which set for getting the Brian Robertson sound?

[Porto Leone]

since many years I love his lead sound (with Thin Lizzy -1975/1978- was great!). If i'm not wrong, he was using a Gibson Custom LP, which had open coil 'buckers.
which pickup combo on an LP would give me the best approach?

 

[Uk Ant]

Re: which set for getting the Brian Robertson sound?

Bre knuckle Pickups make something called an Emerald which is supposed to emulate that sound. Not cheap mind.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: which set for getting the Brian Robertson sound?

Robbo is one of my very favourite guitarists of all time....

For the first 3 Lizzy albums he played on (Nightlife, Fighting, Jailbreak) his main guitar was a stock Les Paul Deluxe with the mini humbuckers. Sometime around the time of Johnny The Fox he had that guitar converted to full-size buckers to accommodate a pair of original Gibson PAFs he acquired while on tour in America. This was also the time he started using the black LP Custom, which seemed to become his main guitar until after he left Lizzy and reverted to the PAF-loaded Deluxe.

As I understand it, the Bare Knuckle Emerald is intended to recreate the sound of his LP Custom pickups. I've no idea what pickups were in that Custom - I would have guessed PAFs or early patent numbered HBs. Tim Mills at BK must think they were hotter than original PAFs, as the Emerald has a DC Resistance of 10 or 11K if I recall correctly. (It may be though, that he is just going for the "Emerald tone", rather than creating a replica of any particular pickup). As a Robbo fan, I really should try some Emeralds, though I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Much of Robbo's best work with Lizzy was recorded either with mini-humbuckers or PAFs. I think his tone lives a lot in his technique and in his use of the wah and delay (not forgetting the Les Paul + Marshall), but I can get satisfactorily close to it with most of the good vintage-style humbuckers I've tried...

The Pearly Gates set is hard to beat for an aggressive authentic PAF tone.

 

[Porto Leone]

Re: which set for getting the Brian Robertson sound?

thanks guys!
by the way, i think Robertson turned to full sized humbuckers, since Scott Gorham (who also used a mini 'buckers equipped LP) joined the band.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: which set for getting the Brian Robertson sound?

Scott Gorham & Brian Robertson both joined the band at the same time (in 1974) and were given new Les Paul Deluxes on joining. If I recall correctly, their previous guitars were an SG (Robbo) and a cheap LP copy (Scott). They both played the Deluxes pretty much exclusively up as far as Jailbreak in '76. Robbo switched to full-size humbuckers sometime in '76 or '77 (it's difficult to pin it down, since he was in and out of the band like a yoyo from late '76...). I never saw Gorham with anything other than his cherry burst Deluxe up until the time of Black Rose in '79 when he acquired an older LP with full size buckers.

 

[Mats A]

Re: which set for getting the Brian Robertson sound?

Old thread but Robbo was given the 1973 Deluxe and Scott his Deluxe probably a 1973-74 Deluxe when joining Thin Lizzy in 1974. Robbo played the Deluxe with the mini humbuckers up until he bought the black Custom while on tour in Texas USA in the fall of 1977. The Custom said to be a 1960 is more likely a 1968-69 Les Paul Custom since most 1957-1960 Customs had three pickups. Sometime late 1975 or early 1976 he had Grover tuners put on the Deluxe. After he started playing the Custom he had full size (1959 PAF's he got when he bought the Custom at a vintage guitar shop According to Robbo) humbuckers put on the Deluxe. Robbo's Live And Dangerous set up was guitar in to Colorsound Wah Wah in to two WEM Copicat echoes wich he used to boost the signal in to his Marshall Super Leads. He had three of wich one was used as a monitor of Scott's guitar. He had the controls on the amp around 5 volume around 6. He didn't use the Wah Wah as kind of a parametric EQ to get his tone as many seem to believe. He used it as a regular Wah Wah. He later sold the Custom to Phil Campbell of Motörhead and i believe it later got stolen. His Deluxe has also been stolen some years ago and he now plays a Les Paul Classic. Nowdays he uses a Vox Wah Wah and a 100W Marshall JCM 900 Dual Reverb.