“It was the way for me to learn to approach the guitar a different way, because Jeff Beck was not an early influence”: Robben Ford on rearranging John Lennon, iconic collaborations and paying tribute to Jeff Beck and amp guru Alexander Dumble

Robben Ford is photographed at Olympic Studios with his trusty whiteguard Fender Telecaster.

The sun is shining on Robben Ford, literally and figuratively. Joining us from Tuscany, the Californian guitar legend is bathed in the morning light, and in the afterglow from completing Two Shades Of Blue.

If Two Shades Of Blue was conceived as a tribute – to the late Jeff Beck, and to the tube amp guru whom Ford credits for helping him find his voice as a guitarist, Howard Alexander Dumble – it was also an opportunity to explore all kinds of things you can do with an electric guitar.