For the price of a Dumble, you can buy everyone in the stadium a tiny dose of molly and they will enjoy the sound coming out of your Line 6 more than they would the Dumble sober.
But then you’d only have that one experience! For the same price, you can have that same feeling (albeit, slightly less enjoyable) for the rest of your life! ...or you could just buy a Fuchs and spend the rest of the money on a Porsche
I couldn't agree more. This whole Dumble thing is nothing more than the selling of mystique, which I am totally opposed to. I think a lot of it is really about selling Dumble clones. This Dumble has Fet overdrive! Ha Ha! And people will sell their souls for these things. Pathetic. I would say if you really like the Dumble tone, get a Fender, or get one of countless Dumble clones. I tried a Dumble years ago and while it did sound good, I can't say I haven't heard better, for a lot less money.
Funny, but you can buy a kit that turns your metal zone into a nice pedal that isnt over the top. Theres only about 9 resistor/cap changes to solder in.
@Scotty Good damm bro. Thats a nice fucking line up. I imagine with a lp. Strat. And tele. And maybe something with filterts like tvjones and a es 3xx. You could cover any sound perfectly. I honestly think dumbles are overated. Nice sure. Id buy one if it was a 2-3k. Paying 200k for these fuckers. Lol. Olay. The only things id spend that kinda money on is. A 52 goldtop for 25k. A 59 burst for 500k. A 64 strat. And a 30s martin d-28. And id get a vintage super and plexi. With a dual tone late 50s early 60s gibson ga 20 and ga 40. And a early 60s ga 5. I could get every dream vintage amp i want for under the price of a dumble. With its weird ass cheetah print lol. Id use it to play slow cheetah hahaha
Great amp and I miss playing through it the 1-2 times per year I was able to as it was in my extended family. I was never a huge fan of the Dumble overdrive tones but the clean sound was otherworldly, That's what made it special to my ears and you have to be in the room to appreciate it. Even against my vintage Fenders, this was on another level.
In Mick Taylor's hands, the Dumble really is the sound I hear in my head. Excellent playing. Incredible tone. Best review of an amplifier I've ever watched. Now we all want (need?) a Dumble...
You can definitely hear what the ZenDrive was trying to accomplish, or, what Robben Ford heard in the Zen that reminded him of Dumble. For what it's worth, the dynamic range mentioned, did not come through in the vid. In fact, it almost sounded dark/muffled.
@user One thing that never changes is the music culture's ability to create toxic gatekeeping. Of course to add fucking nationalism to the equation (particularly since blues came from America lol) is just the icing on top. Enjoy your Brexit dipshit.
Thanks, Mick. You were able to draw attention to what distinguishes the Dumble from everything else. It was easy to see your expressive playing emphasized in a tool that captured all the nuance that sometimes goes missing in other amps. Great job of getting to the heart of the matter.
Great sounding amp, no question about it. But worth $100,000? Not in a million years. One thing is for sure -- guitarists sure know how to waste money.
Matt Stottmann - Guitarists excel at blowing through cash while hunting for the elusive white whale... Gee, maybe I should write a book along those lines..., hmmm?
Tell Eric Clapton that his was not worth it to him. I'm sure he is tight for cash and has better things to do with his money, right? I got to try a Lafitte '66 once. Awesome stuff but the bottle was worth more than my car. Still just wine to most people. Were I able to afford wine like that I'd be glad to drink it all the time. I certainly don't need it. I do need to play one of these one day though, if just for 5 minutes...and even if only to prove, like the wine, that it is still just an amp. THE amp...but just an amp.
Agreed! Tonally, it's no better than any other high priced amps. It's the mystique & big names (great players with or without the aid of this amp) attached to the Dumble amp that dictates the ridiculous price tag. Of course, the fact that they're almost as rare as rocking horse shit will, also dictate the price! The listener doesn't 'feel the responsiveness'....
This may have been a good investment to make 30 years ago, but trends today are dictating otherwise. The older generation that still fuels the sales of high dollar guitar gear isn't going to be around forever. While there will still be younger, millionaire music artists that may be interested in this sort of thing you can't deny that the guitar is no longer at the forefront of big money popular music. Ferraris are a different matter altogether; there will always be classic car collectors because cars are a part of everyone's everyday life and have much broader appeal.
100k? Holy shit...I was thinking maybe $3000. Shows what a noob I am. Thanks for the eye opener. If I see one in a garage sale...I will definitely pick it up.
Nice tone but nothing struck me as so unique that it couldn't be duplicated by a Fender Custom Shop model or a Boogie. I thought Mick's playing was the key ingredient here. While the amp sounds great, I'm wondering how many folks in a club could hear the difference over drinks, dinner, and conversations...
Paul Simmons What you said is true, but I think this definitely is not an amp you would take everywhere you gig. No. This is an amp you keep, play and love at home, and in the quiet of your basement or room or whatever, you hear the small nuances and "imperfections" that just make you smile. That's my two cents, might be wrong!
Yeah, this would be an amp that I'd stash away for a rainy day. If I were a lottery winner, there are a bunch of cool toys out there and amps like this one fall into the "if I had money to burn" category. Take care!
I'm with you man, doesn't sound $50,000 worth. But I know YT videos don't always do the best job at demonstrating amp tones even with good mics. I'd still love to play one, maybe if I was a multi-millionaire I'd buy one, but there'd be a good 20 amps I'd buy first.
I got to watch Howard hand build an amplifier for Jackson Browne, when I lived at Alley Rehearsal in North Hollywood, CA at 5066 Lankershim Blvd, just down the street from The Palomino club, a long time ago .....
Instructive. Good playing in reviewing this amp. The Dumble sounds great (as far I can tell through my computer speakers). It seems very well thought in design and versatility. I'm sure that is the main reason why top musicians ordered them in the past.
Thanks for the demo. As so many have already commented - the Dumble sounds great but there are dozens of other amps that cost literally 50 times less and sound subjectively just as good. I have a 1973 Traynor YGM-3 combo with a replacement Celestion speaker, and, whilst the amount of control of the sound is less versatile (no overdrive channel) and the reverb is not as classy (small tank) - the overall tone is fantastic and, with a few decent overdrive pedals similar types of sounds can be produced. This cost me £350 and just needed a basic service and some simple mods to the tone stack (changed a few caps and a couple of resistors). This fixed the very bright sound these amps have as standard. I also changed the value of a couple of caps in the tremolo circuit which runs rather fast as standard.
