Robben Ford Discussion

[sfhalo]

I previously posted a few messages concerning the weights of certain guitars. Well...........I just sold my Tokai Les Paul and am seriously looking for a Fender Highway 1 Telecaster with Rosewood fingerboard. I've settled on the Highway 1 model due to the lower price versus a standard American Series.. If anyone has one for sale, feel free to get in touch. Interesting......after 27 years of not playing, I will have bought 3 electric guitars during the past 8 months! I guess the feeling and spirit of playing blues guitar never disappears forever.........even when you've reached 60 years of age!

[Leftbender]

[sfhalo]

My new Telecaster just arrived a few days ago...........a beautiful guitar and considerably less weight than my Tokai Les Paul. It sounds fantastic........now to figure out how to pull some "Robben tones" out of it! If you'd like to see a photo, go to the following website and scroll down:
http://www.wintutors.com/music.htm
As Leftbender said............."It's a lifetime addiction, once touched by the blues!"

[collinsman]

[quote="sfhalo"]I previously posted a few messages concerning the weights of certain guitars. Well...........I just sold my Tokai Les Paul and am seriously looking for a Fender Highway 1 Telecaster with Rosewood fingerboard. I've settled on the Highway 1 model due to the lower price versus a standard American Series.. If anyone has one for sale, feel free to get in touch. Interesting......after 27 years of not playing, I will have bought 3 electric guitars during the past 8 months! I guess the feeling and spirit of playing blues guitar never disappears forever.........even when you've reached 60 years of age![/quote]

Go to the Fender guitar (Tele) discussion forum, they have a classifieds and you can post a wanted etc...
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I love Tele players Albert Collins, Gatton. Roy B,RF - and my guitar of choice.

[BlueRunner]

sfhalo: Ouch. Just when I think I have enough ____ guitars, you go and pick up another, and then show it off.

Very cool. I can tell from the photo you're already enjoying it a ton.

What was it about Leo Fender that he got it 100% right, right out of the gate?
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- BlueRunner

[Aeolian]

The cool thing about the Highway 1 Tele's is that they use the vintage style steel bridge instead of that stupid brass thing on the American Standards. A great deal of the solidness of a Tele bridge pickup is the magnetic effect of the steel plate.

Now you can play with the saddles for an even more vintage vibe. Robben's uses the threaded kind, where the entire saddle is like one long threaded screw. Callaham makes some really cool angled brass saddles that are very much like the original 52 ones, but with the perfect angles to get the intonation right.

You could also put larger frets on like Robben has, but putting $200 of frets into a $400 guitar sounds silly. You could also put the Fralin copper plate under the bridge pickup to tame the icepick and make it more solid sounding.

Then you can always go crazy trying every aftermarket pickup under the sun.
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There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com

[sfhalo]

Actually..........I've decided to play my new Tele stone-cold stock for awhile. I played Gibsons for so long that the feel of those LPs is embedded in my brain and I want some time to reacquaint myself with a Fender, having only ever owned one previous Tele in the early-1970s. The Highway 1 comes with medium-jumbo frets and I will replace them with jumbo frets when there have worn down.........quite a ways down the road I think. As soon as it arrived, I changed the strings to D'Addario EXL-110 10-46, but have considered trying 11-49. Other than ordering a ZenDrive and playing through my Fender Pro Junior amp..........that's it. Hopefully, my hands can do the rest. As I mentioned before, I grew up listening to Mike Bloomfield and learned every solo he ever played with the BBB, but I didn't sound like him when I played. Robben is my alltime favorite guitarist and I have definitely copped a few licks, phrases, alternate chords, etc from him and........I don't sound like Robben either. That's what's great about playing guitar........each of us gets to develop our own sound based on what we've heard from others. But, Robben's tone is just incredible and I'm hoping the ZenDrive, at least, will get me in the right direction. During my playings days, I never used many pedals.......only a CryBaby Wah-Wah.
BlueRunner: Remember, I sold the Squier Tele to buy the Tokai LP and then sold the Tokai to buy the Fender Highway 1 Tele. I still only have one electric guitar in my collection! My collection now consists of the Tele and a Giannini Classical that I've owned since 1972.
Aeolian: I wish it was only $400.00. The Highway 1 retails for $899.00, but sells at Musician's Friend for $629.00. This is the second guitar I've purchased from them and the service was great, as well as each guitar.
I'll tell both of you this.............in just two weeks, I've fallen in love with this guitar. It plays great and has exactly the feel I was looking for and the light weight I was also seeking. All-in-all........a great guitar for the money. Thanks for your input and comments.

[collinsman]

[quote="sfhalo"]Actually..........I've decided to play my new Tele stone-cold stock for awhile. I played Gibsons for so long that the feel of those LPs is embedded in my brain and I want some time to reacquaint myself with a Fender, having only ever owned one previous Tele in the early-1970s. The Highway 1 comes with medium-jumbo frets and I will replace them with jumbo frets when there have worn down.........quite a ways down the road I think. As soon as it arrived, I changed the strings to D'Addario EXL-110 10-46, but have considered trying 11-49. Other than ordering a ZenDrive and playing through my Fender Pro Junior amp..........that's it. Hopefully, my hands can do the rest. As I mentioned before, I grew up listening to Mike Bloomfield and learned every solo he ever played with the BBB, but I didn't sound like him when I played. Robben is my alltime favorite guitarist and I have definitely copped a few licks, phrases, alternate chords, etc from him and........I don't sound like Robben either. That's what's great about playing guitar........each of us




gets to develop our own sound based on what we've heard from others. But, Robben's tone is just incredible and I'm hoping the ZenDrive, at least, will get me in the right direction. During my playings days, I never used many pedals.......only a CryBaby Wah-Wah.
BlueRunner: Remember, I sold the Squier Tele to buy the Tokai LP and then sold the Tokai to buy the Fender Highway 1 Tele. I still only have one electric guitar in my collection! My collection now consists of the Tele and a Giannini Classical that I've owned since 1972.
Aeolian: I wish it was only $400.00. The Highway 1 retails for $899.00, but sells at Musician's Friend for $629.00. This is the second guitar I've purchased from them and the service was great, as well as each guitar.
I'll tell both of you this.............in just two weeks, I've fallen in love with this guitar. It plays great and has exactly the feel I was looking for and the light weight I was also seeking. All-in-all........a great guitar for the money. Thanks for your input and comments.[/quote]

They are indeed cool guitars, I'm looking at a Trans red one to put on layaway if I can get up the scratch for a third down. They have the bigger frets, vitage style bridge, good pups, good axe for blues or Gatton vibe.
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I love Tele players Albert Collins, Gatton. Roy B,RF - and my guitar of choice.

[sfhalo]

collinsman: Yeah............as I said, it's a great guitar, especially for the price. I would probably have bought a MIM model, but you can't get a Rosewood fingerboard on those models. And, as you said, it has some nice features which are standard. Though I've loved playing Gibson Les Pauls for many years, I think the Tele is a better "all around" guitar........blues, country, jazz. All of it from one guitar. I'm definitely a happy camper and the Highway 1 is a keeper and worth every dollar!