Howard Alexander Dumble

Lee Warren · Post by **Lee Warren** » 17 Jan 2022 7:21 pm

Howard Alexander Dumble has passed away.
Boutique amp designer and builder to the stars.
His amps were mainstays with David Lindley.
https://www.musicradar.com/news/howard- ... mble-death

John Larson · Post by **John Larson** » 17 Jan 2022 8:34 pm

RIP

So the amps are like $500k now?

George Redmon · Post by **George Redmon** » 17 Jan 2022 8:48 pm

Sadly another pioneer has left us. A few years back, i had the rare opportunity to see and hear a Dumble being played through at "Distinctive Guitars" in Chicago IL. The store owner told us that "you don't buy a Dumble, you invest in one." Oh my goodness I can't even begin to explain the excellent tone, touch response, and quality of these creations. Mr Dumble built the "Holy Grail" of amplifiers. His amps sell for an average of $30,000-$100,000. His amplifiers are magic. Merle Haggard had Dumble #9, a brown suede Dumble similar to the one pictured, no 2 Dumbles were built or sounded alike. Haggard's Dumble set him back $160,000.

https://patch.com/washington/seattle/se ... ifier-sale

Incidently, we have a couple builders here on the forum, who create that special magic as well. When possible i always try to purchase or deal with those associated with steel guitar. They build, sell and know what we need.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 18 Jan 2022 11:32 am

Is he the guy who made you mow his lawn before he would sell you an amp?

Lee Warren · Post by **Lee Warren** » 18 Jan 2022 12:01 pm

Apparently he was quite a character!
Known to coat his amp’s electronic components in epoxy, to protect his designs, and ask potential customers to sign NDAs prior to purchase.
He would choose whether or not he would even build and sell you an amp.
All that may even be urban legend, but the list of world class musicians that own (or wish to own) one of his SSS or ODS amps reads like a who’s who of greats in all styles of music.

Now I may only ever visualize them, pushing a lawnmower around Howard’s backyard, with a hopeful look on their faces.
Thanks for the image, Mr. Bovine!

Peter Freiberger · Post by **Peter Freiberger** » 18 Jan 2022 1:05 pm

Along with "The Rock 'n Roll Doctor" Steve Dikun last September, another great loss for tube amp aficionados.

I remember seeing him building Dumble amps at The Alley rehearsal studio in North Hollywood. Only problem I ever heard of with his amps was that if yours ever needed work you were more or less at his mercy as to when he might get to it. I do know of one fairly recent six figure sale in the last couple years, from one fairly well known guitarist to an extremely well known guitarist friend of his.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 22 Jan 2022 11:40 am

Lee Warren wrote:Apparently he was quite a character!

Apparently, he was......

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 22 Jan 2022 4:38 pm

He brought one of his amps over to Amigo Studios where I was working in 1984 to let Clapton use for his Behind the Sun LP. I plugged in a Strat and tried it for a few minutes one night and thought it sounded about as good as my 66 Fender Bandmaster.

G Strout · Post by **G Strout** » 25 Jan 2022 4:41 pm

RIP Howard.

As to the amplifier pricing.
“There's a sucker born every minute.”
P. T. Barnum

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 26 Jan 2022 6:04 am

G Strout wrote:RIP Howard.

As to the amplifier pricing.
“There's a sucker born every minute.”
P. T. Barnum

Or to put it more crudely, and to paraphrase,

"There's an ass for every seat"

the guy did built a great amp, may he rest in peace

Jeremy Threlfall · Post by **Jeremy Threlfall** » 28 Jan 2022 6:00 am

Ive got an Overtone Special by Ceriatone out of Malaysia (a clone). Its a great amp.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 17 Feb 2022 5:03 pm

Those who crack jokes as to procedures, personality, contracts, prices and "I didn't sound good playing one", "It sounded like a Teisco when my friend tried it"...

...don't understand the man, the products, or the market.

1. Except for very early units Mr. Dumble's amplifiers and amp modifications were unique and made for one specific player's style, tone preferences and touch. Another player could sound weak or be unable to figure out how to get the optimum tone from one. Top professionals buying used ones were referred to or had already contacted Mr. Dumble, who would then rework it to match that player's specifics. If you bought one at auction because you won the Lotto you were likely on your own - unless he heard your playing and thought you knew how to "play an amp" to get optimum tone.