Since moving back to canada i got a chance to try some old traynors and theyre fun stuff, theyre also bombproof and weigh as much as a rhino, in sound and in weight they remind me of some of the old ampegs. I ended up deciding on getting a '77 super reverb and its HUMONGOUS and unfortunately also pretty heavy and super awkward to carry lol
Well and why didn't he borrow some great guitars to make it sound great? He just vastly improved tat Strat by putting Ron Ellis pickups in to compete with a Vintage Strat.
Never knowingly heard a dumble before but straight away I thought it sounded crazy close to the clean channel of my Mkiii boogie. Then you revealed the EV12L speaker which explained the similarities. It's clarity and defined bottom end clunk is unmistakable.
Mick , I really wish you owned one of those amps. you can hear the connection you have with that amp and that connection is the goal of musicians and their gear . stay real and thanks for sharing !
It is the warmth in the drive which tickles me. I would say a big thanks to Guitarist for this. Mick, as usual delivers a quality review. No bs, no potty humour, just intelligent and considered thoughts. Is it worth it? Of course it is.......If I could afford it I would buy one. Ant that finish is the best!!!!!
No one ever comments on the fact that Alexander Dumble makes no $$$ for the overpriced resales, and that when he did make amps a fundamental agreement was not to re-sell. Think about it. He made these amps for specific people and then the upsell market makes insane profits, that he never ever sees!
Why would they? Stradavari or Picaso never saw revenue in the resale market either. It's not how it works. Additionally, Howard could have continued making amps at any time. He had no interest. According to interviews by Josh Smith, who called Dumble to get an amp built, he was more interested in panning for gold and collecting vintage guns from the 1800's.
I've owned a Dumble clone, you can get all it's tones out of a Mesa Boogie mk II or III plus a lot more. I can't believe the Mesa's are any less touch sensitive, they excel in that dept. as well.
I guess the closest/cheapest option would be to get Synergy OS module tube preamp based on Dumble. Obviously I have no idea how close it gets to original, I never played one.
I played a clone of this amp recently. The builder has studied this amp for about a decade and followed all the known steps that Dumble followed. This thing was UN believable. 3D sound, sustain, perfect EQ curve. Just amazing.
Howard Dumble could take a stock Fender Vibrolux chassis out of a brand-new built amp, put it in one of his cabinets and people would be tripping over each other to give him $7000.00 for it.
Kept hearing Mick name drop playing this amp and I'm so happy to finally get to absorb it all! The Dumble made him play the best I've ever heard him play. Really happy with the video, thank you!
You can't play this amp without an original 59 Lester. Everybody knows the hide glue molecules during the ageing process vibrate IN sequence to the unique mid frequencies of the Dumble, leading to an increased long tenon vibration which is enhanced by the aged (almost lack of) nitro finish to the east coast hard rock half-quartershawn flame maple top (NEEDS to be NO more than 3A) thus dramatically increasing sustain. The Brazilian fretboard is the only rosewood species available to synchronise with the amps unique bass frequencies, however it needs to be supplemented by the Honduras aged mahogany neck..... The only way to appreciate a 100.000$ amp is to actually play it through a 250.000$ guitar.....FFS...
Every affordable Dumbledore and boutique has been demoed on a '59 style or similar (but more affordable) Les but ZERO on an ES 335. At least the tables are turned here to establish what an ES 335 played clean could sound like with high end gear. Lots of players actually play their guitars not the reverb, effects, compression and high gain of their amps. To them, the idea of an un-muffled, clear tone thru which jazz chords and melodies can ring with nice note separation and that magical amount of pick attack is a dream. And to them, Tele's, Strat's and LP's are not the guitars of choice. Certainly you can get such great pure guitar tone with this Dumble and an ES 335. Maybe you could also with a $6k clone if you are willing to risk $5 or $10K's searching blindly (i.e. w/o ES 335 demo's) for one that would work.
I'm sure this Dumble also sounds better than some of the others i've heard, but, I sooo appreciate the effort you made to get a clean, amazing recording of this amp. Just wonderful. Peace.
Can't say anything about the feel and behavior of the amp, as well as for the playability but, sonically I can't actually find anything so rare in this amp. As ever, it's personal taste and feel that matters...
David Dyte I wonder how well the Kemper can play it back? I have heard a lot of good things about them, but I've seen a few of them for sale which makes me wonder about them.
Mark70609 Kempers are insanely accurate. Go to Rob Chapman’s channel and watch his blind fold tests. The man is savant like with identifying amps and guitars by tone, he couldn’t tell the difference! There isn’t really any digital compression that you get with a lot of modelers, and the profiles don’t sound digi at all!
@@ethanschafer4684 Quite frankly, I have blindly been able to tell the difference with kempers in video audio. Real life is probably harder due to how much bass will flub up the sound and muddy the interpretation, but with high quality audio, Kempers have a very particular mid hump which is noticeable and kind of... Annoying.
This also reminds me of the Mesa Boogie Mark IIb from back in the late seventies. The clean sound was like this. Everything almost psychedelic clean with blooming notes everywhere.
