Gear tips for achieving a Robben Ford sound from the 70s needed!

[mr quick]

I've posted this track in another subforum looking for the name of the tune, but have given that up... for now. I'm really digging Ford's tone on this show, very full and smooth. Kind of dry..? This show was billed as the Ricky Lawson Blues Band, perhaps in jest, apparantly in 1976 - although it could be 78. Audience recording from the Baked Potato in LA.

I know that Robben played an ES-335 for the most part at this time, and that this is likely that. He didn't get the Dumble amp until 1983, so this could be something like a G100 or Mesa type stuff --- or it could be backline.

Any good tips welcome. Also, if you have any cool stories about the session guys of LA in the 70s, do tell Had fun reading the comments on other similar threads I've started.

[jbernstein91]

I saw Robben Ford with the Yellow Jackets at Blues Alley in Washington DC sometime in the early 1980s (definitely before 1983) and he was playing through a Yamaha G100 -- the 212 version, I believe.

[John A.]

I've posted this track in another subforum looking for the name of the tune, but have given that up... for now. I'm really digging Ford's tone on this show, very full and smooth. Kind of dry..? This show was billed as the Ricky Lawson Blues Band, perhaps in jest, apparantly in 1976 - although it could be 78. Audience recording from the Baked Potato in LA.

I know that Robben played an ES-335 for the most part at this time, and that this is likely that. He didn't get the Dumble amp until 1983, so this could be something like a G100 or Mesa type stuff --- or it could be backline.

Any good tips welcome. Also, if you have any cool stories about the session guys of LA in the 70s, do tell Had fun reading the comments on other similar threads I've started.

That sounds like his tone with Jimmy Witherspoon (an album called Live at the Ash, plus some live videos on youtube). I believe that's all Super 400 into a Super Reverb. Your clip does not sound like a Yamaha G100 to me (or at least not what I remember those sounding like cranked, but has been quite a while since I've played through one).

John

[thpm]

I think one constant with Ford's tone is, that even when it's full/smooth/saturated etc. it's always less "gain" than you might think… The key to this tone is probably less in the specific amp or guitar combo, but comes from playing very loud (and being Robben Ford).

[Average Joe]

To my ears that sound like the Yellow Jacket album tone which was the Yamaha amp and 335. His Spoon sound tended to be a bit rounder and less defined in the bass.

It's worth noting that the classic Montreux live recording of Monmouth... is a Mesa Mark amp, but he used a Dumble amp as far back as Inside Story. I can't remember who he got it from but it was loaned to him for that album.

[fep]

I had that Yamaha amp around that time. I believe most set it up to be clean and used pedals for the overdrive. Did Robben do this? If so what overdrive pedal?

[Gitfiddler]

Robben Ford can sound like Robben Ford no matter what rig he uses. At one time back in the late '80's, his go to set-ups on the road consisted of a Fender Concert into a ZenDrive.

[John A.]

Robben Ford can sound like Robben Ford no matter what rig he uses. At one time back in the late '80's, his go to set-ups on the road consisted of a Fender Concert into a ZenDrive.

He couldn't have been using a ZenDrive in the late 80s. Hermida didn't build the first ZenDrive for him until 2003 (Builder Profile: Hermida Audio Technology). Maybe for some gigs/tours he used other things, but from the time he got it in the early 80s until well into the 90s he toured with the Dumble (maybe more than one of them?).

John

[Jabberwocky]

duh!

[Gitfiddler]

He couldn't have been using a ZenDrive in the late 80s. Hermida didn't build the first ZenDrive for him until 2003 (Builder Profile: Hermida Audio Technology). Maybe for some gigs/tours he used other things, but from the time he got it in the early 80s until well into the 90s he toured with the Dumble (maybe more than one of them?).

John

Oops...You are correct, John. My info came from another working pro and Ford fan, who told me about this in mid 2000's. That's what I get for relying on unverified info. At any rate afterwards, I bought a Zen and Concert amp. It nailed Robben's tone. I called it my 'Wanna-be-Dumble' rig.

[John A.]

Oops...You are correct, John. My info came from another working pro and Ford fan, who told me about this in mid 2000's. That's what I get for relying on unverified info. At any rate afterwards, I bought a Zen and Concert amp. It nailed Robben's tone. I called it my 'Wanna-be-Dumble' rig.

Yup, ZenDrives are cool, often called "Dumble in a pedal."

John

[jads57]

Really about Robben Ford's musical talent that gives him that tone. It's in his hands and experience musically which takes many years of gigging.
That said , I hear a tremendous amount t of Michael Bloomfield in his influences.
Check out "Texas" by the Electric Flag and youll see what I mean.