Feeling like spending over a quarter million on an amp?

[Guildedagain]

This is Alexander, wish I'd known him.

Free space vacuum



Some Dumble history, neat stuff.

 

[Guildedagain]

The internet is rife with snidey critisisms of Dumble amps and the dumbells who buy them or play them, reminds me of a quote about how no one picks on you until you're onto something.

 

[Neal]

Give me a beat-up silverface Princeton Reverb and I’m plenty happy. Crank it to 6 or 7, add a little reverb and trem. Wait until your significant other leaves the house!

 

[krysh]

My custom dumble clone ist the best amp I ever played, and I played an original one once.

 

[HeyMikey]

Maybe GAD’s next amp build…

The GADumble

 

[Walter Broes]

Haven't played a Dumble (duh..), played some clones. From playing those and reading some about what he did, I get the impression they're Fenders with any possible bit of harsh meticulously tuned out, extra preamp gain and tweaked EQ, battlestar galactica power supplies and oversized transformers.

Even the twin 6L6 clones I've played were way too loud for me, with too much low end for the big hollowbodies I play. I think most of them are probably too loud for most people who don't play 3000-capacity-and-up places regularly.

For what I like/do, I have yet to play an amp that works better on stage than a classic Fender (or quality clone). When recording, volume or headroom doesn't matter, and I've used all kinds of smaller amps.

 

[krysh]

Haven't played a Dumble (duh..), played some clones. From playing those and reading some about what he did, I get the impression they're Fenders with any possible bit of harsh meticulously tuned out, extra preamp gain and tweaked EQ, battlestar galactica power supplies and oversized transformers.

Even the twin 6L6 clones I've played were way too loud for me, with too much low end for the big hollowbodies I play. I think most of them are probably too loud for most people who don't play 3000-capacity-and-up places regularly.

For what I like/do, I have yet to play an amp that works better on stage than a classic Fender (or quality clone). When recording, volume or headroom doesn't matter, and I've used all kinds of smaller amps.

Mine has 10/30W switchable with 4 6V6 in the power amp.

 

[Walter Broes]

That's clever!

 

[krysh]

That's clever!

I know!

 

[AcornHouse]

You'd want to get a '60 burst to play through it, so then it starts to add up to some real money.

 

[adorshki]

Maybe GAD’s next amp build…

The GADumble

Call it the "Rim-fumble".

 

[GAD]

You'd want to get a '60 burst to play through it, so then it starts to add up to some real money.

‘59 or bust.

I mentioned possibly building a Dumble clone in my JCM800 build thread. I said I would call it the Grumble.

 

[AcornHouse]

‘59 or bust.

I mentioned possibly building a Dumble clone in my JCM800 build thread. I said I would call it the Grumble.

I like skinnier necks.

 

[RBSinTo]

1982 Dumble Overdrive Special OD-100W Guitar Amplifier Head w/ 1x12 Cab #52912 | Reverb

WORKING CONDITION: Excellent - It simply cannot be overstated, but the tone of this amp has the sensation of hearing your playing come back at you as if it were studio mixed and mastered. It's like hot-pressed vinyl coming out of the speakers. One for one, we've seen guitarists "come ho...

reverb.com

Apparently someone is..

Harp Tail,
By way of full disclosure, it's not me.
RBSinTo

 

[matsickma]

If I recall correctly when SRV was just getting going he played at Montauex and apparently got booed!
However David Bowie and Jackson Brown were at the show and realized the greatness they just witnessed. Bowie got SRV to play the lead riff on his song "China girl" and Jackson Brown invited SRV to his studio where they recorded the songs to the "Couldn't stand the weather" album. Jackson Brown had a Dumble and SRV used it on that recording.

Not sure if the rumor is correct but I thought Kenny Wade Shepherd also was a Dumble user but he had the electronics mounted into Fender cabs. That may even be true of SRV.

Another story was that the British amps of Marshall and Hiwatt were getting a lot of attention and recognition as the high power amps to have so Dumble packed a killer amp into a modest size Fender combo cab, included one of high power EV 12 speakers (forget the model but I have a pair loaded into a Guild Super bird amp) and essentially took it to a demo and illustrated that a combo could compete with a stack.

I didn't check my sources so don't quote me but those were a few stories that I heard over the years.

 

[Rocky]

If I recall correctly when SRV was just getting going he played at Montauex and apparently got booed!
However David Bowie and Jackson Brown were at the show and realized the greatness they just witnessed. Bowie got SRV to play the lead riff on his song "China girl" and Jackson Brown invited SRV to his studio where they recorded the songs to the "Couldn't stand the weather" album. Jackson Brown had a Dumble and SRV used it on that recording.

Pretty much the story, but it was Stevie's first album, Texas Flood that Jackson recorded.

HAD definitely made some cool amps, but they were pretty much designed with a specific taste, and hand-tweaked for specific individual players. As Walter mentioned, David Lindley and Robben Ford definitely knew how to get the most out of them. Lowell George too. But I think most owners these days have them for bragging rights. I mean, how much crappier would Bonamassa sound if he only had two Dumbles (custom made for somebody else) with his two tweed twins?

 

[Harp Tail]

but they were pretty much designed with a specific taste

You truly hit the nail on its head, Rocky.

It's very unlikely that the current owners of Johnson's and Ford's Dumbles might have their skills, touch and attack, so they may not get even close to the actual Dumble experience (in spite of what they spent).

 

[dwasifar]

Five people have it in their cart. Maybe that's a way to feel like part of the action without actually buying it.

They're knocking on the Dumble door.

 

[GGJaguar]

They're knocking on the Dumble door.

 

[AcornHouse]

They're knocking on the Dumble door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on Dumble's door...