MichaelW
Well-known member
I'm pretty far behind in my pedal demo's, finally getting around to doing one I've been wanting to of my Special Overdrive Build.
Pedals featured in this demo:
Special Overdrive (Shin-Ei Dumbloid)
As mentioned in my build report, I was a bit hesitant to build this pedal after reading some threads about the general dissatisfaction with the way it sounds from some folks that have built it. But I'm very glad I did, I really like it. But I also get why it's not for everybody. I was able to get some great sounds out of it but I also found it VERY easy to get bad sounds out of it as well. The Tone and Accent controls are very interactive with the Gain control and super sensitive. A tiny move can make or break a good sound. Compared to the Zen Drive I find this pedal to be much less forgiving and fine tuning it between amp, and eq can make a big difference. I also find that it's got a more "amp-like" feel to it and I mentioned that I feel less like I'm playing through a pedal than the Zen Drive. It reminds me of my Ethos Overdrive Special pedal (which was also very easy to get bad sounds out of). In fact, it's similar to the experience I get playing through a real D-style amp, it can get overly fizzy, or it can sound overly muffled. I personally don't like playing through Dumble clones as the ones I've played through require a lot of tweaking to sound good to me. (And they have too many knobs and switches
)
TL;DR: Just my own opinions but I find the all the hype and mystique around Dumble amps to border on (almost) as ridiculous as the Klon Centaur. The notion that there is a definitive "Dumble sound" is a bit silly as every amp Dumble built was in one way or another tuned to the player it was built for. The inspiration for the original Overdrive Special amp was Dumble hearing Robben Ford play through his Bassman head that he used back in the day. So he took the Bassman circuit and modified it for the amp he built for Robben. I remember reading an article about when Larry Carlton and Robben Ford were on tour together as a duo and they tried plugging into each other's Overdrive Special amps and could not make it work. They were just too different and not suited to their own playing styles. Having said all that, there are a couple of "sounds" that I associate with Dumble in my own head. (Larry Carlton and Robben Ford are two prominent ones). Also, David Lindley's slide guitar on Jackson Browne's Dumbles on "Running on Empty". (Amp now owned and played by Robert Randolph).
I decided to use the classic "Cannonball Shuffle" by Robben Ford to demo this pedal. I've seen Robben play this tune with both his Tele and his 335 and I'm pretty sure on the original album recording he used his Gene Baker solid body. So I decided to use all 3 styles of guitars to demo this pedal. They all sound different but pretty good in their own way. I think my favorite is with my PRS solid body with the vintage style humbuckers.
Constrictor Compressor (Demeter Compulator)
My current favorite compressor. Simple to use, very transparent compressor and sounds great taming some of the transients of the Dumbloid)
FDIC Boost
I felt like I was missing something when tweaking up some sounds for this demo and the "Dynamics" knob of the FDIC (Fulltone 2B Boost) was just the ticket. I ran the boost between the compressor and the Dumbloid at unity gain with the Ge diode based Dynamics knob turned up pretty high.
Signal chain:
I recorded this demo through my Revv D2 tube amp instead of my usual UAD amp model because the Dumbloid just sounds better pushing some real tubes.
Amp was set clean and the pedal is doing all the overdrive work. Running into my favorite 2x12 Cab IR (Suhr Pete Thorn Signature Cab IR)
Hydra Delay and Spatialist Reverb
Had these running in the buffered effects loop of the amp. They sound awesome! I used the short slap back delay favored by Robben Ford on all the guitars.
Pedals featured in this demo:
Special Overdrive (Shin-Ei Dumbloid)
As mentioned in my build report, I was a bit hesitant to build this pedal after reading some threads about the general dissatisfaction with the way it sounds from some folks that have built it. But I'm very glad I did, I really like it. But I also get why it's not for everybody. I was able to get some great sounds out of it but I also found it VERY easy to get bad sounds out of it as well. The Tone and Accent controls are very interactive with the Gain control and super sensitive. A tiny move can make or break a good sound. Compared to the Zen Drive I find this pedal to be much less forgiving and fine tuning it between amp, and eq can make a big difference. I also find that it's got a more "amp-like" feel to it and I mentioned that I feel less like I'm playing through a pedal than the Zen Drive. It reminds me of my Ethos Overdrive Special pedal (which was also very easy to get bad sounds out of). In fact, it's similar to the experience I get playing through a real D-style amp, it can get overly fizzy, or it can sound overly muffled. I personally don't like playing through Dumble clones as the ones I've played through require a lot of tweaking to sound good to me. (And they have too many knobs and switches
) TL;DR: Just my own opinions but I find the all the hype and mystique around Dumble amps to border on (almost) as ridiculous as the Klon Centaur. The notion that there is a definitive "Dumble sound" is a bit silly as every amp Dumble built was in one way or another tuned to the player it was built for. The inspiration for the original Overdrive Special amp was Dumble hearing Robben Ford play through his Bassman head that he used back in the day. So he took the Bassman circuit and modified it for the amp he built for Robben. I remember reading an article about when Larry Carlton and Robben Ford were on tour together as a duo and they tried plugging into each other's Overdrive Special amps and could not make it work. They were just too different and not suited to their own playing styles. Having said all that, there are a couple of "sounds" that I associate with Dumble in my own head. (Larry Carlton and Robben Ford are two prominent ones). Also, David Lindley's slide guitar on Jackson Browne's Dumbles on "Running on Empty". (Amp now owned and played by Robert Randolph).
I decided to use the classic "Cannonball Shuffle" by Robben Ford to demo this pedal. I've seen Robben play this tune with both his Tele and his 335 and I'm pretty sure on the original album recording he used his Gene Baker solid body. So I decided to use all 3 styles of guitars to demo this pedal. They all sound different but pretty good in their own way. I think my favorite is with my PRS solid body with the vintage style humbuckers.
Constrictor Compressor (Demeter Compulator)
My current favorite compressor. Simple to use, very transparent compressor and sounds great taming some of the transients of the Dumbloid)
FDIC Boost
I felt like I was missing something when tweaking up some sounds for this demo and the "Dynamics" knob of the FDIC (Fulltone 2B Boost) was just the ticket. I ran the boost between the compressor and the Dumbloid at unity gain with the Ge diode based Dynamics knob turned up pretty high.
Signal chain:
I recorded this demo through my Revv D2 tube amp instead of my usual UAD amp model because the Dumbloid just sounds better pushing some real tubes.
Amp was set clean and the pedal is doing all the overdrive work. Running into my favorite 2x12 Cab IR (Suhr Pete Thorn Signature Cab IR)
Hydra Delay and Spatialist Reverb
Had these running in the buffered effects loop of the amp. They sound awesome! I used the short slap back delay favored by Robben Ford on all the guitars.
