By: Dean Mullen

Dean Mullen — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:12:38 +0000

Every olde pic I see pre-Long Misty Days never shows the pedals well enuff for ID. In an olde Circus interview I have he just refers to ‘boosting the front of the amp’ and of course the Univibe itself. He also mentions that he ‘messed about with the Fuzz Face’ only on the first album. One pic I have from the Long Misty Days tour shows clearly a Jen/Vox/Thomas Organ type wah. The other two pedals accompanying the mystical Univibe on the board look like project-boxed items (but so was his ‘In City Dreams-Victims Of The Fury’ board). By the wah sound on ‘Bridge Of Sighs/For Earth Below/Long Misty Days’ it’s obviously an Italian style wah. Period. Doesn’t have that aqua-flap thing the McCoys have, but still is a great reference for THE SOUND. Remember that the same company was churning these out en masse for a lot of different companies on demand. I remember having an argument years ago with a guy about Jimi using a Cry Baby, and those ridiculous ads in the 70s didn’t help, he showed me the Jimi pic shot from behind with the Jen Cry Baby with the logo at the toe of the rocker pedal, I rolled my eyes, then the next time I saw him I showed him the same looking pedal, pointing out it was the same as the nonworking Italian Vox 846 I owned at the time). So, from that pic I see a box before the wah (probably a boost by his later arrangement), another after the wah (I’ll guess whatever distortion he was using at the time), then the Univibe. Doesn’t mean that’s the order as wired, but I see at least four boxes on the floor during that period, and all the live recording up till ‘In City Dreams’ reveal nothing but wah, univibe and distortion/overdrive. I emailed RT years ago right after the site went up about the early pedals and got a reply from Sutton to refer to the 1980 Guitar Player interview, which only refers to the ICD-VOTF board. Thanks a lot. Point in fact, given the live recordings from the day including the BBC and Grey Whistle tracks, his ‘Bridge Of Sighs/For Earth Below’ sound Trower openly rewards to Fishers engineering. The sound on those two albums are indescribable. Wow.

By: garbeaj

garbeaj — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:26:15 +0000

There is no mention of the actual effects that Robin used on Bridge of Sighs. What type of wah, fuzz, amp model (probably Marshall, but what model?) The Shin-Ei Univibe goes without saying…I think I hear an auto-wah/envelope following filter, and I think it may be the Mu-Tron III as Stevie Wonder was using it on the clavinet at the same general time frame as Bridge of Sighs…but at any rate, there is no information on Robin's Brisge of Sighs set-up that we don't already know…

Comments on: Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs Gear

By: Dean Mullen

By: garbeaj