Robben Ford Discussion

[Bluelobster]

oh oh!! and i forgot : whoever you are when you go and sell stuff on ebay: gear, dvds, bootlegs etc... please just don't forget to write: good or very good musician on the top and like that we poor average street basic people could buy it closed eyes, this one is doing it in a noble cause, he is a very good musician (i can 't imagine Robben spending time doing such) this other one is doing it for BUSINESS, that's bad

[juspasinby2003]

Blob,
Au Contraire! Aeolian is anything but a fool. That's why I have to work so hard to refute his propositions. I have read his prior prose, and the man is quite capable of defending himself and pulverizing any opponent who would dare challenge him with less than an airtight argument. Besides, this ain't personal and it ain't gonna become personal. It's merely a game of intellectual hide-and-go-seek [do the French know of that child's game?].

Now please get some sleep, and have a good night. I'm sure things will look better to you after you have rested.

[Bluelobster]

bravo for your french passingby, i also forgot to specify that your friend big doing should post a link where we could eventually listen how good he is ! you know you make me nosy

[juspasinby2003]

[Bluelobster]

oh such a smart taste !!
at first when you logged i had a little hesitation about who is that guy , might be robben in person, maybe.... but don't puff up... the man disapp eared as soon as a good lick
i am curious, about that other board, seems to be tremendously astonishing!!!
i am snoopy about how much you touch on this selling(guitar)
and the question is , are you bigdealdoing????

[juspasinby2003]

[Bluelobster]

justpasingby, sorry you are the one talking but in fact i would have said that to big doing himself! no personnal offense please from me to you but i just still don't understand directions for use : bigdoing: ".....some on the board refer to Ebay as Evilbay....STUPID! should have bought the stock....could have bought the Baker and a new house!
This is a Great world, and we have place's we can go and buy what we want when we want...for a price....just get the facts straight ...dont be a ..hypocrite "
must be good for my blues
uh pasingby it's only 21 in the evening je dois manger d'abord avant d'aller me coucher

[juspasinby2003]

Blob,

You have email - a greeting from California. I was just playing with you; so please brother, be cool. We still "bon amis."

Ti amo; ti voglio bene; e voglio essere sempre tuo. Capice?

[Aeolian]

Yeah, we're on touchy ground here but it's an interesting enigma. There was an exchange awhile back between Daved and Marin, where Daved inferred that Marin was somehow less of a musician because he was asking gear questions instead of musical questions. I recognize this tendency. Every time someone asks what year my 335 is, I want to reply that they’re hearing 42 years of practicing at getting a nice sound, not whether it’s an 85 or 86 model. So, I’ll plead guilty to the same kind of presumptive categorization. In the end, everyone who plays music, however well, is a musician. And that, in and of itself, does not make any individual more or less worthy of the appellation.

It’s a thin line between starving artist and well heeled hobbyist. I’ve sold pedals to keep the lights on. And I realize that is a choice one makes in lifestyle. And it is not necessarily related to talent. There are many folks with marginal talent and ability as musicians, living the martyred life of starving artists. And there are some immensely talented and dedicated musicians barely scraping by, sacrificing for their art. By the same token, there are folks with quite a lot to say musically, who have created comfortable or even affluent lifestyles for themselves. We are just more familiar, probably because there are more of them, with the folks in the early stages of learning the instrument who expend more energy on what they’re playing rather than on how they are playing it. If the sound doesn’t match something they’ve heard on a record, they have to exchange this $3000 amp for that $5000 amp. This even affects some good players. There’s a cat on the Gear Page who is quite talented in other genres who feels that he perfectly gets Robbens tone with a particular amp. And tears into folks who propose that some other amp sounds more like Robben. He finally posted a clip and to me it sounds really flat and static. A nice creamy, singing lead tone, but none of that dynamic blooming and tonal shading within the licks that I think of when I think of RobbenTone. I guess it’s like the parable of the elephant. Everyone see a different aspect. But the fixation on equipment is contrary to my personal outlook. I’m somewhere in the middle. I’m a mediocre guitar player with a decent job. If it were the most important thing in my life, I could have a real Dumble, 54 LP, 60’s Tele, ect… But while they might be nice to have, and might make a subtle difference in the tone I get, I can’t justify it. Guess I grew up poor and am too used to getting by. Not that having a Fuchs, and Epi 56LP and American Standard Tele, is settling by that much. For me it’s close enough and I look to my hands and heart if I want to channel Bloomfield or Robben. I’ve heard David and Scott and these guys have put the energy into learning the instrument and optimizing their gear. And I have the greatest respect for that. I didn’t have the fortitude to go to Berkley, or even drag any of the books I have on the shelf and spend several hours a night studying them. Maybe I should change my screen name to Just Getting By.

That’s why I look at this as a philosophical issue. I am influenced by the acquisitive, materialistic culture around me here in the Bay Area, but I find that for myself, that the more I separate myself from it, the more comfortable I am with myself and the more relaxed happiness I experience. A friend once told me that the man who owns too many things becomes owned by his things. Dr. Susan Jeffers wrote that “security comes not from having things, but knowing that you can handle things”. I work toward developing my sense of myself as a musician as getting to the place of knowing that I can play something melodic and interesting with whatever song is called and make it sound good, rather than whether I have an Amperex or Mullard tube in V2 of my amp, or regretting not buying that spruce top P90 Baker I enjoyed playing in GC last year.
_________________
There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com

[Bluelobster]

".......e voglio essere sempre tuo" ohoh!!!
no kidding, i am proud of your sympathy for me and appreciate to stay in touch with you! at least i know who you are!!!!!( inspector clouzot again)

[BlueRunner]

A great thread for a Sunday afternoon (Pacific Daylight Time -- you guys in France ought to be thinking about puttin' on the pajamas about now).

