Robben Ford Discussion

Jessefender · Member Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 5

Hello everybody,
Daved.

I know Robben used to use the Zendrive from Hermida Audio. Now my question is, does he still use it? I might get one myself because I've been looking for a nice overdrive pedal, and I love Robben's tone. Although I do realise it's alot to do with the fingers too.

It's my birthday the 5th of july and I might order one. Would it sound good on my fender strat? Or would I really need humbuckers...

Thank's !

Steven_nl · New Member Joined: 16 Feb 2009 Posts: 4

I saw Robben play last night (with Bill Evans)
He used a Twin and a Super Reverb. He wasn't using a Zendrive. Possibly a Providence OD?

I guess you can't go wrong with a Zendrive though. Robben used one for years.

Piemonte · Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 9:14 am Post subject: Re: The Zendrive!

bluesman · Senior Member Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 219 Location: UK

Steven_nl · New Member Joined: 16 Feb 2009 Posts: 4

I'm very sorry. Possibly I gave wrong info. We saw Robben play and didn't see the usual White Zendrive. I just found there's a Zendrive SE which is brown with Chrome knobs. Thats sounds like what my friend saw on stage.

lemonjefferson · Senior Member Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 83

check out the Providence SOV 2 which I think is personally better

Millibobs · Senior Member Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 291

So many people make reference to the Zendrive and having owned and sold two of them, I can confirm that yes, they are a pretty good pedal. However, I can also confirm that after many hours twiddling and many pounds GBP expended on a wide range of pedals, you can actually get a respectable Robben tone from a lot of them, especially if you can play with just your fingers and you know how to work the tone/volume pots on your guitar.

Me and a friend have built a few of our own clones in recent years including a pretty decent Klon Centaur and a fabulous Timmy, both of which work well with Teles and LP's respectively. However, for sheer warmth and punch, I have yet to hear anything better than my Xotic Effects BB preamp which I go back to time after time.

As for amps, well here's the thing - I have spent literally thousands of £'s on all sorts of amps and I recently stumbled across the Fender Studio Lead - a 50 watt solid state amp. I now have two of these monkeys (Rivera designed) and I have to say, they are absolutely bloody marvelous. They are all I will use from now on for recording and stage work, not that there is much of either these days!

I can get to a near enough 'Robben' sound with my humble rig but I only need to be in the ball park - the rest is about letting loose and seeing if I can simply play anything remotely like him, not try and sound like him. One thing is certain, as I discover more and more blues and jazz players who delight me with their playing, I keep coming back to Robben's stuff and grinning that grin that only guitar players can accomplish.......

masque · Member Joined: 26 Aug 2008 Posts: 17

the zendrive is a great pedal. however, I owned it along with a ts-808 and bb preamp.......in a side by side comparison between all three the ts-808 and bb preamp were more suited to my needs tha the zendrive.....so I sold it.

tedro · Senior Member Joined: 23 Nov 2008 Posts: 66

Cheebatone · Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 2:12 am Post subject:

I have an Ethos TLE and a Zendrive II, but IMHO the most important pedal you need to buy is a delay. Any decent overdrive pedal that gives a nice thick creamy tone into a delay set on one or two repeats, at about 90ms, will get you into Robben-esque territory ...with a bit of tweaking.

Have fun! Very Happy

_________________
I first started to play guitar 35 years ago... Trouble is, I had 20 years off in the middle.