Joined: 06 Oct 2003 Posts: 70 Location: Lake Tahoe
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 4:04 pm Post subject:
Hey Marin.. Looks like we never got a answer on this one..
Well, to *my* ears.. I'm hearing the red knob twin on Talk to your Daughter.. and even on "Mark Ford with The Robben Ford Band" which was in Nov. 1990.
Although, I think I am hearing the Dumble on "Jimmy Witherspoon & Robben Ford - Live".. which was recorded late August 1991 at the Notodden Blues Festival. If it's not the Dumble, he's using standard twins. It's hard to tell since he doesn't have his heavy overdrive lead sound. But the tone has a lot more dynamics to it (compared to the red knob).
...and we know for sure he used it on the Blue Line's first official (self titled) album in 1992.
So my best guess would be he got the Dumble in early '91
What does everyone else think?
I've also heard that he used a Fender Bassman in the early years.. Maybe when he was using the L5 ?
Would be nice to get a complete run down on his "amp history" though.
Joined: 21 Jul 2003 Posts: 401 Location: College Station, TX
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 6:20 am Post subject:
In the Guitar Player interview from 1988 he talks about using a Dumble, so it would seem he had one prioir to 1991. This is a great interview, very long and informative. I dug it out of the closet the other day and have been reading it in bits and pieces, primarily in response to the Robben versus Larry thread going on. If somone wanted to scan this puppy and make it available... For the academics/students with on-line journal access through their library system you can read old GP issues on line, too.
One comment - it sure is nice to read a GP article that is actually informative as opposed to the 200 word snap shots that pose as serious music journalism these days!
Even though GP is still head and shoulders above the other guitar mags available . French mags are crap. UK mags are OK. But GP still has the crown. I will try to dig out this particular issue as well , still in a box after I moved 3 years ago I guess I have the Soundpage somewhere as well.
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 8:23 am Post subject: GOOD STATEMENT
Hey Pierre L , glad you made this statement; FRANCE sucks, french Guitar mags really OVER SUCKS , they are infotatted to merchants and therefore never give a real advice.As ypu can see it is really hard to get blues on french tv.. God bless us................
Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 10:56 am Post subject: Re: When did Robben started using Dumbles?
marinblues wrote:
When exactly did Robben begin using Dumble amps? Which was the first recording he used one on?
Also, what did he use before that. Browsing the web, I've read about Robben using Twins, Mesa Boogies, solid state Yamaha's.
Daved, could you please give us an "amp history" of Robben.
Robben has told me that he started using the Dumble in the early 80's. Exactly when he doesn't remember, but he did say to me once that it might have been on the 1983 Kazu Matsui Project album, Standing On The Outside.
Before the Dumble he says: "I used lots of different amps and guitars. I don't remember them all... Fender, Marshall, Boogie, Vox, Roland, basically anything I could get my hands on."
As for an 'amp history'... I've only been with Robben about 5 years now, so that is about as far back as my knowledge of his gear use goes. Sorry, but my availability of time and personal interests don't include cataloguing every amp and/or guitar that every musician I've ever worked for has ever owned and/or used.
You guys would probably have more time/enthusiasm for the required research and could probably put together a far better history than I ever could! _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
Joined: 06 Oct 2003 Posts: 70 Location: Lake Tahoe
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:51 pm Post subject:
Jim,
I think I'm amazed that some people think they can tell what kind of amp is being used just by listening to it. hehe
Guess I was wrong.. but to me, his guitar sound on Talk to your Daughter sounds cold, and thin sounding compared to later albums. Maybe that has to do with the way they recorded it, or possibly even speaker selection.. *shrug*. The music is still GREAT! I love Robben's material no matter what gear using, or what sound he currently has. I am partial to the thicker more dynamic tones from the 90's on.
Kazu Matsui Project? hmm.. don't have this one (yet).. anybody know how many tracks Robben plays on? Is he on the entire album? What style of music?
Daved, thanks for the info.. that's probably a good enough 'amp history' for most of us..
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 1:16 pm Post subject: Re: When did Robben started using Dumbles?
Daved wrote:
marinblues wrote:
When exactly did Robben begin using Dumble amps? Which was the first recording he used one on?
Also, what did he use before that. Browsing the web, I've read about Robben using Twins, Mesa Boogies, solid state Yamaha's.
Daved, could you please give us an "amp history" of Robben.
Robben has told me that he started using the Dumble in the early 80's. Exactly when he doesn't remember, but he did say to me once that it might have been on the 1983 Kazu Matsui Project album, Standing On The Outside.
Before the Dumble he says: "I used lots of different amps and guitars. I don't remember them all... Fender, Marshall, Boogie, Vox, Roland, basically anything I could get my hands on."
As for an 'amp history'... I've only been with Robben about 5 years now, so that is about as far back as my knowledge of his gear use goes. Sorry, but my availability of time and personal interests don't include cataloguing every amp and/or guitar that every musician I've ever worked for has ever owned and/or used.
