Steve Kimmock talks Dumble Amps

[talbany]

Thought this might be intresting reading here.. Here is an excerpt taken from Steve Kimocks Discussion Forum as he talks briefly about both #86 50w and # 214 100w.. Personally I don't have an opinion either way and am not posting this to put Dumble in a negative light (I Love his amps).. Who knows there could have been something wrong with the amp.. If someone has a legit complaint with me posting this I'll pull it as I don't want any feathers rustled about one amp manufacturer saying or posting negative things about another I am not at all about that.. To be perfectly clear here!!!

Tony

Steves post

Just wanted to clarify:
My 50-watt Dumble is in fact serial number 86.
My 100-watt Dumble is serial number 214.

My 100-watt was originally an EL34-Skyline EQ model. I basically got it because I thought I would be getting just a bigger sounding 50-watt. Boy was I wrong! What a piece of shit. We rebuilt it to emulate my 50-watt, that's as close as you're ever gonna get to a clone of my old Dumble! My new Dumble!

If my memory serves me correctly, number 86 has 3 internal trimmers. Looking from the front of the chassis, there's one trim-pot to adjust the gain of the FET input. There's a trimmer to the right side of the pre-amp board that allows you to adjust the gain to the overdrive channel. Somewhere off to the right, in a smokey haze of monkeys staring into the back of a TV, is a trim-pot that adjusts the amount of presence when you engage the "accent" switch. That's it.

The 100-watt as I received it was chock-a-block with trim-pots for every conceivable function. Mostly, they just made the amp sound worse. Fully counter-clockwise was the flat position, fully clockwise was worse. I removed them, sold them on EBay, and bought all the cousins brand new Harley Davidsons. Seriously, that skyline EQ thing and the internal trim concept do nothing for me. YMMV.

http://www.online-discussion.com/SteveK ... .php?t=402

[tubedogsmith]

I believe the amp in this linked thread is very similar to SK's 100 watter.
http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

[Chris G]

Hi Tony,
I asked the questions that got those answers......I'm fine with it.
I had met Steve around that time at local gig he did here in town.

[David Root]

I wonder what type of trimpot is in the two amps? Although it sounds like the trimpots in #214 were not set right to Steve's taste, maybe they are two different manufacturers, with different tonal effects?

The popular choices today in the clones I've seen are Piher and CTS. Piher are cermet type, I think CTS is just a tiny wirewound pot, at least that's what it looks like.

Is there any collective knowledge in this area?

[talbany]

Hi Tony,
I asked the questions that got those answers......I'm fine with it.
I had met Steve around that time at local gig he did here in town.

Chris
Cool!! ..You gotta give Steve kudos for the honesty there.. Instead of talking up the amp then blowing it out or feeding more fuel to the already out of control Dumble brush fire (Greatest amp on the planet ) type hype..Told it like it is..Gotta hand him the cool award for this one..My main reason for posting it

Tony

[dogears]

Steve doesn't like HRM. He converted his HRM to a non HRM.

That's it. Plain and simple.

[erwin_ve]

Steve doesn't like HRM. He converted his HRM to a non HRM.

That's it. Plain and simple.

I fully understand that; HRM has a very different feel. I like my HRM but I like my Non-HRM even better. Non-HRM is easier to play. With HRM you really have to push your attack and amp volume to make it sing.

[Bob-I]

Steve doesn't like HRM. He converted his HRM to a non HRM.

That's it. Plain and simple.

I fully understand that; HRM has a very different feel. I like my HRM but I like my Non-HRM even better. Non-HRM is easier to play. With HRM you really have to push your attack and amp volume to make it sing.

I agree that the HRM is a different animal but I don't agree you have to push the volume. I play at fairly low volumes and I get a great tone from the HRM amp built from aconverted Peavey.

I also agree about pushing the pick attack, which is what I like about it. It responds really well to changes in pick attack.

All of that said, I have a 100 watt scratch build HRM that I just never can bond with. I'm considering converting to a non-HRM.

[JimiB]

so what is his 50w? A low plate classic?

[erwin_ve]

I agree that the HRM is a different animal but I don't agree you have to push the volume. I play at fairly low volumes and I get a great tone from the HRM amp built from aconverted Peavey.

I also agree about pushing the pick attack, which is what I like about it. It responds really well to changes in pick attack.

All of that said, I have a 100 watt scratch build HRM that I just never can bond with. I'm considering converting to a non-HRM.

Hi Bob, we both have our converted peavey HRM. I meant it's having a great tone, but for the feedback thing I really have to push the amp volume compared to my Non-hrm.

[Chris G]

Hi All,
Here's something a thought of The day I met Steve, he let me look over the 100 watt HRM pretty good. There was an external effects loop mounted on the bottom of that amp. Anybody have any idea what circuit that is???

To small for a dumbleator I think.
Chris

[hitchcaster]

Hi All,
Here's something a thought of The day I met Steve, he let me look over the 100 watt HRM pretty good. There was an external effects loop mounted on the bottom of that amp. Anybody have any idea what circuit that is???

To small for a dumbleator I think.
Chris

he has the two rock dumbleator clone and its really small... so maybe that was it.. brushed aluminum box with no labeling?

[Bob-I]

Hi Bob, we both have our converted peavey HRM. I meant it's having a great tone, but for the feedback thing I really have to push the amp volume compared to my Non-hrm.

I find that I don't need to play loud, but then again, I'm miking and the PA is usually fairly loud so I wonder if that has an effect on it.

[Chris G]

Hi All,
Here's something a thought of The day I met Steve, he let me look over the 100 watt HRM pretty good. There was an external effects loop mounted on the bottom of that amp. Anybody have any idea what circuit that is???

To small for a dumbleator I think.
Chris

he has the two rock dumbleator clone and its really small... so maybe that was it.. brushed aluminum box with no labeling?

Ya know I can't remember if it was black or silver???I know it was very small.I believe there was a tube on top of the box though......
Chris

[boldaslove6789]

Steve uses a very weird setup. He takes his old De Armond single ended 6v6 amp and taps off of the speaker + & - connections and runs it threw the power amp of the Dumble. One of those box's runs between them and has a pot and resistor to drop the speaker + & - level down to instrument level.

The other small silver box is in fact a Krinulator ( or w/e its called ) which is just a standard D-lator w/ minor tweaks by Bill @ Two Rock. It is very small but houses alot.

T R should have sold these small Footprint D-lator boxes instead of their $1,700 ELI 2 D-lator clone (Don't want to offend anyone just stating a point is all)

He has also used a Tube Reverb/D-lator device Two rock made him along w/ all sorts of other elaborate gear .

Steve used to work @ Mesa Boogie and I think that had a great impact on his gear/tone decisions. He used to use strictly Pre and Power amps in the 80's and early 90's.

Great player none the less, no wonder why Jerry Garcia voted him one of the best UNKNOWN/UNSIGNED musicians of the early 90's.

I Dunno, hope this helps.........