The Dumble Overdrive Special I used to play through, Alexander built a 2 12" cabinet loaded with my most favorite speakers - Electro Voice 12L's. The cabinet is a partial open back, (like the Two Rock vertical 2 - 12's cabinet). I have never heard a guitar tone so "big, open, deep, dynamic, and clean" as the tones coming from that Dumble. (I used to play this amp at sound checks after I had tuned in the room). Sonny's guitar tech would tune one of Sonny's Strats in standard tuning for me and I got to have tons of fun. (I miss those days - a lot!) The tone doesn't come through nearly as well as "Live" testing. I am glad that you got to take it for a "drive" Mick. ;) (I did get to talk with Alexander about this amp at a gig in L.A. Very insightful. Alexander built his amps so that the guitarists could "sound like themselves'.) This first time I heard Sonny playing through his Dumble at sound check, my jaw "hit the floor" in amazement from "that tone". Good for you Mick!!
he did not mean to say Mick it's just a phrase in English to draw attention to something. If he wanted to say Mick is ugly, he'd put in this way, "Sounds good but THE boy is ugly." one little word, huge diff. Or have I just misunderstood you and totally ruined your joke? :D
The thing about super high quality amps is that you only need one channel and can control the full range of tones based on the tone / volume / pickup selection and how hard you hit the strings and dig in. The amp becomes part of the instrument and gives you a different dimension of expression that you just have to play / feel to understand. I can go from a FULL BALLS OUT distorted tone, with the bridge pickup and volume full, to super clean fender on the neck pickup with volume at 5. The amp stays the same volume because when you push into the pre / post amps it compresses and adds such a rich overtone to the sound. I have a Redplate RP50Dou and it's just ridiculous how amazing it is. The amp is so full of overtones that feed into itself it just rings on forever.
Awesome amp, no doubt. But I will say, I was about to spend $2,800 on a Fuchs ODS 50 (another Dumble clone) to replace my Fender Super-Sonic 22. But then, my saint of a girlfriend had an Ethos Overdrive pedal built for me, and it turned my world upside down. It so changed the voice of my Super-Sonic, that I no longer had any need for the Fuchs. Moral of the story is, if you're like me, owning a Dumble might be out of reach, so expensive clones are the only thing we can come close to- but for 500-700 (I know, still not cheap.) you can get very, satisfyingly close. And it beats 50 grand for an amp. Beats 2800 too.
@7:16 man for all the world that sounds like a Fender twin with a TS808 pushing it. The overdrive channel definitely has a tubescreamery sound to it. Nice job Mick, great playing as always.
My custom Mesa sounds just as good. As far as the standard line I keep hearing: "It makes the player sound like himself.", yep, that's definitely my Mesa, & it has an effects loop.
I think you can hear that this is much more musical and inviting than most amps made today. I have to believe it's largely because Dumble knew how to voice amps to specific speakers; change the speaker and it can be totally different. It still can sound bad though - 12:49 - the low notes are just mud (too much distortion). I like the clean sound best. Amazing.
Electrons flow freely in a vacuum than a crystal lattice... Until the electrons flowed through a semiconductor with logic gates and became 1s and 0s, and 1s and 0s went through more gates and became electrons again in an analog world.
It is so very odd. We get USED to the way something sounds, then that gets LOCKED as the way things SHOULD sound. The response curves reveal no magic secret stuff; but Howard Dumble was making semi-customized WooWoo amps right at the time *_"guitar"_* was peaking. And now the Boomies with more cash than sense feed the monster. At one point John Mayer had FORTY Dumble amps - all of them, of course, made "custom" for other people. One thing self-proclaimed exp-spurts LOVE to do is compare product lines, like a "real" PRS versus the same model "SE" Asian one. And they ALWAYS say the cheap one is... good, but the $5,000 just "sounds better." OF COURSE they sound different, but that's not an evil thing - is there something WRONG with the cheapie? _What frequencies, specifically, did those sneaky little Orientals LEAVE OUT of the SE?_ Are they fucking SAVING THEM them to sell to Schecter or something? Ahhh! The Yellow Peril Strikes Again! Utter NONSENSE. Assemble it in America - even if you use the same exact parts, we just KNOW it HAS to sound better, that's why we paid the extra thousands of dollars! Well, duh... "If YOU can't hear the difference, YOU don't deserve one." SO-OO much bullshit.. "The old Fender necks were so much better because they used the last old-growth Magic Maple, with really fine grain. Now the grain is wider, from younger tree, so it's "BAD." Except - the wider grain makes it a tiny bit softer, so it tonally moves a _little_ bit towards a mahogany sound. *_IT'S JUST DIFFERENT, IT'S NOT BAD!_* The gooping Dumble did to hide his circuit boards, on an amp that's "worth" $50,000 was worth... $48,500 per amp? People have even chemically de-gooped* them, and found they were made with... resistors. And capacitors and shit. Even if you don't get sucked into it, what this is a fullblown brand-new RELIGION. We got saints... we got scriptures... we got sacraments. LOTS and LOTS of sacraments. We got temples, ancient heroic salvation dudes... DEMONS... *(Wanna bet it was those sneaky little foreigners again?!?!) (Sorry for going off on you, dude, it's just builds up and up and then BLOOEY! What can I say...)
AMEN!! I need to save this. So true. Wish there was more unbiased money for research and double blind studies that keep debunking all this elitist nonsense.
Great comment, and funny too - probably because of the truth of it. I've been making guitar amps since the mid 1990s and came to a quite depressing realization ten years ago that I had actually grown to despise guitarists and guitar playing for reasons that parallel the elitist-mindset inherent to high-end audiophile circles (and many other areas too). I don't really blame guitarists for the situation (the situation, at least as far as I see it...) because they too have fallen victim to the same deceptive marketing practices and woo that is able to transform certain consumer products from being objects of usefulness into being desirable objects reflecting social norms or acceptance. Through this mechanism the product in question transcends reason and objectivity and, somehow, magically exemplifies a subjective measure of par excellence, having few real reasons for such radical (and oxymoronic) a transformation. In actuality most of this is due to some form of myth-making and 'iconophilia' and is usually birthed via a 2-step combination of; 1.) marketing, followed by 2.) mass-adoption by the consumer - when this happens false icons, laws and doctrines are created that are very difficult to challenge or break. Apple (computers) are a good example of this where an electronic device mirrors status and ego. Guitars and amps seem to be no different...
A couple of years ago, I hear Howard Leese with the Paul Rodgers Band from the 2nd row. For about the first third of the show, he played a knockout-gorgeous PRS Custom 24 that I would bet cost close to what I make in a year. For the next few songs, he switched to a Custom 24 SE....still sounded fantastic!
Mick, you and Dan are Amazing, I Always watch TPS but I wasn't going to missed this rare opportunity of playing this one of a kind Dumbble Amp with Guitarist !!!
