Dumble thoughts

[lowell]

I thought I'd start a thread to chat w/ folks about Dumble amps. What are everyone's thoughts on why they sound the way they do... in particular Robben Ford's model... not sure which one it is but think it's the ODS. I recently read an interview w/ Howie and he mentioned that simply seeing a schematic of his amp will not be enough to get the sound, that there is something invisible to the naked eye as far as "decoding" the tone he derives from his circuits. I have seen a few schematics (schematic heaven) and the circuits seem fairly close to Fender circuits, tone stack aside. What are people's thoughts on this and the circuits/components/transformers etc... of his awesome amps?

[Don Moose]

Can you link to that interview, please? I'm curious.

[Diablo]

Not a hijack, but I've never seen a Dumble amp in person, and don't know if I've ever heard a guitar recorded through a Dumble. Can you list any great guitar recordings which were created with a Dumble?

[Rob Mercure]

Lowell,

Please check the old Ampage archive - try around 1998-99. "We" (I contributed little) "cussed and discussed" Dumble to death and I beleive one of the contributers may even have had a threat of suite from him. Anyhoo there really is more than an wealth of information concerning him and his designs available there - maybe Tboy would be able to point you closer. So a more productive tack might be to review that data and selectively bring portions that you might want to discuss forward in time.

Rob

[lowell]

Don,
check it out.

http://schematicheaven.com/howard_dumble.htm

[MattT]

The Amp Garage has a Dumble forum and there is a lot of knowledge there...from people that have owned/played originals and built clones as well. Some of the info is transferred behind-the-scenes via PMs and e-mails and the rest is so disorganized it's hard to find...but there's lots of info there. Gil Ayan (old Ampage frequent poster) participates there...he's been into these amps for a while and knows his stuff. I built an ODS-inspired amp...works great and the clean is sweet...OD is just OK...I don't think that tone is quite right for me (most of the time). It's not hard to get horrid tones out of one (Henry Kaiser anyone?) but some folks get great tones from them.

Diablo,
Lots of Robben Ford recordings are his ODS. Larry Carlton has also used an ODS very much. If you go to Scott Lerner's site he has a ton of clips using his various ODS clones...he sounds great.

HAD made some outright strange statements...at least some of which sounds like 'baffle-them-with-BS' to me. Look for the Henry Kaiser youtube video with HAD playing rhythm guitar...I think that's where he makes some 'crystal lattice' and 'harmonics' statements that are kind of...out there. But once HK starts playing...I dare anyone to make it all the way through. I double-dog dare you!

[Don Moose]

Thanks, that was ... interesting.

[lowell]

heh... interesting eh? care to indulge w/ your thoughts?

[Danhause]

dumble post

Lowell, I created a tragedy today by knocking over a person's prototype Dumble amp head. I myself am a keyboard player, and of course I felt terrible, but even worse after doing some research on this subject Can you do me a great favor and suggest where I might look for repair for this piece? It belongs in a museum, with a hand fabricated structure, it is not smashed, but is not what it should be. Is there anyone recognized as being familiar enough with this amp that I could talk to about repair? Thanks, rsvp

[telemoxy]

Not a hijack, but I've never seen a Dumble amp in person, and don't know if I've ever heard a guitar recorded through a Dumble. Can you list any great guitar recordings which were created with a Dumble?

SRV's first album to name only one. It's done using a Bass amp Dumble made for Jackson Browne. SRV used a Dumble Steel String Singer subsequently.

[TD_Madden]

But usually in conjunction with other amps...kinda makes it hard to sort-out just the Dumble sound.

[Don Moose]

heh... interesting eh? care to indulge w/ your thoughts?

If I had any ...

[mac1amps]

I've serviced a few older Dumble amps that were owned by a former client of mine. One was a 1x12 combo that had a very Fender like design to it, with a few clever add-on tweaks. It even used Fender transformers. I DO remember that the workmanship was "a cut above" most amps......He also had a high power (4x6550) head that was quite unique, although what I remember most about that amp was its speaker cabinet (also Dumble) which housed (2) 12" JBL's. I [personally] have always DESPISED the sound of JBL 12's with a guitar amp (way too bright, especially in that 1-1.5 KHz range, plus to me they sound terrible with a distorted signal), though I must admit 95% of the amps I've heard them in are Twin Reverbs, but this 2x12 "scooped" (like a low freq. P.A. cab) Dumble cabinet sounded incredibly sweet, EVEN WITH the 12" JBL's. MUCH of it having to do with it being a sealed enclosure, granted (a sealed enclosure has reduced "brilliance" from that of an open-back).