Doug Doppler on the Dumble Overdrive Special

[GoofyDawg]

This past Tuesday, I had the privilege to spend the afternoon with Doug Doppler (of Guitar Hero and "Get Killer Tone" fame) to tape a discussion on the Dumble Overdrive Special that he has on loan for his upcoming DVD series. Over the next few weeks, I will be releasing episodes on my site, GuitarGear.org, that demonstrate all the tonal landscape that that awesome amp can cover. It's truly amazing!

I just got finished editing the first in the series, and just released it. You can view it here: http://wp.me/p3yWp-Lc.

[telecaster911]

Pretty cool...

[k4df4l]

Great tone and a great player! Thanks for sharing the video.

[diceman1000]

the Dumble is without a doubt phenominal, but $40,000... i'll buy the Ceriatone clone for about 1/20 of that... thanks for the cool vid though

[Mark Wein]

Cool! I'll have to give it a listen when I get into work tomorrow and can crank it...

[Suhnton]

That Gretsch/Dumble combi a great sounding setup. $40,000 is a lot of dosh to splurge on a head though...

[Mark Wein]

I like the sounds in the video. It would be interesting to hear the amp next to a few other classic amps for comparison....

[mosiddiqi]

Cool vid :thu: certainly sounds like a fine amp.

[ellengtrgrl]

Nah, not for me. There are some vids on YouTube of Henry Kayser (avante garde guitarist/legend in his own mind) talking to Alexander Dumble, and some of the comments that Alexander makes are just plain silly from an electronics standpoint (I've had college courses in electronics, a ham radio license for the past 32 years [I also restore old ham radios in my spare time], and I do most of my own amp servicing [after working on old ham radios, guitar amps are pretty straightforward]). There was a long thread on Dumble amps a few weeks ago, on the Gretsch Discussion Pages, that Billy Zoom (guitarist for the band, X) put his 2 cents worth in on (Billy belongs to the GDP). Along with being a great guitar player, Billy is a longtime electronics tech, who has his own business repairing amps, modding amps (Billy told me that he's the guy who modded Mike Ness of Social Distortion's, Fender Bassman heads, to give them that kick butt sound they have), and even building a few amps.

Billy has repaired a few Dumbles, and his comments about them, pretty much confirmed my belief (from my experience soundwise from boosting my old Fender Showman [which is basically a Twin Reverb in a head form] with pre-amps), that they're basically just Fender Twin Reverbs with an extra gain stage tacked onto them. The few he repaired, seemed to just be variations on a Fender Twin Reverb, with an extra FET pre-amp board added on at the input. In most cases, the pre-amp board was the cause of the amp failure, since it was sort of a slapdash affair, that looked almost like an add-on. These boards were sealed up with some sort of caulk the hide the components (I guess to hide the secret to the amp's tone). Of course caulk traps heat. Tube amps generate heat, and board components eventually suffered thermal failure. So Billy had to go through the hassle of cutting the caulk off of the pre-amp boards to replace the defective components (he said it took around an hour and a half to clean caulk off of a board). Internally, he didn't find the workmanship of Dumbles, to be that impressive.

Billy is pretty much on Alexander Dumble's shit list, due to the fact that when Billy was in the studio some years back, somebody started talking about Dumble amps, and asked for Billy's opinion about them. He basically stated that he thought they were crappy (due to the things I just mentioned). He found out a few months later that Alexander Dumble overheard him talking badly about Dumble amps (Billy didn't know he was in the studio complex at the time), and basically hates his guts because of it (he heard Billy call them Dumb Bell amps - which Billy said is his nickname for Dumble amps).

I've heard things about Dumble. He's a very difficult man to deal with, and the terms for buying his amps, are ridiculous to say the least (it's almost like joining a secret society). I don't care that SRV, Larry Carlton, etc, have used Dumble amps - they're not for me. IMO, they're mainly hype.

Here's Part 2 (when the Dumble amp discussion really begins) of Henry Kayser's vid with Alexander Dumble:

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[diceman1000]

well said Ellen... like i said, if i want a Dumble sounding amp, i'll get a Ceriatone OTS... and Nik is a great dude to work with btw:aok:

[ellengtrgrl]

Yep, Nik's a great guy to deal with. He was always prompt and courteous about answering my e-mails, even though it was not a done deal, that I was going to buy one of his kits at the time (I realized that I couldn't really afford one).

From what I've heard, Dumble will cancel your order, if he feels you're pestering him!

[diceman1000]

Yep, Nik's a great guy to deal with. He was always prompt and courteous about answering my e-mails, even though it was not a done deal, that I was going to buy one of his kits at the time (I realized that I couldn't really afford one).

From what I've heard, Dumble will cancel your order, if he feels you're pestering him!

i'vr heard the same about Dumble... maybe hi and Zachary guitars should get together,lol

[GoofyDawg]

Just finished the rest of the series - there's four episodes:


Doug Doppler on the Dumble Overdrive Special: Episode 1 (http://guitargear.org/2010/05/07/doug-doppler-on-the-dumble-overdrive-special/)
Doug Doppler on the Dumble Overdrive Special: Episode 2 (http://guitargear.org/2010/05/09/doug-doppler-on-the-dumble-overdrive-special-part-2/)
Doug Doppler on the Dumble Overdrive Special: Episode 3 (http://guitargear.org/2010/05/12/doppler-on-the-dumble-part-4-shred-on-a-dumble/)
Doug Doppler on the Dumble Overdrive Special: Episode 4 (http://guitargear.org/2010/05/14/doug-doppler-on-the-dumble-overdrive-special-episode-4/)

It's interesting to see all the differing views on the Dumble. I've heard the same: It's a modded Fender Twin; the worksmanship isn't all that good, etc, etc. My personal perspective, as I'm not electronics expert, is that despite all the issues, there's something special about the sound and the dynamics of the Dumble - at least from what I personally experienced while listening to Doug play and playing the amp myself - that simply make it a very unique amp. Would I buy one? Maybe if I had the disposable income, but there are plenty of fantastic amps out there - as people have mentioned - that cost a fraction of the price, and don't require that you deal with Mr. Dumble. :) But I owe that more to eccentricity than anything else...