+Groove Duude A guitar i can understand, but an amplifier? They aren't even that old! Most are 1980's manufacture. Surely some1 can melt the epoxy Dumby coated his circuit boards with and find out what the exact components and circuit are. Any1 thought to Xray or CT the circuit board?
DMSProduktions Agreed. Tone originates from hands to guitar. I know some people that would make this amp sound like crap at any setting. it is nice. Unfortunately I have the exact same snow leopard pattern on a blanket I bought in T.J. In the early 90's. still have it. It is actually a backdrop on my latest telecaster video. I have a dumble comforter! Ha!
Check out early Kitty Hawk Standard Amps made in Germany, you get EXACTLY the same addictive squashed and slightly compressed lower mid frequencies that make these amps so addictive plus the original ingredients, Mallory filter caps, Siemens caps, Sylvania 6L6s, GE USA 12AX7s as selected by Alexander Dumble... STILL affordable... I was lucky enough to compare two of them with two original Silverface Dumble amplifiers, can't get any closer to the real deal. Even as touch sensitive as described by Mick... Cheers
![Robben Ford & His Dumble Overdrive Special [He Plays It, We Play It!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4z-IkXE36DI/mqdefault.jpg)
![Robben Ford & His Dumble Overdrive Special [He Plays It, We Play It!]](/img/tr.png)
For the price of a Dumble, you can buy everyone in the stadium a tiny dose of molly and they will enjoy the sound coming out of your Line 6 more than they would the Dumble sober.
well said
you could buy everyone a fucking ounce of molly for the price of a dumble. lol you could buy most of them a blackface bassman fuck dumbles.
haha
But then you’d only have that one experience! For the same price, you can have that same feeling (albeit, slightly less enjoyable) for the rest of your life!
...or you could just buy a Fuchs and spend the rest of the money on a Porsche
I couldn't agree more. This whole Dumble thing is nothing more than the selling of mystique, which I am totally opposed to. I think a lot of it is really about selling Dumble clones. This Dumble has Fet overdrive! Ha Ha! And people will sell their souls for these things. Pathetic. I would say if you really like the Dumble tone, get a Fender, or get one of countless Dumble clones. I tried a Dumble years ago and while it did sound good, I can't say I haven't heard better, for a lot less money.
Asking the really important questions: Did you try it with a Metal Zone? ;)
Nef LOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!!!! 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂
But really, how would BB King sound through a metal zone.
Like B. B. Metal King of course!
Kerry king lol
Funny, but you can buy a kit that turns your metal zone into a nice pedal that isnt over the top. Theres only about 9 resistor/cap changes to solder in.
I will have to say that Mick Taylor seems to have aged the best of anyone in the band...
lol
Boy Mick Taylor is looking pretty young after his years in the Rolling Stones!
Excellent comment
Ik who the fuck is this prick, I wanted to see Mick from the Stones
@@AlbPerNil LMAO
@@AlbPerNil 😂😂😂
@@AlbPerNil THIS IS GOLDEN COMMENT
Wow. The OD tone is just killer. I think any guitar would sound heavenly through that thing. Beautiful.
Ahhh i see
not that Mick Taylor
@Scotty Good damm bro. Thats a nice fucking line up. I imagine with a lp. Strat. And tele. And maybe something with filterts like tvjones and a es 3xx. You could cover any sound perfectly. I honestly think dumbles are overated. Nice sure. Id buy one if it was a 2-3k. Paying 200k for these fuckers. Lol. Olay. The only things id spend that kinda money on is. A 52 goldtop for 25k. A 59 burst for 500k. A 64 strat. And a 30s martin d-28. And id get a vintage super and plexi. With a dual tone late 50s early 60s gibson ga 20 and ga 40. And a early 60s ga 5. I could get every dream vintage amp i want for under the price of a dumble. With its weird ass cheetah print lol. Id use it to play slow cheetah hahaha
No doubt clickbait lol!!!
,,My disappointment is immesurable"
Haha, me too!!
Vivian Stanshall no it isn’t but this MICK is very good too
I love the clean sounds. Really nice definition, it lets the Strat shine.
I think this is the best Dumble video on youtube, thanks Mick!
Great amp and I miss playing through it the 1-2 times per year I was able to as it was in my extended family. I was never a huge fan of the Dumble overdrive tones but the clean sound was otherworldly, That's what made it special to my ears and you have to be in the room to appreciate it. Even against my vintage Fenders, this was on another level.
u chucks fam?
@@muthapluckinnathan 👍
2:45 *flips £20, 000 switches to activate £2.50 capacitors*
You crack me up
if anyone needs those £20,000 switches, I can get them and I've got a special on at the moment 2 for 1 ;-)
Also, seeing this green, super whimsy patch cable plugged into the delay pedal, that’s just savage. 😂
this is something else, really, everything that's played hits a spot for me. Bass an overtones together, wow.
Micks playing is what shines for me here
ARE YOU AN IDIOT?..........THAT'S NOT THE FORMER GUITAR PLAYER FOR THE ROLLING STONES.
scott bowling it’s also not Kirk Hammett, Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan or Richie Kotzen, what’s your point?
Yeah, Mick!!
Ariel, next time you see Mick, just say "Lucky B*astard" in a very English voice! Bet +Peter Honoré is disappointed he didn't get invited !-)
In Mick Taylor's hands, the Dumble really is the sound I hear in my head. Excellent playing. Incredible tone. Best review of an amplifier I've ever watched. Now we all want (need?) a Dumble...
gotta be one of the greatest strat tones I have ever heard...
Want one! not gonna happen, but thanks for sharing this experience Mick!!
This amp can't produce a bad tone...and neither can Mick! Well done, great pairing!
Any noise in that signal? Nope! None. So sick.
Wowza. what a clean clear deep tone. Holy wow. Mr. D. you were a wizard, a true gift to every musician.
Mick is such a cool player... he makes it all sound so easy, but DAMN.. that man can play!
Sounds great. You can hear that "Bloom" of the notes sustaining. Like your fingers are controlling a wild beast!!
Beautiful tone and killer playing Mick! The harmonics came through on the recording. Thank you for sharing!
It must have something I have never heard Mick sound so fluid.
