Charlie Burchill

Simple Minds guitarist Charlie Burchill has been the only constant alongside vocalist Jim Kerr since the band’s inception in 1977. Early experimental albums saw Burchill play violin, keys and sax, but by 1981’s breakthrough single Love Song Burchill had found himself a classy white Gibson 335. Soon afterwards, he graduated to his trademark 1962 Gretsch White Falcon. Even now on the latest album, Big Music, the Falcon is to the fore, as is his trademark echo-soaked sound. ‘I love effects,’ Burchill confirms. ‘I’m old school. I love Space Echoes, the Roland CE-1 chorus and the Echoplex.

"It's called the 'Charlie Burchill'," he beamed, "It is perfect for me. I was a Strat fan for years and I even bought a 1964 Strat today, but Ibanez make their guitars a million times better. They're really innovative and technically they are great guitars, like the intonation is perfect. This company has got a lot of clout, and a lot of freedom to do things. They can get out in the market and they can do it really cheap too. They're always much cheaper than Gibsons and Fenders."

"Here's a shot of Charlie Burchill's (of Simple Minds) studio rig... recording currently in the UK. Note the plethora of Fulltone pedals... an OCD, Supa-Trem, Tube Tape Echo, DéjaVibe2 and a Clyde wah."

Charlie Burchill is pictured playing a Gibson Les Paul Traditional with a Bigsby bridge, as noted on his Wikipedia page.

"Here's a shot of Charlie Burchill's (of Simple Minds) studio rig... recording currently in the UK. Note the plethora of Fulltone pedals... an OCD, Supa-Trem, Tube Tape Echo, DéjaVibe2 and a Clyde wah."

According to Fulltone's website, Burchill used the Electro-Harmonix Green Big Muff Pi.

Charlie Burchill's (Simple Minds) pedalboard, built by Jake at The Gig Rig, containing a Boss Vibrato, seen in the background behind the Alter Ego.

"Here's a shot of Charlie Burchill's (of Simple Minds) studio rig... recording currently in the UK. Note the plethora of Fulltone pedals... an OCD, Supa-Trem, Tube Tape Echo, DéjaVibe2 and a Clyde wah."

"Here's a shot of Charlie Burchill's (of Simple Minds) studio rig... recording currently in the UK. Note the plethora of Fulltone pedals... an OCD, Supa-Trem, Tube Tape Echo, DéjaVibe2 and a Clyde wah."

"Here's a shot of Charlie Burchill's (of Simple Minds) studio rig... recording currently in the UK. Note the plethora of Fulltone pedals... an OCD, Supa-Trem, Tube Tape Echo, DéjaVibe2 and a Clyde wah."

According to Fulltone's website, Burchill's studio rig contained TC Electronic G-System.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the pedals that can be seen is the Strymon TimeLine.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the pedals that can be seen is the Analogman Bi-Chorus.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the pedals that can be seen is the Origin Cali76 Compact Deluxe.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the pedals that can be seen is the Kingsley Page Tube Booster.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the pedals that can be seen is the Boss CE-2 chorus pedal.

In this interview Charlie Burchill speaks about some of his guitars. The Gibson Hummingbird was mailnly used through out the Acoustic Simple Minds alubum from 2016 and on tours.

"Because Burchill is known for his atmospheric tones, it is no surprise that he has experimented with and used several different gear setups throughout his career. The early ‘80s sound came through a Roland 501 Echo unit into a Roland JC120 amp. During the second half of the ‘80s, Burchill switched to Marshall JCM 900 amps, and used a variety of effects including and Eventide Harmonizer, TC Electronic 2290 delay, Roland GP-8, Yamaha Rev 7, and a Kurzweil 250 rack-mount sound module. Burchill used a ‘62 Gretsch White Falcon and a Fender Strat in the studio, and a custom thin-line Telecaster (notably on “Don’t You, Forget About Me”)."

According to Fulltone's pedalboard photo, Burchill's rig contained the white Boss TU-12H tuner.

According to Fulltone's website, Burchill's studio rig contained the Morley ABY footswitch.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the pedals that can be seen is the TC Electronic Alter Ego X4.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the pedals that can be seen is the TC Electronic Polytune.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the pedals that can be seen is the Fulltone OF-2 Octafuzz pedal.

