Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 1:12 am Post subject: Introduction
Hi everybody. I guess I don’t have anything of substance to say today, so I’ll talk about myself. Heh.
Sampo is my real name (my usual screen name Sammo was taken on this forum). I am from southern Finland but planning to relocate to Switzerland for awhile with my family. I have played guitar since I was 13, mostly because of Eddie Van Halen. I first heard Robben from Guitar Player’s sound page in ’88. That was of turning point for me – I became life long RF fan and my Dumble tone quest started. I still try to play everyday, but it’s not always possible. I used to have Gear Acquisition Syndrome, but it’s getting better. My most Robben Ford -like setup is ’85 Fender Esprit and Fuchs-modded Traynor, but I actually prefer my hollow body Tyler SE and Ethos pedal to get my tones.
In addition to Robben and EVH, I really love jazz and especially jazz guitar (Joe Pass, Benson, Wes, Ted Greene ...), good pop (Steely Dan, Bruce Hornsby, late Kevin Gilbert) and studio greats (Mike Landau, Dann Huff, Tim Pierce, Lukather).
Some random facts by numbers:
- 5. Times I have seen Robben play live. Or number of 'Dumblish' boutique overdrive pedals I've had over the years.
- 7. Number of strings on my archtop.
- 8. Years it took to finish my master’s thesis. Not fulltime, though.
- 36. My age.
- 4 300 000. Records sold collectively by two bass players I used to play with in secondary school. At least.
- 0. Records sold by me.
Hi Sampo,
I like your style of introduction , in particular the RF lick!
Which lick is this (I haven't got my guitar at hand)?
Thanks DD!!
The lick is from the ending of the Revelation. I was thinking the other day that there are only so few licks that Robben seems to play, as opposed to melodic snippets (like the quote from Jean Pierre that Robben likes to play live especially) or ideas like arpeggios, diminished scale or melodic minor use. Anyway, that Revelation-lick seems to be one of the few -- I have DVD with Russell Ferrante, Koono, Will Lee and Bob Malach where Robben plays same lick it over B-section chords and then again variation of that lick over A-section.
Hi, and welcome to the forum! Seven strings on the archtop? Nice!
Thanks Ian!
Seventh string is actually nice -- it requires a lot of work, though. I am at point when it doesn't bother or too hinder too much anymore. I still need a lot of more work to utilize it to the fullest (my fullest, at least) potential. Only trade off I can think, is that I cannot use my thumb to play bass notes over the edge of fingerboard.
Picture of her is here (taken by previous owner):
While I am at it, here is Esprit. As you can see, the pickups are replaced and there is added coil splitter.
Nice instruments !
Quite interesting to hear that you favor the Ethos over the Fuchs mod you have. Could you explain why ?
Hi Pierre !!
First, my Fuchs is from 2001 and it's quite old and not up to current specs. It has footswitchable OD, boost, midboost and reverb and also has post-overdrive tone stack (I have it disconected, though). I actually DO love it, but by design I cannot balance bright enough clean tone and fat lead tone without some tweaking because of the shared EQ and bright, deep and Jazz/Rock switches. I can use MIDI switcher for boost and midboost and it definately helps. Also, as any tube amp, it needs enough volume to open up. And it is really pedal friendly.
Ethos, on the other hand, has separate EQ, bright and Jazz/Rock switches on both channels, so it helps to balance clean and od tone. There is some low-end loss compared to Fuchs but actually I can get nicer top-end from the pedal. I think that Ethos responds really amp-like and I can almost get clean sound from OD-channel if I pick really soft. The other pedals I have tried never did well in this department. Only negative I have found, is that there seems to be some weird modulation stuff going on with transients when I pick really hard. It's not big deal and it gets masked when there are other instruments.
Maybe I should have said that my favorite tone is Ethos through clean channel of the Fuchs, but it's still great through my Boogie combo which I use on gigs and jams.
I have not tried Zen Drive which clearly is THE pedal to cop modern Dumble-like tones, but I tend to gravitate more to late 80's/early '90s Dumble tones like hear in Blue Line and Carltons Last Night and On Solid Ground and there Ethos really shines. Also, it can do "EJ/violin tone"-impression when gain is maxed. Highly recommended!
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Southern California
Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 4:56 pm Post subject:
I love the 'My favorite Robben Ford lick' idea. Maybe we should start a thread where we can all ad our favorite RF licks... _________________ "Somebody's got to make some music around here." - Robben Ford
Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 189 Location: Northern California
Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject:
Sampo wrote:
PierreL wrote:
Nice instruments !
Quite interesting to hear that you favor the Ethos over the Fuchs mod you have. Could you explain why ?
Hi Pierre !!
First, my Fuchs is from 2001 and it's quite old and not up to current specs. It has footswitchable OD, boost, midboost and reverb and also has post-overdrive tone stack (I have it disconected, though). I actually DO love it, but by design I cannot balance bright enough clean tone and fat lead tone without some tweaking because of the shared EQ and bright, deep and Jazz/Rock switches. I can use MIDI switcher for boost and midboost and it definately helps. Also, as any tube amp, it needs enough volume to open up. And it is really pedal friendly.
Ethos, on the other hand, has separate EQ, bright and Jazz/Rock switches on both channels, so it helps to balance clean and od tone. There is some low-end loss compared to Fuchs but actually I can get nicer top-end from the pedal. I think that Ethos responds really amp-like and I can almost get clean sound from OD-channel if I pick really soft. The other pedals I have tried never did well in this department. Only negative I have found, is that there seems to be some weird modulation stuff going on with transients when I pick really hard. It's not big deal and it gets masked when there are other instruments.
Maybe I should have said that my favorite tone is Ethos through clean channel of the Fuchs, but it's still great through my Boogie combo which I use on gigs and jams.
I have not tried Zen Drive which clearly is THE pedal to cop modern Dumble-like tones, but I tend to gravitate more to late 80's/early '90s Dumble tones like hear in Blue Line and Carltons Last Night and On Solid Ground and there Ethos really shines. Also, it can do "EJ/violin tone"-impression when gain is maxed. Highly recommended!
Loved the pics, especially that cool looking Tyler. What's the official color for that? I also had an old Fuchs mod, pretty cool little amp but I let it go as it just didn't get enough play. I can cop pretty good RF tones with my Zendrive, though so that was one of the reasons for kicking it loose.
Loved the pics, especially that cool looking Tyler. What's the official color for that? I also had an old Fuchs mod, pretty cool little amp but I let it go as it just didn't get enough play. I can cop pretty good RF tones with my Zendrive, though so that was one of the reasons for kicking it loose.
Ian,
Official color for Tyler is "Purple Gloss Smear", but I guess it's widely known as "Pelican Sh*t Smear" for some reason, heh.
I am actually warming to HRM-type tones since the Truth-cd came out and I probably will ge Zendrive someday, too. And play with those internal trimmers inside the Fuchs, for once!
Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 189 Location: Northern California
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:15 pm Post subject:
Sampo wrote:
Ian Hurtt wrote:
Loved the pics, especially that cool looking Tyler. What's the official color for that? I also had an old Fuchs mod, pretty cool little amp but I let it go as it just didn't get enough play. I can cop pretty good RF tones with my Zendrive, though so that was one of the reasons for kicking it loose.
Ian,
Official color for Tyler is "Purple Gloss Smear", but I guess it's widely known as "Pelican Sh*t Smear" for some reason, heh.
I am actually warming to HRM-type tones since the Truth-cd came out and I probably will ge Zendrive someday, too. And play with those internal trimmers inside the Fuchs, for once!
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, in particular the RF lick!
