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25guitarbuyerAugust 2008

GBINTERVIEW ROBIN tROWER

TROWERPOWER

BLUES ROCK LEGEND ROBIN TROWER TELLS MATT FROST ABOUT HIS MOST RECENT ALBUM AND THE SECRETS BEHIND HIS LUSH TONE

Blues-rock virtuoso Robin Trower has been entertaining

concert crowds for well over 40 years now. During the early ’60s, he learned the ropes with the Paramounts, the high school rhythm and blues troupe he founded with Gary Brooker, before teaming up with Brooker once again in the singer’s new band, prog rock pioneers Procol Harum, who Robin rocked with until 1972.

By that time the sheer wealth of material he was writing necessitated a break away to start his own band. since hitting the big time with the monumental Bridge Of sighs LP in 1974, trower has hardly allowed himself time to snatch a breath, banging out album upon album of his unique brand of hard-edged, effects-heavy blues rock. this year has been a busy one for trower, with the ‘First Farewell tour’ seeing the guitarist take in around 80 gigs in the us and Europe across just five months.

SEVEN MOONSthe early part of the year also saw the release of the much-anticipated seven Moons album, where trower is reunited with former Cream bassist and front man Jack Bruce, who he played with in the early ’80s on the albums BLt and truce. seven Moons, which also sees regular Bruce collaborator gary Husband on the drum stool to complete the trio,

is a thick slice of early ’70s-style psychedelic-tinged blues rock and has led some reviewers to state that it’s the next best thing to Bruce, Clapton and Baker knocking out a new Cream album, which is perhaps a little unfair to trower. In actual fact, the album, which was recorded at Intimate studios in the City of London, only came about after a decision was taken to reissue the records that Bruce and trower had made together way back when.

“We’d been talking about doing a remix and re-mastering of the stuff we’d done together earlier on in the ’80s,” says trower, “and Jack had the idea of writing some new material for that package. We got together and suddenly we had four or five songs so we said, ‘Well, we’ve got half an album here so let’s go on and do the rest!’”

THE TONE THINGAside from the classic songwriting and fluid playing that resound right the way across seven Moons, one of the main things that stands out is the richness of Robin trower’s guitar tone. And while trower’s trusty signature Fender stratocaster and Fulltone Fulldrive overdrive pedal feature once again on the new album, in terms of amps, seven Moons is the first time in a long time that trower has strayed away from Fender and Marshall.

Enter stage left, Dennis Cornell.“For a start, Fender sent me to

[Cornell] when I had something wrong with a Fender amp because he’s like their local troubleshooter,” trower explains, “and then from there, I tried out a 50-watt amp that he had. I quite liked it but I said it wasn’t beefy enough for me for playing live. But then before I went in the studio with Jack, I thought, ‘Well, I need to play quite quietly otherwise all we’re going to get on the microphones is guitar’, so I called Dennis and he said, ‘I’ve got just the amp for you!’. He got me to try it and it was just fantastic – a really, really lovely tone!”

the amp in question was a Cornell Plexi 18/20, a 20-watt combo with a single 12-inch speaker, and trower went on to link two of them together during the recording of seven Moons. As far as Robin’s live rig goes for ‘the First Farewell tour’, while he was using Marshall JCM800s in the states, the uK leg of the tour saw the debut of a new 100-watt custom-built Cornell amplifier. When we caught up with him, trower couldn’t have been happier with the way the road-testing was going.

“It’s been really great,” he says. “I’ve had it since the very first uK date and I haven’t used anything else so it’s obviously dead right – I haven’t even changed the settings since that very first night!”

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24 guitarbuyer August 2008

SIGGIN’ THE BLUESAs far as trower’s guitar goes, these days he never uses anything other than one of his signature Fender strats and on ‘the First Farewell tour’, he’s been using the first signature prototype that Fender built for him.

“the first one they made me was about four or five years ago now and the one I’m actually playing at the moment is that prototype,” he says. “I have got others but I just tend to go between two or three – you just pick one up and say, ‘Ooh, that’s got something the other one hasn’t got!’, because they all sound a little different.”

When it came to choosing the spec of his signature model, trower gave the whole process quite a bit of thought to ensure he got the rich tone he’s renowned for. “the main thing is I have a ’70s-style headstock, which is the larger headstock,” he explains. “When I

the custom Cornell amp came about as a result of, firstly, Robin trower being so blown away by the sounds he was getting from his Plexi 18/20 in the studio and, secondly, by the fact he felt it was time for a change after loyally sticking with various Fender/Marshall combinations over the years.

After trower tested a 50-watt prototype, which he felt “wasn’t quite man enough for the job”, Dennis Cornell let him try out the 100-watt version, which more than ticked all of Robin’s boxes, although he’s the first to admit that he never turns it all the way up to 11.