You can definitely hear what the ZenDrive was trying to accomplish, or, what Robben Ford heard in the Zen that reminded him of Dumble. For what it's worth, the dynamic range mentioned, did not come through in the vid. In fact, it almost sounded dark/muffled.
Mick's playing is next level here. And the tone is awesome. Is it $50,000 awesome? Who cares, I'll never own it, but it sounds great.
@audiosamples good thing you own a quite preposterous opinion and one that is equally racist. Projecting your own inadequacies as a player I assume
@user One thing that never changes is the music culture's ability to create toxic gatekeeping.
Of course to add fucking nationalism to the equation (particularly since blues came from America lol) is just the icing on top. Enjoy your Brexit dipshit.
@@BollocksUtwat what are you talking about
You get diminishing returns in terms of cost to benefit as the price rises of guitars and amps. It is what it is
Yes because he doesn’t have”the other guy”next to him so he can just let loose.
Thanks, Mick. You were able to draw attention to what distinguishes the Dumble from everything else. It was easy to see your expressive playing emphasized in a tool that captured all the nuance that sometimes goes missing in other amps. Great job of getting to the heart of the matter.
Great sounding amp, no question about it. But worth $100,000? Not in a million years. One thing is for sure -- guitarists sure know how to waste money.
Matt Stottmann - Guitarists excel at blowing through cash while hunting for the elusive white whale...
Gee, maybe I should write a book along those lines..., hmmm?
Tell Eric Clapton that his was not worth it to him. I'm sure he is tight for cash and has better things to do with his money, right? I got to try a Lafitte '66 once. Awesome stuff but the bottle was worth more than my car. Still just wine to most people. Were I able to afford wine like that I'd be glad to drink it all the time. I certainly don't need it. I do need to play one of these one day though, if just for 5 minutes...and even if only to prove, like the wine, that it is still just an amp. THE amp...but just an amp.
Agreed! Tonally, it's no better than any other high priced amps. It's the mystique & big names (great players with or without the aid of this amp) attached to the Dumble amp that dictates the ridiculous price tag. Of course, the fact that they're almost as rare as rocking horse shit will, also dictate the price! The listener doesn't 'feel the responsiveness'....
This may have been a good investment to make 30 years ago, but trends today are dictating otherwise. The older generation that still fuels the sales of high dollar guitar gear isn't going to be around forever. While there will still be younger, millionaire music artists that may be interested in this sort of thing you can't deny that the guitar is no longer at the forefront of big money popular music. Ferraris are a different matter altogether; there will always be classic car collectors because cars are a part of everyone's everyday life and have much broader appeal.
100k? Holy shit...I was thinking maybe $3000. Shows what a noob I am. Thanks for the eye opener. If I see one in a garage sale...I will definitely pick it up.
Great clean compression. For my ears sounds amazing clean on low input. Overdrive sounds just as well, smooth as butter.
6:28 My God. That's the tone.
Marlon Borreo yep
Or as Mick himself would say, "That's all day, that one is!"
start playing at 2.30
For me it was 5:49. shame he only play like 1 chord...
SRV tonesssss :)
I come back once a month to watch, or LISTEN to this video, such a treat.
Nice tone but nothing struck me as so unique that it couldn't be duplicated by a Fender Custom Shop model or a Boogie. I thought Mick's playing was the key ingredient here.
While the amp sounds great, I'm wondering how many folks in a club could hear the difference over drinks, dinner, and conversations...
Paul Simmons What you said is true, but I think this definitely is not an amp you would take everywhere you gig. No. This is an amp you keep, play and love at home, and in the quiet of your basement or room or whatever, you hear the small nuances and "imperfections" that just make you smile.
That's my two cents, might be wrong!
Yeah, this would be an amp that I'd stash away for a rainy day. If I were a lottery winner, there are a bunch of cool toys out there and amps like this one fall into the "if I had money to burn" category. Take care!
Paul Simmons great point! Cheers!
I'm with you man, doesn't sound $50,000 worth. But I know YT videos don't always do the best job at demonstrating amp tones even with good mics. I'd still love to play one, maybe if I was a multi-millionaire I'd buy one, but there'd be a good 20 amps I'd buy first.
LANo $50k??? No no no
I got to watch Howard hand build an amplifier for Jackson Browne, when I lived at Alley Rehearsal in North Hollywood, CA at 5066 Lankershim Blvd, just down the street from The Palomino club, a long time ago .....
You did the Dumble proud, Mick... Played some classy stuff.
Finally! I have been waiting for this for a long time! The NAMM videos will have to wait!
I like it; its a nice sounding amp that can cover a lot of ground tone wise and would be very cool for recording work.
This is a great review, Mick, thanks so much. Very clear and your enthusiasm makes it all the more enjoyable and informative.
Lovely amp, outstanding demo! Two thumbs up Mick, really superb!
Instructive. Good playing in reviewing this amp. The Dumble sounds great (as far I can tell through my computer speakers). It seems very well thought in design and versatility. I'm sure that is the main reason why top musicians ordered them in the past.
A tone to die for. Espacially with the 335.
Thanks for the demo. As so many have already commented - the Dumble sounds great but there are dozens of other amps that cost literally 50 times less and sound subjectively just as good. I have a 1973 Traynor YGM-3 combo with a replacement Celestion speaker, and, whilst the amount of control of the sound is less versatile (no overdrive channel) and the reverb is not as classy (small tank) - the overall tone is fantastic and, with a few decent overdrive pedals similar types of sounds can be produced. This cost me £350 and just needed a basic service and some simple mods to the tone stack (changed a few caps and a couple of resistors). This fixed the very bright sound these amps have as standard. I also changed the value of a couple of caps in the tremolo circuit which runs rather fast as standard.
Since moving back to canada i got a chance to try some old traynors and theyre fun stuff, theyre also bombproof and weigh as much as a rhino, in sound and in weight they remind me of some of the old ampegs. I ended up deciding on getting a '77 super reverb and its HUMONGOUS and unfortunately also pretty heavy and super awkward to carry lol
Klon Centaur into a Dumble "didn't feel like the right thing to do"..??????
