1983 100-watt Dumble Overdrive Special Demo 

Thank you for doing an actual demo as opposed tp many who talk their way through and forget to show the amp's wares.

Great session guys, thanks. A quick story: James Ralston, guitarist with Tina Turner, was also in our touring band around '88/89 (James Reyne band). James had an Overdrive Special combo that we used to warm up with in the dressing room. Ha! I don't think either of us had any idea at the time what sort of iconic practice amp we were using. On stage he used Mesa and I used Marshall. I hope James still owns that little amp. It was a killer.

Shows how bang on the zen drive was. When they fine tune the overdrive eventually it sounds almost as good as one!

Admittedly, I probably don't have the best set of ears in the world, but from what I've learned about Dumble amps is that the guys who play them are the guys who have amazing playing skill, particularly in their phrasing and picking control. I'm talking about guys like Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, etc. But I'm sure that if Larry, Robben, Allen Hinds, John Heussenstamm and similarly talented musicians were to play into a decent amp with a boost pedal, they would make any amp sing, simply because of their playing style & phrasing. It's the magic within their fingers that really brings out the dynamics & tones in a amp and make it 'sing'. This level of talent is the pinnacle of human artform. Remember the "it's not the pen, but how you sign your name" analogy.

How you set the controls on an amp is a matter of personal taste. It's okay to have a different opinion about what constitutes good tone. If you don't find this video instructive, we hope you find others in our vast catalog that are entertaining and informative. By the way, the pedalboard was completely bypassed in all of these demos-only the Dumble footswitch was turned on and off. Thanks for watching, --PG Staff

What a clean sound! Thanks for sharing this masterpiece

That response and attack when hitting a note is noticable through my earphones and I can only imagine the feels when playing one of this beasts!

Really enjoyed that one for sure! Great job on the guitars.Such beautiful organic tone! Loved it!Thanks for sharing!

Wow. The hate for the players here is really odd. Firstly, they are quite good and secondly this is aimed at showing off the amps parameters and not the playing anyway. This is, bar none, my favourite profile I have seen on youtube and showcases this very famous amp extremely well and also does a good job at placing the amp in its proper historical context. I really loved it.

I sold one of my dad's old bumble booms last year and it was f-ing hilarious how dealers from far and wide would try and rip me off when I feigned ignorance as to what it was I had. As soon as they thought "hey, this kid don't know shit" they would sell me some bull as to why it was only worth a few hundred dollars. Needless to say, the guy who eventually bought it (acting on behalf of possibly the worlds best guitarist), flew over from the US and right off the bat he explained exactly what it was I had, how much he thought it was worth relative to the market, and what his "client" was prepared to pay. Out of respect for his honesty (and who his client was) I let him have it for a dollar less than his offer.

This is the best sounding demo of a Dumble ODS I've heard on YT - there are many clone amps out there - amplified nation , Two rock , Red plate , Fuchs - - they are all great but don't hold a candle to this amp - ALL of The clones I've heard break up in a very different way to this amazing amp - they start sounding buzzy and more Shred metal like - The real Dumble seems to have more harmonics and a wild Kind of note flipping thing going on - Also the thickness of the high strings remains whereas ALL the clones seem to sound like a fender Bassman or Fender Deluxe / Twin on the clean channel - This particular Dumble seems to have it's own thing going on - I understand why people would pay hundreds of thousands of $ on an amp - This is ENDGAME Tone - PERIOD - Untouchable - it's the way it was built , and the builders ears , and the way the components were chosen - Any tech can Un-goop the Pre Amp section of this amp and copy component values and rebuild it - BUT - it wont sound like this spectacular amp - !! - If only I had the money - I would offer ANY AMOUNT to own this ridiculous PERFECT ENDGAME Amp - !!!

Whoever equated this to wine tasting, they are spot on. It gets to the point with high-end amps as with high-end wines where the price difference from upper-level to upper-upper-level isn't worth the "goodness" difference. Especially because the difference in tone being "better" at that point is incredibly subjective, and dependent on many other factors, too. Get a Mark V for a 12th of the price, or a Fender Bassman for even less. Yes, the cleans are wonderful, but the dirties are cringe-worthy. How is this amp fetching $28,000+? Same reason PRSes cost $5,000, probably.

