Dumble Amp - oh my god

Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

HamerPlyr said:
I'm not defending the price, but I ask again- have you ever played through one? The one that I was lucky enough to play through was heavenly.
Click to expand...

HP, no one is is saying that Dumbles don't have amazing tone (I've never had the opportunity to play through one, so all I have to go on are the recorded tones of others). Heavenly or not, you have to either have to have large amounts of expendable cash and/or be a collector of boutique/rare/vintage gear to justify buying one. Tone alone, atleast to me, is not worth an extra $25K.
 
It's all relative

It's all relative

Dumbles are a ripoff @ $10K but Custom Shop pickups at $150 or more are cool?

I'm not saying that someone's wrong to pay $150 for a pickup (or even $1500 for an original PAF) but that's just because I don't slag folks for spending big bucks on gear. There's always someone who grooves on cheaper gear than what you own and likely thinks you spent more than you needed to on your rig.
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

man... that is some big cash. i wouldnt play that amp cos i'd be afraid to pay 5k for a retube :laugh2:

that to me seems more like an investment (just as much as an original '59 LP) more than a gigging amp.

but for that price. i expect it to make ice cream, have a microvawe installed and give a good blow job in adition to godly tone
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

Davey said:
but for that price. i expect it to make ice cream, have a microvawe installed and give a good blow job in adition to godly tone
Click to expand...

you want the amp to give you a blow_job? :laugh2:
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

I guess not, I doubt how comfortable it'll feel though. And lets hope you don't f*ck it up so your wiener gets electrocuted.
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

Davey said:
man... that is some big cash. i wouldnt play that amp cos i'd be afraid to pay 5k for a retube :laugh2:
Click to expand...

I don't get it, why do tubes suddenly become more expensive?
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

aleclee said:
That's a pretty ignorant statment on a variety of levels.

First, you have to audition to get Dumble to agree to build one for you. It's primarily to give him an idea of how to voice the amp but I'm sure it also helps keep out the riff-raff. "Blues lawyers" (a term typically used by jealous players to disparage that which they cannot afford) can't get one built for them unless they have pro-level chops.

Secondly, you seem to grossly underestimate just how much better an amp can get. The first Two Rock I played (an Onyx, IIRC) left me underwhelmed when I played it. When I ran across my Emerald sitting in the used gear section of a Guitarget, I expected more of the same but after 20 minutes of playing that amp (as a bunch of shredders were warming up for Guitarmageddon), I had to have it. If you haven't experienced that it's nothing to be embarassed about but if you haven't actually played many high-end amps (whether though anti-snobbery or lack of opportunity), you aren't in a good position to authoritatively dis them.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.

I think you're possibly reading a little too much into my post.

Rockstars (substitute 'high level pro player' for this term if you wish) can get Dumbles, if they want to put up with the process. Blues Laywers can hope to buy secondhand IF one pops up. That pretty much covers the availability issue.

As far as how good amps can get, my knowledge is tempered by lack of local availability. Trust me, if my town/country had the range of boutique gear available to you guys in the US, I would have tried EVERYTHING. I've left no stone unturned locally, that's for sure. It's just that importers generally shy away from high end brands due to the low numbers of potential buyers in a country of four million people with an average wage of under $16K USD. In local terms, owning a fender CS, Mesa and Soldano (not to mention the 'PRS' word) in New Zealand is considered serious blues lawyer territory, haha...

But the main thing is, I'm not dissing any amp here. Taken on the only evidence I have (Robben Ford live) Dumbles sound fantastic. And Two Rock, Fuchs etc sound like very cool amps to me. I also like the fact that they bring the dumble thing to the point where a serious user could possibly afford one, esp s/h. That's very cool.

But when you get to the 26 grand USD mark, I'm happy to leave it to the rockstars and the blues lawyers.

As for the Blues Lawyer thing, don't take it so hard, man. One day, when I hang up my gigging underpants, I'll no doubt make the full graduation to blues lawyerdom. I look forward to spending my later years parading my seventh Modern Eagle to my internet friends...
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

Ez74 said:
what did these sell for new?
Click to expand...

It isn't as much money my man....not the money.

Dumbles have a mystique about them as thick as the legend of the 59' Les Pauls and the 56' Fender Strats. To be "worthy" of them you need some connections to get you to the man that makes them and then you need to be worthy of his time for him to make you one.

Non-pro players that have them have either gotten into them early on and dealt with Howards BS or have bought them used at the inflated prices. To give you an idea of what the BS involves....in the Dumble contract in the 80's you had to pay for the amp up front and then wait; no estimated date of delivery, nothing. If you EVER contacted him about the amp it was a violation of the contract and you lost your amp. You may get one out of him, you may not. The only person I heard who beat this was a guy who waited a year and then had his lawyer go nuts on him; it got him an amp, but not a terribly good one by all accounts.

