So...do we know who were the ones that Dumble refused to build amp for ?

[tiktok]

This has been discussed on the Guitarwank podcast by people who were allegedly present when Dumble met Mayer and Bonamassa.

This ^^^

 

[tiktok]

Henry Kaiser is the grandson of the founder of Kaiser Permanente.
He has money, plenty of it.

Common misconception. Henry inherited enough assets/money to go to college and put the down payment on a house. Everything else was earned from his oceanographic and film scoring work. I'm sure he's doing fine, but not "Kaiser Permanente heir" fine.

 

[Hairstorm84]

Nice first post here on TGP - Off to a great start.

I’m happy with it

 

[Hairstorm84]

With “Santiago wuz hear” scrawled in white-out

Montenegro’s Revenge!

 

[big mike]

fine...also a reason why he couldn't play a Dumble !

also...nobody that rented that amp prior to marty couldn't hear that 'IT' and buy it before him ?

we're in very subjective area here...and please dont get into a whole ' good amp makes you play better...it breathes with you...it opens new horizons for inspiration'...sort of stuff...

each one of them regularly rents gear in order to make tours happen...how do those performances not go down in flames if 'IT' is a must...always and forever...???

(sorry about 10 ellipses...11 now )

You really gotta learn to troll better.
It’s not even annoying, just sad.

 

[Mngwa]

I know that Joe Bonamassa sold at least one Dumble Overdrive Special. Ik Multimedia bought it and included it in TONEX MAX.

That one, he had bought from Billy Joe Armstrong.

 

[Donne Lamerde]

big mike...i almost posted that you dont matter....but you do...just not to me ! also ba bye !

Gear down, big rig. Some of us Canadians value our national reputation for being nice. We already sent them Celine Dion - don’t add to the list of things we need to apologize for.

 

[Bluesful]

On the other side of the coin Larry Carlton dumped Dumble.

I believe Larry Carlton has recorded with his ODS in recent years.

Henry Kaiser is the grandson of the founder of Kaiser Permanente.
He has money, plenty of it.

I don't think he got much of it.

IIRC he tells a story somewhere that his uncle took/stole most of it (or something like that).

 

[jnovac1]

Common misconception. Henry inherited enough assets/money to go to college and put the down payment on a house. Everything else was earned from his oceanographic and film scoring work. I'm sure he's doing fine, but not "Kaiser Permanente heir" fine.

I don't think he got much of it.

i made the acquaintance of a charming lady who served as assistant to hk’s grandfather. she referred to our hk as “henry 3”, she was like family and remains in touch with our man. what bluesful says is true, he has mostly made his own way.

 

[Donne Lamerde]

i made the acquaintance of a charming lady who served as assistant to hk’s grandfather. she referred to our hk as “henry 3”, she was like family and remains in touch with our man. what bluesful says is true, he has mostly made his own way.

He doesn’t even get royalties off the rolls. That’s a shame.

 

[Tag]

Doesn't seem to have hurt the resale any. You don't hear anyone complaining their Dumble wasn't built for them...

It's sad that people enabled that behavior and put up with him being so rude. However nice they are, it's not like he was the only guy on Earth who could build an amp.

Sure, but he's the only one building them that sounded that good when overdriven. No one else could touch what that guy was doing in his prime.

 

[smolder]

I've never interacted with Dumble, but I have had the pleasure (read, sarcastic) of bumping into JB in a music store, not once, not twice, but thrice. I don't know if I've ever knowingly bumped into anyone else remotely well known in a music store, but I've been blessed (again, read, sarcastic) with three JB interactions. He's a bit of a wank and can be cranky...

If you (or anyone here) were Joe and had to interact with fanboys and haters at a guitar store, I’d guess there’d be some similar lore. I would hate that sort of fame.

 

[SaintChris]

Anybody know anything about Christopher Cross' Dumbles?

 

[Kurt L]

Sure, but he's the only one building them that sounded that good when overdriven. No one else could touch what that guy was doing in his prime.

I haven’t played through one so I don’t have any basis to dispute what you say… except it seems highly unlikely that Dumble was so much better than anyone else.

For example, what about Trainwreck and Ken Fischer?