I first went through this "the rich collectors run up the prices for those of of us REAL guys" feeling back in the 1960's and early 70's when I was an amateur bicycle racer, struggling with college, a new marriage, etc. I had to beg and borrow gear to race with, and I had this idea that it was the older "hobbyists" who caused the prices of good new Italian, French and British gear to be so expensive. It never occurred to me at the time that maybe it was only because of these wealthy hobbyists that people like Campagnolo and Holdworth even shipped cylcing gear to the USA in the first place! The silliness of all of this was that I never met a competitor who won simply because his gear was fancier and more expensive than everyone else's. For about four years I rode on the same team as Rory O'Reilly, of Santa Barbara, who became a multiple-event National Champion. He used a home-made frame painted to match the factory-issue frames the rest of us on the team were given by our sponsoring manufacturer (he didn't like the "feel" of any of the free frames were were given) and parts that looked as if he'd found them in a dumpster behind a bike shop (he probably did). In one story in Sports Ilustrated, the writer described O'Reilly's bike as looking "as if he'd fished it out of the Santa Barbara Channel." But O'Reilly was a National Champ, and I wasn't. He could ride circles around me. He was faster, stronger, and trained longer harder than I ever did. Now I'm 55 years old, have a sucessful business, and both of our kids are out of college and working. If I wanted, I could go right down to a local bike shop today and without it causing me any financial pain, pay $8,000 for a graphite-framed Trek just like one of the bikes Lance Armstrong used last month to win his sixth straight Tour de France. But I can guarantee you, if you saw me riding it, I wouldn't look like anything other than an moderately overweight middle-aged man slowly pedalling my way down the street.

It would be a wonderful world if every musician could have access to the instrument of his or her dreams. The Bakers are beautiful guitars, whether to play or simply to look at. The prices that they are going for will encourage more new guitar makers to go into the business of producing sweet-looking and sweet-playing axes, all for the good. (And might even give Gene Baker the extra encouragement he needs to get over all of his legal entanglements, so that HE can start making more guitars, too!)

But for any musician who believes that he or she absolutely must have the highest quality and most expensive gear in order to successfully convey a musical message that moves the listener, I have but three words: Hound Dog Taylor.
_________________
- BlueRunner

[Michael]

I'm just curious ... what would be the original cost on a Robben Ford "Baker"?

[bigdoins]

WOW! AllI was trying to do was list a Baker Robben Ford a the going rate for someone to enjoy...and repesent the condition...im not a acemusicain,professional,..however just a guy who like to experiment with dumbles,fuchs,two rocks,vintage,new ...ect..ect...ect.
I was put in a position to buy whatever I want when ever I want....when I was a true player I could not afford strings....now "the sky is the limit"...that is not disrespectful....its reality!
Is a dumble worth 15k? Is a baker worth 6-7k? is a '59 LP worth 25k or 60 k...the answer is no! your looking at a guy who sold a blonde '55 d'angelico newyorker to buy his first house......did I deserve to have that guitar at that time in my life...NO ....YES is the correct answer.....
I had the passion to hunt and find it ...like a fine painting or wine to try,sample play....Thats life,thats music ...experiment! if someone says NO...YOU say yes ...I will play this cord when I feel suit.....Robben says that always...so wake up!
Robben,years ago played a guitar clinnic in miami ...with yamaha g100's in stereo...sounded unreal....thats right ...NO DUMBLE!!!!
sooooooooooo....in the end it the human being not the equiptment,however some love the same find as there fav musician,,,,so go for it....
in a sport does it make a difference if you use the exact same glove ball bat stick ...NO .... but do people do it ..yes! so if it make you feel good and if you have the money....go for it...life is short! remember you need the God given talent!
Paul simon said it best..."one man's ceiling is another man's floor"
or if your refering to the music business..."what looks good from a distance does not look that good close up" its a BAD business!
or "what looks good from far ...is far from good"....point is, its a young cats game....from a marketing price driven prospective.
plus its alittle crazy to play the blues on a 6k guitar...right?
its like BIG BEN being a timex!...strange! Most pro's play what they get paid to do not there true love! pro VS. Slave


I love the blues and other jazz cats like Robben who play it...the blues is in the blood and the heart...you either have it or not....this can not be taught in a class at GIT or Berkley.....3 note can sound different ...it depends who is playing them...

Note: If anyone love's the blues and HUbert Sumlin...I will sell one of his strats for a song....MOJO! personally owned and played

on the biking note...I agree what came first the chicken or the egg!
Now you have everyone marketing the "live srong" Lance Armstrong braclets....shouldn't you just say a prayer if you know someone with cancer....does Nike have anything to do with that!
it reminds me of those "WWJD" bands....did Jusus where one of those?
do you have to look down on that to realize?...do you have an inner voice.....bottom line is to much press and marketing...look at my add,bad photo's and no real over produced auction...hope it clears it up!

BIGDOINS