Does Dumble sound so much better?

[Tdale]

I read all the time that people who own, or have tried real Dumbles, say that the Dumble-clones sound good, but not as good as the real thing.

Is the mystique around Dumble part of the reason why people think his amps are so much better? So many people build copies of the Dumble amps. There are several of pictures and schematics out there, and people try all kinds of mods, so someone should have been able to nail it by now?

What could Dumble do differently than all of us, that makes his amps sound so much better than everyone else?

Tommy

[Icetech]

It comes down to experience.. ears.. and your own thoughts on how to build a amp...

If you look at the layouts/schems no 2 are the same.... and using different iron/types of resistors and caps and all that changes a amp even of the same values...

His ears and his experience allows him to tweak his amps into a dimension that 99% of us will never comprehend:)

so.. in truth i highly doubt there will every be a real "clone" seeing as there is no base to start the clone from... BUT as you can see from dogears and glas and others, dumbles ideas for circuits and such can be used to make some kick ass amps even if they arn't exactly perfection:)

[dogears]

This is not true in my opinion..... I have played a Dumble side by side with my amp and preferred the OD of my amp. The Dumble was #104

I have plenty of friends who have played both and owned both. There are exceptional Dumbles out there that are "grail-like" However, based on my observations of what has been related to me, there are more average ones. One friend of mine has a Two Rock Sig. He owned 6 Dumbles before that. He says the Sig is far superior to 5 of the Dumbles. The other Dumble, number 146 or 147 I believe, was magical. The OD tone was untouchable. The Sig however had nicer cleans.......

I think a lot of what is talked about is the romanticizing of the unobtanium.... I also think that in the last couple of years there has been a great improvement in the "clones" out there.

[Icetech]

Ok.. disregard what i said:)

[Chris G]

This is not true in my opinion..... I have played a Dumble side by side with my amp and preferred the OD of my amp. The Dumble was #104

I have plenty of friends who have played both and owned both. There are exceptional Dumbles out there that are "grail-like" However, based on my observations of what has been related to me, there are more average ones. One friend of mine has a Two Rock Sig. He owned 6 Dumbles before that. He says the Sig is far superior to 5 of the Dumbles. The other Dumble, number 146 or 147 I believe, was magical. The OD tone was untouchable. The Sig however had nicer cleans.......

I think a lot of what is talked about is the romanticizing of the unobtanium.... I also think that in the last couple of years there has been a great improvement in the "clones" out there.

Hi Dog,
I wonder if you could ever get the realy good sounding ones togeather to see why they sound better than others..........see if there are parts of the amps that are the same.......................probably not gonna happen though.
Chris

[Tdale]

Yes, I think the "unobtainium" has alot to do with this. And an important point is that most of us has never played a real Dumble, so it's difficult to really tell what sounds better or not.

As for the tweaking done by mr. Dumble, I'm sure he's a genious, but you don't have to be a genious to change parts, try new parts etc. And as long as there are a few thousand builders out there, making Dumble clones with mods and tweaks, there must be someone who gets close, or even, as dogears says, makes a better amp.

And what's better or not has to do with taste.

PS: I'm kind of curious about who dogears really is, having played dumbles, and having friends who have had several amps. I'm under the impression that a pretty high persentage of the Dumble owners, are professional and even famous players...

Living in Norway, the chance of actually trying a real Dumble is slim. The owner of a guitar store in Trondheim bought a Dumble years ago. He told me about the contract he needed to sign (the same that has been published here), but unfortunately he sold it a while later. Would have been fun to tried..

Tommy

[oldmacman]

I've never played a real Dumble (I'd love to... anyone in the NC or MO area have one?), but the amps I've built around his circuits are some of the best I've ever played.

The magic in a Dumble is a good design, good construction, good lead dress, and proper shielding where necessary. Plus he found out which parts sound really good in that circuit, and tweaked each individual amp until it sounded exactly right.

[Normster]

Dogears is really *drum roll please* the incredible Mr. Scott Lerner!
http://www.scottlernermusic.com/

I'll let Scott fill in the details, but my own take is that he's a pro who no longer chooses to play gigs. However, this too may change, eh Scott?

[dogears]

Thanks Norm.... Ya jerk

LOL

Dogears is really *drum roll please* the incredible Mr. Scott Lerner!
http://www.scottlernermusic.com/

I'll let Scott fill in the details, but my own take is that he's a pro who no longer chooses to play gigs. However, this too may change, eh Scott?

[groovtubin]

I've never played a real Dumble (I'd love to... anyone in the NC or MO area have one?), but the amps I've built around his circuits are some of the best I've ever played.

The magic in a Dumble is a good design, good construction, good lead dress, and proper shielding where necessary. Plus he found out which parts sound really good in that circuit, and tweaked each individual amp until it sounded exactly right.

The guy who bought my Diaz pedal owns BOTH a later HRM amp, and a bassman modded Dumble, his name is Dr Billy, listen to that amp@ Steelbender.com, so far, no amp on this site w/clip gets close to that sound, or they aren`t trying it one!

[dogears]

Hey Jim,

I love those clips.... Hard to hear the amp in them over the heinous clipping and lack of fidelity. I'd love to hear Dr Bill's Dumble with a close miced SM57, losing the horrid clipping distortion of the clip. Nothing like having a small camera mic's low bandwidth to remove all the high end. Not that the amp is harsh, but how would we know? There are no highs......

Let's get some well recorded, close miced samples in here to compare with..... Otherwise, it is apples to oranges.

Also, the sound of the room.... That camera mic is pretty far back.

But boy oh boy! I love those clips

PS: At least the encoding rate was really high! LOL

The guy who bought my Diaz pedal owns BOTH a later HRM amp, and a bassman modded Dumble, his name is Dr Billy, listen to that amp@ Steelbender.com, so far, no amp on this site w/clip gets close to that sound, or they aren`t trying it one!

[Normster]

I think a lot of what is talked about is the romanticizing of the unobtanium....

Amen to that, brother. The rarity of the amps, the prices they command, and the typical skill level of the players that record with them all tend to set unreasonably high expectations. I'd dare say that quite a few "exceptional" clones are floating around. However, I'll bet their builders/owners presume that a Dumble must sound better because, well...because it's a Dumble.

[v00d00blues79]

Where are those clips located on steelbender.com? i've been looking for them, but i can't find'em.

Thanks,

Andy

[dogears]

http://www.steelbender.com/videogallery.html

Although the Dumble sounds magical, the Fuchs clips on the same page sound surprisingly similar..... Maybe with the 4X12 cab, bigger room, and a .01 midcap, the Fuchs would sound even closer....

Point is that you hear a ton of camera mic in the clips....

[v00d00blues79]

ahhh... must have blew by that a few times. Thanks!