Rich Robinson

“What's interesting about this one,” Robinson’s guitar tech says at (0:41), “is most of James' guitars are metal, steel, this is actually beechwood. Really beautiful guitar. We use this a lot. We use it on "Thorn in My Pride."

Rich Robinson’s 1962 SG Reissue has been relic’d by Cobra Guitars in New York City. “We just give it to Cobra and he beats them up and drags them around the parking lot,” Robinson’s guitar tech says at (1:52). It “adds a lot of mojo to the guitar. It's a really cool guitar. It's fooled a lot of people. It's got the maestro bar on there. This is G with the capo. There's going to be, "No Speak No Slave" tonight. We're going to open the show with this.”

According to Rich Robinson’s guitar tech, Gibson is producing a reissue of the classic 1963 Gibson ES-335. “This 335,” he says at (3:43), “is a Rich Robinson prototype now that Gibson's going to make. It's the same thing. It's 1963, exact replica of the one that we lost in the [Hurricane Sandy] flood.”

One of Rich Robinson’s guitars is a Fender Esquire, modified with a humbucker in the neck position. According to his tech at (7:30) Robinson’s Esquire is fitted with, “the Fender B-Bender system, which is pretty cool. You can see it back there, how it works. We're not using it as a B-Bender right now. It's been so good. We're using it on so many songs that we're not using the B-Bender mechanism. The guitar sounds great, and it looks really cool.

According to Rich Robinson’s tech at (8:17), the Fender 1952 Reissue Telecaster, “was our main guitar for a while. It's one of the first ones we got after the flood. We got it from our friend Teddy at Make'n Music in Chicago. It's just a '52 Fender reissue Telecaster. I put an Arcane pickup in it. We found the Arcane pickups...James Trussart was using them. We really liked what Rob did, so Rich had me put them in every guitar.”

Unfortunately, Rich Robinson’s Gretsch Streamliner was destroyed in the Hurricane Sandy flood. “This one really got it bad,” Robinson’s tech says at (8:05). This was right in the front door. It took us a few days to finally be able to even get to the warehouse. Probably almost a week to get to the stuff. This was a beautiful... It's called the "Streamliner." We got it from Matt Brewster at 30th Street Guitars in New York. It was really a special guitar, and Rich loved it. It was all split. The binding was broken. I never thought we'd see it again. Steve Stern, the guy at Gretsch, he's the man at the custom shop. He put it back together for us. He called me up and he said, "I don't know if I want to refinish this. It looks pretty cool how it is."

He sent some pictures and it looked good. It's like, "Yeah, send it." We're using this all the time. You can still see all the crud on there. This was covered in corrosion.”

The guitar, according to Robinson’s tech, was saved. “This poor baby!” he says at (9:41). “Pickups, they saved. They redid some of this hardware. He did a fret job. It's back better than ever. It sounds great.”

Another of Robinson’s guitars is a modified Gretsch Black Falcon. “This is a ‘Japanese Black Falcon,” Robinson’s tech says at (11:45). The guitar was modified at Cobra Guitars in New York City. “He added a little armrest plate there. This is another great guitar. Rich just loves the Gretsch guitars. He's just a big fan of them…I don't know if you've ever seen in the Black Falcons how bright they are. They're blinding almost when you get them. I don't know what he did, if he painted over it. He really dulled it out. Rich just loves what he does to them.”

Robinson also owns a Zemaitis metal front guitar. “This was another Japanese one that they gave us,” Robinson’s tech says at (13:19). The guitar was untouched by the flood disaster that befell the Black Crowes during Hurricane Sandy. Much of the band’s gear was ruined, but “This, I just plugged it in. I cleaned everything off as fast as possible,” Robinson’s tech says (13:19). “This guy, I just wiped it off, plugged it in, and it worked. Don't ask me why. I didn't have to do anything. I didn't even change any of the pots. The guitar was just fine. I cleaned them out, but that was it. I didn't even need to do the fret board.

Most of the guitars were in cases like this. They were completely submerged. I can't remember if this was in a different case or not, but for some reason it survived. We don't use it as much. I use it in a crew band [laughs] more. It has all the nice engraving on it too. They're great guitars.”

