Robin Guthrie

"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 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."

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

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 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.

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 interview with Guitar World, Guthrie mentions the Source Audio Ventris to be his "go-to big, swirly reverb at the moment".