![]() Tonally, The Dude by J.Rockett is my favorite. You can’t go wrong with any of the pedals on this list. So, what is the best Dumble style pedal for you? That’s going to depend on your needs. They’re generally closer in tone to the Tube Screamer. And they’re far smoother than a distortion pedal. They sound very different to other popular pedal types such as Klon Centaurs and Blues Breakers. And even those who have played a real Dumble amp couldn’t accurately tell you either – all of the amps sound so different.īut if we go by the general description of the Dumble tone that I mentioned earlier, these Dumble style pedals tick all of the boxes. How close these pedals are to the Dumble sound, I can’t say. Since the Dumble tone is based on an amplifier, there are no Dumble clones.Įach Dumble style pedal is a pedal builder’s attempt to replicate the Dumble amp tone into a little stompbox. If you’d like to learn more, check out this early episode of That Pedal Show: At least based on the Dumble style pedals I’ve played. Some have described them as having somewhat of a ‘creamy’ and ‘smooth’ texture, and I’d agree. Generally speaking, though, the Dumble sound seems to be a combination of: clarity, note definition, plenty of headroom, decent amount of gain, and buckets of sustain. This is one of the things that made these amps so special – they were voiced specifically for the player. This means that if you had two Overdrive Specials, they likely wouldn’t sound the same as each other. And to complicate matters further, each amp was tweaked slightly to the exact specifications of the guitarist purchasing it. There were a number of different Dumble amps in the lineup. So, what was the Dumble sound exactly? Well, that’s difficult to pin down. The Dumble overdrive channel is where the ‘magic’ happens, so to speak. Most people, when they discuss Dumble sounds, they’re typically referring to the overdrive channel, rather than the clean channel of the amps. For example, Joe Bonamassa and John Mayer both own a bunch of Dumble amps. And the majority have been bought up by collectors. Alexander Dumble sold them directly to artists. ![]() There’s a very limited number of these amps in circulation but it’s unclear as to how many there are since they weren’t sold through retail outlets. We’re talking about Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford, Joe Bonamassa, Larry Carlton, John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Sonny Landreth, Eric Johnson, Kirk Hammett, and many more. And they’ve been played by some seriously big names in the guitar world. I’ve seen Steel String Singers advertised for over $200,000. We’re talking of prices well in excess of $100,000. As such, they can command mind-boggling prices that put the amp out of the reach of mere mortals like us. ![]() Most notably the Overdrive Special, Overdrive Reverb, and Steel String Singer.ĭue to the fame of players that purchased them, and extremely limited availability, Dumble amps have reached mythical status. There were a range of different Dumble amplifiers built over the years. Since it was a one-person operation, amps were built in extremely limited quantities. He unfortunately died in January 2022 but he left quite a legacy – the most mythical guitar amp of our time. In the late 1960s, Alexander “Howard” Dumble began building custom tube amps. There’s a lot of misconceptions here so I’ll do my best to summarise this in a nutshell. What is a Dumble? And why are they so expensive? The V2 model introduced a noiseless on/off switch.Īnd as is always the case with J.Rockett pedals – it’s built like a tank. There have been a few versions of The Dude. I love the way it breaks up and retains note definition while introducing more and more gain into the circuit. This is essentially a blend control that allows you to blend the overdriven signal back in with the clean signal – this opens up a lot of tonal options. What I particularly like here is the ratio control. Regardless – this is my personal favorite Dumble style pedal that I have ever played from a pure ‘tonal perspective’. But their ODS amps were both individually voiced. Their writeup mentions both Larry Carlton and Robben Ford. I’m not sure which Dumble Overdrive Special this pedal is based on. J.Rockett’s The Dude is designed to capture the tone of the Dumble Overdrive Special amplifier.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |