Dumblestyle Overdrive Pedals... your thoughts
- Thread starter Texas_minor_blues
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shinksma
What? I get a title?
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OK, so being the impatient guy I am, I couldn't wait for Texas_minor_blues to report on his DMBL, so I picked one up figuring it was at the very least a good OD pedal.
It came yesterday, and I had an hour or so to play with it (while also squirrelling myself with other guitar-amp stuff I wanted to modify). I will really give it a wring out this weekend, I hope, and see what I can dial-in. But for now, my first impressions are:
It seems to get a bit closer to that Dumble sound, but I can't say if it truly mimics it even 90%. But it is indeed a very good OD pedal, and I think the more I play with it (and my amp settings), the closer I will get to the sound I think I am looking for.
True note bloom seems to be minimal, but that might be a settings thing. It does color the tone very differently from the distortion pedals I have, so that is a nice thing for me - not just another fuzz box. I would describe it this way: my DS-1 sounds "fuzzy" and buzzy/crunchy, while the DMBL sounds warm and "wooly".
Playing with the "rock/jazz" switch (not labeled as such by Mojo, saw that on another site) you definitely get more buzz/fuzz/bite with the rock setting, and a more laid back sound on the jazz setting - which is where I do get a little bit of note bloom.
Mojo describes the sound as "Rich in harmonic content with a spongy low end and growling mid range." Yeah, that pretty well nails it. The spongy low end makes this not a good pedal for heavier, darker metal (Opeth, etc), but does do good for some of the other classic rock/bluesy sounds. I need to see whether it works for Floyd-like stuff. (Since I'm a huge Floyd-Droid.)
Anyway, I also determined that my Fender HRD amp is not as loud in the clean channel before it starts to break up as I would like. I typically play at home with the clean channel volume at 2 or 3, and it starts to break up around 4. I would have thought it would take until about 7 or 8 to break up - if I want early break-up, that's what the other channel is for. This was true whether I played straight into the amp (guitar-cable-amp) or through my plethora of effects (don't ask me why, but I have well over a dozen pedals plus rack effects, and I seem to use them all...).
I hope to have more to report after/on the weekend, but no promises...
It came yesterday, and I had an hour or so to play with it (while also squirrelling myself with other guitar-amp stuff I wanted to modify). I will really give it a wring out this weekend, I hope, and see what I can dial-in. But for now, my first impressions are:
It seems to get a bit closer to that Dumble sound, but I can't say if it truly mimics it even 90%. But it is indeed a very good OD pedal, and I think the more I play with it (and my amp settings), the closer I will get to the sound I think I am looking for.
True note bloom seems to be minimal, but that might be a settings thing. It does color the tone very differently from the distortion pedals I have, so that is a nice thing for me - not just another fuzz box. I would describe it this way: my DS-1 sounds "fuzzy" and buzzy/crunchy, while the DMBL sounds warm and "wooly".
Playing with the "rock/jazz" switch (not labeled as such by Mojo, saw that on another site) you definitely get more buzz/fuzz/bite with the rock setting, and a more laid back sound on the jazz setting - which is where I do get a little bit of note bloom.
Mojo describes the sound as "Rich in harmonic content with a spongy low end and growling mid range." Yeah, that pretty well nails it. The spongy low end makes this not a good pedal for heavier, darker metal (Opeth, etc), but does do good for some of the other classic rock/bluesy sounds. I need to see whether it works for Floyd-like stuff. (Since I'm a huge Floyd-Droid.)
Anyway, I also determined that my Fender HRD amp is not as loud in the clean channel before it starts to break up as I would like. I typically play at home with the clean channel volume at 2 or 3, and it starts to break up around 4. I would have thought it would take until about 7 or 8 to break up - if I want early break-up, that's what the other channel is for. This was true whether I played straight into the amp (guitar-cable-amp) or through my plethora of effects (don't ask me why, but I have well over a dozen pedals plus rack effects, and I seem to use them all...).
I hope to have more to report after/on the weekend, but no promises...
Texas_minor_blues
Rosewood or Bust
So I finally was able to get some play time in with DMBL pedal.
I went between my Bogner and my 2 channel H and found that between both of them the Bogner + the DMBL had a better working relationship.
I can defintiely see myself using it with a nice tele or a Brent Mason (gas is building...) as far as with my McCarty it is a fun toy. I made the decision to pick up a Simble next and see if I like it better
but for the $ i am definitely liking the DMBL better than any other OD pedal I have tried previously
I went between my Bogner and my 2 channel H and found that between both of them the Bogner + the DMBL had a better working relationship.
I can defintiely see myself using it with a nice tele or a Brent Mason (gas is building...) as far as with my McCarty it is a fun toy. I made the decision to pick up a Simble next and see if I like it better
but for the $ i am definitely liking the DMBL better than any other OD pedal I have tried previously
Egads
One, Two, THIRTEEN!
Another pedal making an attempt. Sounds good...through the interwebs...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREkfWClSt8&list=UUXT6G8O3its4RLZ4kzjMr_w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREkfWClSt8&list=UUXT6G8O3its4RLZ4kzjMr_w
prsrocker1988
New Member
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I love my Big Bloom.....very, very good Dumble OD. Sounds closest I've come across.
Neck and bridge settings
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Hi, I have a zendrive, a [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]hao rumble and a fuchs plush drive. They all sound a good but I always need to change settings for neck or bridge pickup: if the bridge sounds ok, the neck with the same pedal seddings sounds dark fuzzy and dull. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Vice versa, a good neck sound is a harsh bridge. Have you ever had esperience white this problem? Have you ever tried something better with both pickups - tele - strat - single coils and humbuckers? Thank you![/COLOR]
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Hi, I have a zendrive, a [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]hao rumble and a fuchs plush drive. They all sound a good but I always need to change settings for neck or bridge pickup: if the bridge sounds ok, the neck with the same pedal seddings sounds dark fuzzy and dull. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Vice versa, a good neck sound is a harsh bridge. Have you ever had esperience white this problem? Have you ever tried something better with both pickups - tele - strat - single coils and humbuckers? Thank you![/COLOR]
I have that problem with Strats ALL the time.
A little better with teles, no problems with humbuckers.Not really Dumble like at all, but I am LOVING my new Ibanez TS808 into my 64 twin reverb. Just a KILLER tone. Very open, very little compression, and I have a Maxon as well which is a bit more pure, but I love the additional "color" that the Ibanez has.
shinksma
What? I get a title?
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Do your pickups sound a fair bit different when played clean? They should. That is the nature of the beast, I'm afraid to say. You get different tones with the different pickups, and any given pedal will accentuate that to some extent, and depending on the pedal, it will sound "good" only on one of the pickups. But the trick there is to take advantage of that other pickup sound, turning it into an alternate sound to use during the song - if the bridge pickup sounds exactly how you want it, nice and spanky and cutting through the mix, use the neck pickup for a rhythm sound that doesn't need to cut through, or vice versa - find a sound on the neck pickup that is a good chukka chukka spanky rhythm or laid-back lead sound, and use the neck pickup for a sharp cutting lick-injection sound that plays off the vocals.
And you could try swapping out one or both pickups to get something you think sounds better matched.
IMHO, YMMV.
This is my honest belief on the Dumble sound: it's not going to come from a pedal. It can't.
You can get a pedal with a certain frequency response or coloration, and even get one that responds well to your playing dynamics. But the Dumble vibe is the result of an organic tube amplifier sound that can't be accomplished any other way.
Speakers are also an important part of the Dumble equation.
You can get a pedal with a certain frequency response or coloration, and even get one that responds well to your playing dynamics. But the Dumble vibe is the result of an organic tube amplifier sound that can't be accomplished any other way.
Speakers are also an important part of the Dumble equation.
ViperDoc
Plugged In.
I never knew of Dumble until this forum. Is this example representative for a vintage head's value? I find this hard to believe. Do you know how many MB Mark Vs I can buy for that?????
https://reverb.com/item/411430-dumb...id=pla&pla=1&gclid=CNeK4d6oh8MCFZSPfgodCnkA8Q
Agree. Its virtually impossible. Sadly, the only way to get a pedal to sound like a Dumble, is to plug it into a Dumble. :dontknow: And when you have a Dumble, you do not need a stinking solid state distortion box.
shinksma
What? I get a title?
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I hadn't heard of "Dumble" before coming here either - it was this very thread that made me aware of "that sound". And I agree, no pedal is going to get "that sound". But you can get a sound that is a bit closer than a TS or Boss OD or whatever, and somewhat unlike any other pedal you might have. My Mojo DMBL probably doesn't sound anything like a Dumble, but it sounds nothing like any other OD/Distortion pedal I have, so that makes it useful to me.
And yes, that is a typical asking price for a Dumble amp. A bit high maybe, but maybe not.
