I don't get the Dumble thing

[Eagle]

That's what happens when people who don't play music get involved, collectors, auctioneers, lawyers, and other sleaze of the land.
There is nothing "special" about dumble amps, they are indeed just a modified fender with added gain stage/s, like everything else.

So you haven't played one then

 

[Eagle]

OK who here has played one? Real one not a clone or model.

 

[PLX]

OK who here has played one? Real one not a clone or model.

I snorted coke off the back of a Stratocaster with SRV in the back of a club in Austin in 1987, and I got to play thru SSS #8 for about an hour.

Not really my tone.. but there's a very charming, chimey/sparkly high-end and a nice "thump" to the bottom.

What do I win ?

 

[Achilles]

OK who here has played one? Real one not a clone or model.

 

[laxu]

It's more a not understanding why someone spends as much time in amp/cab and digital modeling forums if they've gotten to a point where their experience is "they all sound the same. Meh. Why does anyone care if they're playing a Friedman vs. a Marshall vs. a Blug guitar, vs. a UA Lion? Just get the one with the right features and form factor."

Isn't that just a good thing? If all of them do the thing you want, then you can pick your favorite(s) based on other factors like features, cost, form factor etc?

I don't know about you, but I have ended up dialing my gear to sound the same (the tone I hear in my head) without intending to do so, and that made me question what I want to own if I just keep chasing the same sounds. I think there's a lot of ways to end up at the same point and that's because there's so much good gear out there nowadays.

 

[Blix]

OK who here has played one? Real one not a clone or model.

I have, my boss at the music store I worked at in the mid 90s had a ODS combo and I could play it whenever I wanted to, and I did :)
Unreal tone. Took me a while to "get" the overdrive channel as it was so super sensitive to how you played. As soon as I eased back on my at the time hamfisted attack it opened up and wow.
I had the opportunity to buy it a couple years later for $6k, but as a broke musician that was a fortune back then. If I only knew...

 

[Achilles]

Everyone involved in this conversation should have to post the results of a hearing test.
It would make it so much easier to determine whose opinions you can simply ignore.



Seriously though, if someone posts that they can (or can't) hear the difference between A and B, so what?
It's absolutely meaningless without knowing how good a hearing they have.

Also, how good is YOUR hearing, and do you have proof?

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Isn't that just a good thing? If all of them do the thing you want, then you can pick your favorite(s) based on other factors like features, cost, form factor etc?

I don't know about you, but I have ended up dialing my gear to sound the same (the tone I hear in my head) without intending to do so, and that made me question what I want to own if I just keep chasing the same sounds. I think there's a lot of ways to end up at the same point and that's because there's so much good gear out there nowadays.

If I was to the point where I genuinely didn't hear a difference that I cared about amongst pretty wide range of amps or modelers, given the wide range of stuff that is available, I just wouldn't bother hanging out on gear forums and find a different hobby?

It would be like me posting at cheeselovers.org in the Brie section: "Hey guys, I bought this brie today and it was so delicious" and then people asking what it was and me being like "Oh, I dunno, they all taste the same to me, but this one was on sale in this perfect little 2 ounce portion which is all my somewhat lactose intolerant stomach could take today."

 

[laxu]

Everyone involved in this conversation should have to post the results of a hearing test.
It would make it so much easier to determine whose opinions you can simply ignore.



Seriously though, if someone posts that they can (or can't) hear the difference between A and B, so what?
It's absolutely meaningless without knowing how good a hearing they have.

Also, how good is YOUR hearing, and do you have proof?

It's been years since I took a hearing test but they found no issues. Don't know if I have the charts somewhere.

However...I sometimes can't hear shit in a noisy environment. Hearing tests are always conducted in a "you can hear a pin drop, very little ambient noise" situation and that doesn't reflect the real world. I don't know if it's hearing damage, or an issue with my brain processing, but I've literally had situations in noisy bars where I can't focus on what the person right in front of me is saying. Take out the music and crowd chatter and the issue goes away.

