Robben Ford

Got from interview of Phil Bradbury from Little Walter Tube Amps: "Phil: I was hanging at a popular music store in Nashville with Vince Gill and Paul Franklin where we ran into Robben Ford. Robben mentioned to Vince about something he had learned about amp tone stacks and he flagged me over and introduced me. Robben and I had a very interesting discussion on passive tone stacks and ended up exchanging contact info. I was holding a private amp showing in Nashville about a month later and invited Robben to come by and try out a couple models. Robben showed up with a 1959 Les Paul Gold Top with P-90’s and a trapeze tailpiece. After trying all the amps that I had set up on stage It was quickly obvious that the 59’ with the TS310 speaker cabinet seemed to speak to him. The 59’ is my Series 9 (9 pin preamp tube), 50-watt model. I had it hooked to my TS310 cabinet which had a trio of Eminence Legend 1028 10” 35-watt 8-ohm speakers. It was obvious that Robben was very pleased with the tone of the 59’ and he especially liked the characteristics of the TS310 cabinet. He wanted to play this amp at our first meeting. The only thing left to do was pick a color and build it."

Since 1983, Ford’s main amp has been a Dumble Overdrive Special, serial number 002, which Alexander Dumble made for him that year. (Serial 001 is Dumble’s personal amp.) Ford keeps this sweet baby safe by plugging it into a variable voltage regulator. He runs this Overdrive Special through a Dumble 2x12 cabinet that was actually made for his second Dumble head. The cabinet houses a pair of Celestion G12-65 8-ohm speakers.

Robben Ford using a Fender Bassman amp in Vision Musica 2016

In this photo, Robben Ford can be seen playing through two red-knobbed the twins.