Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 916 Location: Fairhope, AL
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:40 am Post subject: SR
Daved,
Does Robben use the SR with 4 10's ? He's always seemed to prefer a 212 speaker setup and I believe they made a version of the SR with that config, didn't they?
Thanks,
Frank
When I saw Robben a couple weeks ago in Oklahoma City he used a blackface and silverface Super Reverb daisy chained. Both Supers were 4x10. Played a 335 and the Tele. Absolutely glorious tone!
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 916 Location: Fairhope, AL
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:43 pm Post subject: Early Robben
Go to Youtube and do a search for George Harrison. check out the clip of "Dark Horse" for a glimpse of a young Robben playing acoustic guitar and decked out in his cowboy hat.
Thanks for the info on the SR's, David. A hundred years ago, when everyone else was playing the biggest stacks they could find, a friend of mind would prop his SR up on a chair and mike it through the PA. He said the SR just had a great tone and he didn't need a big rig.
Frank
Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 646 Location: City of Trees, USA
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:23 pm Post subject:
Aolian, thanks for the great review. Sorry I couldn't be up there. The waitresses have me figured out -- just keep a glass of Maker's Mark in my hands and I'm happy. Your review was the next best thing to actually being there for it. _________________ - BlueRunner
Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 103 Location: Upper left coast
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:47 pm Post subject: Lefty's
What a Wednesday night! Robben, Pat, Volker, Myron Dove and John R. Burr. Small place, great sound, and not a bad seat in the house. The Ford Blues Band played a 3-hour show (2 sets). They were having so much fun playing, and the audience loved every minute of it. Lots of great old songs, new songs, blues jams ... Indianola, Cannonball Shuffle, Help the Poor, much much more. I'm smiling from ear to ear and feelin' groovy
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:11 pm Post subject:
davidS wrote:
When I saw Robben a couple weeks ago in Oklahoma City he used a blackface and silverface Super Reverb daisy chained. Both Supers were 4x10. Played a 335 and the Tele. Absolutely glorious tone!
What color was the 335? I've heard a couple of reports of Robben playing a 335 which sounds a bit odd. According to a tech I know, the old Inside Story sunburst 335 found it's way to Garth. I have seen Robben with two different 355's, both red, and a sunburst Epi Riviera. Given that Robben likes to have the humbuckers tapped, which is a pain on a 335, and that he has two varitone equiped guitars that he likes, I wouldn't have expected him to go out and get a regular 335.
Calling Daved for another inquiring minds/gearhead question. Does Robben have a conventional 335? What can you tell us about it?
I can offer that putting an aluminum stop tailpiece on my 85 reissue livened it up a bit, but I've left whatever pickups it came with in there. Never felt a desire to mess with changing them. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
The 335 was cherry, small block inlays, no varitone control, tailpiece and ABR, and looked like a mid 60s. Robben rarely touched the controls so I don't think it was tapped. He controlled his volume with his touch, ts808 for most solos, and volume pedal for the occasional swells/tremelo effect. It was the first time I've seen him play the 335 and was surprised when I saw his tech (not Daved) tuning it up along with the Tele before the show. I've got a cherry '61 330TDC which looks similar to what Robben was using except mine has a dot neck, P90s, and trapeze.
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:49 pm Post subject:
Thanks David. That's interesting. The Les Pauls he has, have one of the tone pots with a push pull switch for the tapping. At it is, he rarely touches the controls other than the pick up switch. I'm guessing that he spent just about the whole night on the bridge pick up. Maybe the 808 has something to do with not needing the tap since they are mid heavy. But normally Robben doesn't go for the sound of humbuckers clean. The only song that sounds like conventional hums to me is Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. And 335s are all over the map tonally. A lot of those 60's ones with the trapeze tailpieces and narrow necks are on the soft side. Tending toward a soft warmth. Maybe he found one with some natural bite that works as is. Did me mean that it had a stop tailpiece? That might have helped. His 355's have the trapeze. He was telling J Constant and I during a break in a clinic how the lack of pressure on the bridge lets the strings hop off the saddles on occasion. And said that in Misdirected Blues, he remembered that specific guitar doing that. I've listened since and can't be sure where this happens, but he said he hears it everytime he hears that song. Guess he was there. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
Robben was definately on the bridge pickup most all night and his 335 had the stop tailpiece, not the trapeze. Sorry, I wasn't very clear on that previously. I don't remember how much he used the 335 pickup selector, but I do remember when he went to the neck pickup on the Tele because I couldn't believe how great that sounded. The Tele neck tone really threw me for a loop. I've never had a Tele and always thought that the neck pickup was suppose to sound dark, dull, etc. Not Robben's, it was a thing of beauty.