And there were a few electronics techs approved to service them - meaning Mr. Dumble would supply them with the necessary information to repair the amp with THAT serial number o it.

2. The "Overdrive Special" was not an amp "model" like a Twin Reverb. It was more like a Chevrolet - simply a brand name, with many different types/options, and "by Dumble" like General Motors - the "corporation". Except nothing was mass produced, or stocked for sale - or advertised. EACH one was a different amplifier. The late Ken Fischer made amps in a somewhat similar way, and each one iof his amps made for a specific player was given a girl's name.

Each Dumble amp was a "one off" product made for someone specific. I've played several; two I could get a pretty good sound out of; a few would have taken me quite a while (if ever) to work for me; and a couple I just couldn't work with. And the four at opposite ends were labeled Overdrive Special by Dumble.

Many players think Dumble amplifiers have one specific sound - the "Larry Carlton sustained distortion sound."

Wrong. The Beach Boys had a complete backline of Dumble amps at one time; Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George got sweet clean tones out of them. Eric Clapton has used Dumbles and had and had Dumble-modded Fender amps for clean and distorted tones. .David Lindley was mentioned earlier - Jackson Brown has also used one extensively

The point? There is no such thing as "Dumble sound".

3. There are many amp and effects makers who "goop" preamp or other circuit sections with opaque epoxy to prevent hacks from copying & selling their designs using cheaper components or because they don't have the knowledge to create an equivalent product.

4. Many custom & boutique product makers in this and other industries require NDA's. I've signed a couple myself.

5. Mr. Dumble did not charge $100,000 to make an amp - and if he had not heard you or you were a hack player you couldn't get one made by him for that amount. High five-figure and all six figure prices are for USED amps, and are simply a result of supply and demand.

Parallel universe product note: I know there are at least a couple other members of this forum who own/use original gold-colored Klon Centaur 3-knob "professional overdrive" pedals. Bill Finnegan originally sold them for $329 when they were first marketed in 1994. For a short period of time used ones sold for as little as $250, but that quickly changed when they started appearing on a number of "tone hound" professional players' pedalboards.

Technical note - the Klon is best used, per the instructions, as a "boost" to push a tube amp into smooth output stage saturated distortion - NOT to supply a high level of distortion itself. - and it's unusual because it does its job without significantly changing the tone of the player's setup. But today it would be termed a "clean boost" - not an "overdrive", which now means "low gain distortion" to most players.

Anyway - Klon Centaurs are "gooped". And used ones currently sell (not inflated asking prices - actual selling prices) for $5,000-$8,000.

That's not a typo. And it's not Bill's fault - he thinks it's ridiculous, so he decided to make a new version without the "Centaur" in a smaller pedal size, with just minor parts changes, painted red, that sounds virtually the same - and printed in white letters on the top is a disclaimer that high resale prices of of the previous version are not his fault!

Jeremy Threlfall · Post by **Jeremy Threlfall** » 18 Feb 2022 4:32 pm

and i gather he was "off the grid" in a way that included an aversion to monetary transactions. We would swap his services for a new dryer and washer from some chainstore whitegoods catalog, for example.

Funny guy with good ears and a large brain. I am astounded by every little i learn about him. These type people make our life in earth just that little bit richer

Matthew Walton · Post by **Matthew Walton** » 21 Feb 2022 10:51 am

For those wanting to learn more about Dumble as a person, the Guitar Wank Podcast (hosted by Troy MacCubbin, Bruce Forman, and Scott Henderson) has been doing a series of interviews/hangs with folks who knew Dumble so those of us who didn't know him can get a full picture of who he was. It's been really cool to hear all the stories. Everything Jim said in his post exactly lines up with what I've heard on the interviews so far.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 1 Mar 2022 2:39 pm

Jeremy Threlfall wrote:and i gather he was "off the grid" in a way that included an aversion to monetary transactions. We would swap his services for a new dryer and washer from some chainstore whitegoods catalog, for example.

Funny guy with good ears and a large brain. I am astounded by every little i learn about him. These type people make our life in earth just that little bit richer

Generally - with a few exceptions - once the amps & maker had a fairly widespead reputation, it was reported that payment had to be made in Gold Krugeraands.