Fantastic demo of a Dumble and how the knobs and switches affect the tone. Very useful. Thanks 👍

It's a good sounding amp. IDK what these kids are smoking that are paying 20-40K dollars for a dumble amp. Maybe it's a rarity thing, But rare doesn't mean sounds great. I think it sounds good, and when I say good, I mean it sounds about like any other 800$ tube amp I've ever bought.

there are 10 pedals hooked up, surely the only way to show what it can do is guitar straight into the amp

This very amp was once mine. I sold it to Steve in the late 80s to buy a Soldono 100 watt. Mike Soldono was the new kid in town. I bought this amp from a guy in Texas for $1100 (with Anvil flight case) and sold it a year later for $1250...Those were the days...what an idiot. We all have a story like that.

100,000 dollars to get the perfect tone for the so called "music of the poor" (blues)

Hmmm. Yeah, I think I'd rather have a roof over my head.

Possibly one of the most important reviews on this amp ever.

I wonder why top studio guys from the world's capital of audio production who command an awesome arsenal of equipment, high-end microphones, valuable vintage guitars and amps are not able to avoid clipping in their recording. All your work is in vain when you want to show the "subtile sonic differences" of an $ 80.000 amp but in the end of the day it sounds like at 12:54

I'm so disappointed that the input gain on the mic lines were too hot for the cabinet volume/placement. Every note has that splat that is so unappealing! would love to hear how good this would've sounded in the room!

I can see what all the fuss is about regarding these mythical amps. Thanks guys. Always loved that Magnum p.i guitar!

Listening through decent headphones, I've got to say this is an amazing sounding amp.

Let's hear what that champ sounds like

This helps quell my inherently hopeless G.A.S. for a Dumble whenever it comes up.

Only thing this video proves is that the pentatonic scale is more important than any amp out there.

I get these same or even better tones out of my keeley modded blues driver, an EQ pedal, and my orange crush practice amp. Glad to hear this amp is complete hype and nothing more

This was my amp. I sold it to Steve in 85 for $1250 after owning it for 2 years and having bought it form the original owner from Texas for $1100. It sold this year for $75,000 on Ebay. I want to kill myself.

Thanks for showing what each of the controls actually do in relation to this amp.

$75,000 for an amp that if you were having it at a gig with a Peavy Bandit, nobody could tell the difference. I have heard one in the flesh and while it sounded good, it was nowhere NEAR $75,000 good. I have a modded Bassman that sounds better. Oh yeah, and I can still afford my mortgage, bills, etc. If I could afford this amp, I would pass and buy a '71 Cuda for a daily driver.

why is it so compressed ? - is it the cam mic we are listening to ???

I always liked the Magnum P.I. solo - pretty awesome that it was this amp. Who knew?

I am listening to this on my work macs built in speakers. Take that tone snobs!

If you ever get a chance to ply through one of these do so. The hype is justified.

It's interesting seeing all of the people in this particular comments section who bash Dumbles (and this particular one) all day long... but on another specific popular video demonstrating an ODS, all I can find are people who praise the amp and tone to no end. I guess it goes to show the different audiences and critics each person has, as well as the impact of the player and mic on the tone of an amp.

Wow, great video and as a former student of Steve Watson, I had no idea he played a dumble.

I love all guitars but I have to say the fender strat and Tele stole the show. Nice amp regardless

My bugera v55 eats this for lunch haha!!

OMG this sound quality !!! How do you want people to feel and ear the sound of this 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 $$$ Amp

thank you for showing me this amp.. the sound reminds me of my silverface early 70's bassman head.

its just a stadium blues tone, I don't really get the appeal.

