Here's a pretty fresh video that has Robin talking about his gear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj3nwpCfZOA

I like his comment about hardly ever using the bridge pickup.

He has pretty good taste in gear!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I saw that...it was interesting. I love that guitar and rig he's playing on. Interesting he had a hot pup in the bridge, but does not use it.

RK

Great Stuff. Robin is my favorite Strat player. Thanks for posting.

His "formula" is so much like mine, it's scary. 'Cept he uses a lot more pedals than I do.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Trower's tone has really gone downhill over the years. Back in the 70's on albums like For Earth Below and Bridge of Sighs he had a strong, clear, aggressive tone. Now it's too bassy with few highs to speak of. His tone on his live DVD was pretty good though and it's a treat to watch. But on albums like Living Out Of Time the songwriting is quite good but his guitar sound is poor.

His last couple albums have sounded fine to me.

The one with Jack Bruce is especially nice.

Maybe I'll have to A/B these newer things with a classic album to really give it a fair test to see how his "tones" are holding up.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Listen to an album like Bridge of Sighs or For Earth Below. Then listen to his newer stuff. His tone has changed a lot. I personally don't like it as I prefer his older more in your face tone.

I agree his tone has changed ..I also prefer the bridge of sighs tone ..But with that said that is the holy grail of tone for me..I wouldn't say that his tone is bad now just different then vintage Trower.
Robin Trowers is my favorite guitar player even above Hendrix and Clapton..I know people say that he stole all of Hendrix's licks i don't care..That moody tone and playing is what i dig..I have been playing Bridges sighs/ day of evil/To rolling stone for 20 years now and never tire of playing them or listening to them..
By the way thanks for posting the video that was truly worth watching..

Robin has his own style of playing. I don't hear a Hendrix clone.

Well since he plays tuned down a step or a step and a half and uses the neck pickup mainly that is going to have an adverse effect on his tone. I only know this as I had a vhs tape of his years ago and he explained his rig. So if he played is standard tuning years ago it would have a drastic change on how he sounds today. To be honest I am not that big a fan though I think he is a superb player to have an exact answer.

Yes the link that was posted above had Robin saying in the video that he doesn't use the bridge pickup much. That would explain why I hear his records as too bassy sounding.