Roland Orzabal

Orzabal used "The Strat" mainly for live work from 1983 to 1985, after which he may have given the Guitar to their touring guitarist Neil Taylor, who could be seen playing it in 1990 while on their Seeds Of Love tour. There is a high chance he used this guitar to record on their first and or second album.

In an Interview with Dan Goldstein of Electronics And Music Maker Magazine in January of 1985, Orzabal states, "My favourite guitar of all which is just called The Strat - it's got more bottom end than an ordinary Strat and a cleaner sound, too."

In another interview with Tony Bacon in October of 1984 Orzabal states, "I've got what's called The Strat, too, another walnut and gold one, that's a classy looking instrument."

In a discussion on Gearslutz about Roland Orzabal's custom pedalboard, built by Pete Cornish, there's a mention that the setup potentially includes a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus amplifier. While this is speculative and noted by Cornish himself, the context suggests its use alongside various effects pedals.

A thread on Gearslutz detailing the custom pedalboard built for Roland by Pete Cornish lists the following pedals as part of the board:

PC Buffer/Line driver Boss CS-2 Boss SD-1 Spare send/return 1 Boss CE-2 Boss VB-2 Spare send/return 2 DDL send/return (type of delay not known) Master Effects Bypass EQ send/return (type of EQ not known) System Mute PC Line Driver/ground isolation/Booster feed to amp (possibly Roland JC120)

Accoring to this article Roland Orzabal used a Fairlight CMI when recording Tears For Tears classic album Songs From the Big Chair

In the official music video for "Everybody Wants To Rule The World," Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears is seen playing a Tokai AST, notable for its matching blue headstock.

Seen in this live photo, as well as many others. One of Roland's main live guitars.

A thread on Gearslutz detailing the custom pedalboard built for Roland by Pete Cornish lists the following pedals as part of the board:

PC Buffer/Line driver Boss CS-2 Boss SD-1 Spare send/return 1 Boss CE-2 Boss VB-2 Spare send/return 2 DDL send/return (type of delay not known) Master Effects Bypass EQ send/return (type of EQ not known) System Mute PC Line Driver/ground isolation/Booster feed to amp (possibly Roland JC120)

Accoring to this article Roland Orzabal used a Roland Jupiter 8 when recording Tears For Tears classic album Songs From the Big Chair

In the YouTube video "Tears For Fears Memories Fade, 1983 Live," Roland Orzabal can be seen playing a Fender Telecaster during the Hurting tour and in early videos for Songs from the Big Chair.

Uses Kemper Profiler with the Kemper Remote.

As per this interview: "Nowadays, my go-to guitar is a Gibson [ES] 330. It’s the Gibson equivalent of the John Lennon Epiphone Casino, and that has just got an amazing, amazing bark. Incredible."

A thread on Gearslutz detailing the custom pedalboard built for Roland by Pete Cornish lists the following pedals as part of the board:

PC Buffer/Line driver Boss CS-2 Boss SD-1 Spare send/return 1 Boss CE-2 Boss VB-2 Spare send/return 2 DDL send/return (type of delay not known) Master Effects Bypass EQ send/return (type of EQ not known) System Mute PC Line Driver/ground isolation/Booster feed to amp (possibly Roland JC120)

Accoring to this article Roland Orzabal used a Prophet 5 when recording Tears For Tears classic album Songs From the Big Chair

Accoring to this article Roland Orzabal used a PPG Wave when recording Tears For Tears classic album Songs From the Big Chair

Used for Orzabal's vocals on "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", as mentioned by producer David Bascombe in this August 1, 2007 Mix Online article.

Bascombe recorded Smith and Orzabal's vocals with a then-new Neumann TLM 170 microphone at Union Studios in Munich, where they also mixed.

A thread on Gearslutz detailing the custom pedalboard built for Roland by Pete Cornish lists the following pedals as part of the board:

PC Buffer/Line driver Boss CS-2 Boss SD-1 Spare send/return 1 Boss CE-2 Boss VB-2 Spare send/return 2 DDL send/return (type of delay not known) Master Effects Bypass EQ send/return (type of EQ not known) System Mute PC Line Driver/ground isolation/Booster feed to amp (possibly Roland JC120)

According to Heather Johnson's article on Mixonline, Roland Orzabal used the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer during the recording of Tears for Fears' classic album Songs from the Big Chair.

Als this badass guitar was used in the early eighties by Roland (see it in action staring at 31:31)

"The Jupiter 8 gives me the automatic delayed vibrato that I prefer to the modulation wheel type, for instance on the Prophet. The Poly Six's chorus, on ensemble setting, beefs up the effects and gives a nice fat sound, particularly on chords. The System 100M is useful for discovering unique sounds."

"The Jupiter 8 gives me the automatic delayed vibrato that I prefer to the modulation wheel type, for instance on the Prophet. The Poly Six's chorus, on ensemble setting, beefs up the effects and gives a nice fat sound, particularly on chords. The System 100M is useful for discovering unique sounds."

In the March 1983 issue of EMM, Roland Orzabal discusses the utility of the Roland MC-4 MicroComposer for creating multi-layered sequences.

In a March 1983 article from Muzines, Roland Orzabal mentions using the Sequential Circuits Poly-Sequencer, noting its unique compatibility with the Prophet 5 for creating intricate, multi-layered sequences.

In a YouTube video by Behringer, Roland Orzabal discusses acquiring a Linn Electronics LinnDrum, highlighting its role in Tears For Fears' music production.

In the attached video, you can see that Orzabal uses this guitar. It can also be heard on some of their new studio songs.

Nice guitar Rola... wait is that a Tokai with a matching blue headstock? (4:15)

In the YouTube video "Tears For Fears DX1 Heritage Synth Restoration" by Behringer, Roland Orzabal is shown using the Yamaha DX1 FM Synthesizer, indicating its likely use in multiple songs by the band.

"We've got a Movement drum machine, too but I won't go into that, I don't want to say nasty things about it. It's very, very hard to use, I think — you have to punch things in about five times before anything gets picked up, whereas a Linn is once. It's not even a punk drum machine, like the Drumulator. That's great. I don't think the basic sounds are much good, but there's the Rock Kit for it which is really mad — it's on 'Mothers Talk', very sort of vicious — and we've used it on the demo of 'Shout', too.

"But I think the Drumulator's badly thought out. It keeps going wrong, blowing out chips. Bad design, yes — we haven't had trouble with the Emulator in that way at all."

"The Prophet T8's even better than the Five, I think it's my favourite analogue synth. I like the piano-weighted keyboard — in fact everything I found wrong with the Prophet-5, like the fact that you had to use the modulation wheel for any modulation, seems to be put right on the T8. You've got in-built modulation, touch sensitivity, and I really like the Poly Mod."

The band Graduate formed in 1978, in Bath, England. They were only very mildly successful, and broke up by 1981 On this tv show you can see the white guitar SHERGOLD Custom Masquerader (zoom on 1:52)

The same guitar: https://www.shergold.co.uk/collection.html?detail=CustomMasquerader6_3

In this interview, Roland Orzabal talks about using a Linn LM-1 (which he had around the time of The Hurting):

“Yeah, there were a couple of things going on. The moment we had the original Linn LM-1, and you think, ‘Well this is pretty hard to work with in terms of the sounds for specifics.’ It was brilliantly used on Human League’s Dare, and you would occasionally hear them on like a Steely Dan record and you’d think, ‘What the fuck!? How have they made them sound so different, or have they built something around it?’ That was tough.”