Robin Guthrie

"Garlands, the album, was essentially recorded live in the studio with myself and Will playing together and Elizabeth over-dubbing a few vocals later, very much the way most bands record. My guitar setup was this: a Kawai KS-11-XL electric guitar..."

"Effects? Yes and no. Yes when we play live, but not really in the studio. Live, I go from the guitar into a powered Boss effects board, which has a Heavy Metal pedal, Overdrive, Chorus, Vibrato and a Flanger. I have the Chorus on nearly all the time, and I swap between the two different distortions. The vibrato and flanger I use as effects."

In this 1996 Guitar Player magazine interview, Robin Guthrie says: "I'm also using two of my old trusty favorites: a '59 Stratocaster and '59 Jazzmaster".

In this interview with Guitar Player magazine from Robin Guthrie's official website, he mentions that one of his "favorites is the blue Boss Vibrato pedal."

Used on Garlands, as specified in the Equipment Notes section of Guthrie's official website (now hosted on the Cocteau Twins website). It is also mentioned in this September 3, 2010 Harmony Central forum post by user OrangeLazarus.

Equipment Notes

“The recording of ‘Blind Dumb Deaf’ was a little different to most of the later Cocteau Twins songs as it was our first album, we were studio newbies and didn't have the time or experience to experiment at all during the recording process. I wasn't really the producer (I didn't even know what a producer was at that point) so all the work on guitar sounds as such was done before the band entered the studio from playing gigs and gathering what equipment we could. Garlands, the album, was essentially recorded live in the studio with myself and Will playing together and Elizabeth over-dubbing a few vocals later, very much the way most bands record. My guitar setup was this: a Kawai KS-11-XL electric guitar followed by an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, a Watkins Copicat tape echo (3 button model), an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory and then into another Watkins Copicat tape echo (4 button model) - this went into my amp, a Maine combo (60w 2x10 never seen one since). The bass was a Rickenbacker 4001 played through a Ibanez UE-400 Multi-Effects unit into a Carlsbro Stingray bass combo. There was one disappointment at the time which was the drum machines that we used, a Boss Dr Rhythm and a Soundmaster SR88 played through the distortion channel of a HH IC100 combo were deemed unsuitable by the engineers and Ivo (the grown-ups) and were replaced with the ‘more professional’ (at the time as it had just been invented) Roland TR808. This made the drums sound very clean but weak, lacking the power that we were used to in concert. I mean the stuff we used sounded way more like (what became) hip-hop than electronic. But in spite of the lack of distortion on the drums the ‘Garlands’ sessions were a pretty accurate recording of how we sounded at the time when we played live.”

Harmony Central, "Chorus pedal for cocteau twins sound", OrangeLazarus, September 3, 2010

i have nothing to contribute to this thread other than the fact that I played with a guitarist yesterday that used Robin Guthrie's Big Muff.

Used on Garlands, as specified in the Equipment Notes section of Guthrie's official website (now hosted on the Cocteau Twins website).

“The recording of ‘Blind Dumb Deaf’ was a little different to most of the later Cocteau Twins songs as it was our first album, we were studio newbies and didn't have the time or experience to experiment at all during the recording process. I wasn't really the producer (I didn't even know what a producer was at that point) so all the work on guitar sounds as such was done before the band entered the studio from playing gigs and gathering what equipment we could. Garlands, the album, was essentially recorded live in the studio with myself and Will playing together and Elizabeth over-dubbing a few vocals later, very much the way most bands record. My guitar setup was this: a Kawai KS-11-XL electric guitar followed by an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, a Watkins Copicat tape echo (3 button model), an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory and then into another Watkins Copicat tape echo (4 button model) - this went into my amp, a Maine combo (60w 2x10 never seen one since). The bass was a Rickenbacker 4001 played through a Ibanez UE-400 Multi-Effects unit into a Carlsbro Stingray bass combo. There was one disappointment at the time which was the drum machines that we used, a Boss Dr Rhythm and a Soundmaster SR88 played through the distortion channel of a HH IC100 combo were deemed unsuitable by the engineers and Ivo (the grown-ups) and were replaced with the ‘more professional’ (at the time as it had just been invented) Roland TR808. This made the drums sound very clean but weak, lacking the power that we were used to in concert. I mean the stuff we used sounded way more like (what became) hip-hop than electronic. But in spite of the lack of distortion on the drums the ‘Garlands’ sessions were a pretty accurate recording of how we sounded at the time when we played live.”

In this 1996 Guitar Player interview, Robin Guthrie says: "on 1983's Head Over Heels, some of the guitar sounds were played through an Electro-Harmonix Poly Chorus, which has a feedback control. If you turn up the feedback control as you're playing, the unit starts to take off by itself. I could stop playing after a while and the sound would just carry on."

In this 1996 Guitar Player magazine interview, Robin Guthrie says: "I'm also using two of my old trusty favorites: a '59 Stratocaster and '59 Jazzmaster"

''The sweep sound which crops up now and again is my broken (and I will never get it fixed) Boss BF-2 Flanger..