That is close to double of what you can get one for, but yes, they are very expensive. The big problem is that if you love that sound like I do, nothing else is going to give it to you. A Mesa is not even in the same realm. I have tried pretty much every Dumble cloners amps out there, and nothing could nail the tone. I ended up buying one and hiring a great builder to take it apart and actually clone it while I watched. We got every detail right, and it sounds dead on. The only problem is the builder (Shad from Quinn amps) seems to have gone out of business, and owes people amps and or their $$ back. A real shame because the guy had a great ear, was a great builder, and could play well himself. The clone of my amp was called TKT 183 after the serial #. (183) and TKT (Tag know tone) from a silly TGP video. 183 was the best sounding Dumble of the dozen or so I have been lucky enough to rent and play. Insane sounding amp that could get closer to a human voice (mainly vowel sounds with just picking dynamics) than anything else I know of. Besides the Quinn which is dead on, the closest I was able to get to my Dumble was with a few early model twoRock amps. The Emerald Pro, Custom, Artist, and Custom reverb sig version 1. The Opal was also a very cool amp that was similar. The later and other twoRocks always had some D type of tonality in them, but they developed their own tones, which did not do it for me nearly as much as the early ones, because I was after the Dumble tone, not someone elses "take" on it
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CantankerousCarl
Occasionally Onery Member
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FWIW I picked up a Simble, it just showed up today, only had a few hours to play with it.
The only Dumbles I have consciously heard are interweb clips. So I won't waste anyone's eyesight or time commenting on whether it sounds like A Big D or not.
I will preface this by saying that that I am not a pedal guy; not do I have alot of pedals to compare it to. My initial impressions are positive - but not blown away. I used 3 guitars: a CU22 chambered semi-hollow, a CU24 w 57/08s, and a Siggy. I ran those three through my amps: Blackstar Studio 20, Club 40, Mesa F30 and Express+ 5:50 (all combos). I A/Bed it against my Analogman KoT, which I realize is a completely different style pedal, just for fun. Observations:
- Preserves note details and adds smoothness - from my limited reference, takes parts of the KoT and adds Tube Screamer-reminiscent creaminess but doesn't sound like either
- To my ears, what I hear on D clips reminds me a bit of the bloom you get with a semi- or full hollow body. I do think it adds some of that characteristic.
- Flabbs up the low end of my Mesas (easy to to) AND my Blackstars (hard to do) - there is significant bottom end.
- Seems to favor lower output pickups
- Didn't seem to want to play with the KoT or the dirty channels of my amps
My guess based upon this first session is that the Simble would work really well in front of a good lower-wattage single-channel amp that breaks up in the low-moderate range. I think it has some really cool sounds in it, and I hope to find some more as the snow and ice pelt our area tomorrow.
The only Dumbles I have consciously heard are interweb clips. So I won't waste anyone's eyesight or time commenting on whether it sounds like A Big D or not.
I will preface this by saying that that I am not a pedal guy; not do I have alot of pedals to compare it to. My initial impressions are positive - but not blown away. I used 3 guitars: a CU22 chambered semi-hollow, a CU24 w 57/08s, and a Siggy. I ran those three through my amps: Blackstar Studio 20, Club 40, Mesa F30 and Express+ 5:50 (all combos). I A/Bed it against my Analogman KoT, which I realize is a completely different style pedal, just for fun. Observations:
- Preserves note details and adds smoothness - from my limited reference, takes parts of the KoT and adds Tube Screamer-reminiscent creaminess but doesn't sound like either
- To my ears, what I hear on D clips reminds me a bit of the bloom you get with a semi- or full hollow body. I do think it adds some of that characteristic.
- Flabbs up the low end of my Mesas (easy to to) AND my Blackstars (hard to do) - there is significant bottom end.
- Seems to favor lower output pickups
- Didn't seem to want to play with the KoT or the dirty channels of my amps
My guess based upon this first session is that the Simble would work really well in front of a good lower-wattage single-channel amp that breaks up in the low-moderate range. I think it has some really cool sounds in it, and I hope to find some more as the snow and ice pelt our area tomorrow.
prsrocker1988
New Member
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The Big Bloom I have is a clone of a Dumbloid. I reaaaally like that pedal. To me it sounds like a cross between a Dumble and a really good piggyback era Fender Bassman. Creamy lead tone that retains highs. I'd definitely recommend it for someone looking for that Dumble tone in a box.
As far as amp-in-a-box pedals go, in the Marshall world I feel like if you put a good Marshall pedal in front of say, a clean Blackface Twin Reverb next to a Plexi, the differences would be minimal. Yeah it's solid state, yada yada but to me in general amp in a box pedals are getting really good to the point where instead of bringing multiple amps you can bring a good clean platform and these pedals instead.
As far as amp-in-a-box pedals go, in the Marshall world I feel like if you put a good Marshall pedal in front of say, a clean Blackface Twin Reverb next to a Plexi, the differences would be minimal. Yeah it's solid state, yada yada but to me in general amp in a box pedals are getting really good to the point where instead of bringing multiple amps you can bring a good clean platform and these pedals instead.
