I don't get the Dumble thing

On the Dumble subject. I had the opportunity to play a real Dumble once. It was a great amp and yes, it did have something really special about it. Are they worth the prices being asked? Well they're no longer just amps, they're high end collector's items. Their prices are more about collectability and scarcity. It's like looking at a rare baseball card or stamp and saying it is just a piece of paper. It is, but that has nothing to do with its value.

Surely there are more affordable ways to get that tone, or very close to it that the difference wouldn't matter. Ceriatone is excellent all around and very well priced.

But that has nothing to do with the Dumble pricing anymore.
 
The Ceriatone ODS clone I had was a relatively “simple” set and forget amp once I landed on my tone, which was pretty immediate. The cab from Stagecraft was amazing, and that creamy EVM12L .. so who knows what element made the amp.

So many 70s acts loaded Deluxe Reverbs with 12L’s to survive the rigors and volumes of the road and sounded great.

But to my ear the Ceriatone delivered an almost mythical idealized Fender clean. Fat and zingy and sustain for days. Any good amp is pretty much good for any kind of music, but an argument can be made that the Dumble thing wouldn’t have been an improvement over the scooped skinny tones used for so many of our favorite rhythm tracks over the years. But no denying that the “typical” Dumble clean setup is an amazing thing to play.

I don’t know too much about Fuchs, only that every profile / UAD plug and many clips of the real things tend toward an aggressive voicing that isn’t exactly what I’m after. People love ‘em though.

Anyway there’s an old YouTube clip of Tim Lerch comparing edge of breakup tones using an Ethos and a Zen through a Deluxe Reverb. Both sound incredible. Both great pedals, but when the right person is dialing things in, it sort of stops mattering.

(Kidding—it always matters!™)
“Is dialing things in”
The ole’ wizard with the big hat behind the
little door!
Ultimately whomever is dialing the “things” in can hear & use the right equipment to infuse’..
that software or equipment is a big piece of the food chain man.
Can YOU get your stuff to record out like that?
Prolly you & me turning the amps on doing our thing with what’s set up in our jam caves at the volumes were tuned into getting away with…
Ex:
-That guy’s a damn million dollar
producer man….I’m still a technological caveman,
mining the seams..
If trouble was money..
 
My experience buying an amp direct from Ceriatone was A+ all the way.

Communication up front was FAST - not sure When Nik sleeps!
The amp was completed under the quoted lead time and it was packed mind blowingly well.

Nik also walked me through a bright switch mod after I'd had the amp for a couple weeks.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
 
My experience buying an amp direct from Ceriatone was A+ all the way.

Communication up front was FAST - not sure When Nik sleeps!
The amp was completed under the quoted lead time and it was packed mind blowingly well.

Nik also walked me through a bright switch mod after I'd had the amp for a couple weeks.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
He never sleeps.

I got e-mails answered all hours.. within minutes.

:chef
 
So many Camerons.

:unsure:

Funny thing about that, I’m not even sure he was an HRI member. “Groomed noodler” is what the owner of HRI called Pete Thorn one day in an out-of-nowhere rant before shutting the forum down. Maybe he said it in a FB group, but it was really odd. Pete was barely getting his feet wet with gear videos and was more known around that time for being Chris Cornell/Melissa Ethridge/Don Henley’s guitarist.
 
Funny thing about that, I’m not even sure he was an HRI member. “Groomed noodler” is what the owner of HRI called Pete Thorn one day in an out-of-nowhere rant before shutting the forum down. Maybe he said it in a FB group, but it was really odd. Pete was barely getting his feet wet with gear videos and was more known around that time for being Chris Cornell/Melissa Ethridge/Don Henley’s guitarist.
Pete's first YouTube video was when he came into a thread on the old MetroAmp forum and carpet-bombed it with a video of him playing "Eruption".

:ROFLMAO:(y)
 
Zens are cool. Miss mine but I never used it much when I had it or all the other ones that came and went. Light comp and Tube Screamers in to silver Fenders was a no compromise tone recipe, but they became way too valuable now too.

Aaaanyhow…One afternoon like 12 years ago I was walking down 3rd st in Greenwich Village and happened to be passing the blue note when someone maybe a road manager was pulling an amp head in a flight case out of the trunk of a car to load it in to the club. Right as I was walking by he dropped the thing and it banged twice on the sidewalk then in to the gutter. When it came to a stop I realized the case had Robben Ford’s name all over it. Then I turned around and saw Ford’s name on the marquee. Was that his Dumble? Sheesh.

Just checked and the head that I owned (with C Lator built in) is $1855. So with shipping and cab and speaker it’s not cheap per se, but still half of what you’re looking at spending for lots of other amps.

Dumble clones and pedals can be great. But so are Fenders and Klons and Tube Screamers and I’ve seen so many shows where Princetons and Deluxe Reverbs with two or three pedals, even Chinese clone pedals (and years before that Line 6 M multi pedals) sounded basically as good as a guitar can sound. So .. um .. shrug.

As a huge decade long fan of Kemper, I can’t claim I’ve ever walked in to 55 (rip) or any other tiny guitar-centric venue and heard someone killing it with one of our beloved (digital) rigs. Tons of big stage acts, but not the local kind of thing where you’d hear Krantz or Landau killing it with a Marshall Fender or Dumble.

PS I discovered the 1962 Bluesbreaker plugin through my UAD account and it’s actually the first “Marshall” I’ve ever truly bonded with. I’ve read that at some point there was a hand-wired reissue. Anyway what a great grumbly but clear beyond the edge of breakup amp.

another novel length post™
(sorry)
 
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That's not true lol we had to change server in February and I had to get a new URL and reset the forum. But it's been fine. Over 5000 posts in the last 3 months. Far from dead. If you don't like it there that's 100% your right, but please don't spread stuff like this. The forum is alive and well.
How come everyone's status shows "offline", even when they're online ?

:unsure:
 
I'm still waiting for the guitar duel I was challenged to.. to even happen.

:cop
American Housewife Slap GIF by ABC Network

#throwback :rofl
 
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