Remember Robin Trower?

[Hogfullofblues]

Found this while poking around on Soundclick:

http://www.soundclick.com/pro/view/01/default.cfm?BandID=472393

Then it was off to you tube for a trip down memory lane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzbT0bqLxI&mode=related&search=

 

[marnold]

It is my personal opinion that the "Bridge of Sighs" album should be in everybody's collection. You will certainly get a lesson in the use of the Univibe.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

Robert's got a good uni-vibe sound from that little Chicken pedal.

 

[snarph]

Yep those were the days

 

[Cranium]

I love his tone, does anyone know what amps and pedals he uses (or maybe even pickups)?

 

[Jimi75]

Trower is a genius! Cool that you mention him here.
I saw him life here in Germany on his last tour and it was a great experience. His tone is awsome, very organic, his playing is thoughtful and it seems as if this guy knows which note to play when.

Regarding his set up - he plays foremost Fulltone pedals, I think you can see his set up on the official Fulltone site. The amp is a Marshall from the Plexi era.

By now his signature Fender Strat should be available. A great great guitar!

 

[Iago]

Cranium: Robin uses the fulltone OCD, Clyde Wah, Soul-Bender, and Fulldrive 2 (one of the first prototypes I think, he says its warmer sounding) and the Deja Vibe + Boss Pedal Tuner.

amps marshall jcm 800, 900.. for recording I read a really recent interview saying that he was using 2 fender blues jr. for a lot of tracks. He likes combining fender and marshall amps

back then he used only a booster an univibe (before the booster right?), old marshall`s im not sure the model.

pickups: fender custom 50`s on the neck and middle and tex mex on the bridge. Robin also uses some thick strings.. maybe .12 on the high

hope everything is right ehhehe

 

[Iago]

by the way, i bought the DVD not long, but watched it only once! its great though... i need to check internet forums a bit less hehehe

 

[marnold]

Here's a site with his setup, although I'm not sure from when: http://guitargeek.com/rigview/335/

Edit: the page says it's from 1980

 

[Spudman]

My introduction to Robin Trower: (this is cool)

I lived out in the country in eastern Montana and was just getting into my teen years which meant that I wanted to be social and see girls and stuff. Well, living way out in the country doesn't work for those types of desires so I got a 10 speed and would ride into town to socialize with my buds or see sweet little Cammy King, my first big crush. One night after being in town until way late and after dark, I was making my way home and passed a parked car that had the windows rolled up and loud music was coming from inside. I stopped and looked in and nobody was there, but the music was hypnotizing. I had never heard anything like it before. I sat there in the street at 1 am and listened to 2 complete tracks out of 4 from an 8 track tape(remember those). It was my first introduction to Robin Trower and the album was Bridge Of Sighs. I didn't find out until months later who it was. I just remember that I was instantly captivated and hooked for life.

 

[Big_Rob]

I always loved Robins tone. Another guy that I thought had a phenominal tone was Frank Marino

 

[oldguy]

If you want some good info, check this out...
Be sure to check the "ASK FRANK" section if you don't know Marino was one of the first to appreciate Hendrix, I believe he was about 15 yr. old and playing like a banshee. Nobody took SRV to task about it later, a few did challenge Trower over it, but at the time Frank was drug over red hot coals about it, accused of being a rip off, just bad timing I guess, but listen to him play before you judge.......

http://www.mahoganyrush.com/

 

[Spudman]

"Strange Universe" was my intro to Marino and Mahogany Rush. I thought of him as a mixture of Trower and Hendrix. I loved both of those guys so liking Frank was real easy to do. Plus, I really liked the trippy vibe of Strange Universe. I think it came out when Kiss-Alive came out and Frank easily won my attention over those makeup dudes.

