Robben Ford Discussion

[jconstant]

[JohnnyZ]

Heck, until I got into Johnny A.'s music, my wife thought I was obsessed with Robben Ford. But, I didn't care!

~JZ~
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Soul on Eleven

[jconstant]

I know how you feel. My girlfriend calls me a stalker! Now that's love, isn't it?

[Aeolian]

[Aeolian]

[JohnnyZ]

[edpesco]

[marinblues]

Interesting thread....are we talking about the cables which connect the guitar to the amp?
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Homemade vaporizer

[edpesco]

[marinblues]

[AndyR]

For those who are interested, Bill Lawrence sells a solderless connectors/cable set from his website:

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Connector_Cable.htm


50 feet cable and 10 connectors @ $48.00 plus shipping seems like a pretty good deal...MusiciansFriend is selling similar George-L sets at the same price, but with only 10-15 feet of cable.

I'll eventually get around to ordering the Bill Lawrence set and let you all know how it works out.



Andy

[Daved]

I have never had overly favorable results with Monster Cable. Among it's drawbacks, from a production standpoint, is that it is too fragile and stiff for rigirous road use.

Several models of MC also have "too many moving parts".
Examples:
1) One of MC's "special features" is that some model cables have screw in/replaceable quarter inch plug tips which can easily loosen and start conductive problems if you are unaware and/or less than diligent about checking for this regularly.
2) You must watch to be sure that the black insultion surrounding the individual wires stays sufficiently peeled back so as not to short out the wire at it's connection point.

(IMPORTANT: OK everyone, I will now reveal here to you all one of my personal 'professional/quality secrets'.
What I have just told you about cable insulation applies to MANY brands, makes, and models of audio cable... and I am always AMAZED at how few techs know this.
When I temp with a group who has cable problems, this is always one of the first things I check for, and it almost always proves to be their primary trouble spot and then, when I point this out to the groups resident tech and/or the musician himself, their eyes buldge, their jaws drop and they exclaim that they never knew this about cable construction!

If you want to check your own cables... let me clarify:
Look at the insulation between your signal conductor and it's braided shielding. It is usually made of either a clear or white material. Although it actually may be, ocassionally, made of a black material... the fact that this insulation appears to be black is most definitely a 'flag' to more closely examine your cable. The reason why is that many, if not most, quality cables are, these days, constructed with a thin, black layer of CONDUCTIVE, I repeat... CONDUCTIVE, rubbery material between the actual insulation and the grounded braid to insure a more uniform and complete sheild. When the cable is prepped for use and the eighth to quarter inch seperation of insulation between the conductor and the braid is cut, the black conductive coating, if it is there, must also be removed. Check very closely! This coating is often not readily visible as seperate from the actual insulation underneath. You may want to carefully scrape the surface of the "black" insulation to insure that it truely is insulation all the way thru], or it will, over time, with use, move close enough to the conductor to start creating intermitant and permanent shorts.)
Providence (see last paragraph below) is a company which DOES remove this layer while meticulously & precisely constructing it's ends.

The only musician I've ever worked with who heavily endorses and uses Monster cable is bassist Myron Dove (from my days with Santana and then later with Robben). However, Myron uses a rack filled with amps & FX which is stuffed with Monster cable so, as long as you don't have to burrow into the back of the rack, the cable sees minimal disturbance/wear-and-tear.

The first time I worked with Little Feat for a substantial length of time, about 3 years ago, I found they had alot of cable problems, which I quickly reduced to being Monster cable problems, of which they used quite a bit. I cleared out all of their MC supplies and they have been much happier ever since.

Robben & I have tested Monstercable heavily in my early days with him and he consistently dislikes them sonically. I found I could secretly switch any length of MC with any of Robben's cables and Robben always and immediately recognizes that there is "something annoyingly wrong" with his sound. I cleared out all of his MC cable supply and we have avoided MC ever since.

After much extensive testing and trial during my first couple of years on board, we have settled with a combination of Dumble custombuilt Siver wire, Planetwave, and Providence cabling that Robben is very pleased with. I use a Planetwave from guitar to pedal board and then I use Providence "Patch Series" for jumpers between the pedals and for the audio line back to the amp input. We use the Silver wire in the FX loop between the Dumble Overdrive amp and the Dumbleator.

Providence makes several different models of cable, all of which we have tested. Robben was favorably impressed with the sound of each, particularly within the context of their usage design. For Robben, we have found that he leans towards the "Patch Series" and the "Shark Series" for his needs.
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B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)

[JackD]

And there you have it! Daved has the final word. Thanks very much to Daved and everyone else who contributed commentary to this topic. I now know a lot more about cables than I ever did before. That's what I love about this message board--ask a question . . . get a lot of great information!

[Aeolian]

Hey Daved, I saw Myron tonight and guess what he is using? Planet Waves Local gig, he was playing a Warwick into a small rack and single ElWhappo cab.
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