King Crimson's Robert Fripp Rig Rundown Gear Tour 

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Robert Fripp once made a deal with the devil. No one knows what Fripp got, but the devil got guitar lessons.

Yeah, but what chair does he use?

Fripp is just off-camera antagonistically staring at Biff the entire time, muttering to himself and writing a 5 page blog post about rags and the artist.

Those who've seen/read interviews with Fripp know that while he's happy to discuss a wide range of topics, he just really doesn't enjoy talking about gear. So interviewing his tech was best for this rundown.

I really love that this older guitarist that started off in late 60s is using so much advanced 2019 tech. Fripp will never stop being ahead of the curve, and he uses all of this tech to great effect as well without sounding cheesy or over the top.

I saw Fripp in a small club with the tape machines in the 80's. He asked someone in the audience to pick a key and then he started playing, looping, playing etc. until there was this tremendous wall of sound. It was amazing. I always loved Crimson and saw them a few times back when Larks Tongues was out and Red.

A towel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.

He doesnt touch the guitar because Robert will Fripp out

So this made me wonder: What is the most intimidating guitar tech gig? Fripp has to be up near the top.

Fripp would be the dude with the Hattori Hanzo of guitar picks.

One of the best and nicest guitar techs in the business 🎸✌🏻

Bobby Wilcox will always be one of my all-time favorite musicians. I really appreciate his dedication to the discovery and performance of music.

Tony Levin's gear please

The level of details and insights makes for an interesting comparison with the drum tech guy Neil Peart had. Here's a salute to the years of dedication of the very smart, very important people who help our greatest artists do what they do.

0:27 Robert Fripp: "Were you playing my guitar?" Guitar Tech: "No, definitely not" Robert Fripp: "I'm going to check if your fingerprints are on the fretboard". Guitar Tech: "OK, go ahead"

"Dont touch my guitar!" "Fine, I won't."

I have seen hundreds of bands, however, Robert is the only guitarist who sat like a jazz guitarist. I saw K.C. at a friggin roller skating rink around 75 in Alexandria, VA. Amazing!

Now that Robert Fripp has had his Rig Rundown, now its Adam Jones's turn!

Phil Collins playing Fripps guitar... I would never have imagined

That Mellotron ipad app they're talking about, is by Omenie, called Mellotronics M3000, and it's fantastic.

Hendrix once commented that King Krimson was his favorite band, and Fripp his favorite guitarist. This is interesting to contemplate ..... a major clue as to where Jimi's musical muse may have lead him.

I love everything about this rig and guitar. Glad you guys made this happen!

I didn't know they allowed erotic content content like this on RU-vid

Mind boggling. Thanks so much Biff. I need to watch this at least 214 times...

I thought that was Fripp at first, thinking he looked pretty good for his age. Also thought the towel must be some kind of crazy new fripp sound dampening effect

This is excellent, thank you for securing Mr. Fripp’s agreement to this, thanks to Mr. Fripp for the look at his performance setup, thanks to Biff for the walkthrough, and thanks to John for the great questions!! Best one of the series yet, love the mix of old and new gear. Especially nice to see Mr. Fripp’s fondness for a particular whammy pedal, I think it justifies for all of us that one piece of gear everyone says we’re crazy for loving but that we just can’t part with… because nothing else sounds quite like it! It’s not just me!! 🙂🎸❤️

”That certain feeling happened to me in a big way quite often with the first King Crimson. Amazing things would happen-I mean, telepathy, qualities of energy, things that I had never experienced before with music - you can’t tell whether the music is playing the musician or the musician is playing the music” (Robert Fripp, guitarist for KING CRIMSON, Down Beat, June 1985, p. 61).

Man, I've been waiting for this one forever.

I saw King Crimson in the early 70’s . Probably 72 . It was phenomenal 😊😎

About the black triangular picks: Til mid 80ies Robert Fripp did use those original triangular picks of German Company Herdim, made from a material called 'Indian rubber' (kind of an early natural made plastic, like Bakelite). After Herdim had stopped the production, a guy from Japan manufactured new triangular picks out of the remains of the Indian rubber. Nowadays it is very hard to get Indian rubber, so for the new triangular black picks delrin material is in use (the Guitar Craft Courses did use them, too). so you see, why Robert is pretty 'picky' regarding his picks. - the sound is indeed very well, if you have the right picking technique, too! ;-) -And, btw, Django Reinhard was said to have used a pick from Indian rubber, made from a jacket button...

Congratulations to the interviewer for asking good questions and knowing background stuff.

What a perfect Dr Brule-ian 'name drop' at the start. Great rundown!

