Attack of the Dumble Clones, aka NJ Ampfest

[Bob-I]

Amazing gathering of amps yesterday at HeeBGB's place. He had a big warehouse like room for the large amps and a some smaller office spaces for smaller amps.

Marshall, Orange, HiWatt, Traynor, etc, both real and cloned. Many boutique builders were represented too, Ugly amps, Allen, Winfield, and many others.

I post this here because of the huge number of Dumble clones present, maybe 15-20. I brought my Peavey transplant (I should win the ugly amp award for that one) the Princeton chassis build and my 3 channel build. Scott Learner brought several Fuchs and his Glasman, Andy Fuchs came by with a few of his amps, there was a 2 Rock and a real 100 watt Dumble with 2x12 EVM's.

I brought my Peavey in during a jam when 2 guys were using 100 watt Marshall's cranked. It held it's own volume wise and sounded amazing, I was knocked out by the punch and smoothness at high volumes.

For awhile Scott and I jammed with my Peavey and the real Dumble. I was suprised at how much bottom end the Dumble has, now I have to rethink the voicing I did on the 3 channel. The Dumble was amazing and smooth, plenty of highs, very hi-fi sounding and it just sings. The Fuchs of course held their own against it as did the 2 Rock....

But the hands down winner to my ears was the Glasman!!. I have no idea how Scott had it set, but for warmth, shimmer, bottom end and overall tone nothing beat it, not the Dumble, not the Fuchs, not even the dogears modded Fuchs. Great work Gary and Scott!!

I was also very pleased with the Princeton chassis amp. Several folks played through it using a variety of guitars and settings. It sounded great, but one of my mini-toggles broke shorting the mid boost to ground. I could jiggle it and get sound back, but it's so dissapointing to have a $2 component take the amp out.

I also tried my Peavey into the Dumble EVM cabinet. I was happy to note that it wasn't dramatically better than the Tonkers. A tad more hi-fi sounding, but it didn't add to the tone.

Oh... a final note, someone handed me a beautiful (beat up) vintage Strat plugged into an Orange 100 watter. Holy s**t are these things huge sounding and loud. Not much in the way of smoothness and tone but you could knock over buildings with this thing.

[Icetech]

I am so jealous of you ampfest guys:( glad you had fun though.. now we need to get him to share the secrets of glaswerks:)

[Bob-I]

I am so jealous of you ampfest guys:( glad you had fun though.. now we need to get him to share the secrets of glaswerks:)

I'll tell you the secret. Amazing skill on the part of Gary, amazing ear on the part of Scott. I'll bet I could build for 20 years and not get the tone of these amps, even if I had the schematic.

[Pete]

I'll bet I could build for 20 years and not get the tone of these amps, even if I had the schematic.

hhmm, I think I've heard that comment from some folks regarding some Dumble amps . Thanks for the report, sounds like you guys had a blast.

[lastwinj]

if you guys liked the EV 12L, its a bummer you didnt come over to the pink 4x12 that i had. 4 massive heatsinked EV's inside, 2 12L and 2 12S. not sure if any of you guys were left, but we ran mark huss's hiwatt clone thru it. insanely loud, loudest amp and cab pairing i have ever heard. this includes everything i heard saturday in the big room.

germ

[Bob-I]

if you guys liked the EV 12L, its a bummer you didnt come over to the pink 4x12 that i had. 4 massive heatsinked EV's inside, 2 12L and 2 12S. not sure if any of you guys were left, but we ran mark huss's hiwatt clone thru it. insanely loud, loudest amp and cab pairing i have ever heard. this includes everything i heard saturday in the big room.

germ

I heard that for about 2 minutes, then I had to leave the room, too f**Kin loud.

[Tonegeek]

if you guys liked the EV 12L,

I used to run 2 EV 12-L's in my guitar rig and they are excellent speakers, especially if you need loud and clean. They don't color the sound much and they are bullit-proof. Of course they are heavy and cost a lot. I also used them (12-S?) in my monitor rig and never blew one even after 4 years of mixing every southern band in every frat house in Alabama...

[groovtubin]

I am so jealous of you ampfest guys:( glad you had fun though.. now we need to get him to share the secrets of glaswerks:)

I'll tell you the secret. Amazing skill on the part of Gary, amazing ear on the part of Scott. I'll bet I could build for 20 years and not get the tone of these amps, even if I had the schematic.

degoooped HRM pix couldn`t have hurt

[dogears]

Shhhhh....... Don't let the cat out of the bag that anyone can make a great sounding amp if they use their ears and follow a proven recipe. In other words, there ain't no fairy dust!

I am so jealous of you ampfest guys:( glad you had fun though.. now we need to get him to share the secrets of glaswerks:)

I'll tell you the secret. Amazing skill on the part of Gary, amazing ear on the part of Scott. I'll bet I could build for 20 years and not get the tone of these amps, even if I had the schematic.

degoooped HRM pix couldn`t have hurt

[jaysg]

Shhhhh....... Don't let the cat out of the bag that anyone can make a great sounding amp if they use their ears and follow a proven recipe. In other words, there ain't no fairy dust!

Oh, c'mon Scott...some's just gotta believe in unobtainium. I'm still searching for upsidasium....

[lastwinj]

if you guys liked the EV 12L, its a bummer you didnt come over to the pink 4x12 that i had. 4 massive heatsinked EV's inside, 2 12L and 2 12S. not sure if any of you guys were left, but we ran mark huss's hiwatt clone thru it. insanely loud, loudest amp and cab pairing i have ever heard. this includes everything i heard saturday in the big room.

germ

I heard that for about 2 minutes, then I had to leave the room, too f**Kin loud.

[glasman]

Hi Bob, and thanks for the kind comments on the amp. Scott has put a LOT of hours tweaking that amp over the last year so he is the one that should get the credit for the tones. My part was the initial build, and later construction of daughtercards for his amp for evaluating circuits that I use in my current amps.

As far as degooped HRM amp pics, to be honest, I have never seen any.

Gary

[NitroLiq]

I was also very pleased with the Princeton chassis amp. Several folks played through it using a variety of guitars and settings. It sounded great, but one of my mini-toggles broke shorting the mid boost to ground. I could jiggle it and get sound back, but it's so dissapointing to have a $2 component take the amp out.

I'm not a huge Dumble fan, but I've played a couple of Bob's, including the Princeton build this past time and it's a fantastic little amp. The thing is like a fire-breathing kitten. It looks tiny and cute with it's candy-colored knobs but when you plug into it it's crazy! I played Bob's edwards LP copy into it for awhile and kept being reminded of Nigel Tufnel—Sustain for days! You could go away, have a bite to eat, and it'd still be going! The broken switch would've made for a comical video....Amp would cut out, I'd flip the switch, it'd come back on....I'd play a note, it'd crap back out again. Flip it back, sound comes back, hit a chord, sound goes away again...rinse, repeat. Once it got going though, it was a pretty fierce little build...and not overwhelming in the amount of knobs. Me likey.