- it would literally be the only properly recorded instance on RUclips
7thString more in reference that adding an overdrive/clean boost to an amp that is revered for its natural tone would be sacrilege.
Not all great pedals fit all great amps. In addition, some amps need no pedals at all.
Yep. HUGE opportunity wasted here.
You could say that for almost every pedal ever made. Why stop at outrage over the Klon?
Well and why didn't he borrow some great guitars to make it sound great? He just vastly improved tat Strat by putting Ron Ellis pickups in to compete with a Vintage Strat.
Never knowingly heard a dumble before but straight away I thought it sounded crazy close to the clean channel of my Mkiii boogie. Then you revealed the EV12L speaker which explained the similarities. It's clarity and defined bottom end clunk is unmistakable.
Videography deserves an award.
Mick , I really wish you owned one of those amps. you can hear the connection you have with that amp and that connection is the goal of musicians and their gear . stay real and thanks for sharing !
Nothing SPECIAL here, except for the shear number of views and comments.....Well done Guitarist Magazine.
Yep, that's it.... and it brings out the finest in your playing, Mick... lovely
sounds just like my blues junior
whiskeyboy no,no it dont honey
whiskeyboy Lmao! 😅😅😅😅
This is the comment that made me give up on the internet.... Jesus Christ bro....
LMAO.......still LMAO.....just getting my breath......BC Rich practise amp.........geez, Drew, thanks for that, I needed a good laugh!
whiskeyboy You sound just like my mother.
It is the warmth in the drive which tickles me. I would say a big thanks to Guitarist for this. Mick, as usual delivers a quality review. No bs, no potty humour, just intelligent and considered thoughts.
Is it worth it? Of course it is.......If I could afford it I would buy one. Ant that finish is the best!!!!!
No one ever comments on the fact that Alexander Dumble makes no $$$ for the overpriced resales, and that when he did make amps a fundamental agreement was not to re-sell. Think about it. He made these amps for specific people and then the upsell market makes insane profits, that he never ever sees!
well he could do what that klon guy did, just farm out the work to a 3rd party vendor.. He would be rollin in the dough!!! ;)
Why would they? Stradavari or Picaso never saw revenue in the resale market either. It's not how it works. Additionally, Howard could have continued making amps at any time. He had no interest. According to interviews by Josh Smith, who called Dumble to get an amp built, he was more interested in panning for gold and collecting vintage guns from the 1800's.
TheZenguitarguy who cares, he was probably shit at marketing, his problem he couldnt sell for big money
too late. the ship has sailed
Trust me in the 80's he was living on a cliff overlooking the Pacific, he's doing very well.
That thing does sound amazing great playing too Mick.
Cork-sniffing nonsense. Nice sounding amp but there's no shortage of nice sounding amps available for a tiny fraction of the price.
Boutique, top of the line products are always wildly over-priced, shit for brains.
hammondsphoto sounds like any generic guitar plugin
Aurora Borealis get an axefx or kemper and play somewhat well
Aurora Borealis absolutely, unless you're chasing that last 0.01%, im guessing most of that is placebo though
Aurora Borealis profile it and buy a Kemper
holy fuck its beautiful sounding!! that overdrive is really something out of this world!
I mean, sound really amazing. I would be interested if they had a Hot Rod or something as benchmark next to it.
Imagine they are showing this amp mic'd up, but him playing on a Hot Rod Deluxe lmao.
Paired with a nice fluent player like Mick. This thing is awesome! love that tone versatility dude!
I've owned a Dumble clone, you can get all it's tones out of a Mesa Boogie mk II or III plus a lot more. I can't believe the Mesa's are any less touch sensitive, they excel in that dept. as well.
i find myself repeatedly coming back to this video. God id love to have one
I guess the closest/cheapest option would be to get Synergy OS module tube preamp based on Dumble. Obviously I have no idea how close it gets to original, I never played one.
I played a clone of this amp recently. The builder has studied this amp for about a decade and followed all the known steps that Dumble followed. This thing was UN believable. 3D sound, sustain, perfect EQ curve. Just amazing.
Amplified Nation’s Bombshell Overdrive is really close
I had no idea Mick was still at Guitarist.. awesome. I dig all of these videos. This especially..
Reminds me of my Peavy Rage.
lol
Nice review Mick and good to meet you on the day. Best Steve.
Howard Dumble could take a stock Fender Vibrolux chassis out of a brand-new built amp, put it in one of his cabinets and people would be tripping over each other to give him $7000.00 for it.
jma111000 re-read , he said switch the cabinet, that's all.
Yes, with 3 resistor value changes in the tone section. Resistors would cost you under $1.
But Dumble used concentrated dark matter to get that smooth OD tone.
Maybe add another zero on there
Lol try 100k
Always nice to hear Mick tasteful licks ;)
I feel like there's so much that we're missing. I can't imagine how good it sounded in that room.
Mick, you really made this one count. Congratulations!
sounded great but like many others, i couldnt hear anything that made me say WOW thats a dumble!
steve hudson : You almost nailed it: If you can't hear anything that makes you say WOW, it's a Dumble Overpriced Special.
I think that's the most beautiful, versatile amp I've heard on youtube.
At least you got a trip to Clitheroe out of it.
Beautifully said, reportage was pitch perfect and the amp sounds great too. I’m used to you from TPS. I found this refreshing.
The tone at 14:46...holy shit! THAT'S it.
Absolutely impressed by these EQ controls! So effective
That amp sounds fantastic to me. I don't care what it cost, that shit sounds great!!
Kept hearing Mick name drop playing this amp and I'm so happy to finally get to absorb it all! The Dumble made him play the best I've ever heard him play. Really happy with the video, thank you!
Expensive gear makes people play better?
You can't play this amp without an original 59 Lester. Everybody knows the hide glue molecules during the ageing process vibrate IN sequence to the unique mid frequencies of the Dumble, leading to an increased long tenon vibration which is enhanced by the aged (almost lack of) nitro finish to the east coast hard rock half-quartershawn flame maple top (NEEDS to be NO more than 3A) thus dramatically increasing sustain. The Brazilian fretboard is the only rosewood species available to synchronise with the amps unique bass frequencies, however it needs to be supplemented by the Honduras aged mahogany neck..... The only way to appreciate a 100.000$ amp is to actually play it through a 250.000$ guitar.....FFS...
