Uli Jon Roth

This is the Stratocaster that Uli used as his main guitar throughout the majority of his days with the Scorpions and it’s a mostly stock 1975 CBS era Strat that he bought in Hamburg, Germany in 1975. He used it non stop from the recording of “In Trance” (1975), to the Live Album, “Tokyo Tapes” (1978). This is also the guitar that Uli used throughout the early days of Electric Sun and is on the cover of both, “In Trance” and Electric Sun’s “Fire Wind” Album from 1980. He’s had a couple of mods done to the guitar before he came up the idea of his signature Sky Guitar, the first mod that he had done to it was modding it to house a thicker than average vibrato bar (similar to what Ritchie Blackmore done to his Strats around the early days of the Mark II era of Deep Purple), and (according to Uli) that mod was done by Scorpions’ Bassist, Francis Buchholz. The second mod that he had done to that Strat around 1982-1983 was extending the fingerboard. He talks about this strat in the youtube documentary on the making of the “Taken by Force” album for 2015 reissues of the Scorpions album from “Taken by Force” to “Savage Amusement” to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Scorpions. He also talks about his ‘75 Strat briefly in his episode of “Rig Rundown” for Premier Guitar.

All of the Scorpions albums that Uli is on used this Marsahll.

"I use the Dunlop Carbon Copy analog delay. I actually have several, for different settings."

You can see him playing the guitar at 2:25, on the video. It is also on the cover of their legendary album Tokyo Tapes.

"Yes. I’m using the 100-watt Blackstar Artisan, the red hand-wired one. On the recording, I used that in conjunction with my old 100-watt Marshall Super Lead Tremolo, which I used for all the Scorpions and Electric Sun albums. The Blackstar is kind of modeled on that, although it sounds a little bit more modern, and it’s much more durable. The old Marshalls used to break a lot, whereas the Blackstars hardly ever give me any trouble. They do sound slightly different—the Marshall maybe sounds a little sweeter, but the Blackstar has much clearer low end. I’m using them together, and it’s a great combination."

Uli Jon Roth unveils the Dean Sky Guitar

According to Premier Guitar's rig rundown, Roth uses 2 BluGuitar Amp1's.

According to Premier Guitar's rig rundown, Roth uses Jam Red Muck pedal.

According to Premier Guitar's rig diagram, Roth uses the DigiTech Whammy DT pedal.

According to Premier Guitar's rig diagram, Roth uses the Boss CH-1 chorus pedal.

According to Premier Guitar's rig rundown, Roth uses the Ibanez TS9DX Tube Screamer pedal.

" I have an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress and a Blackstar HT-Modulation valve chorus device."

According to Premier Guitar's rig rundown, Roth uses Palmer PWT05.

Uli Jon Roth is listed on the Edenwaith website as using the Dunlop Jimi Hendrix JH-1 Wah Pedal, highlighting its role in his guitar effects setup.

On the picture you can see it is used to power up the pedals on his FX-board

it is on his pedalboard

Uli Jon Roth uses the UJR Sky Guitars Mega-Wing III Powersupply on his pedalboard, as shown in a user-uploaded photo on Gitarrebass.

it is on his pedalboard

In this photo, Roth can be seen playing his signature Sky Guitar, complete with a 30+ fret scalloped fretboard, this guitar appears to be scalloped from the 6th fret onward, with the first five frets appearing to be unscalloped for heavier chording & riffing.