 

[Der]

i recently read somewhere that Dumble insisted on knowing the music that his customers were making in order to customise that particular amp to a customer

...and that, in some cases, he would refuse a customer based on his guitar sound from those materials he would listen to...or his music !

while i find it funny that there was a 'amp nazi' akin to a 'soup nazi'...(no amp for you...one year !!!)...now im courious to find out who was refused ?

...or am i being to catty here ?

Maybe a different perspective than many of the posts so far....
-
I design and build amps. Not to sell to anyone. I just like playing, discovering tone, enjoy electronics, and really developing my own deeper understanding of how these things work and how different parts or paths can make subtle or even drastic changes in what come out of the speaker. Years and years later and I'm still learning new stuff all the time.
That said; I build what I think sounds good, or just interesting to me - whether I would sell them or not. It's possible that deciding to not build an amp for a potential client might be more about not wanting to make something that could be other than what the builder wants to do. But then, would it really be that different since it would be most likely that the request came from someone who wanted what that builder did?
Unless; that person just wanted to be able to say 'he / she built my amp! See how cool I am!?', but still wanted something outside of what the builder would want their name attached to.
So it's maybe that last part that poses a likely answer (if the suggestion of the question is true)... maybe a designer/builder of that caliber has the wherewithall to be choosy. And there could be many reasons for a 'yes' or a 'no'.
Lastly, we have heard that he became annoyed by people simply 'flipping' the amps for extreme re-sell (not resale) profits. *(If what I heard about his solution for that is true - what a boss move!!!!"

 

[Dead Astronaut]

The best amp I ever heard or played through was a Fender Twin or Deluxe modded by Randall Smith years before he started his company.
It sat in my living room for a year because my mother would let older touring pros rehearse in our living room.
After school I would play it almost every day!
I played Boo Teek! Before there was Boo Teekies!

Whoa, cool. Do you have any idea what Randall did to it? (Cool mom, too.)

 

[Tag]

I haven’t played through one so I don’t have any basis to dispute what you say… except it seems highly unlikely that Dumble was so much better than anyone else.

For example, what about Trainwreck and Ken Fischer?

I played 2 trainwrecks (Liverpool and Express) and several Dumbles side by side. The Trainwrecks sounded like slightly higher gain, brighter Marshalls, and a good Marshall could be modded to sound extremely similar. Also, they had to be ear bleed levels to get any decent distorted tones. Dumbles are huge sounding, refined amps and most can be played at talking levels and sound phenomenal. Mine sure could.
Totally different amps, and IMO, Dumbles were light years ahead.

 

[Dead Astronaut]

His Fender "mods" were pretty much complete re-builds, usually just keeping the chassis and transformers. The Ultraphonix channel had those absolutely gorgeous clean tones and here's what he said about the Rock Fonicks channel in an old email I have - "On the Rock Fonicks, the performance target is to provide a higher gain audio path through the preamp, with a higher mid-range tuning point than the classic AB763 EQ systems. As well, Rock Fonicks provides more gain sweetness, while maintaining a “clean headroom” timbre. It also allows for a pleasant ‘slide’ into the gain levels incorporating enhanced harmonic content. So, the distortion just rolls into place, but still has a distinct “rock sound’ edge". He was also a big fan of the Fender Vibrolux as a donor.

Maaaan, that's the amp I want to play. With all respect to HAD – and I do respect him, a great deal – the lone 3-band EQ and all the voicing switches on your basic ODS-type amp always seem to be working against each other for what I'd like to hear.

 

[Irreversal]

If you (or anyone here) were Joe and had to interact with fanboys and haters at a guitar store, I’d guess there’d be some similar lore. I would hate that sort of fame.

I agree with you. But, when someone basically asks you to leave a guitar store because they want to hear the nuances of an unplugged old-ass Strat when you’re trying to run the racks of acoustics, that would leave a bad taste in your mouth. No???

 

[Finj]

He nails it, fwiw… I’m glad he included the part about Bob Rock owning the tweed Bandmaster first, I’ve heard Bob tell that story and it’s great!

The last time I was at his place he was working on an old Supro for Bob - Needless to say it sounded great! Solving a ground issue in Felder's live rig was taking up most of his time though as Don was heading back out on the road in a matter of days.