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."

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

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.