Every affordable Dumbledore and boutique has been demoed on a '59 style or similar (but more affordable) Les but ZERO on an ES 335. At least the tables are turned here to establish what an ES 335 played clean could sound like with high end gear. Lots of players actually play their guitars not the reverb, effects, compression and high gain of their amps. To them, the idea of an un-muffled, clear tone thru which jazz chords and melodies can ring with nice note separation and that magical amount of pick attack is a dream. And to them, Tele's, Strat's and LP's are not the guitars of choice. Certainly you can get such great pure guitar tone with this Dumble and an ES 335. Maybe you could also with a $6k clone if you are willing to risk $5 or $10K's searching blindly (i.e. w/o ES 335 demo's) for one that would work.
Careful. There are people dumb enough to believe you.
lol, best comment ever!!
I'm sure this Dumble also sounds better than some of the others i've heard, but, I sooo appreciate the effort you made to get a clean, amazing recording of this amp. Just wonderful. Peace.
Can't say anything about the feel and behavior of the amp, as well as for the playability but, sonically I can't actually find anything so rare in this amp. As ever, it's personal taste and feel that matters...
So glad to see this, Mick is a great guy.
Lovely review. You deserve to have one. Maybe a rich benefactor will be inspired to give you one!!
i cant beleive how rich / percusive and dynamic the overdrive is...my genelecs do the job
Did you take the opportunity to profile it with a Kemper?
Michael Britt did he has awesome od special profiles in his page.
David Dyte I wonder how well the Kemper can play it back?
I have heard a lot of good things about them, but I've seen a few of them for sale which makes me wonder about them.
Mark70609 Kempers are insanely accurate. Go to Rob Chapman’s channel and watch his blind fold tests. The man is savant like with identifying amps and guitars by tone, he couldn’t tell the difference! There isn’t really any digital compression that you get with a lot of modelers, and the profiles don’t sound digi at all!
Yeah I can attest that they sound amazing! I've got the MBritt Kemper pack and I'm able to get the tones at 6:28 spot on.
@@ethanschafer4684 Quite frankly, I have blindly been able to tell the difference with kempers in video audio. Real life is probably harder due to how much bass will flub up the sound and muddy the interpretation, but with high quality audio, Kempers have a very particular mid hump which is noticeable and kind of... Annoying.
This also reminds me of the Mesa Boogie Mark IIb from back in the late seventies. The clean sound was like this. Everything almost psychedelic clean with blooming notes everywhere.
I do hope you got a Kemper impulse response.
The Dumble Overdrive Special I used to play through, Alexander built a 2 12" cabinet loaded with my most favorite speakers - Electro Voice 12L's. The cabinet is a partial open back, (like the Two Rock vertical 2 - 12's cabinet). I have never heard a guitar tone so "big, open, deep, dynamic, and clean" as the tones coming from that Dumble. (I used to play this amp at sound checks after I had tuned in the room). Sonny's guitar tech would tune one of Sonny's Strats in standard tuning for me and I got to have tons of fun. (I miss those days - a lot!) The tone doesn't come through nearly as well as "Live" testing. I am glad that you got to take it for a "drive" Mick. ;) (I did get to talk with Alexander about this amp at a gig in L.A. Very insightful. Alexander built his amps so that the guitarists could "sound like themselves'.) This first time I heard Sonny playing through his Dumble at sound check, my jaw "hit the floor" in amazement from "that tone". Good for you Mick!!
I'm thinking a vintage RAT pedal would really bring this amp to life.
Glorious tone. I hope to one day play through a Dumble. Lucky you!
He hasn't aged a day since the Stones
Amazing
Lol
Awesome, Mick, thanks. That is definitely THE sound. Beautiful.
sounds good, but boy, it's UGLY :)
*** GurrGurr that's a retolex.
the amps sounds really good and watching the demo for the second time I'm starting to like the tolex :)
Dude no need to talk about Mick that way, his mom said he's handsome.
he did not mean to say Mick it's just a phrase in English to draw attention to something.
If he wanted to say Mick is ugly, he'd put in this way, "Sounds good but THE boy is ugly." one little word, huge diff.
Or have I just misunderstood you and totally ruined your joke? :D
clapton79 Definitely the latter, and skilfully, I might add.
The thing about super high quality amps is that you only need one channel and can control the full range of tones based on the tone / volume / pickup selection and how hard you hit the strings and dig in. The amp becomes part of the instrument and gives you a different dimension of expression that you just have to play / feel to understand. I can go from a FULL BALLS OUT distorted tone, with the bridge pickup and volume full, to super clean fender on the neck pickup with volume at 5. The amp stays the same volume because when you push into the pre / post amps it compresses and adds such a rich overtone to the sound. I have a Redplate RP50Dou and it's just ridiculous how amazing it is. The amp is so full of overtones that feed into itself it just rings on forever.
Awesome amp, no doubt. But I will say, I was about to spend $2,800 on a Fuchs ODS 50 (another Dumble clone) to replace my Fender Super-Sonic 22. But then, my saint of a girlfriend had an Ethos Overdrive pedal built for me, and it turned my world upside down. It so changed the voice of my Super-Sonic, that I no longer had any need for the Fuchs. Moral of the story is, if you're like me, owning a Dumble might be out of reach, so expensive clones are the only thing we can come close to- but for 500-700 (I know, still not cheap.) you can get very, satisfyingly close. And it beats 50 grand for an amp. Beats 2800 too.
Thanks lads I really enjoyed that and great playing Mick as always!! Peace!!
Mick, that sounds great. But does it Djent?
If it did, it would suck, as it is an amp for guitar.
For djent cleans, yes
@7:16 man for all the world that sounds like a Fender twin with a TS808 pushing it. The overdrive channel definitely has a tubescreamery sound to it. Nice job Mick, great playing as always.
As I recall: Dumble made his amp after the tone of Robben Ford through bassman with TS... so guess yer right!
My custom Mesa sounds just as good. As far as the standard line I keep hearing: "It makes the player sound like himself.", yep, that's definitely my Mesa, & it has an effects loop.
