In The World Of Blues Guitar, There Are A Million Great Players Yet Few Standout Head And Shoulders Above The Rest Like Robben Ford. Robben Was One Of The Very First And Most Influential Players For Me Personally Since I Was A Young Boy. We Both Grew Up In The Same Rural Area In Northern California’s Coastal Mountains Just Above San Fransisco. He’s A Hometown Hero To Many That Live Here.
He Has Given Back To Our Community Greatly Over The Years With Free Local Performances And Even Did An “artist In Residence” Stint At Our Local Junior College (Mendocino College) For A Semester Years Ago. His Brothers Are All Fantastic Musicians As Well And They All Played Together On And Off For Decades As The Ford Brother’s Blues Band. The Amount Of Natural Musical Talent That Runs In The Blood Of The Ford Family Is Astounding To Me. This Assignment Was Finally My Opportunity To Pick The Man’s Brain One On One About His Guitars, Amps, And Pedals. Robben Recently Relocated To Nashville Tn And Is Looking Forward To Spending More Time In The Studio And Less Time On The Road. His Latest Album, Purple House, Was Recorded Much Differently Than His Previous Efforts And You’ll Find Some Very Interesting Information About How He Found The Right Guitars And Amps For This Record Inside This Interview.
I Think Many Of You Will Be Very Surprised To Learn That His Telecaster And Dumble Ods Are Nowhere To Be Found On Purple House! This Was A Shock To Me And I Think That It’s A Great Lesson We Can All Learn From The Maestro: Remain Flexible And Always Experiment Even If You Have A $150,000 Holy Grail Dumble Ods That You Need To Put On The Shelf Because It’s Not Working For You!
GC: How’s it going? How are you?!
RF: Fine thanks.
GC: Excellent, I’m giving you a call from Upper Lake, California actually. We’ve grown up in the same neck of the woods.
RF: Yeah, I saw that 707 area code. I was surprised.
GC: That’s cool! I’ve known of you and The Ford Brothers Blues Band since I was a young boy and it’s exciting to talk to you. Thanks for the opportunity.
RF: Sure, my pleasure.
GC: Can we talk about guitars?
RF: Sure.
GC: You’ve been known to mainly play your Telecaster for quite a while now. How did the Tele become your main axe?
RF: Well, actually, I play a variety of guitars. Umm, the Telecaster has been really important to me and umm somehow that instrument has been the most reliable, versatile instrument that I have. I play Les Pauls, I also umm spent a couple of years playing an Epiphone Riviera as my main instrument and the Tele was kind of a secondary instrument. The choice of guitar always has to do with whatever the music is that I’m playing. That would mean whatever music I’m writing. I never know exactly what that’s gonna be when I start writing. The writing usually occurs because I have an album to do. My newest record, Purple House, there is no Telecaster on that record at all. Perhaps oddly enough the main instrument is a ’64 SG. Which all of the guitar solos were played on a ’64 SG and a great deal of the electric rhythm on my part was done on a Les Paul Jr., a ’59 Les Paul Jr. So the record for me is pretty much Gibson all the way. A little bit of Les Paul on it. Again the SG and the Les Paul Jr. were the main instruments on Purple House.
GC: What amp were you using for that session?
Esta historia es de la edición Guitar Connoisseur Kevin Eubanks Spring 2019 de Guitar Connoisseur.
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Esta historia es de la edición Guitar Connoisseur Kevin Eubanks Spring 2019 de Guitar Connoisseur.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Robben Ford Purple House
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