Cool to see all his retro stomps

Biff, you are the best! No one better to talk about Frippertronics - Love you, man.

Things I can't do- Playing the opening riff of frame by frame. Playing suite no. 1 by Giles, Giles and Fripp. Saying Biff blumflumgagnge three times.

Thats an amazing one. Tnx from Chile 🇨🇱

I had no idea Robert Fripp was a rock legend. Ive been watching his short format videos for years and just thought he was a guitar enthusiast and mostly crazy retiree just enjoying life. Woops.

Great Rig Rundown, hope to see Jakko´s and Tony's as well

Saw Fripp with Peter Gabriel in Toronto in 1980, awesome!

saw Crimson at DPAC a few years ago, omg what a show...I'd love to see the entire band's gear.

Beyond my ken. At least I got to shake Robert's hand at a gig in a loft in Manhattan many years ago when he was using the tape loops. He gave me a diagram of how to set up the recorder. I still have an Akai 1710 that I bought in Japan in 1969.

Great upload, many thanks for sharing :-)

ALUCINANTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! Thanks so much!!

This is the one time no one shoudl bitch about the player not doing the rundown themselves. It's Robert Fripp. He's a mystical master and genius, and him doing something like this would somehow detract from that.

The one that I want to see more than any other.

Great video I'm a big fan of Fripp's work with Brian Eno on No Pussyfooting, Evening Star, and The Equatorial Stars.

I did NOT expect this! Nice!!!

I've got a Roland GR1 that has been in storage for about 15 years... looks like I'm going to have to take it out of storage.

Thanks! I've been waiting for this a long time. A pity the man himself wasn't there to demonstrate the soundscaping part of his rig, but I suspect for that he'd refer you right back to Biff. Btw, the signal flow chart mentions a Roland GP 100, but I don't see the unit anywhere in his rack.

Whoever's wondering about the rag: it was 35°C in Nashville on September 27. www.accuweather.com/en/us/nashville-tn/37243/september-weather/351090 So yeah, RF isn't scared of cooties, Biff just takes proper care of the instrument when it's hot af and excessive sweat would be a problem.

Biff Blumfumgagnge! What a name!

I went to see them on this tour and the quad sound system was insane.

It's deja vu all over again. I saw this days ago and yet it came out today?!

fantastic!

Biff! Righteous stalwart of the Madison, WI music scene. I have a bunch of weird gear in my collection that I bought from him through the years. Sometimes I think - "I got this pedal from Robert Fripp's guitar tech", and my mind still can't really wrap around that.

My favorite thing about Fripp is that he’s just so down-to-earth and relatable. Gotta be one of the most agreeable, laid back guys in prog!

this is absolutely insane

Gotta love a guitarist who can think most other guitarists under the table. I've been in awe of Robert Fripp since I first heard of him and that awe has not diminished. Not so long ago I finally became the proud owner of a Les Paul Standard, a valve amp and a few pedals. Fripp's rig makes that setup seem like a fossilised whalebone strung with catgut (but I'm still happy although I can just imagine him saying 'how quaint !'...)

I’ll say that the “roadie” is a quite accomplished musician in his own right. He is a local legend of the balkan folk rock scene in Madison but also a versatile player and producer. Master at violin and plays electric mandolin as well.

John Bohlinger rules and if you can't dig that then you are a strait up SQUARE

Fripp: The Scientist Artist

Oh Sees next please!

At the Ryman? I was at the Crimson show at the Ryman back in Sept. Great show

Too cool

him at the guitar shop: I'll take one of everything please

Such a fun tuning

Fripp = genius.

*IT JUST WORKS*

Robert Fripp is the reason Zappa wrote The Torture Never Stops

Why are all y'all so baffled by this rig? The synth side is an a/b/y box and two synths, and the guitar side goes guitar-Whammy II-Ax Fx. The Ax FX gets split out to the two pairs of Eventides, and that's it. A few expression pedals is hardly enough to make a system confusing. The software is usually not doing anything all that odd either - mostly some delays, reverbs, and some chorus. All the really odd stuff is happening in Robert Fripp's head.

Baby's On Fire is the all-time best solo EVER!!! (I ranked the top 10 an it won hands down) :)

Love Fernandes guitars and their sustainer! Steve Hackett also uses Fernandes as his stage guitar, in fact it's Gary Moore's Fernandes he uses!

Ryman! Sweet! I was at that show. :)

Id like to see bass interviews too , Tony Levin just came to my mind..