Since these few dates in TX, AR, and OK were originally to be Stephen Bruton with Robben (kind of like Larry anbd Robben) I wondered if Robben chose to use the 335 instead of the Les Paul since Stephen Bruton plays a PRS (McCarty I believe) and the PRS would be closer in tone to the Les Paul.
One thing that is constant with Robben though, it doesn't matter whether it is a Les Paul, 335, Tele, Fender, or Dumble, it is always just a different flavor of greatness.
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 916 Location: Fairhope, AL
Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:19 am Post subject: Tele neck tone
The earliest Tele's had a cap in the tone circuit that Leo called "deep rhythm". Most players found it too dark and muddy to use and modified it by removing the cap and changing the middle position to get both pickups. The three way switch in those old Teles was bridge - neck - neck "dark rhythm". There was no position for both pickups. I believe the switch to the current switch configuration of bridge - both - neck, came in 1962 or '63. My ears tell me that Robben's Tele is modified to that, too.
Frank
The Tele neck tone really threw me for a loop. I've never had a Tele and always thought that the neck pickup was suppose to sound dark, dull, etc. Not Robben's, it was a thing of beauty.
You might be thinking of the way the first Teles were wired, where throwing the switch forward hooked in a cap (or something) to give a faux-bass sound. I think the Fender '52 reissues and custom shop Nocasters are still wired this way stock, but most people rewire them the modern way, which gives you the standard neck/both/bridge choices.
I've got Fender Nocaster pickups on my Glendale Tele, and the neck pickup sound is my favorite tone on that guitar. Really great for bluesy stuff--not that different than a Strat neck pickup tone, but with some real unique qualities.
Put that kind of tone in Robben's hands, and you get some great sounds for sure.
You might be thinking of the way the first Teles were wired, where throwing the switch forward hooked in a cap (or something) to give a faux-bass sound. I think the Fender '52 reissues and custom shop Nocasters are still wired this way stock, but most people rewire them the modern way, which gives you the standard neck/both/bridge choices.
I've got Fender Nocaster pickups on my Glendale Tele, and the neck pickup sound is my favorite tone on that guitar. Really great for bluesy stuff--not that different than a Strat neck pickup tone, but with some real unique qualities.
Put that kind of tone in Robben's hands, and you get some great sounds for sure.
FTTom, I bet you are exactly right. I just assumed all Tele neck pickups had that tone. I thought everyone stayed on the bridge pickup for that reason. Boy was I wrong! Makes me want a Tele now.
Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 103 Location: Upper left coast
Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:02 am Post subject: Portland Show Thursday night
Hi guys! Back to the concert reviews ... I love the guitar talk, though. It helps me communicate with those more talented souls than myself.
Thursday was a bit of a letdown after the fabulous show Wednesday night. Same group, Robben, Pat, Volker, Myron Dove and John R. Burr. Great sound, and they played many of the same tunes, starting with Keep on Running and A Beautiful Day. Michael Osborne lives in Portland and was also a special guest, playing on 3 tunes with Robben, and one where Robben put away his guitar and just sang, letting Michael take the guitar lead. A very different vibe in the crowd, however, and it showed in the way Robben responded.
Don't get me wrong, his sound was right on. But what's with the shutterbugs? I did not notice any photography at the club on Wednesday night, but Thursday at more of a "concert" venue, the picture people were out in force - many with flash cameras, many more with cell phone videos. Robben tried to get them to stop after one or two snaps, and toward the end of the show resorted to moving way to the back of the stage, even playing with his back to the crowd a couple times (fun for Pat!).
This compulsive camera behaviour is very annoying for the rest of the audience as well - it's hard to relax and enjoy the show with someone's video phone playing the scene on a small blue screen right in front of you. Well, you get the picture. Sorry for the rant. Maybe it's because I'm behind the times, but I think it's just rude.
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Aolian, thanks for the great review. Sorry I couldn't be up there. The waitresses have me figured out -- just keep a glass of Maker's Mark in my hands and I'm happy. Your review was the next best thing to actually being there for it.