D style amps take a while to learn. They also break up more politely with a Dumblelator. They can be really hard to be in the same room with at gig volumes unless you dial back the bright, presence and bass boost. It took me some 6 months to really get to grips with my 100 watt Ceriatone HRM, and currently I only use it for recording. It's a fantastic amp, but very picky about settings depending on which guitar is in play. Switching from single coils to humbuckers takes some tweaking to get it sounding good. It's not like a black face Fender where you can just switch guitars. Very subtle settings changes make a big difference, and the overdrive stack is a real balancing act. All that said when you find that sweet spot it is arguably one of the best sounding amps on the planet. I had the pleasure of playing through Robben Ford's #2 ODS at his dojo guitar camp a couple of years ago, and found that dialed for his tele my P90 based guitar sounded - ok. Every one of these are tuned differently depending on the player it was built for at the tone stack, so this was not a surprise. For reference, Howard actually built the first ODS for Robben Ford, as he'd been going to see Robben in the very early 80s doing live shows in Santa Cruz, CA and felt he could build him something better than he was currently using. From what I understand that #1 ODS no longer leaves Robben's house as it's valued at around 1 Million US. Sadly it's like having a '59 Les Paul that's gotten so valuable it never leaves the house (unless you're Joe Banamassa).

Nice playing, love that blues riffing at around 6 minutes.

IF I am not mistaken, I believe that Two-Rock is based on the Dumble. That amp sounds amazing.

Truly an historic amp that sounds incredible.

I've played a real Dumble that belongs to a guy who was doing work on a Fender Blackface that I owned at the time. It was an amazing experience just to see and touch one of these legendary amps. It was plugged into some 4x12 cab I don't recall what kind but I tell you the power of the sound is what struck me immediately. He and a friend were tweaking knobs as I was noodling around on a Les Paul style guitar. The amp is be able to reproduce every nuance from the guitar like almost perfectly IMO. I was only able to to do this for about 20 minutes, I think they got tired of me..lol. I liken the experiece to test driving a Lamborgini in the amp world, very thrilling!

Howard made 300 amps since the 70s mostly for artists that he enjoyed. Folks buy classic cars for 50k and this is no exception unless it played on a grammy album. Most of these folks wont sell. So to the haters keep hating it just shows what your talent level is.

this Really isn't an accurate representation at all, this amp deserves to be mic'd up correctly. Without proper sound this video is useless.

I know this is a pretty polarizing amp- you either hate it or love it. Personally, I really dig. And I had the privilege of being mentored by the great Steve Watson over 12 years ago. Perhaps I'm biased, then.

Dumble are amazing. I tried to get a similar tone using a mesa and pedals. But the differences are close yet they're a million miles away. I posted a few vids

Just as an example, you can have Henry Heistand at Red Plate Amps hand build you one of his excellent, toneful creations for around $2,400 to $4,000; I feel they are every bit as good as many of the Dumbles I've heard...some are great, but it's often the player that makes them sound so great.

Very good demo!!

Label me a fanboy or whatever, but I love the sound here. That's the sound of the amp, not the recording. Make of that what you will. It's kind of like lining up to get into a club where the band is already playing....you can hear them but it's still muffled.

Sounds great - just like my Fender Super Sonic through a 2x12"

I like my Peavey Classic 50 and 30.

REALLY FUZZY AND BASSY SOUNDING.. INTERESTING HOW THIS WAS STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN'S FAVORITE AMPLIFIERS.. very hard to work on because dumble used to put some goop on there so you couldn't copy...

My least favorite word that is not in the dictionary: dumblized. Man i dumblized my 5w fender frontman. Its siccccc

Its unheard of now with digital recording equipment to record the tube amp with the power tubes in there harmonic overdriven sounds as the amp must be turned up very high to do it ! One of the best tones i heard like is was a guy playing the Star Spangled Banner on a 20 watt Rebel 20 amp and celestion speaker cabinet before a softball game on you tube ! The lower notes were so harmonic it was magical but the highs were lost and mostly weak sounding ! I cannot find that video anywhere now ! The difference in power tubes and brands come out when cranking the amp master volume way up ! El34 and El84 tubes crunch when overdriven where 6v6 and 6L6 tubes stay more clean and get smoother and the midrange gets thicker and highs much less strident on all tubes ! The KT66 tubes have the fattest biggest presentation playing chords like the JCM 45 amp tone ! If you have a presence control it is to keep the power tubes clean sounding with a more crispy tone but on zero lets the power tubes overdrive nicely usually ! Presence is actually a negative feedback wire from the transformer that controls clipping of the power tubes ! Blues and slide guitar are better styles for overdriven power tubes as the amp has sustain and sag and hence is slower responding but twice as beautiful harmonic content comes out the speaker ! One harmonic beautiful awesome sounding note beats fast riffage to death every time , so blues is for cranked tube amps ! Folks think overdrive is only a preamp gain turned up or a pedal but lacks the true tone of power tube overdrive which is far superior to the ears ! Old Cream band played and recorded using cranked amps with power tubes saturated and clipping some nice fat tones indeed !

