Robin Trower

[Omn]

Liked him in Procol Harum.
Like him now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0d1HilfLxA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkxEaDDTwho" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R5Yh4HY9k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Zeppo]

Anyone know his setup on Bridge of Sighs?

[Omn]

He uses Fulltone. I am not sure of the exact models on this video, but he has been using Deja Vibe 2 and OCD fed in to two Plexi half stacks. For wah; Clyde McCoy Deluxe.
Fulltone are now producing a Robin Trower Overdrive. Probably get you in to the same ballpark.
So; a nice overdrive - some Univibe (clone, or the real deal) and Plexi(s) will get you there.

[yngwie308]

Play your middle pickup!!
yngwie308

[fivecoyote]

I recently did some research on Trower's Bridge of Sighs gear, posted on my blog here:

http://www.woodytone.com/?p=475" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[outlier]

Definitely a middle pickup. I think it was in a 1978 Guitar Player interview in which he said that he uses his middle pickup something like 90% of the time.

One of my Strats has Seymour Duncan SSL-5Ls in it and that middle pickup is pretty good at capturing that tone to my ear. The SSL-5 seems to be something of an overlooked pickup for some reason. Not sure why. I've gotten a lot of question from players in the past: "What are those pickups?" (they were being complimentary, not as in "WHAT are THOSE pickups?!")

I use the left-hand stagger out of habit and not some necessity. I had to buy new pickups for my first decent guitar way back when I was a kid and someone better than myself explained to me that "if you want the Hendrix sound, you should use a left-hand stagger." That seemed like a great idea at the time and I've used these pickups since, removing them from one Strat and putting them in another.

Getting back to Trower, in the same GP interview, he declined to detail his pedalboard with an editor's note saying something about how he'd like to keep details confidential. IIRC, since that time, I'd read that there were custom made buffer preamps inserted in between each effect or something to that effect. Maybe someone can provide more info?

I never bought into that "Robin Trower = Hendrix Clone" stuff. To me, Trower was a far more melancholy, introspective and restrained player than Hendrix. I always saw them as rather different.

[Tone Slinger]

I alway's seem to find at least ONE cool album everytime me and my family vacation in Boone N.C (appalachian mountains) For the last two times, it's been Robin Trower records.

'In City Dreams' was the last one, this time I found 'Caravan To Midnight'.

That album has, possibly my favorite Trower tone and playing of all. In particular the track "I'm Out To Get You". That TONE just kills me.

Sounded like a great sounding strat through a Marshall that was being pushed a bit, along with a Uni-Vibe and reverb.

One of the most emotive solo's that I've heard in awhile, and Dewar's lyric's about time travel in it fit the mood very well.


I'm glad I picked it up for $4.99.

[motorhead_6]

I would have to say that in my opinion Trower has about the best vibrato of any guitarist I have ever heard. It is often but not always very wide AND fast. And strong.

[yngwie308]

When I saw Trower in London back in the early seventies, he was so LOUD and when his pedal board quit all of a sudden he walked off stage, until they sorted the problem, very unusual I thought.
When I saw BBA, Bogert's bass amp quit and Jeff played unaccompanied scat blues playing for like 10 minutes ir so, so of the best playing I have ever heard from him, being like less than 10 feet away...sorry Chief, wish you had been there!
"And here’s another: “All of the pedals I use are from Mike Fuller, Fulltone. The wah, Deja-Vibe, the OCD pedal – those are the three main things I’m using at the moment, but I also mess around with a thing called a Fat Boost, which is really good. I don’t tend to stand still for very long. I tend to try stuff all the time. I’m always trying different pedals and setups, you know.”
Steve Steven's is currently using the Fat Boost in his NASA approved stage rig..

yngwie308

[Dig]

Big fan of Trower's playing and tone here. fwiw - I use an Option 5 Leslie sim that sounds fantastic in place of the Vibe pedal.

[Tone Slinger]

Trower never plays 'cliched' lick's. I know this sounds sort of 'cliched' in and of itself, but he never really does.

Gilmour plays LOTS of cliched licks, to contrast in an example (like 'Another Brick In The Wall' and 'Comfortably Numb' as examples) but Trower (like 'About To Begin' or I'm Out To Get You') never really does. Each lick has an individual face (facial expression that is) that Trower assigns it as it is being conjured by his 'connection'.

