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previous: Ed Rembold Re:Characteristics of "Dumble Tone"? -- 1/23/2001 9:22 PM

Re:Characteristics of "Dumble Tone"?

1/24/2001 6:11 AM
GouxMan	Re:Characteristics of "Dumble Tone"? Here is my take. The clean is similar to a blackface Fender but is stiffer, less warm. I have a theory that Howard tweeked his circuit to accomodate the lead tone to be solid, without the fartiness or high gain found in a Boogie of that era. The lead channel excels at lower gain settings, and can be set low enough that the lead and clean are barely different. From there the gain can be increased to taste, but will never go into the kind of high gain you get from a 100 plexi. In fact, it sounds nothing like the typical high gain "grind" found in a Marshall. The Dumble lead is sweeter, much more compressed and is a smaller, more contained sound. It is not particularly great for raunchy power chords, because it compresses, instead of smacking you the way an AC-30 or TopHat does. In the early 80's many players jumped on the Dumble bandwagon early on, only to sell their amps a year or two later when the Mark III simulclass or Soldanos came out. Many guys like Lukather moved on to higher gain amps. So what makes it so great, so different? I believe it is the touch sensitive lead sound. You can "play the amp" like an instrument. It will clean up with a light touch, and give you creamy sustain when you pick hard, WITHOUT ROLLING DOWN YOUR VOLUME. It loves both single coils and humbuckers,(unlike some of the previouly mentioned amps) It is a great amp for slide.(Lowell George) You can hear the clean very well on the first SRV album, and you can tell when he kicks in the Tube Screamer. There is one more thing that is hard to describe, but the amp just has its own sound. There is a boxy or phasey quality to it sometimes that has a lot of character. It sounds imperfect in a beautiful way. David Lindley on "Running on Empty" comes to mind. Hope this helps. (Or you could just listen to "Talk to Your Daughter"!) GouxMan

1/24/2001 6:11 AM

GouxMan

Re:Characteristics of "Dumble Tone"?

Here is my take. The clean is similar to a blackface Fender but is stiffer, less warm. I have a theory that Howard tweeked his circuit to accomodate the lead tone to be solid, without the fartiness or high gain found in a Boogie of that era. The lead channel excels at lower gain settings, and can be set low enough that the lead and clean are barely different. From there the gain can be increased to taste, but will never go into the kind of high gain you get from a 100 plexi. In fact, it sounds nothing like the typical high gain "grind" found in a Marshall. The Dumble lead is sweeter, much more compressed and is a smaller, more contained sound. It is not particularly great for raunchy power chords, because it compresses, instead of smacking you the way an AC-30 or TopHat does. In the early 80's many players jumped on the Dumble bandwagon early on, only to sell their amps a year or two later when the Mark III simulclass or Soldanos came out. Many guys like Lukather moved on to higher gain amps.

So what makes it so great, so different? I believe it is the touch sensitive lead sound. You can "play the amp" like an instrument. It will clean up with a light touch, and give you creamy sustain when you pick hard, WITHOUT ROLLING DOWN YOUR VOLUME. It loves both single coils and humbuckers,(unlike some of the previouly mentioned amps) It is a great amp for slide.(Lowell George) You can hear the clean very well on the first SRV album, and you can tell when he kicks in the Tube Screamer.

There is one more thing that is hard to describe, but the amp just has its own sound. There is a boxy or phasey quality to it sometimes that has a lot of character. It sounds imperfect in a beautiful way. David Lindley on "Running on Empty" comes to mind. Hope this helps. (Or you could just listen to "Talk to Your Daughter"!) GouxMan

Replies:

aron >There is one more thing that is ha... -- 1/24/2001 6:31 AM