In this photo of his new "GigRig" pedalboard, one of the things that can be seen is the Gig Rig G2 switching system.

In this Sound on Sound article on the recording of the Simple Minds album "Graffiti Soul", their producer Jez Coad describes the gear used to capture Charlie Burchill's guitar sound:

"Three Matchless amplifiers were used for Charlie Burchill's guitars, each miked with a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser 421. The central amp projected the "main raw guitar sound”, while the two on either side were operating in stereo and projecting whatever effects Charlie was stomping on at the time.

"You got the best of all worlds,” explains Jez Coad, "You got all the power in the middle, and then you got all the lovely, diffused, echoey chorus and any other kind of modulation coming out of the two side ones, so we could balance the amount of power to the amount of sort of psychedelia going on!” A pair of Neumann KM84s was also placed 15 feet away from the amps to capture room ambience."

In this Sound on Sound article on the recording of the Simple Minds album "Graffiti Soul", their producer Jez Coad describes the gear used to capture Charlie Burchill's guitar sound:

"Three Matchless amplifiers were used for Charlie Burchill's guitars, each miked with a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser 421. The central amp projected the "main raw guitar sound”, while the two on either side were operating in stereo and projecting whatever effects Charlie was stomping on at the time.

"You got the best of all worlds,” explains Jez Coad, "You got all the power in the middle, and then you got all the lovely, diffused, echoey chorus and any other kind of modulation coming out of the two side ones, so we could balance the amount of power to the amount of sort of psychedelia going on!” A pair of Neumann KM84s was also placed 15 feet away from the amps to capture room ambience."

In this Sound on Sound article on the recording of the Simple Minds album "Graffiti Soul", their producer Jez Coad describes the gear used to capture Charlie Burchill's guitar sound:

"Three Matchless amplifiers were used for Charlie Burchill's guitars, each miked with a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser 421. The central amp projected the "main raw guitar sound”, while the two on either side were operating in stereo and projecting whatever effects Charlie was stomping on at the time.

"You got the best of all worlds,” explains Jez Coad, "You got all the power in the middle, and then you got all the lovely, diffused, echoey chorus and any other kind of modulation coming out of the two side ones, so we could balance the amount of power to the amount of sort of psychedelia going on!” A pair of Neumann KM84s was also placed 15 feet away from the amps to capture room ambience."

Charlie Burchill has mentioned in multiple articles to using a Wet-Dry-Wet rig of three Matchless amps. These are confirmed to be DC-30s in the attached photo, as well as the article @ https://musicplayers.com/2017/07/charlie-burchill-simple-minds

"Live, Burchill’s go-to guitars were the Gretsch and a ‘62 Les Paul with a Bigsby tremolo. Some of his current gear includes the TC Electronic G-System, Matchless DC-30, and Line 6 Vetta amplifiers."

"Because Burchill is known for his atmospheric tones, it is no surprise that he has experimented with and used several different gear setups throughout his career. The early ‘80s sound came through a Roland 501 Echo unit into a Roland JC120 amp. During the second half of the ‘80s, Burchill switched to Marshall JCM 900 amps, and used a variety of effects including and Eventide Harmonizer, TC Electronic 2290 delay, Roland GP-8, Yamaha Rev 7, and a Kurzweil 250 rack-mount sound module. Burchill used a ‘62 Gretsch White Falcon and a Fender Strat in the studio, and a custom thin-line Telecaster (notably on “Don’t You, Forget About Me”)."

"Because Burchill is known for his atmospheric tones, it is no surprise that he has experimented with and used several different gear setups throughout his career. The early ‘80s sound came through a Roland 501 Echo unit into a Roland JC120 amp. During the second half of the ‘80s, Burchill switched to Marshall JCM 900 amps, and used a variety of effects including and Eventide Harmonizer, TC Electronic 2290 delay, Roland GP-8, Yamaha Rev 7, and a Kurzweil 250 rack-mount sound module. Burchill used a ‘62 Gretsch White Falcon and a Fender Strat in the studio, and a custom thin-line Telecaster (notably on “Don’t You, Forget About Me”)."