Robben Ford Discussion

[tedro]

hi all!

i understand that Mr. Ford's Tele is a '60?

how exactly does the pickup selector work, i mean, what position of the 3 selects what pickup?

also, is the tone control a master for all 3 pickup selector positions?

i guess lots of teles are different so i'm curious, how does Robben's operate?

thanks!

[frank0936]

The tone control on a Tele does work in all three positions.
Robben's Tele is supposed to be stock which in 1960 would mean that the first position in the bridge only, the second position is the neck only and the third position is the neck pickup with a capacitor cut into the circuit. Leo Fender called this position "Deep Rhythm". Most players called it unusable and changed the switch so that the second position is neck and bridge together and the third position is neck pickup without the capacitor. I don't know if Robben' has been changed to that, but I suspect it has. However, Robben uses the bridge pickup most of the time with the tone and volume full on. I asked him last year how he kept it from sounding "ice pickey". His reply was, "It's just a great axe, Man."
Hope that helps some,
Frank

[FatTeleTom]

I'm almost certain Robben's Tele is wired the "modern" way, with the switch selecting

neck
both
bridge

He seems to use the Tele neck pickup tones a lot, particularly for cleaner-tone stuff, and it's always looked to me like he has the switch in the far forward position for that setting--typical modern Tele setup.

[Mikka]

+1

That's particulary clear when you hear the RBK song !
We can reconize the three positions tone in différent parts of the song as neck, both and bridge sound.

And what a great tone !


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[tedro]

[frank0936]

Most of the videos of Robben playing the Tele seem to show the selector is on the bridge pickup. I asked him last year about this and he confirmed that he uses the bridge pickup most of the time and does not roll off the highs with the tone knob.
Frank

[FatTeleTom]

Look no further than the Christian Howe live video recently posted elsewhere on the forum. Here's the YT link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvLoNJUAH94&feature=related

Looks/sounds like neck pickup to me.

Again, I think he mostly uses it when playing clean stuff.

[Mikka]

Of course, the switch is on the neck position during his chorus ... did you see that he change for the bridge position in the end of the tune ?

On this tune, it's clear that he's playing on the neck but we all accord to say that the most part of the time he prefere play his lead parts with the bridge pup !

The Christian's keyboard player is a great musician, I like the way he plays !
_________________
Stay in the wind and on the wave summit.
www.transartistik.net/mikka
www.myspace.com/mikkagrytviken

[FatTeleTom]

[Bluelobster]

But his neck tone is killer too

[edpesco]