Dumble circuits are very guitar sensitive

[frischmann]

Hey Guys,
I was playing with my non-HRM circuit and thought I'd try a guitar other than my strat. I'm not crazy about the sound of the Skyline midrange with a strat....The only other electric I have at the moment is a 1988 Jackson soloist with EMG's, that I bought new.

I put emg's in it because I cold never tame the brightness with passive pickups.

We'll I lost all of the dynamics, the ringing overtones swelling into feedback. The swirling harmonics on the clan channel....all gone...

I think the EMG's are a little less interactive and focus on a stronger fundamental tone.

Just my observations..

[Fischerman]

It's gotta be the batteries.

[talbany]

I have an older 90's Jeff Beck Strat that has Lace Sensors and in my opinion works good with the Skyline (smoother on the top) and still delivers the Fender tone nicely.. Recommend you try them.. The Beck also has the 2 lace sensors in the bridge that engages both pups for a nice humbucker vibe and is still smooth on the top with an accented mid.. Good Luck!!


Tony VVT

[frischmann]

Is that the one with an oak tree for a neck?

[Max]

Hi,

I often read in posts here that people complain about getting good guitar sounds with their clones only with a special kind of guitar and I often wondered why this could be. The reason why I wonder about such posts is the following:

I really never met a specimen of an original Dumble made ODS that did need a special kind of guitar to get a fine guitar tone out of it. Of course all were different and obviously made to match the taste of a specific customer, and so because of my personal taste I did like some of them more some less, but I really never met one that I liked with a Strat but that I did not like with a Les Paul. And obviously many famous Dumble-Users do not have this problem either.

Larry Carlton, as a well known example, changes a lot between Humbuckers (ES 335), P90 (Les Paul Special), Strats and acoustics. Robben Ford constantly changes between single coils and humbuckers and more examples of well known Dumble-users, who don't seem to have the "wrong guitar" problem either, could be found. I really don't know of any single user of an original ODS, who has ever complained, that he gets a bad guitar tone with his amp if he changes from say a Les Paul to a Strat.

So how do you explain this, that this problem seems to be present only in some of the clones but not in the original Dumble amps?

Greetings to all

Max

[Max]

double

[ayan]

Larry Carlton, as a well known example, changes a lot between Humbuckers (ES 335), P90 (Les Paul Special), Strats and acoustics. Robben Ford constantly changes between single coils and humbuckers and more examples of well known Dumble-users, who don't seem to have the "wrong guitar" problem either, could be found. I really don't know of any single user of an original ODS, who has ever complained, that he gets a bad guitar tone with his amp if he changes from say a Les Paul to a Strat.

So how do you explain this, that this problem seems to be present only in some of the clones but not in the original Dumble amps?

Greetings to all

Max

Max, perhaps Funk can chime in, but to paraphrase him, LC used to send his amps to Dumble every time he got into a different guitar...

Gil

[Bob-I]

I think there's some PU types that don't work well with Dumbles, but I switch between several guitars throughout a gig and seldom even touch a knob.

I typically bring a Hum/Hum guitar like a PRS or LP, a Strat or Tele and my doubleneck strat type. I just picked up an Epi LP Jr '57 and disconnected the hum canceling coil on the P-100 so it's a P-90 now. It seems to work great as well. We'll see for sure when I get a Fralin for it.

[Max]

Max, perhaps Funk can chime in, but to paraphrase him, LC used to send his amps to Dumble every time he got into a different guitar...

Gil

Hi Gil,

yes that is true after all I know. And of course it may make sense to optimise a certain amp to a special kind of guitar. And the more so for an amp that is custom made anyway. But my personal experience is, that if you optimise an ODS say to work best with a maple neck Strat with Lipstick-Pickups this would not imply, that ist sounds "bad" and does not work with a Les Paul.

And that is the way LC and RF use their Dumble live. I attended qiet a lot of their gigs and have some on DVD and they constantly change guitars during one evening without me hearing and thinking "Wow his ODS sounds b a d with his P90 Special", even if it may be optimised for his ES 335.

But that is what people often post here, that they are totaly unhappy with the sound of one of their guitars and totally happy with the sound of an other.

And such a kind of difference I never encountered with an original ODS, even with one that had been made for a Strat-Player who even brought his guitar to HAD for the finetuning of his amp. This kind of finetuning as far as I know never resulted in an amp that did not sound very fine with other guitars too, but that is (at least how I understood them) what some of the posts I refer to report. And that is what makes me wonder.

Cheers

Max

[Max]

double

[JD0x0]

i find that pickup magnets play a large role in different tones. my OTS seems to like alnico magnets better than ceramic magnets wound to the same resistance

[frischmann]

In my case, I think a big part of the issue is the EMG's. When I worked in a music store, we used to stick EMG's in bad sounding guitars as a cure-all. IMO, EMG's are much less sensitive to their surroundings and sound more consistant from guitar to guitar.

I think you lose a lot of nuance when this happens. I'm sure a good set of PAF's or clones would bring back a lot of that magic interaction, although they would sound horrible in this guitar.

I've also noticed when I use cheap guitars with inexpensive pickups, I lose a little of the 3-d thing.

Mind you, I am nitpicking, except for the emg's (yuck). Since I've spent so much time with this amp, I know what it can sound like when everything is just right...

Sometimes I wish I could go back to being happy playing a Kramer pacer with a peavey bandit and a Rat pedal. Life was much simpler....sigh

[stelligan]

Interesting topic.

In my limited experience, I've found the nonHRM amp types to be more forgiving from one guitar to the next. It took quite awhile to become satisfied with my HRM and a Strat. Once the Strat tones were to my liking, so was every other guitar in my collection with the amp. Could it be the wiggle stick messing with the fragile harmonics or the marshmello-ey football field?

[talbany]

Frisch

The Beck came in 3 different size necks... 1st version had the tree trunk neck.. the 2nd version was slimmed down a bit.. and the recent which is from what I hear like a Strat +.. If you don't mind a slightly bigger neck the 2nd version is the one I have.. I go back and forth from the Beck and the EJ Strat and takes only a minuate to adjust to..Anyway I was mainly referring to the tone of the Sensors not the ax although the Beck is one of my Faves...
In my opinion it's difficult to compare your Strat or Tele to those of Robben or Larry etc etc... who have the best sounding guitars on the planet and sound great plugged into anything..I do agree a set of humbuckers and or P90's are a better match for these amps especially if your in a situation when you can't really crank the amp to help thicken things up.. Sometimes a .047 mid cap helps or a 100k mid pot.. IMHO HRM's seem to work better for sngles than a Non in my opinion...
Oh Tom short sent me a set of strat pickups to try out..If it's a vintage sounding set of pups you are looking for ,Toms are wonderful and recommend them... If you want a hot set for higher gain this is not what they are about.. Though I am sure he could wind a hotter set...

[dr. who]

didn't srv have batteries in the hamiltone at the mjf?