A James Trussart Custom that Rich Robinson plays, the Steel Top is another unique look cultivated by the Black Crowes’ guitarist. “We've worked with James for a long time,” Robinson’s tech explains at (14:48). Rich has designed a few guitars with him, special guitars. This one, we will be using this one on tonight, we'll be using this one on, "Been a Long Time Waiting on Love."’

Another survivor from the devastating Hurricane Sandy flood that wiped out some of the Black Crowe’s gear is an Ampeg Dan Armstrong plexiglass guitar. “This is an original Dan Armstrong…with the Holmes pickup in it,” Rich Robinson’s tech says at (15:24) “This one had to have the frets redone on it, but other than that the Plexiglass, it survive and we changed the pots as well…That's amazing this is an original. I replaced the bridge, to get the intonation better on it.”

Though he doesn’t use a 12-string often, Robinson owns a Gretsch Country Gentleman 12-string guitar (17:16).

Robinson’s 1976 Guild F112 was badly damaged in the Hurricane Sandy flood, but “We sent it to Guild and a guy named Chris Seeger put it all back together for us. It was covered in mold. Everything was split apart. It didn't look like you could do anything with it,” Robinson’s tech says at (18:53). “All he had to do, he put a new fret board on and a new back. It's a '76, F112. The sides are all original. The front's original, you can see. He even went as far as doing every tuner, and cleaning every tuner up on it.”

"It's hard to think of a single guitar that I would save. The guitar with the most sentimental value for me is my 1953 Martin D-28. It belonged to my father and he gave it to me. I've played it on every record I've ever made - probably the most notable song I played it on is She Talks To Angels."

"Because I lost all of my guitars in Hurricane Sandy, I don't have as many vintage guitars. Right now, my dad's Martin is the oldest, being built in 1953. I used to have a 1929 National Duolian, that was the oldest I've ever owned. I also had a couple from the 40s."

"I actually kept things pretty minimal. I got a new Echopark with P-90s, and I used my goldtop and my 335 like I always do. Those are my main guitars."

Rich Robinson also uses a 50th Anniversary Vox AC30HH for smaller venues. According to Robinson’s tech, (28:57) it’s a “a hand-wired Vox. Brand new. He really likes the sound of the EL84's and the EL34's together, just has really nice blend. We keep both of them on all the time. You know our sound guy probably does a little mixing during solos between the both of them, but it's...the whole sound is really both of these amps.”

According to Rich Robinson’s tech, he's “the only person in the world that can control a Big Muff and a Gretsch hollow body.” (22:03)

According to Rich Robinson’s tech, “Angry Troll's pretty much all we really use, when he just needs a little more boost, when he's playing slide, he uses that.” (21:00)

According to Robinson’s tech, the Way Huge pedals are, “really good. They're loud and their control's really clean,” (21:28).

“We'll use the Uni-vibe once in a while,” Rich Robinson’s tech says at (22:10).

“We like the Supa Puss,” Robinson’s tech says at (22:10)

“It's a great backup for one of the two tape echoes. It really sounds great,” Robinson’s tech says at (22:10)

“This is an old Tremolo, which Rich has used for years, just on the flips. We could always use more if anyone ever sees them, because they don't make them anymore.” (22:10)

“The Strymon pedal which you heard today,” Robinson’s tech says at (22:50) “No use lying, it's just like a Leslie simulator. It sounds really good. We have the expression pedal down there to make it faster and slower. Right now, that's all it's used for. We've only had it for about a week, since they've been playing that song again, which just came out.”

“This is a great, this is something great, which everyone should have,” Robinson’s tech says (23:00) “Mark Snyder, who made the rack, does the Framptone pedals. He makes all the stuff for Peter Frampton. So this is our amp-splitter device. This is the last thing in the rack, and it goes right out to both amps.”

(26:15) “It's a Fulltone Clyde Wah pedal which Rich really, really loves. We'll be using that a lot tonight.”

Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes got one from Jim Weider while at Levon Helm's studion in Woodstock, and used it on a few tracks of their 2009 album