"This rack over here, at the end, is what we call the guitar rack. You've got a valve preamp and a Roland FC100, which I can use in conjunction with this GP8. All of these get put through the Yamaha DMP7, a digital mixer, where all my patches are stored. One recent thing is this Quadraverb unit that just came out. It does reverbs, delays, choruses and EQs all at the same time, instead of having to have four separate units. A lot of the sounds on our records are made up not by just, say, getting a piano, but by taking a piano and sort of messing about with it through all this type of stuff."

"This rack over here, at the end, is what we call the guitar rack. You've got a valve preamp and a Roland FC100, which I can use in conjunction with this GP8. All of these get put through the Yamaha DMP7, a digital mixer, where all my patches are stored. One recent thing is this Quadraverb unit that just came out. It does reverbs, delays, choruses and EQs all at the same time, instead of having to have four separate units. A lot of the sounds on our records are made up not by just, say, getting a piano, but by taking a piano and sort of messing about with it through all this type of stuff."

In this photo, Guthrie can be seen playing a white Fender Electric XII.

"My main guitar is a Fender Jazzmaster which I recently acquired, it's a 1962. If you switch it to the 'rhythm circuit' it goes very Gibson-ish, a mellow sort of jazz sound. With the main circuit in you've got the three-position switch as normal for a two pickup guitar, but it doesn't affect the rhythm circuit, which seems to be a combination of both pickups. I've used the Jazzmaster on most of the things we've done. When I was in New York they were about $150, very unfashionable guitars, but of course I didn't have a penny then. So I got this one in London for about £350."

In an interview on his official website, Robin Guthrie mentions using the Rivera M60 112 guitar amplifier.

This website has transcriptions of various posts by Guthrie submitted to Cocteau Twins forums in the early 00's. In the "Looping" section, he explains, "...that seems to change everytime I play as I haven’t really found the ideal [looper] unit--I use a Jam-Man, an Electrix repeater or a Boomerang depending what works. [reverb] Eventide, [delay] Echo-Pro, and [piano] Steinberg Grand [while recording Imperial]... [and for Violet Indiana performances] Flextone II amp and blue and green Line 6 stomp boxes."

Robin looks to be playing a Roland JC 50 with a rack mount FX unit on top of it in this video. It could also be a JC-60 but the Roland tag on the front looks to be that of the 50 released in 1978.

"Keyboards? I can't play them either. On the new LP we've been using an Emulator a bit, and a DX7. We've used Mellotron quite a bit, for example on the 'Sunburst' 12in: it belongs to the studio we use in Edinburgh, Palladium, the guy that runs it has loads of instruments. Some of those older instruments just have so much character about them."

On the equipment notes page of Robin Guthrie's official website, he mentions that he uses "an Electrix Repeater. It works..."

Robin Guthrie is playing a red Fender Jaguar in this video.

In this 1996 Guitar Player magazine interview, Robin Guthrie says: "on the last tour I was also using a Zoom 9050 multi-effector, but purely for delay."

In the Equipment Notes on Robin Guthrie's official website, the Boss RC-50 Loop Station is mentioned in the fourth paragraph, fifth line, indicating its use in his setup.

"I've also got a guitar with a Gizmo attached — that was the sustain device that Godley and Creme made. They don't make it any more. It was on a disgusting little black Ibanez, the Gizmo was worth more than the guitar. I used that on the last 12in, but I wouldn't use it live."

"Out of the harmoniser it goes to a delay, either a Boss or a Delta Lab one, about 250mS. I prefer the Delta Lab one, but Elizabeth likes singing through that so I often end up with the Boss. Then that goes into a Roland Dimension D, which splits up the signal into a lovely spatial stereo. I've been using that in studios for years, it's like a subtle phasing, nice and sparkly. Out of that it goes into two Bolt combos, a 30 and a 60."

In this 1996 Guitar Player magazine interview, Robin Guthrie says: "my favorite digital delay is the Yamaha D-1500."

This website has transcriptions of various posts by Guthrie submitted to Cocteau Twins forums in the early 00's. In the "Looping" section, he explains, "...that seems to change everytime I play as I haven’t really found the ideal [looper] unit--I use a Jam-Man, an Electrix repeater or a Boomerang depending what works. [reverb] Eventide, [delay] Echo-Pro, and [piano] Steinberg Grand [while recording Imperial]... [and for Violet Indiana performances] Flextone II amp and blue and green Line 6 stomp boxes."

In this 1996 Guitar Player interview, Robin Guthrie says: "For clean sounds I use a Rockman Sustainer [sic]."

In this 1996 Guitar Player Magazine interview, Robin Guthrie says: "for the more distorted sounds I use a Marshall JMP-1 preamp."

Robin Guthrie mentions using the HH Electronics IC100 Amplifier in the equipment notes section on his official website.

This website has transcriptions of various posts by Guthrie submitted to Cocteau Twins forums in the early 00's. In the "Drum Machines" section, he specifies, "Roland CR1000; Milk & Kisses."

In the first paragraph, 13 lines down, on his official website, Robin Guthrie discusses his use of the Boss DR-55 drum machine.