Back in the late 80s and 90s I was a huge Cure fan. Loved the textures that band was able to put together. I started to move on after the Wish album, but recently starting to get back into them again. I just picked up the Disintegration re-issue box set, and that is absolutely amazing. Now all I’m thinking about is buying a Fender Bass VI (if that’s even possible) and working out some fun melodic lead lines. Love that sound.. and especially the mood of Robert’s playing style and tone.
I was curious what exactly he used or uses today, and it’s surprisingly not that well know. I figured there would be tons of sites or photos of his pedal board. I always remembered he used Boss pedals (especially in those 80-90 years). I was able to find some of the older Boss pedals he used. Please, if you know more.. please let me know.
Boss GE-7 Equalizer
Boss Chorus CE-3
Boss Overdrive OD-1
Boss Flanger BF-2
Apparently he used Boss DM-2, Boss DD-2 and Boss DD-3 for delays at different points.
I found a great page at Guitar Tone Overload which talks about replicating some of Robert Smith’s tone. You can read it here.
I also found a couple of fairly recent photos of Robert with his gear. Let’s see if we can name these pedals in the comments below.
Going down this memory-lane has been fun!