Robin Trower sound from stock strat...

[ArizonaBlues]

I've read all I could find about Robin Trower's sound and he seems to play stock strats and does very little to mod or replace his pickups. It's basically a stock guitar setup for him.

I've got a stock American Fender and I've been playing through the neck pickup but I can't get his sound enough to my liking. A few guys have told me to get some hotter pickups from Dimarzio, etc., but the last thing I want to is change the single coil sound and get a humbucker thing going. I've already got a Gibson SG if I have a need for a fat humbucker tone.

I know about RT's pedal setup. If anybody has heard Another Day's Blues CD, that's the tone I am looking to get.

Do I need more gain?

Anybody have some ideas.

[Harmonics1978]

Well I have an articule actually thats about a page big showing the diagram of how he sets up his amps, effects loops/chain and what type of amps and guitars he uses. He liked to use the middle pickup or so it says on some of his sounds although he used almost always fulltone fulldrive and fulltone ocd for his chain to be complete and a clyde wah wah pedal.

[ArizonaBlues]

I've heard different things about his setup as he is always changing his amp/effect stuff, but his strat remain in place. I've also found that he prefers to use the neck pickup for leads and on some rhythm parts (Lady Love) he uses the middle pickup. I don't think he uses the bridge pickup at all which is interesting because it is the one pickup that is OVERLY bright on my strat.

Here is one versioin of his setup:
guitargeek | robin trower of robin trower

RT changes alot but he seems to get a rich tone from his strat. It's fat but not humbucker fat, if that makes sense.

[Harmonics1978]

Wow that must be a much more current setup! Or atleast I never noticed him using stuff like phasers, but either way if ya like I can scan the articule and put it up on photobucket, its a pretty good articule and shows a very similiar picture as to what he did for sound and such although its a much more simpliar setup, probally remincent of the bridge of sighs albums which if I recall was his first?

[ArizonaBlues]

Thanks for the offer for the article scan but no need to go to all that trouble. I've seen a Robin Trower DVD where RT, himself, talks about his equipment and on THAT DVD he is using a Fender amp. The only thing that I can see that is consistent for him is the Strat, very HIGH action, and very thick strings, 12s. So, it may just be the way he plays that gives him his tone.

[Mister Zero]

If you want the sound from the 1st couple Trower solo discs, you're gonna need a Univibe.