Pedalboards of the Stars: Robben Ford

Robben Ford is one of my favorite guitar players and a tone monster. Here's a look at a recent pedalboard [from December 2010]. In the past he has just used volume, wah and the Zendrive, but his board seems to be expanding. It now includes:

• Ernie Ball volume pedal
• Vox Wah [may be modified]
• Korg Pitchblack tuner
• Hermida Audio Zendrive overdrive
• Arion Chorus SCH-1 [with true bypass mod] - same as Landau and Henderson have used
• Line 6 DL4 Delay
• G-Lab Reverb
• Buffer [to maintain signal strength]

Of course, it really helps your tone when you plug this into a $35,000 Dumble amp although Robben sometimes uses Fender Blackface amps with great results.

With so many of my favorite players using the Arion Chorus I may have have to pick one up - again - and re-evaluate my decision to sell the one I had. That's been replaced with the Analogman Chorus, but I am wondering now if I made a mistake. Although at the time it didn't knock me out as a chorus pedal - but most people use it just for the rotating Leslie simulation. That aspect of the pedal was really nice and certainly a cheaper option than the DLS RotoSim that's on my shopping list.

The other pedal Robben has that interests me is the Zendrive. I could not be happier with my Timmy, but I see the Zendrive on a lot of boards and that says something about its quality.