Tell me about the Dumble

[jkokura]

circuits...

I've got a guy who wants a dumblesque pedal, but I know little about them. Is the Zendrive what he's wanting or is the ROG Umble or something else gonna be better?

Jacob

[Jopn]

From what I've read, the hardest part is getting the unicorn to piss directly into the enclosure.  Apparently they can't aim worth sh!t.

[rullywowr]

From what I've read, the hardest part is getting the unicorn to piss directly into the enclosure.  Apparently they can't aim worth sh!t.

Lol!

[playpunk]

From what I've read, the hardest part is getting the unicorn to piss directly into the enclosure.  Apparently they can't aim worth sh!t.

perfect.

[lars]

The Gaspedals Dumbbell.
The Zendrive is very good as well, but the Dumbbell is what you're looking for.
Here's a video clip that demos a few of the "dumble clones". The ROG umble is somewhere around the Barber Small Fry for noise, maybe even a little noisier, not usable. Even though Dumble tone is very subjective and elusive, I'm sure the first two pedals sound close to what that guy is looking for:

[midwayfair]

circuits...

I've got a guy who wants a dumblesque pedal, but I know little about them. Is the Zendrive what he's wanting or is the ROG Umble or something else gonna be better?

Jacob

Chances are he doesn't know what he actually wants, so a Zen Drive is as good as anything. Dumbles are built for each player, and they resemble Fenders with Marshall-level gain structures.

In all seriousness, one of the hallmarks of the amp is extreme gain and compression, and I don't think the Zen Drive does that particularly well (it's better if you add an input buffer), but it's made to get closer to Robben Ford's tone -- particularly since Ford uses them instead of his actual Dumble amp when touring. It's not as high gain as the amps used by the slide players with Dumbles unless you're also using it to overdrive an amp.

The Umble is a bit closer at least to the gain structure of the amp, but as Aquataur noted, it doesn't hit the compression aspect, so he added a little compressor to it, which I borrowed for the Snow Day ... you could make a daughter board for the compressor part easily if you want to add it. It's only a few parts. My only problem with the Umble when I breadboarded it was that the source bypass caps required to get more gain out of it made the distortion a bit harsh compared to the more recent designs.

You can get some dumbly sounds out of the Snow Drive (which is supposed to be released this month) as long as you don't care about having more than a treble cut for tone controls. I'd probably make a couple changes to make it woolier sounding (I can give you those after the build doc is available).

Otherwise, I'm not totally sure it's not better to use the Azabache + a compressor to get something that hits both the gain and compression without having some of the issues of the Umble.

^ The Dumbell is similar to a TS with LEDs and no input/output buffers. Would work on a Zen Drive layout, just use LEDs in place of the MOSFETs and jumper the unused series diodes. I don't think it has the compression (or sound ...) of any of the amps I've heard on recordings or seen in videos, though, it's less compression than the Zen Drive. (Honestly, even if that pedal sounds good, about the only thing it has in common with any Dumble I've heard is that the letters "dumb" are in the name. Further proof that people looking to buy a Dumble pedal likely have no idea what they're actually looking for.)

[culturejam]

I'll agree with Jon, for the most part. Chasing a "Dumble" tone is a fool's errand for 99%+ of people, since almost nobody has actually played one, and most of the amps are custom one-offs.

I would probably try a tubescreamer but with schottky diode clippers for increased sustain and compression and leave off the input buffer (or make it switchable). Maybe tweak the the corner frequency on the tone control. Call it a day and charge the guy $500. 

Just kidding, haha. But seriously, it's a tough sound to emulate because it's pretty much just inside the head of the guy who wants that sound.

[mremic01]

From what I've read, the hardest part is getting the unicorn to piss directly into the enclosure.  Apparently they can't aim worth sh!t.

You need to prop the unicorn up on something so it get more reach out its golden arch. Try a card table.

[Tremster]

I can't add anything on what the Dumble sound is supposed to be, but the Umble is one very, very good drive pedal. I prefer it over the Zendrive.

OT: years ago I won "The Dumble Book" in the giveaway of some guitar magazine. It has interviews with the guy from the time before he became a guru, and shows portraits of every Dumble Amp known to man ("has stains", "was owned by some 80s charts musician").
Ah, here it is: http://www.dumblebook.com/
Only 89 €.
Inside, it says: "All rights reserved, may not be reproduced, etc. The minimum copyright penalty charge will be 50.000 €."

[Droogie]

Ah, here it is: http://www.dumblebook.com/
Only 89 €.
Inside, it says: "All rights reserved, may not be reproduced, etc. The minimum copyright penalty charge will be 50.000 €."

I was disappointed to find out that the pages aren't gooped.

[ChrisM]

Having built a few Dumble ODS over the year I can safely say the ROG Umble sounds nothing like the real deal.

The Dumble tone is fairly well defined, the 80's ODS circuit hasn't changed since well the 80's. Yes each amp is tweaked for the player but the fundamental tone is there. What people don't understand when building/tweaking Dumble amps is it is the small tweaks and nuances that makes the amps so special. It isn't one special component or major tweak.

Dumble's are not high gain amps. They aren't Fender clones like people think. Keep the bass tight, the highs clear and glassy sounding (did I really type that? lol) and the mids in focus and you got most of the Dumble tone. I'd say any Tube Screamer clone with a decent hi-fi esque op-amp would get you "the Dumble tone" in most bedroom rockers minds.

[jubal81]

I the interested of an easy transaction, maybe you could send him links to demo videos of Umble, Zen Dumbloid, etc. and let him pick the one he likes best. You could offer an upsell to  a 2-in-1 with a boost or a Klone.

[slimtriggers]

I can't say how well it mimics a Dumble, but my Zen Drive (Serendipity) never leaves my board.  It's a great overdrive regardless of whether or not it's an accurate depiction of a Dumble sound.   Easy build, too.