“I don’t run it on the full 100 watts,” he says. “I run it on the second power setting, which is around 65 or 70 watts. It’s nice to have that little bit left to go on an amp because if you start running it flat out it just starts to get very spongy and you can’t get that percussion to the sound.” During the uK leg, Robin is also running the Cornell Plexi 18/20 through a Marshall 4x12 cab as a back up.

started thinking about it, I thought, ‘Well, a bit more wood might be more resonant’ so that’s a good thing. then I chose three different types of pickup. At the neck I’ve got a ’50s vintage reissue, in the middle is a ’60s vintage reissue, and on the bridge is what they call a texas special, which is a higher gain pickup. Otherwise it’s pretty much a vintage reissue, with the old-fashioned cast saddles and all that kind of thing.” the Robin trower signature stratocaster is currently part of the Fender Custom shop’s Custom Artist range.

A FULLER TONEsince he first came to prominence in the late-’60s through his work with Procol Harum, Robin trower has always been known for messing around with various stompboxes and effects units, not least for his unrivalled mastery of univibe-style rotary speaker effects. However,

GBFEATURE ROBIN tROWER

26 guitarbuyer August 2008

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28 guitarbuyer August 2008

■ In 1969, Univox released it’s Univibe pedal, designed to mimic the shimmering sounds produced by plugging a guitar into a Leslie rotating speaker cabinet.

Alongside Jimi Hendrix, who debuted the Univibe at Woodstock and went on to use the effect on his classic recording of ‘Machine Gun’ from the Band Of Gypsies live album, Robin Trower is widely regarded as one of the Univibe’s foremost exponents, as epitomised on 1974’s Bridge Of Sighs LP. Robin fondly recalls the moment he first fell head over heels with the effect.

“I was in New York and I went into a guitar shop called Manny’s,” he remembers. “I was trying out various pedals and that one just immediately said, ‘Hello!’. I’m pretty sure Hendrix had already used it, so that was probably the attraction when I heard it – ‘Ooh, that’s that sound on such and such!’. I started to use it with Procol Harum on an album called Broken Barricades and it’s been one of the sounds I’ve always used ever since. It definitely puts the guitar in another place, a more atmospheric kind of thing – it’s great!”

Robin now plugs into a Fulltone Dejavibe 2 when he wants to wow his audiences with this particular trademark sound.

ROBIN tROWER AND tHE uNIVIBE

SWeet FX local job centre to search out an alternative career. “Albert King is my favourite blues player,” he says. “I think he’s just out of this world. When I saw him, I wanted to give up playing the guitar – he was just so good! I thought, ‘I’m never going to come near that!’ but I managed to keep going somehow and moved on, but at the time it was just like, ‘Oh forget about it!’”

FUTURE BLUESDespite having such a busy 2008 thus far, Robin still has quite a few plans for the next 12 months, including the mouth-watering prospect of potentially teaming up with Jack Bruce for a few gigs and a follow-up album. But at the moment, Robin’s looking forward to putting his feet up for a while.

“Well, Jack and I are talking about doing some gigs but there’s nothing definite at the moment,” he says. “I am working on ideas and lyrics for another album, which Jack and I have talked about doing, but we’ll have to see. there’s also a possibility of some work in the states at the beginning of next year, but after all the touring I’ve just done, I’m just looking forward to having a break for a bit!” GB

■ Trower’s pedals: (l to r) a Boss tuner and Fulltone’s Robin Trower Overdrive prototype, Fat Boost, Clyde Deluxe wah and Dejavibe 2

GBFEATURE ROBIN tROWER

on seven Moons, Robin is relatively restrained, simply plugging his signature strat into a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 pedal on the way to the two Cornell Plexi 18/20s. In trower’s live rig, aside from a Boss tuner, it’s Fulltone right across the board, with a Dejavibe 2, a Clyde Deluxe wah and a Fat Boost sharing floor space with a brand new Fulltone signature overdrive pedal.

“It must’ve been 15 or 16 years ago that Mike Fuller sent me the very first overdrive pedal and said, ‘Would you try it?’”, says trower. “I’ve always liked what he does – obviously his ears and my ears like the same sort of thing. I like a lot of the overdrives he’s done – that old Fulldrive 2 is about 15 years old and I still use that occasionally, like I did on seven Moons, but this new one’s really, really good!”

the new prototype of the RtO, or Robin trower Overdrive, that he is currently using is the third that Mike Fuller has sent through, and given how happy he is with the tone he’s achieving with it, trower believes it won’t be long before it goes into full production.

AXE KINGSRobin trower has often been likened to Jimi Hendrix in terms of his playing style, and while Robin has always declared Hendrix as a major influence, there are other guitar legends that have been just as important to him, none more so than the figures that first inspired him to pick up the six-string when he was in his early teens.

“I think probably more than anything it was scotty Moore, who played with Elvis, and he’s still one of my favourite guitar players today. I just think he’s one of the most musical rock ’n’ roll guitar players,” trower tells us. “there were other guitar players like Cliff gallup, who played with gene Vincent, and the Everly Brothers’ guitar player – all wonderful players – and then that was it as far as my heroes go until I heard B.B. King, which was in the very early ’60s. I think ‘three O’Clock Blues’ was the first one that I heard and, at first, I couldn’t really figure out how he was doing it – it sounded more like a slide guitar rather than someone bending strings!”

trower will never forget the time he managed to catch his favourite blues guitarist of all time, even if it did very nearly lead him down to the