Wikipedia also notes Roth's use of scalloped necks in his signature model guitars:

"Sky guitars" "Roth commissioned construction of custom guitars with additional frets from luthier Andreas Demetriou In the 1980s. Roth has had five of these "Sky" guitars made. To be able to emulate the high notes of a violin, all of the Sky Guitars have more frets than a typical electric guitar. The first Sky Guitar (used on the album Beyond the Astral Skies) had 30 frets. Later versions of the Sky Guitar overcame the problem of the higher register frets becoming too narrow by widening the frets by whole steps for the highest notes. In an April 2001 Guitar Player magazine interview Roth reported that the guitars are either fretless above the 30th fret, or have whole step fret spacing above the 27th fret, with 35 effective (half step) frets. All of the Sky Guitars with frets have scalloped fretboards. The Sky Guitar's pickups are custom 4-coil humbuckers, made by John Oram, with one guitar having an Oram pickup hidden under the 24th fret. For a time, Roth used a Framus Dragon amplifier, although currently he promotes Blackstar Artisan 100 & Series One 200 Watt heads. He has also used a stalk mounted Vibesware guitar resonator (sustainer) to introduce infinite sustain as on the instrumental Benediction on his Under A Dark Sky album. Dean Guitars produced 25 Custom Sky Guitars based on Roth's custom models with six and seven strings in 2011."

Roth has been playing scalloped fretboards since is days in Scorpions as stated in this segment from an April 2001 Guitar Player Magazine interview:

"There are five Sky guitars in existence, — three 6-strings and two 7-strings," Uli Jon Roth says. "The 7-strings have a low B and a range of over five-and-a-half octaves. When you have more than 30 frets, it gets very awkward to play in the upper register because the frets are so close together. So one of my guitars is actually fretless at the top. On another, I space the frets out in whole-tone increments. I can still get the half-steps, but I have to jump over to another string to get them. The fretboards are scalloped — which is something I never did to my Strats back in the Scorpions. It's still a hindrance for playing rhythm, but I definitely prefer a scalloped neck for single-note work — it gives me much more control over the notes."

Roth's signature Sky Guitars come fitted with John Oram 4-Coil Custom Humbuckers as explained by their official website:

"The MEGA-WING III SYSTEM is the heart of the sound engine of all Master built Sky Guitars."

"This revolutionary active pickup system is unlike any other and will put an unprecedented amount of tonal control at your disposal."

"This is coupled with an incredible amount of output. By means of the ingenious addition of a master gain control it enables you to make any amplifier sing without extra gadgets."

"The MEGA-WING III SYSTEM was developed by award-winning inventor and analogue sound designer genius John Oram (“aka Father-of-British-EQ”) in close co-operation with Uli Jon Roth. The low-impedance pick-ups are hand-wired by Boris & Fiona Dommenget and are fine-tuned to perfection to interface with the EQ and gain stages of the sound engine."

"The MEGA-WING concept is unique in the world of the electric guitar and the result is the most powerful and most versatile guitar pick-up system ever built."

In this image we can see Roth backstage holding a pack of his signature D'Orazio UJR Sky Strings.

(Gauges: 8, 11.5, 14.5, 25, 31, 45)

Site https://www.analogman.com/kingtone.htm

The legendary Uli Jon Roth tried a KOT in 2018 and liked it, so we sent him one and I was able to catch him on tour playing it in spring 2019

In a video titled "Uli Jon Roth Incredible Acoustic Guitar Solo" by Guitar Daddy on YouTube, Uli Jon Roth is seen using a Godin Multiac Nylon SA guitar during a performance in Germany in 2015.

In an interview featured in the article "Forgotten Guitar Gear Uli Jon Roth Used During His Scorpions Era" on Ultimate Guitar, Uli Jon Roth mentioned using the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face pedal.

In an interview featured on Ultimate Guitar titled "Forgotten Guitar Gear Uli Jon Roth Used During His Scorpions Era," Uli Jon Roth mentioned his use of the Roland AP-7 Jet Phaser pedal.

In an interview featured on Ultimate Guitar titled "Forgotten Guitar Gear Uli Jon Roth Used During His Scorpions Era," Uli Jon Roth mentioned using the Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress Flanger/Filter Matrix pedal.

In an interview featured in the Ultimate Guitar article "Forgotten Guitar Gear Uli Jon Roth Used During His Scorpions Era," Uli Jon Roth specifically mentions his use of the Roland RE-301 Chorus Echo.