This is a great sounding amp, but for tone-stacked hot-rodded Fender 6L6 gooey-goodness... Mesa/Boogie Mark V all day.

Wow. Sounds almost as good as a Fender Deville.

Sounds a lot like my Peavey Bandit 112

That Strat Sounded AWESOME!!!!

It is an Les Paul Junior Special, so yes, it still is an Les Paul Junior, just a different variant of the base LP Junior model. "Junior" does not mean "single pickup", and there have been many LPJ's made with two pickups.

I've got a pencil that Jimi Hendrix once pissed on. I'll accept offers above 25k. The tone when you write with it....!

Not all Dumble amps sound/are the same. Depends on style and use. He also is VERY picky about speakers and cabinets, as any amp sound changes with speakers this is tough to say how it "should sound".

The problem with the way this amp sounds is the speakers in the cabinet. With a Dumble Amp, you want EXTREMELY clean sounding speakers...NOT CELESTION VINTAGE 30 "type" speakers.

Never to take away from the intended lesson plan but a ''Legend'' here again is noteworthy and so many times not quite emphasized enough but the Celestion Vintage 30 in particular ,..great choice and one of my personal favorites if not my best go to and so many others as well!! And a shout out to the ''Ghost Builds'' where would we be in the mystery without the ''Sum of All the Parts''!! Regardless of opinion on prices that's always gonna be an issue in any genre' of topics,..but this is a great demo of a great amp in all of a 1983 Hallmark and rightfully so, Uncle Doug and Rusty would lavish at it's counterparts and never a basic here or there but intuitively the potentials are even greater where each players ability to shine is only a switch or a knob's turn away!! GET SUM!!

The volume is the first gain control for the OD then there's a trim inside (2nd gain) then the level (3rd gain) then the ratio is a master for the OD. They have a potentiometer inbetween each gain stage. so it's tube- volume- tube- trim- tube- level- tube- ratio- master vol- output stage. Clean just goes tube- vol- tube- master- output stage, bypassing the OD 12ax7.

i cant afford $100,000 but i just loaded the dumble overdrive up in my Fractal audio AX8 with Avatar V30 cab IRs and its pretty much a very authentic representation of the tone, even the overdrive and tone controls react the same way as the original... just amazing...

Wow. Amazing sound amp.

I saw Robin Ford in Petaluma,CA about 9yrs ago, he got his Dumble,tc 2290 setup. He sounded amazing. If you give him his guitar, tc 2290,and a Mesa Nomad I think he still be sounds great.

Thanks for the informative video and also the big picture collection. I definately think the filter caps need to be replaced (all swolen). And I believe that shows in the sound. It sounds a bit fatigued/tired.

Yeah, we needed pristine clean tones at the time. 80's jizz. I was at the other end cranking the baser stuff. :) You live and learn, eh?

I think the explanation of the Gain Channel was a bit off. The First knob controls the amount of overdrive as the input gain control, then the "Ratio" knob is meant to be the output volume of the gain in "Ratio" to the clean channel, or makeup gain rather. Describing it as a presence control, while having presence like effects -that's what the Presence Knob is. It is confusing, but that's my understanding of the Dumble circuit style. Great video though guys! Let me know if I'm wrong.

Sweet job recording the audio bros.

All the guitars show a Dumble sound that u may or may not like. And the guitars own differing qualities are supressed

Wow. Lots of hate over this video. I thought it sounded alright. Maybe not as good as it could have, but it didn't sound terrible to me. Really liked with the overdrive switch and bridge pickup on the Les Paul.

