In recent months, King Crimson’s Robert Fripp got some attention from guitar lovers worldwide, revealing why the band most likely won’t ever tour again. Logistics issues, high costs, and risks of cancelation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are all to blame.
Nonetheless, he still plays guitar. And, in particular, he’s planning to tour with his wife Toyah, doing some of the increasingly popular crazy YouTube covers they’re now well-known for.
And, of course, Fripp is still a guitar nerd. However, he’s not the kind of a guitar nerd you’d imagine. As he revealed in a recent interview with the Guitarist magazine (via Guitar.com), he’s he has “no interest in gear at all.” He further elaborated:
“Whatever guitar, whatever amp I’m using I’ll get my sound. Here’s an example of this. I went to see Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea at Carnegie Hall: wow, breathtaking. Herbie Hancock on the left.“
“They changed places and played, and their sounds went with them. I still don’t understand that. How can that be? It cannot be the sound of the piano changes. The sound of the piano is the sound of a piano, surely?”
On the other hand, he’s been pretty keen on using digital amp modeling units. Yes, this might feel odd to tube-driven purists out there, but it seems that he’s really into Fractal Audio’s Axe-Fx and Line 6’s Helix stuff. Fripp said:
“With Crimson, I use Axe-Fx, which is very good. For basic work that I can carry myself without a team of engineers, I use a Helix. Why? Because Jakko [Jakszyk] uses a Helix and if you’re working in a band with another character you aim for compatibility. The other thing is, he can tell me how to work it.”
Photo: Sean Coon (Robert Fripp)
