![]() Using his extraordinary ear, he’d make notes about how he planned to customize the circuit. As his reputation grew, the process evolved until he would often have a client play a de facto audition, using their favorite instrument plugged into whichever amps were in his shop. He loved them both.”Įarly on, Dumble accepted amp orders from players of all styles and skill levels. “He eventually moved into a building on Jackson’s estate, and he and Lindley were a big focus for years. “Dumble was part of their camp,” Berlin noted. ![]() That role also put him the circle of Jackson Browne and his guitarist, David Lindley. But after it proved uninspiring for live shows, Dumble reworked it to a 100-watt. In the mid ’90s, Ford ordered a second ODS, toned down to 45 watts output to lower his stage volume. “That was how Alexander started earning a reputation, by bullet-proofing gear, and that carried over because Dumble amps didn’t break.” Robben Ford’s ’82 Dumble Overdrive Special ( VG, May ’11), is a 100-watt amp with three 7025 tubes in the preamp, four 6L6GCs in the power section, a solid-state rectifier, controls for Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Overdrive Level and Ratio, Master, and Presence. Dumble told him, ‘I should build an amp for you.’ “One of those bands was Little Feat, and Lowell George was playing an amp that didn’t sound very good or work well. “He’d essentially rebuild every instrument, including keyboards, so there’d be no downtime or issues with power in other countries,” said Drew Berlin, who, during a 30-year friendship, grew close to Dumble. Though it started as a modded Bassman, the amp evolved to become completely original, set apart not only for its sound but for the hand-measured and matched components, custom transformers, immaculate wire dress, and careful signal-path routing.Īfter moving his shop from Santa Cruz to North Hollywood, Dumble was hired by record companies to help musicians prep their gear for tour. ![]() The clean channel was cited for its transparent, responsive, “open” sound. It became widely viewed as the ultimate example of tube-generated overdrive – creamy, touch-sensitive, and with fat, harmonically rich tone. His first model, the Explosion, was made in ’69 in ’72, it became the Overdrive Special (ODS).Įssentially a two-channel/high-gain amp with 6L6 tubes (a handful were made with E元4s), Dumble told Robben Ford the first ODS was inspired by the blackface piggyback Bassman that Dumble saw Ford play with his brothers in The Charles Ford Band. In ’68, he backed pop-folk singer Buffy Saint-Marie, playing bass on tour, then used the earnings to buy equipment for his first shop, at his home in Santa Cruz. Dumble declined, opting instead to continue playing guitar as a profession while modding Fender amps for friends and other players.īetween 1966 and ’69, he began building original-design amps, beginning with a bass head called the Dumbleland. ![]() Ultimately, The Ventures deemed the amps’ sound “a little too much rock,” but they proposed a business partnership. Moseley then bought parts and turned Dumble loose building 10 solid-state amps, paying him $360 for his labor. The band’s guitar builder, Semie Moseley, fielded Dumble’s pitch, after which Moseley told him, “This is the best thing I’ve ever heard.” ![]() In ’65, Dumble built an unsolicited amp for his heroes in The Ventures. After graduating high school in 1962, he worked as a studio and touring player, working with songwriter Jim Webb. The project inspired him to build an amp for himself, based on Fender’s Dual Showman.Ī fan of Les Paul and Mary Ford, at 16 he started playing guitar. In a 1985 interview with Dan Forte for Guitar Player, magazine, Dumble said that in high school, he tinkered on Fender and Gibson guitar amps, which led to building a 200-watt public-address amplifier for a local youth baseball league, using a stockpile of electronic parts donated to the cause. The son of an engineer, Dumble grew up in Bakersfield, California, and was 12 years old when he started making transistor radios he’d sell to schoolmates for $5. He was 77 and had been dealing with heart issues including Atrial fibrillation (A-fib). Howard Alexander Dumble, iconic amp designer and builder, passed away January 16, 2022, after suffering a stroke. ![]()
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