 

[gearJunkie]

I'm now firing up my Dumble inspired clone to swim in the sonic joy it brings me. I get it!

 

[Achilles]

I've literally had situations in noisy bars where I can't focus on what the person right in front of me is saying.

I've suffered from this for decades. It's gotten to the point I dislike gatherings of people talking simultaneously. Restaurants and even large family gatherings can be very difficult. During my hearing crap recently one doctor said the term for it but I forget what it was.

You mentioned years since your last test - that's another thing we talked about. He was saying you can test great today and then decline rapidly over just a couple of years.

Age and a person's daily aural environment being obvious factors.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

or an issue with my brain processing, but I've literally had situations in noisy bars where I can't focus on what the person right in front of me is saying. Take out the music and crowd chatter and the issue goes away.

Being not-snarky or combative or anything here:

This a pretty hallmark sign of adult ADHD. Something that I’m guessing a LOOOOOOOOOT of us around her (raising my own hand here) have but most of the folks around here are also really smart and so we have developed coping mechanisms that have allowed us to be relatively successful without treatment/diagnosis. Obviously one symptom isn’t a diagnosis, and a diagnosis at this stage in life might not even be worth pursuing, but it’s absolutely a thing.

 

[laxu]

If I was to the point where I genuinely didn't hear a difference that I cared about amongst pretty wide range of amps or modelers, given the wide range of stuff that is available, I just wouldn't bother hanging out on gear forums and find a different hobby?

I'm not saying that am I? In my initial post I said that you could probably get pretty close to those Dumble sounds with other gear and I think that's true for a lot of stuff.

Most guitar tones are based on a relatively small pile of archetypal tones and everything else is flavors and variations of that, so I don't think it's absurd to say that you could probably make say a Fender blackface amp give Dumble-ish cleans by using the right pedals, different speakers etc to shape its sound especially in the midrange.

I'd say a whole lot of the tone is also in the speakers and cab. I wasn't getting those Vox AC30 style tones out of the Victory Copper I had until I got a 1x12 Alnico Gold cab for it. It sounded surprisingly Marshallish through my 4x10 with Greenbacks.

And what about the cranked powereamp distortion sound of the Victory? Replicated it surprisingly well with a Dynacomp style compressor pedal and more preamp gain.

I think it's interesting to see if you can reach similar results in different ways.

 

[gearJunkie]

 

[laxu]

Being not-snarky or combative or anything here:

This a pretty hallmark sign of adult ADHD. Something that I’m guessing a LOOOOOOOOOT of us around her (raising my own hand here) have but most of the folks around here are also really smart and so we have developed coping mechanisms that have allowed us to be relatively successful without treatment/diagnosis. Obviously one symptom isn’t a diagnosis, and a diagnosis at this stage in life might not even be worth pursuing, but it’s absolutely a thing.

By focus, I mean I can see their mouth moving but my ears or brain isn't picking up their voice but it stays as part of background noise. Not focus in the sense of becoming distracted while they are talking.

I googled adult ADHD symptoms and did not find a whole lot of correlation with this.

"Hidden hearing loss" is the term that closest matches what I'm experiencing.

 

[gearJunkie]

 

[duzie]

View attachment 22763

 

[Achilles]

View attachment 22763

The Dumble of pickles:

 

[greatmutah]

Closest I’ve played is a friend’s Fuchs Blackjack 21. Not exactly a Dumble but similar topology scaled down to a 6v6 power section. I thought it was pretty cool. A unique voicing for sure. Definitely in the hot rodded Fender camp. I don’t know if it’s a voicing I’d use a lot but it’s a cool sound. Would I love to play the real thing? Sure. Will it happen in my lifetime? Probably not lol. But some folks love those amps and the derivatives thereof.

 

[laxu]

The Dumble of pickles:

But where's the deep fried crystal lettuce?