This rig is beyond and this rundown of it is a bath and I'm going to bed

The GDAE is violin-mandolin. The low C is viola/mandola/tenor guitar (cgda) or even 5-string violin with the E. I guess the high G is just starting (the violin) all over again. The overall tuning isn't weird, but "barr type" chords with this tuning aren't very finger friendly especially in the lower frets. It must be fun having guitar style access to all of those instrument tunings, especially 12 frets and up! (Editorial note: it was hard to hear the names of the notes when he ran through them).

Is no one gonna talk about the dudes name? Blumfumgagnge

I love the interviewer´s vibe. He always seems so into it, really enjoying, like he is not working at all, just nerding it out with amazing guitar techs

Robert Fripp? I clicked on this so fast. One of the few musicians that influenced me, I met in person.

Great video! I love this series and Fripp is one of the best! I'm curious. Is PG allowed to add the show info (date, bill, etc), or a link to some video content, from the actual shows you cover? I like to try and follow up on your RR's by watching the gear in action.!

Wow, tough interview. I feel for you man.

Would pay to see somebody eat some fried chicken then pick up that guitar and play it.

Biff! i miss you!

Steve Hackett also plays Fernandes guitars. One of his guitars was a LP copy with mini humbuckers when he was with Genesis.

Thats all good , but can he play " smoke on the water"

"actually they stay in tune really well" it has locking tuners & a locking nut. Of course its gonna stay in tune really well.

13:14 it took may years of dedicated research for Robert to discover the connection between sex, drugs and rock and roll.

John, if it doesn't offend your sponsor, what brand and type electric guitar strings do you prefer to use? Gauge is irrelevant to me. Thank you. -- Chris G. PS: I enjoy the rundowns.

i did talk smack about Fripp not doing the interview, however this entire video has been super entertaining anyway so i’m less mad about Fripp not doing it. On the tech!

Can you imagine the time you need to set up all this stuff for every gig?

The towel-rule is so Fripp-like -- strange, but you just go with it. And they both seemed somewhat in awe of the otherwordly setup -- like stumbling upon an alien artifact, not quite sure what to make of it. it's all just so completely Fripp.

Cool

Eventide put samplers in the 3500, 4500, 7500, Orville, H8000, and 9000. Samplers are digital recordings, accurate and lossless. A sampler will record once, and cannot record while playing so building a multi layered loop requires two. Triggering playback and record for the samplers is done with MIDI and involves a bit of tap dancing. They aren’t ideal loopers for this reason, there are better alternatives. However, using an Eventide sampler is a great way to capture ideas before they fade. Without needing to turn to a computer, one button starts the recording. Ideal for the initial capture and then a tempo can be determined from there. Start and End points can be fine tuned, the overlap can be blended for continuous loops that fit perfectly. They can be timed precisely and sync’d to drums using the trims. Building upon that with a 2nd sampler does require perfect timing, and with a specific tempo can prove difficult, as the sample will wander out of sync. A live drummer, however, could easily keep time with it and stay sync’d. The benefit of a sampler is in pitch detuning, because the sample will retain the original signal. Pitch shifters are synth sounds themselves, and that’s why shimmers are always ear piercing. Eventide’s are best positioned after a speaker, because an amp will thrive on analog, respond to pick attack. Putting an Eventide before the amp will square off and digitize the signal being amplified which changes the amps performance. A mic preamp is best suited to provide the source signal for a Harmonizer, it will add reverbs and delays based on that sound. An AxeFX is equally suited to provide the source audio, as they somewhat accurately simulate a full amp chain and provide line level signal that Eventides process. AxeFX units can do the entire process within, the only aspect missing is Eventide’s legendary algorithms. Someone who prefers Eventide, such as myself, does so due to the algorithms prebuilt into each Harmonizer, over 1000 useful patches that can be heard on hundreds if not thousands of recordings since the 70s. Eventides are post processors. They’re great in studios but can be implemented live if the signal is kept traditional. Plug a guitar into an amp. Sometimes Wah is up front, otherwise everything else can be done post process. There is extra control with mix blending, wet signals kept separate from dry, as in a parallel mix. This will offer some of the best tone available. Nothing to snooze about here. This guy understands signal flow.

ONE time , I saw John Bolinger SMILE !!! I shit you not .

Long live the Mellotron !

Robert doesn't like roadie sweat on his Fernandes.

What is that bell sound at 8:46 ? Sounds like one of those standing bells or singing bowls. Does anybody know which app has that sound? Or the name of that instrument that was sampled??

He played a little bit off "cirkus" .. from "lizard"

Looking at all the equipment paraphernalia it seems to be easier to learn how to handle the controls and panels of an F-22 Fighter...