You guys would probably have more time/enthusiasm for the required research and could probably put together a far better history than I ever could!
Thanks Daved,
thats pretty much what I wanted to know.
However..... rumour has it that Robben used a solid state Yamaha (G100?) as well during the Yellowjacket years. This is quite an interesting detail and it would be nice if you could check with Robben. (please, please, please, please)
As of which amps Robben used before the Dumble, one of the advantages of this board is that there are plenty of OLDER blokes here that will remember.....
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 534 Location: SF Bay area
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 10:07 pm Post subject: Amps, scmamps, oh my...
Hmmmm, I am also amazed that people can tell which amp Robben is using, merely by listening. Hey, I can't even tell which one he is using by LOOKING at it! (Although I do have a lovely portrait of the Dumble and me, which I like to call, "Woman Fondling Dumble." ) (Am I witty, or what???)
Marin, I don't know WHO you are calling OLD, (you old geezer) but I still have my 1988 GP Magazine, sitting on my night stand next to my bed...age DOES have its benefits. I have kept it in mint condition.
Hi Daved...if you are not too busy, wave "hello" to me next Thursday, in Cupertino. I'll be in the second row.......EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. (One of my students {and his parents} gave it to me as a gift...THANK YOU, BEANS!!!!) I love my job! It doesn't get any better than this!
There IS a difference in his tone between Talk to your daughter and the first Blue Line album. They are 4 years apart and during that time I think he had his Dumble modded by HAD. Pre-Skyliner vs. Skyliner pre-amp etc...
There IS a difference in his tone between Talk to your daughter and the first Blue Line album. They are 4 years apart and during that time I think he had his Dumble modded by HAD. Pre-Skyliner vs. Skyliner pre-amp etc...
Okay....here's a bit more of "that" interview with Robben that appeared in Guitarist Magazine right after "Talk To Your Daughter" was released. It speaks directly to some of the subject matter arising here:
Interviewer: That’s the impression from the album (Talk To Your Daughter) – it’s very down to earth.
Robben: That’s right, the making of the record was very much a process of returning to my…..for lack of a better word, roots, origin, which was a love for blues music – the first record that ever turned me on, which was that first Paul Butterfield Blues Band record with Mike Bloomfield on guitar. Well, to me this record is like that record, shocklingly so almost, and I can’t believe how full circle I’ve come, and it was so refreshing to do it.
There are nine tunes on the record and six of those are from the original demo and we cut the original demo in two days, did the overdubbing in about three days, and mixed in about two. Now most of those songs were remixed, but nonetheless it was just so quick.
Interviewer: A lot of it sounds almost ‘live in studio’.
Robben: It is, very much so, and I did my best to keep it a live quartet – even the credits sort of make that obvious in some way, it’s just like these our musicians. And there’s a little of this and that, here and there – you know, Jeff Porcaro played drums on one song and Billy Payne played some very simple synthesizer parts on the last tune – I mean really simple.
Interviewer: I like the way you’ve gone for a straight blues or a straight ahead boogie and then put some catchy changes in – little riffs that attack the ear and make you listen to it.
Robben: That’s it. That’s exactly the intention.
Interviewer: How did you get the guitar sound?
Robben: Well, the lion’s share of all the guitar work on that record is through the Dumble Overdrive Special amplifier, and important to that is the 212EV cabinet that Howard Dumble built for me. I discovered at Montrose a couple of days ago how important a cabinet is – I mean, it’s half your sound….half your amplification anyway, so I really missed not having it there, I used this guitar, it’s called the Fender Ultra Esprit….do you know it?
Interviewer: It’s like a double-cutaway Les Paul….
Robben: That’s right, three quarter size body. It’s got sound chambers in it and a pickup splitter. That’s the guitar through the Dumble amplifier and the only exception is the song called “Getaway”. I did the guitar overdub in New York and we just used whatever amplifiers were available there – I think I used a couple of twins in stereo.
===============================================
On another Dumble related artist, these comments appear in a Stevie Ray Vaughan interview from the '80s:
Interviewer: You used to use two Vibroverb amps.
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Yeah, I used to use two Fender Vibroverbs, two Super Reverbs and a Dumble (Howard Dumble amps made in Texas). I had used Marshall amps years ago and I had a real clean one. It was a first or second series head overdriven Fender – I’m not sure. I liked the Dumble a whole lot when I first got it, but every one I’ve had since then, they’ve all sounded worse in different ways – I don’t know what it is.
===============================================
Disclaimer from Sonarguitar: These interview snipits are submitted for your approval (Twilight Zone-style) and isn't meant to reflect anything other than these artists opinions on the day of the interview. If they're like any other guitarists I know, these opinions could have shifted 180 degrees by the following week........it's just fun to see what was on their minds at the time.
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I have the Soundpage somewhere as well.
Blob
Hey Diode, i like your stick. 
Blob