable guitar duels are on such tracks as "Hellrider", "Bullet Train", "Nostradamus", "The Sentinel", "Ram It Down", "Metal Meltdown", "Eat Me Alive" and "Riding On The Wind".

In Judas Priest's early years, Downing made common use of the wah-wah pedal, but began to limit his use of it in the late '70s, and had abandoned use of it by the mid-'80s, save for during live performances of the songs that originally featured it. The only time since then that he has renewed use of it was in 1996, when vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens joined the band, and they began to experiment with their music more than before. One of these experimentations was the renewal of wah-wah in Downing's playing, which can be heard on their 1997 album Jugulator. This experimentation was taken further on their next album with Owens, 2001's Demolition, but was once more abandoned when the band's former vocalist, Rob Halford, returned to the band. Soon enough, Downing would later use a wah-wah pedal on more recent tours.

Retirement[link]

Downing officially retired from Judas Priest on April 20, 2011. An official press release was issued by the band. The band decided to continue with Richie Faulkner as a replacement for Downing. Downing has since devoted time to his other passion in life, golf.

Homes[link]

Downing owns a home in Spain, but his main abode is Astbury Hall in Shropshire, England. It is in a very secluded area so he can (as stated in a 2007 interview) "blast his Marshalls."^[2] Sarah Lissimore, his former girlfriend, mounted a legal challenge for half of Downing's Shropshire estate. This was based on his assertion, "I'd bet you'd love to be lady of this Manor, wouldn't you?". The High Court rejected the notion that this assertion could give rise to proprietary estoppel in favour of Lissimore.^[3]

Recognition and honors[link]

Downing was ranked 23 on rock magazine Hit Parader's list of 100 greatest metal guitarists.

Gear[link]

Downing has many guitars, among them:

• 1964 Gibson Flying V Limited Edition with Gibson PAF pickups (one out of 200)
• 1970 Gibson Flying V with Maestro vibrato bar (number 233 out of 500)
• 1969 Fender Stratocaster (White) with left-handed neck
• 1970-71 Fender Stratocaster (Sunburst)
• Custom Hamer Vector, Vector KK and KK Mini V guitars
• ESP Custom V guitar
• Judas Priest Special V Handmade by Daniel R. Johnson (K. K.'s former touring guitar tech).
• KxK Custom Shop V K. K. Downing Model 2 guitar.
• Ovation Elite series Acoustic

Amplifiers and effects

• Digitech 1101 Preamp
• Marshall 9100 Power Amplifier.
• Marshall JMP-1 Preamp
• Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier
• Rocktron Piranha Preamp
• Marshall JMP Non master volume heads
• [MXR] Distortion +

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official Judas Priest website