Sounds like every other amp ,aiming at a specific guitar era. 50.000 dollars??? More like 50.000 pesos!!!

People always mention the clean sound of Dumble and Dumble style amps. I NEVER hear what I think of as a "clean" sound, which to me is what you get from a really good Twin Reverb at a moderate volume-that to me is clean.

yeah i agree, i was just trying to bring to there attention that if you don't use the powwer tubes (turning up the master volume) you just don't get the toneit doesn't even have so much to do with the recording technique as much as it has to do with knowing how to use a valve amplifier to it's potential as a VALVE AMPLIFIER. It's not surprising though,you'd be surprised how many seasoned guitar players don't understand this...power tubes, pre-amp tubes, transformer, guitar.they all work together

You need to turn master all the way up and then volume up till you hear "body" once you hear that....then set your lows mids and highs to taste...for a cleaner warm and thick tone always have the master turned up MORE then the volume....and thank you

I can get this tone with my stompboxes just cascading them so they compress and saturate the signal till it's squashed to shit. My Carvin Belair sure sounds superior to this.

That Esquire is the stand out

LOL..at "these two Yum Yums. You lifted me outta my depression with that.

@jensen, I agree. I can see why SRV liked his Dumble. It has a very distinct sound. I love the pre amp. You certainly would not see this at Big Bobs.

I think this amp is superb back in the days. Nostalgic piece, but for that price tag, no way, and some amps sounded more better nowadays just my opinion though. I love playing guitar that is all, tone and music is in the player, gear just fine tunes the skill of a guitarist/musician.

Dumble? whoop-eee-doo! There is nothing in that amp that makes its value over a grand or two IMO. Better options for the bucks folks.

wow it sounds like most other tube amps when cranked a bit?

ah thank you so much for doing this. I wish you folks didn't used vintage 30s. In my experience the V30s have a blocky tone that can hide intricate harmonic content. They are a good sound well, rock out speaker but I wouldn't pair them with a tone machine. I like Alnico speakers for that :) Again thank you so much for doing this.

Okay, I'm not as versed as I should be on these but I'm wondering. Is this (#133) a high plate or low? Does it have a Classic or Skyliner tone stack? Just curious.

This sounds close to the modified Music Man amps that Aerosmith used back in the '70s. But with channel switching. Basically a stroked Fender. I'm listening with headphones, Numark. Dynamic amp with a distinctive note. See, some wine lingo!

LOLOLOLOLOL. There is a fellow named Peter Lerche on youtube (don't know him or anything about him) that plays through one that sounds like heaven. But I swear I think my Boss Katana solid state sounds substantially better than anything on here without changing settings from when I took it out of the box, except for the Tele around the 8 minute mark, which sounded pretty great. But not any better than I can make the Katana sound. Either that or the microphone you are recording with was malfunctioning, or 53 years of playing guitar has made me deaf, but this seems like a how to find a bad tone through an amp vid. Sorry, guys, I don't usually bring myself to say anything if it's not really nice.

Very cool!

Mr. Dumble would probably freak if he saw you leaning on that amp!

Hey guys, It's just a vintage Fender Band Master with EQ mods switches and a nice transparent and creamy overdrive boosting the 6L6GC tubes. You want one? Buy a Fender Vibrolux or Super Sonic 60 amplifier and engage a Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor or Zen Drive overdrive.

I'm guessing that we're not listening to the cab mics, but to the video camera one.

sounds like an amp!

1. No Caster 2. Tom Holmes great review

Not sure if there's any compression in the mic/pre/mixer chain, but the compression on the clean channel, esp. with the '60 Strat, is very nice. It is quite audible, but nice. However, the dirty channel here sounds way too compressed and fizzy. Maybe knob settings, the cab being used, the mic placement, guitar settings, playing style, the particular voicing of this amp--who knows. I've just heard the dirty channel of other Dumbles sound, well, as awesome as they're hyped to be. One of the best types of amp sounds with a Strat that I know of.

Wow they all sound fantastic but its got to be the Strat neck pup with the overdrive kicked in, Peace.