They're woefully overpriced...but then again so isn't every single 59' Les Paul that has changed hands in the past decade. But no one can deny the fact that they'll only go up in price. Artists like Carlos Santana and John Mayer hoard them. Last I heard Mayer owned four. It's insane, but they're the real deal as far as ststus symbol amps.

Plenty of clones out there...but they're just that; clones. Gibson cranks out 59' clones all the time and Fender has made more reissues than they can count; they still don't fetch the money the originals get.

Pan them all you want...they're legendary.
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

I'll say this. When I played through one, it was in the early '80's, prior to current-day elevation of the mystique and the prices that have gone with it. Even at that time, it was like playing through the most unbelievable blackface that I had ever heard, and the gain channel was liquid and ripe with great overtones that I had never heard from anything else. Others have come closer, but they're still not the real deal, IMO. Is that the product of my poor memory? I don't know, but I do know that I haven't played anything quite like that since. I played a one-off Dr. Z amp that was custom made as a pedal steel amp that came close on the clean side, but nothing that could do both the clean and gain thing as well as the Dumble. Again, I'm not saying that I would pay $30,000 for one now, but if I had unlimited funds, I damn sure would.
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

Trilogy said:
This is a joke. Some of the best Blues tones ever, for ex. Clapton's BBreakers, B.B. King Live At Regal, Peter Green (FM)Live At The Shrine, Freddy King, and some others weren't achieved using a Dumbo, errr uh, Dumble;)

Many, myself included, will argue that SRV had better tone before the Dumble.

Whatever, there's a sucker born every minute.
Click to expand...


When was Stevie ever "before the dumble"? On his very first album, he used Jackson Browne's "Mother Dumble" and immediately went out and bought several of his own!! He was never without them! The only example of his tone pre-dumble I can think of is Montreaux Jazz Festival 1982....unless of course you saw him live pre-1983...then you can't really judge between recorded tone and live tone! two different animals
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

CapoFirstFret said:
When was Stevie ever "before the dumble"? On his very first album, he used Jackson Browne's "Mother Dumble" and immediately went out and bought several of his own!! He was never without them! The only example of his tone pre-dumble I can think of is Montreaux Jazz Festival 1982....unless of course you saw him live pre-1983...then you can't really judge between recorded tone and live tone! two different animals
Click to expand...

For the record, I saw him more times that I can count before the release of "Texas Flood" and he sounded great through cranked Fenders, too. I had no idea of a different amp when I heard the first album- it sounded the same as his live tone to me.
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

they sure muss be nice fer fellers to fetch em that much money! i reckon i'd be too skeered to even hear one!

seriously though...i'm sure they're amazing, but i'd feel bad paying that much money for an amp no matter how much money i had. i might be tempted to after playing one...but hopefully i'd have better sense than that...but i'm not a "pro" by any stretch of the imagination...as a matter of fact i'm a total hack just sitting around looking forward to a $350 dollar schecter (which i had to put on layaway) and hopefully i'll get a traynor or used Rivera for an amp in the next few months:burnout: :dance:

my 8 yr old daughter thinks i'm a rockstar...does that count?!
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

Hoss said:
my 8 yr old daughter thinks i'm a rockstar...does that count?!
Click to expand...


Hoss, at the end of the day that's all that counts. :)
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

Mac-P said:
The auction has ended, and it merely says $10,000.
Click to expand...

And what's interesting is the description states:

"The seller ended this listing early because of an error in the listing."

I wonder what that means? Maybe it'll be relisted?
 
Re: Dumble Amp - oh my god

My one and only Dumble amp story.

I went into Knut Koupee' music in Minneapolis, to check out a Mesa 22 caliber, back in the 80's. As I wandered around I saw this amp. It was a Dumble Overdrive Special, whatever the heck that is. So I grabbed a Strat & plugged it in. I start noodling around & slowly realized that this amp was the BEST sounding amp I had ever played. I suppose I sat there for 5 minutes. When I got up, I saw there was a small crowd, who had been listening to me! Look, I'm a below average player, I have never had that happen before.

I put down the guitar, & went to inquire about the cost. The guy behind the counter (who was relatively new) says, Oh I don't know. About $350." I'm pulling out my credit card, & turn to see the storeowner unplugging the amp & carting it away, shooting the counter guy a HUGE nasty look. He says to me "No, this is in for a repair", which I figured out later must have been a line. I don't know what the real story was.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top