Robben Ford Discussion

revelation · Newbie Joined: 08 Jun 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Spain

hello,
i love clean sound from life song(one for annie)
does anyone know robben's gear in the robben ford & the blue line album?
but i'd love to know particulary in that song.great clean sound for me and,of course,amazing playing with a lot of sensibility.
i'm interested about the amp but if you could tell us more..
i'll stand waiting Shocked

for your comments
thanks
best regards

Leftbender · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:04 pm Post subject:

In the period of that album Robben played a Fender Custom Shop model guitar.
http://www.vintageguitar.com/brands/details.asp?ID=18
He changed the pickups for Seymour Duncans. A SH1 '59 model in the neck position, and a SH4 JB model in the bridge position. This pickup had a coil-split switch. He also played a Fender '64 Tele, mainly for blues songs.
His amp was, and is the Dumble Overdrive Special head that often was connected with an speaker cabinet with Celestion 65's in it. Sometimes he used a Fender Deluxe Reverb in the studio.
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PierreL · Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:50 am Post subject:

I wonder if that's the Dumble on that song , for the clean tone I mean.
That really sounds like a Strat + Fender amp to me.

Aeolian · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:57 pm Post subject:

That song always sounded like the Tele on the middle switch position to me. Might be an RF in the middle with the coil tap on, but I think he preferred the way the Tele recorded. He can also get that thick overdrive tone from the Tele bridge pu when he wants to. Or he may have used something else for those parts. It's difficult to tell since he can adjust the amount of treble with his hands at will, and make the Tele bridge sound like humbuckers.

In that era he was mostly using the Dumble ODS with a 4-12 Marshall cab with 4 Celestion 65s. The clean might have been a Super Reverb but he gets that sound from the Dumble rig.

With hands like his, he can get sounds out of one guitar that we normally associate with another. But to him, there's a response to the things he does with his hands that makes him prefer one set up over another for certain things. It's often interesting to hear him talking with Daved (or Jeff back when) sidestage, about wishing he'd brought some such other guitar, as the way the room is behaving, that other axe might have fit perfectly. And then he makes all of them have those same familiar sounds.
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LongIslandRod · Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:16 am Post subject:

When I attended one of his clinics he spoke about the recording of that song.

It was the chambered Fender RF custom shop
JB neck pick-up
Dumble amp

Rod
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Rod

Sweet_emotion16 · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:43 pm Post subject:

jb neck pick up?? don't think so.....
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RockinRob · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:18 am Post subject:

For Info, here's a scan my friend Paul sent me of an article published soon after the album came out:

Cheers,
Rob.
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Rob Livesey
Manchester UK
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Sweet_emotion16 · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:01 am Post subject:

do you have the rest of it?
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PierreL · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 1:27 pm Post subject:

I have this GP, but can't remember which one it is...

jazzblues · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:40 pm Post subject:

Then please look at the bottom of your own scan; bottom-right!

Jazzblues.

jconstant · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:30 pm Post subject:

PierreL · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 2:15 am Post subject:

Touché !
I'll try to dig it out next week, scan the whole thing and post it here.

frank0936 · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:22 am Post subject: article

Is that the same article where Robben says that if you want to get close to his tone start with a Fender Twin and a Strat? I remember that from a GP article. I think I saved it somewhere.
Frank

Bill Morgan · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 1:00 am Post subject: article

Here's the rest of the article.

Bill

Bluelobster · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:41 am Post subject: well