OFFICIAL PAUL SAMSON WEBSITE- EQUIPMENT

GUITARS
Paul was given his first "proper" guitar by his Uncle when he was about 7 years old. Pauls Dad was the bar manager at the "Black Prince" Hotel in Bexley, Kent, which was an important live venue in the late 60's and early '70s, with regular gigs by people such as the Pretty Things, Edgar Broughton, Led Zeppelin, etc. Paul was given a harmonica by Phil May of the Pretty Things.
Pauls first electric guitar was a Vox Stroller. He had fallen in love with a Vox Phantom, but couldn't afford the £35.00. Somebody told him that if he wrote to Vox, and explained that he was a schoolboy with only £5.00, then they might send him a reject. The reply was that they couldn't let him have a reject Phantom, but if he was to go to the factory, they would try and sort something out. He came away from the factory with a brand new Stroller ( the first of the legendary Samson "blags!"). When Paul started work, he bought a Hofner Colorama, with 3 pickups and a whammy bar, and this was the guitar that Paul used in his first couple of bands, .
In the early '70s, Paul found a Cherry Red 1963 Gibson SG Special (serial No 202272) in Drumland in Shaftesbury Avenue. This was Pauls main guitar until about 1987, and was known as Eric. He owned various other SG's as spares, but the main spare was a 1959, called Ernie. Although the two were almost Identical to look at (Ernie was slightly darker) the sound and set-up were different. Eric was significantly louder, and there was about 6 mm difference in the way that the necks were set. Manson Guitars fitted a booster to Ernie, but he never had the Power of Eric.
In the mid '70s, Paul used, in addition to the SG's, a Stratocaster, and an Ibanez Flying V, for both Studio and Live work. The V was used on some of the "Survivors" album (namely the rhythm track on "Not as Easy as it Seems").
The Stratocaster was often used on the "Survivors" tour, and for the writing sessions and some of the recordings
for the "Head On" album.
In 1981, whilst recording "Shock Tactics", Paul had a deal with Vantage guitars. He may have used these for recording, but I do not recall, or have seen any photos, to say that they were used live, although there is a picture of him with one in the studio on the "Shock Tactics" insert. Also on the Shock Tactics album, Chris Aylmer's Gibson J45 60s model acoustic was used on the tracks "Communion", and "Riding with the Angels", and it was Chris who actually played the acoustic parts.
Also in 1981, Paul was presented with a Kawai Moonliner guitar. This had a yellow body, in the shape of a crescent moon, but this was soon forgotten once a member of the crew stuck a blue Fyffes Bananas sticker on it! It had two Humbuckers and an impressive array of selector switches. This guitar was used for the encore at the 1981 Reading Festival ("Gravy Train" on the Live at Reading cd).
It was won by Karen Merchant in a competition in Kerrang! magazine. Does anybody know of its whereabouts now? At about the time of Nicky Moore joining Samson in late 1981, the pick-ups on Eric and Ernie were changed from P90s to Humbuckers. On the "Before the Storm" album, Chris's acoustic was once again used, on the track "Young Idea", but this time played by Paul. Paul also used a '61 Strat (once again belonging to Chris), Noticeably on the track "Young Idea", with the Strat and Eric trading lines on the solo.
During a gig in Germany (Nuremberg, March 1984) Paul had a problem during "Test of Time", and smashed Eric. The show was finished using Ernie, and although Eric was rebuilt, Paul said that the guitar never quite playedthe same after this.
During 1984, Paul tried out a Westone Raider, and this was used on the McCoy album "Think Hard", and was used for part of their live show at the Marquee on 08-09-84. Another guitar that he tried at this time was the Tokai Talbo. Paul realized that the whammy bar on the Raider gave him much more scope, and he felt that the SGs could no longer give him the variety of sounds that he required.
The guitar that Paul was looking for came along in 1986. He had a flametop Ibanez R540, which he used with Empire on the Iron Maiden tour. He was then given 3 guitars built by Ibanez to his specification. They were based on the 540 Radius, with a through neck, Floyd Rose locking trem, additional volume control, 5 way selector switch, and electrics and pick-ups designed by John Oram at Reflex. These were a Red Sunburst (serial F740514), Blue Sunburst (serial F762595), and White (serial F763103). The Red Sunburst Guitar (christened Martin) became Pauls main guitar from then on. All 3 had their own identities, although very similar in build. Martin had a particularly fierce front pick up, and was ideal for the Samson type material, although it also had a very clean sound when required. The White one was very similar, but didn't have the same growl. The Blue one had a slightly cleaner sound still, and was mainly used as a spare. All recordings from Refugee onwards used these guitars, although "P.S....", the Album that Paul was working on at the time of his death also features his Squier Strat, and Tokai Jazz Bass.
During rehearsals for the 1999 NWOBHM festival in Tokyo, Paul brought Eric out of retirement, but found that he couldn't get the required sounds, plus his playing technique had changed, so Eric was put away once again. He was sold to a collector in late 1999, and is rumoured to have been sold on to the Hard Rock chain. The White Ibanez was used for the Tokyo show, and also for Wacken 2000, Whilst Martin was used for the show at the London Astoria in 2000.