[Twistingcrow]

I have not known Trower for a long time, possibly two or three years now. But I've got most of his albums now. His playing is pretty impressive and powerful to me. I love the way he has evolved into the player he is today.
One of the best tones I have heard from him (and from any other player I must say) is from the Caravans To Midnight/Victims of the Fury album. I particularly love the songs "The Ring" and "Jack&Gill". They're so powerful. Do you guys have any idea of what amps and pedals he used on that album, or even better on those two songs? Marshall obviously, but which one...?
Thanks!

[Tone Slinger]

Trower used old late '60's/early '70's Marshall Super leads with el-34's. He used either 25 or 30 watt celestions. Around '77 or so Trower took to using vintage Fender Stratocaster's (I think he prefered a '56 or '57 sunburst strat), instead of the new ones. He said they sounded MUCH better than the new one's. I got this info from a '78 Guitar interview.
On the 'CARAVAN TO MIDNIGHT' album (1978) Trower used a Marshall on just about all of it, except 'I'm Out TO Get You' , where it sounds like a strat into a Music Man Hd-130 or possibly a Silver Faced Fender ? Very HUGE, BIG and CLEAN sustaining tone, with much more chime sparkle and headroom than a Marshall possesses. Reverb and a uni-vibe were used on that particular track as well.

I later read an interview where Trower told of having his vintage strats stolen. He said from then on he started using the newer ones again, since he didnt like having something that was not 'replaceable'.

[chrisom]

March 26, 1999 Roadhouse Rubys South , Olathe, Kansas

I saw the Robin Trower show last night (March 26, 1999) at Roadhouse Ruby's in Olathe, Kansas (Kansas City); I was lucky enough to not be able to find a seat in the club, so I walked up to check out the opening band's gear after they finished their set; This left me at the front of an empty what would normally be a dance floor, where I stayed as people filtered back in 'till the end of Robin's entire show. I always wanted a chance to be in the front row, center stage, and what better show to be there at- I was so close I could have read the serial # of his Strat's headstock If I'd wanted to !

I saw an outdoor Trower show back in the late '80's, and I've read where people say now he looked old & frail; I thought he looked as though he's aging gracefully, and had a distinguished British gentlemanly sort of look in the pinstriped suit, kind of reminding me of Peter O'Toole in the "King Ralph" movie except playing killer blues/rock licks!

His playing was as good as I remembered it being when I saw him before, the crowd was very happy to see him, and the band & crowd played off from each other's energy; I was happy to hear them play "Day of the Eagle," which I heard played a couple days before on the radio in anticipation of the show;

The setlist was as follows:
1.) Too Rolling Stoned
2.) Rise Up Like the Sun
3.) No Time
4.) I Want You To Love Me
5.) Prisoner Of Love
6.) Secret Place
7.) Blue For Soul
8.) Day Of The Eagle
9.) Bridge of Sighs
10.) 20th Century Blues
11.) Sweet Little Angel
12.) Little Bit Of Sympathy
Encores;
13.) Crossroads
14.) Extermination Blues

Robin's playing is still in great form, and he played with reckless abandon on the faster tunes in the set, and the slower-paced "Secret Place" had the crowd hanging on every note he played.

I had never heard Robin sing until now, and his vocals were better than adequate on the songs he sang; Livingstone Brown did a great job covering the vocals on the old material, but I could barely hear him due to the guitar being so loud; Being a guitar player, this didn't bother me at all.

Robin played his sea-foam green & vintage white Fender Stratocasters all evening, and except for one tune where the neck and middle pickups were selected, and about (5) 20-second bridge pickup selections, his guitar was on the neck pickup throughout the entire show, with Robin using the Wah pedal to squeeze out any brighter frequencies should he require them in a song.

It did my heart good to see Robin Trower still in demand and able to stir the crowd into grateful appreciation of his music after all these years, and for him to be able to reinvent himself as an artist, without the usual commericial selling-out that we're seeing today.

[Tone Slinger]

I've never seen him LIVE. He is playing here tomorrow, I am gonna try to get there (the Charlotte Fillmore). I dont get off work till 7:00 though. Hell he is 65 or 66, I'm glad he can still jam out real hard.