I think you can hear that this is much more musical and inviting than most amps made today. I have to believe it's largely because Dumble knew how to voice amps to specific speakers; change the speaker and it can be totally different. It still can sound bad though - 12:49 - the low notes are just mud (too much distortion). I like the clean sound best. Amazing.
By far the best sounding Dumble demo I've seen! Great job Mick! You sold me to kingsley stuff but this time, my bank account can't follow!!! :)
NIcely done Mick. Great playing as usual and thanks for sharing.
No crystal lattices were harmed in the filming of this.
intrsoul hahahaha
How about all those super rare endangered poached threatened cheetahs gave up their hides and pelts for these amp covers???
Electrons flow freely in a vacuum than a crystal lattice...
Until the electrons flowed through a semiconductor with logic gates and became 1s and 0s, and 1s and 0s went through more gates and became electrons again in an analog world.
The best tone i heard in my life.
It is so very odd. We get USED to the way something sounds, then that gets LOCKED as the way things SHOULD sound. The response curves reveal no magic secret stuff; but Howard Dumble was making semi-customized WooWoo amps right at the time *_"guitar"_* was peaking. And now the Boomies with more cash than sense feed the monster. At one point John Mayer had FORTY Dumble amps - all of them, of course, made "custom" for other people.
One thing self-proclaimed exp-spurts LOVE to do is compare product lines, like a "real" PRS versus the same model "SE" Asian one. And they ALWAYS say the cheap one is... good, but the $5,000 just "sounds better."
OF COURSE they sound different, but that's not an evil thing - is there something WRONG with the cheapie? _What frequencies, specifically, did those sneaky little Orientals LEAVE OUT of the SE?_ Are they fucking SAVING THEM them to sell to Schecter or something? Ahhh! The Yellow Peril Strikes Again! Utter NONSENSE. Assemble it in America - even if you use the same exact parts, we just KNOW it HAS to sound better, that's why we paid the extra thousands of dollars! Well, duh... "If YOU can't hear the difference, YOU don't deserve one."
SO-OO much bullshit.. "The old Fender necks were so much better because they used the last old-growth Magic Maple, with really fine grain. Now the grain is wider, from younger tree, so it's "BAD." Except - the wider grain makes it a tiny bit softer, so it tonally moves a _little_ bit towards a mahogany sound. *_IT'S JUST DIFFERENT, IT'S NOT BAD!_* The gooping Dumble did to hide his circuit boards, on an amp that's "worth" $50,000 was worth... $48,500 per amp? People have even chemically de-gooped* them, and found they were made with... resistors. And capacitors and shit.
Even if you don't get sucked into it, what this is a fullblown brand-new RELIGION. We got saints... we got scriptures... we got sacraments. LOTS and LOTS of sacraments. We got temples, ancient heroic salvation dudes... DEMONS...
*(Wanna bet it was those sneaky little foreigners again?!?!)
(Sorry for going off on you, dude, it's just builds up and up and then BLOOEY! What can I say...)
AMEN!! I need to save this. So true. Wish there was more unbiased money for research and double blind studies that keep debunking all this elitist nonsense.
Very entertaining
Great comment, and funny too - probably because of the truth of it. I've been making guitar amps since the mid 1990s and came to a quite depressing realization ten years ago that I had actually grown to despise guitarists and guitar playing for reasons that parallel the elitist-mindset inherent to high-end audiophile circles (and many other areas too). I don't really blame guitarists for the situation (the situation, at least as far as I see it...) because they too have fallen victim to the same deceptive marketing practices and woo that is able to transform certain consumer products from being objects of usefulness into being desirable objects reflecting social norms or acceptance. Through this mechanism the product in question transcends reason and objectivity and, somehow, magically exemplifies a subjective measure of par excellence, having few real reasons for such radical (and oxymoronic) a transformation. In actuality most of this is due to some form of myth-making and 'iconophilia' and is usually birthed via a 2-step combination of; 1.) marketing, followed by 2.) mass-adoption by the consumer - when this happens false icons, laws and doctrines are created that are very difficult to challenge or break. Apple (computers) are a good example of this where an electronic device mirrors status and ego. Guitars and amps seem to be no different...
The emperor has been called out as the pervy nudist he is.
A couple of years ago, I hear Howard Leese with the Paul Rodgers Band from the 2nd row. For about the first third of the show, he played a knockout-gorgeous PRS Custom 24 that I would bet cost close to what I make in a year. For the next few songs, he switched to a Custom 24 SE....still sounded fantastic!
Mick, you and Dan are Amazing, I Always watch TPS but I wasn't going to missed this rare opportunity of playing this one of a kind Dumbble Amp with Guitarist !!!
Ok now WHAT did this box of guitar voodoo sell for???
There's one up on Reverb.com right now for over $100,000.... so, a lot.
Derek Heidemann
Oh FUCK me!
That's just ridiculous! It's an AMP for god's sake!
DMSProduktions . Not as much as a '58 les Paul Burst. 300k plus. And that's just a guitar. Hold on to your vintage gear.
+Groove Duude
A guitar i can understand, but an amplifier? They aren't even that old! Most are 1980's manufacture.
Surely some1 can melt the epoxy Dumby coated his circuit boards with and find out what the exact components and circuit are. Any1 thought to Xray or CT the circuit board?
DMSProduktions Agreed. Tone originates from hands to guitar. I know some people that would make this amp sound like crap at any setting. it is nice. Unfortunately I have the exact same snow leopard pattern on a blanket I bought in T.J. In the early 90's. still have it. It is actually a backdrop on my latest telecaster video. I have a dumble comforter! Ha!
Check out early Kitty Hawk Standard Amps made in Germany, you get EXACTLY the same addictive squashed and slightly compressed lower mid frequencies that make these amps so addictive plus the original ingredients, Mallory filter caps, Siemens caps, Sylvania 6L6s, GE USA 12AX7s as selected by Alexander Dumble... STILL affordable... I was lucky enough to compare two of them with two original Silverface Dumble amplifiers, can't get any closer to the real deal. Even as touch sensitive as described by Mick...
Cheers