 

[Mark]

This is a true and factual story about Mr. Trower and I lived this nightmare. Back in the 70's on his first solo tour of the US. The band I worked for Chango, we were also touring in support of our first album titled "Chango". A little background our sound was and I quote from Billboard magazine "These guys are a Santana carbon copy, but they really pull it off" our album was in Bilboards 4 top picks to make it along with Bad Company's first effort, Manhattan Transfer and for the life of me I cannnot remember the fourth group in their picks that month. So when we heard we were opening for five dates with Trower and Golden Earring we were stoked.

The first date was at Atlanta Municipal auditorium we pulled in with our 9 tons of equipment (6 piece band) we setup did our sound check with the other acts watching and the guys kicked major arse. After all we were a bunch of starving dudes on the verge of possibly making it so we all band and road crew gave 110% whenever we played.

Well after the sound check we get called into a meeting with the promoter, guys we dont want you to play but we will still pay you. It seemed Trower and company were afraid of an upstage and our act was too energetic. One thing you dont do is tell 9 crazy mofo's from NY you cant play but we will pay you for all five dates! It got kind of ugly words back and forth our light/sound man Spike was patroling the stage as things were being "discussed" BTW Spike was a real nice mellow HUGE individual and a member of the boys in Red and White HAMC and he was asked by one Trowers roadies whats that axe handle for. Spike informed him "Chango doesnt play NOBODY plays.

Well it never came to fisticuffs and our Attorney (well connected and Stevie Wonder's attorney at the time) called in the Musicians union who came in a laid down the law no British act can come in and throw and American act off the stage if we didnt play the show will be shut down.

So we got to open Trower purposely set up towards the front of the stage making it a bear for us and Golden Earring to setup. Also they were very ****** in their treatment on Golden Earring as well. Basically Trower and company were a bunch of punks. Our set was cut from 35 to 20 minutes but we still kicked the cowboy crap out of them. We had the audience on their feet most of the set with people screaming for encores even when Trower came on AFTER Golden Earring the crowd still was calling out for Chango!

This whole fiasco was written up in Billboard magazine under the heading of Change tango with Robin Trower. After Atlanta Trower contacted all the promoters in the other four cities and told them they would cancel if we opened for them. So while Trower is an OK player as a person the guy is a.....in the interest of good taste and respect for this forum I will let you insert the vile and repugnant expletives I have on the tip of my tougue right now. Suffice it to say if I came across Mr. Trower drowning in a pool Id throw him the heaviest rock I could find. Man my blood pressure goes up just thinking about this. Needless to say I have never purchased any of his bilge.

 

[oldguy]

WOW!
Well..thanks for sharing that, Mark. I guess it's common knowledge that there are some super-egos out there in the music world. A first hand account of such a fiasco is not that surprising.
Hopefully there aren't too many stories like that about Marino...I always liked him and thought he was quite a bit better than Trower, as far as his ability and music overall. Marino himself has an interesting story on the link I posted regarding Ted Nugent and a "duel" they once had, but Frank seems to tell it with a bit of humor.

 

[Mark]

I really like both Frank and Ted but I know Ted likes to pull peoples chain if ya know what I mean. Frank has always been one of my favorites since I first heard him. But the thing with Trower and this covers all those ego situations and it was the one of the first thoughts in my head when all this was happening and that is. What about the fans! My god these people came and paid to see a show! What is so hard to swallow for any artist to be in a multiple act concert and have the fans see two or three great acts? Is your ego so artificially inflated the you need 20,000 people bored to tears so you can go out on stage and "feel like you knocked em dead". Thank god all artists arent like that but by his own actions Trower showed who he was that day. The saddest part was those five dates really hurt our chances as they were in major markets where we needed to be heard. Ahh but such is life and we go on like I said in my first introduction post I found being a Plumbing contractor to be much more profitable than the music biz. In fact if you mention my name the next time you go into a rest room you'll get a seat front row center! Now thats clout LMAO!!!!

 

[Spudman]

Cool story Mark. Politics and business...that's why I didn't try harder to "go for it" when I had the opportunity. I could see the writing on the wall.

Do you really think it was Robin that was pushing for you to be dropped or tour management? I've found the management in most cases to have the real ego problems. Most artists I've worked with just want to play no matter what.