Aptly feeling like a complete amateur, GEARED has a conversation with legendary US jazz/blues/rock guitarist ROBBEN FORD – who's due to hold a one-off Brisbane masterclass next month.

GEARED: Hi Robben – do you mind telling us a little about your clinic?

ROBBEN FORD: I do that in a pretty open format – there's a lot of Q&A, but there is a particular theme which I try to address, which is no matter what your level of skill or knowledge of the guitar, I try to help people understand that they're not that far away from making music even if they think they are. I try to take some mystery out of what it is to make music because people have their own innate talents – each person has the ability to make music, and I try get people to discover the music that's already in themselves. There's a variety of ways of talking about it and getting to that point – I talk about chords and rhythm a lot. It's fairly open but it has a particular intent on my part: to help people find their own music.

G: Speaking of gear, which guitar will you be playing in Brisbane?

RF: I'm not sure what I'm going to bring yet.

G: … a Gibson, perhaps?

RF: It's possible, but I'm not sure (laughs).

G: Are there any amps or effects pedals that you're currently excited about?

RF: You know, I've been using the [cult boutique amp] Dumble Overdrive Special for many years and I just haven't found anything to compare. Different things sound differently and they can sound good for different styles of music, but for my needs there's nothing that compares to the Dumble amplifiers. I don't really get excited about anything (laughs) – there's nothing for me that can do what a Dumble does. It's a big part of my sound. You're turning into a different kind of an animal with a different colour; this is my sound that the Dumble gives me. So the short answer would be no (laughs) but there are other things that I like – vintage amplifiers that I enjoy playing through. I basically enjoy vintage sounds – new amplifiers sound too 'new' and they are generally built for a different musician than me.

G: How many effects do you currently use?

RF: I basically just use a wah-wah and a volume pedal. Other than that, the Dumble has an overdrive in it and I use a little bit of outboard delay – the TC Electronic 2290. That's it.

G: Now back to the clinic – aside from taking questions from the audience and demonstrating different patterns, are you going to perform any music pieces?

RF: It's possible if there's a rhythm section there. I might play a little bit, but I don't know what that would be – I don't have anything particularly planned for that. I often play a little on my own, and usually it's just something improvised as opposed to a song. At certain times that's appropriate, but sometimes I like to talk about songwriting and I'll play something that I've written and talk about where it began and how it evolved as a piece.

G: What do you think are the criteria for becoming a guitar legend?

RF: I don't think there's any criteria for that (laughs). I don't know how to answer that question.

G: I'll rephrase it – where does one start in their attempt to become a prominent guitarist?

RF: Well, it's not necessarily your goal to become a prominent guitarist – that was never my goal. For some people, it may be their goal and they lock themselves in their bedrooms and practice guitar for 10 hours a day; I think they're ambitious and they want to be paid – there are people like that. My desire was to be able to play music that I liked – a guitar is a medium and my chosen instrument for my own, personal musical expression. I just love music and for me, it's always just been a matter of playing it. You don't wait until you're good enough to play and it was important to me to be involved in music and play an instrument with other people. I've always preferred playing with other people to playing alone. Music is about joy – for me, that's one word that sums up the entire experience. Just to be playing music with other people was my desire, and of course I wanted to be good at it, so in order to do that you have to play a lot. But what's really important is playing at all – and again, playing with other people.

G: I wholeheartedly agree. Thanks Robben!

RF: My pleasure.

Presented by Guitar Brothers, ROBBEN FORD is set to deliver a masterclass at QUT's Kelvin Grove campus on Wed Sep 29. Tickets are $79 ($59 student) and are available from www.oztix.com.au. For more info head to www.guitarbrothers.com.au.

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