STRINGS
Like most players, Paul did various string deals over the years, and was an endorsee of Picato and Rotosound strings during the 80s. He used very light gauge Picato and Rotosound (.007-.30) on the SG's,which enabled him to get 5 or 6 note bends, even at the bottom of the neck. Surprisingly, he had very few problems with tuning.
In later years, on the Ibanez's, he used Superwound Starfires (0.008-0.40)

BACKLINE
Paul started off using Vox AC30's, but in the Early 70s discovered the Marshall Master Volume. His main amp from the late 70's onwards was a 1978 master volume, with additional circuitry from a Hendrix amp, including Top boost, and a feedback loop that feeds the secondary back into the primary. Speaker cabinets were Marshall, his favourites using Celestion Greenback G12 30 watt bass speakers. For a brief period in about 1984, Paul had a deal with Roost, but the Amps were prone to overheating, and after a few fires Paul used Marshall amps exclusively, although he did carry on using the Roost cabs for a while, as they contained Fane speakers, which gave him a bright top end, whilst the Marshall cabs kept the bottom end together. He also used a Carlsboro combo for writing and recording.
Experiments were made with different stereo configurations. At one time, at the Marquee in London, he used 3 stacks, one of which was just wired to the effects return from the pedal board.. His preferred microphones were Sennheiser, and in the studio he liked to use an AKG D12 bass drum mike to capture the low end.
His on-stage volume was always extremely loud, which was Ok at larger gigs (he used to say that it kept the singer away from his side of the stage!), but at smaller gigs it could cause a problem, especially when he was singing. This was because he liked to be directly in front of his cab, and to feel the sound pressure in the middle of his back. This was Ok until he moved away from the mike, and then the guitar would go straight down the vocal mike. An experienced engineer could deal with it, But when, playing venues with a sometimes inexperienced engineer, they would instinctively pull the fader down for the guitar mike, so that when he went back to the vocal mike again, the guitar would disappear from the mix. He used the same amps and cabs for all gigs, ranging from 3 or 4 stacks for Outdoor gigs, to a single amp and cab for pub/club gigs.

EFFECTS
Up until the mid 70s, Paul used to plug directly into his amp. His first pedal was a pre Dunlop Cry Baby, which he used right the way through his career. He also used a phase peda now and again. In 1980, he started to use a Yamaha E1005 analogue delay, and he soon discovered that it acted as an overdrive, but without compressing the sound, by plugging into the Mic input. For most of Samson, the Wah wah and the Yamaha were the only effects that he used live.
Once Paul started to use the Ibanez Guitars, he was able to play more "Spacey" things, so he added a pedal board containing a Chorus pedal, a Boss PS/2, usually used as an octave splitter, and a noise gate. The pedal board was set up at the foot of his cab, the only gear he had out front was his wah-wah, and the foot switch for the Yamaha. The usual routing was Guitar to Wah-Wah, to Yamaha delay, to Pedal Board, to Amp.
On the 1997-99 Metallic Blue gigs, he often added a Jim Dunlop Rotavibe between the Yamaha and the pedal board.
Paul never used a radio transmitter, he liked to be "attached", plus he felt that they compressed the signal.