Gee, that was fun! I thought from the title of the concert that this was going to be about "Guitar Blues" but there was quite a mix of stuff played.
First up is Ruthie Foster (never heard of her before) playing a blinding chrome resonator (Gibson Dobra) with finger picks and a slide for her first song before switching to a mic'ed up acoustic, however... You find that you really don't notice her guitar work because she has a voice to knock your socks off! Unbelievable!
Next up was Jorma Kaukonen playing either a 2003 Gibson Advanced Jumbo or a 1993 Gibson J-35 (the two he says he uses live) - he wasn't mic'ed but used Fishman Tranducers in there. Interesting fingerwork, but left both myself and my friend thinking "a bit boring."
Then, after a short break, Robben gets up there and plays an opening song with a Les Paul that just about killed us in the front row of the balcony (heh, almost hard to say this as a guitar lover, but TOO much guitar and not enough vocals plus WAY too much treble!). After the first song though he switched to a Tele (apparently his favorite 1960) and you could tell immediately that the soundcheck was made with that guitar since all of the problems disappeared and it sounded great. Very talented guitar player (and first I've ever seen doing volume swells with a foot-pedal the way you'd do them with your pinky finger). It cracked me up when he started playing a song in 3/4 that sounded really nice and people started dancing then, rather abruptly actually, the song changed to 7/8 and he (along with his nephew on drums and an excellent bass player) went into full-on jazz mode. The people dancing didn't have a clue what they were supposed to be doing! LOL!
Towards the end, Ruthie joined Robben's band on both portable keys as well as on one of Robben's Les Paul's (which it turns out she can play very well). Fuck! We thought she sounded good when it was just her and a guitar, with a band she was even better.
Replace Ruthie with Jorma (now, thankfully, playing his signature Epiphone through a Louis Electric amp) and FINALLY I can understand why he was on the bill (other than starting Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna). Holy fuck what a tone he got and he showed he can really, really play.
Finally Ruthie joined everyone else so there was now three electric guitars up there (with Robben using first his Tele than his Sakashta Noupaul for the final song). I must say, by the end of the song, Ruthie had stolen the stage - even Robben was looking over at her smiling. Let's just say she wouldn't be allowed on something like American Idol because the other contestants wouldn't stand a chance against her vocal abilities - unreal power and control.
Robben used a Fedner Super Reverb along with a fucking Dumble mini-stack (Dumble Overdrive Special amp on a vertical Dumble 2x12 cabinets with vintage Celestion Super 65 speakers according to an interview I just found). Not too much on the ground, but I couldn't see much other than a Crybaby wah (which he could use VERY tastefully). He mostly used one stomp button for a lead boost and that's all [Google being my friend I found that this is a Hermida Technology Zendrive boost].
Jorma played through a Carr Slant 6V and a Louis Electric Ferrari boutique amp without any stomps that I could see (I just found an online diary that he put up of the show last night - he says it was the first time he'd used the amp and he loved it - I completely agree! Here's the page for the amp (hey Howie, it uses EL34's with a G12H Anniversary - maybe that settles which to use for me, eh? 8-) ).
http://www.louisamps.com/content/Ferrari.asp Here's a link for his other amp:
http://www.carramps.com/slant6v.htmlRuthie also used a Louis Electric amp (a Bluesbreaker
http://www.louisamps.com/content/BLUESBREAKER.asp which, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say probably belonged to Robben, heh).
Heh, there's others on the Gear Page saying the same thing I am about Ruthie!
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=501682Here's an interesting tip from Robben for those of you into Fedner amps: "When I play in Europe, I usually rent a Super Reverb and a Twin Reverb, and they complement each other for a big, fat, wonderful tone. The trick is to go into the first input of the second channel of either amp, and then connect the second input of that same channel to the first input on the other amp. It sounds amazing."
