Oh I know. My hope is that Tremonti has one that sounds just like Tags 183, which means, just like the Louis Electric Cobra, because that things sounds INCREDIBLE!
It does sound pretty darn nice, I agree.
The Two-Rock Custom Reverb Artist v2 I had (that was factory-loaded with NOS tubes) had a very similar Dumble-based sound. I might be able to tell them apart back-to-back in the room, but the demos of the Cobra are similar enough that I'm not sure I could tell via a clip. Still, it's been a good 7 years since my last T-R, so maybe, who knows.
My one observation is the the "D" part of the MDT amps didn't truly have the Dumble sound happening, so it'll be interesting to see what comes out of all this.
Why
not buy a Cobra if you're flipping over it? It'd probably be well worth the investment. It's an amp I'd certainly look at if I wanted that sound, though I really liked what Bill Krinard was up to at Two-Rock, and I hear he's consulting with them on new designs again. So I might take another look at their amps if I want to add to my rig.
For me, if it's a low to mid gain channel that Tremonti signed off on, I'll probably love it. Heck, as far as I know, Marshall super lead, fender bassman, and dumbles are similar amps with different part values..
The Dumble has a cascading gain structure, and the Bassman and Marshall don't. There are more than part values distinguishing it from the Bassman (mine was a '67, bought new in 1968) or the Marshalls. They're different amps, with different circuits. All three do different things. And all are worthy amps, as far as I'm concerned.
However, as always, the devil is in the details.
The unique thing about a Dumble sound, apart from its cascading gain, is that it compresses certain frequencies more than others. That's what gives them what Tag calls that 'straining' sound, without losing the high end, or overdosing on the low mids, as one might with most highly compressed amps. If you have a multi band compressor, where you can set the compression levels of different frequency bands, you can get a sense of what I'm talking about.
Listen to a Dumble (or clone), and then listen to a Mesa, which is also a cascading gain amp with what I'd call a compressed sound.
They're very different. The Dumble is more mid-centric, has more clarity in the highs than a Mesa gain channel. and less girth/ mud in the bass.
This is not a knock on Mesas; I love Mesas, and have two of them. They're simply different from Dumbles. So talking about part values and circuit differences...well...what's the point? If they sound different, that's all that matters.
Nonetheless, I completely agree with your point that if an amp sounds good, it IS good!