Topic: Best dumble pedal?

I am a new member to the JB forum, however I have been a fan of Joe's for a while.  I, like every other member of the forum here, am fascinated with Joe's style, tone, and music.  My question is to the other members (and maybe Joe could help me out here smile is what is the best pedal to use in conjunction with a blackface fender to achieve a dumblesque tone? Also I hope to blend this with my DSL100 to achieve that monster tone!(my voodoo lab amp selector is on it's way!)

'67 and '74 Fender Twin Reverbs, '74 Marshall 1987 lead mkII, Metro Superlead 100. Pedals from TC Electronic, Ibanez, Dunlop, BK Butler, Electro-Harmonix, Fulltone, Maestro/Gibson, Loopmaster switching, VoodooLab, Boss. Gibson and Fender guitars, Dimarzio pickups.

Re: Best dumble pedal?

Hey man check out the Ocean EFX Pearl Drive.  I've demoed it before and it does the dumble thing pretty good.  You can check it out here.

http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_sh … ink--ofxpd

Hope this helps.

Ben

Re: Best dumble pedal?

Hey Ben thanks for the info.  So many boutique pedals, so little time!  I really liked that first sound clip.  Almost like Joe's Van Weedlen tone on Youtube.

'67 and '74 Fender Twin Reverbs, '74 Marshall 1987 lead mkII, Metro Superlead 100. Pedals from TC Electronic, Ibanez, Dunlop, BK Butler, Electro-Harmonix, Fulltone, Maestro/Gibson, Loopmaster switching, VoodooLab, Boss. Gibson and Fender guitars, Dimarzio pickups.

Re: Best dumble pedal?

I use a Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Pedal.  It has a tube screamer style distortion and a marshall style distortion that can be used separaretly or mixed.  You can get some great Dumble tones as well as other cool sounds.

Re: Best dumble pedal?

You'd want a good quality OD pedal to push the front end of the amp.

The best ones I've used are:

Analog Man Silver Mod TS9
Maxon SD9
Xotic BB Preamp
Robert Keely Katana Boost

All in the boutique, ahem, expensive category, but with a good tube amp thats just breaking up, these will all make it soar. I think the Maxon might be the cheapest option.

(A Tonebone Classic distortion might be a bit more versatile in that it can give you the sparkly dumble crunch, but also can give a nice marshall distortion....handy for live use, and a good pedal in its own right, and very quiet as well)

I've owned all of them, and currently use the Keely Katana into a Marshall 1974X 18W combo.....a scary mixture......with a Les Paul, you've got early Clapton and Page on tap, effortlessly.

Re: Best dumble pedal?

stratpaulguy86 wrote:

Hey Ben thanks for the info.  So many boutique pedals, so little time!  I really liked that first sound clip.  Almost like Joe's Van Weedlen tone on Youtube.

Is a stratpaul a strat with LP stuff in it, or a LP with strat stuff in it!?
Inquiring minds want to know!  lol

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping. cool

Re: Best dumble pedal?

You could mod a Boss SD-1 to get a similar tone and for the price...you can't beat it.  See my website...just kidding. big_smile

  But seriously, if your not looking to spend a lot of $$, buy a SD-1 or a TS-9 and mod it.  You won't get the EXACT sound, but then again, you gotta have your own cloud to stand on.

  The 'best' pedals, speaking from my own personal experience, are the Blackstar HT Series and the Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube pedals since both are amazing tube pedals that give a wide range of tones. The Blackstars are usually priced below $200 so that's pretty fair for the range of quality tones they produce.

Just my .02 cents.

Don't play leapfrog with a unicorn

Re: Best dumble pedal?

i must admit to being a bit clueless on Dumble's (WAY out of my range). could someone explain what the "Dumble thing" is?

Re: Best dumble pedal?

phatfil wrote:

i must admit to being a bit clueless on Dumble's (WAY out of my range). could someone explain what the "Dumble thing" is?

it's just an amplifier, and the unique sound they make.  They are known and claimed by some to be the best tone amplifier ever made.

Don't play leapfrog with a unicorn

Re: Best dumble pedal?

yeah, i've read the wiki page. i was wondering if i could get a description of their sound from the fine folks here (i find it very interesting to hear people's terminology when they describe the sound of an amp). or even some clips if they are good ones.

Re: Best dumble pedal?

To clarify, here is my current rig.  I run a Marshall DSL100 head and a '65 Blackface Fender Bassman head into a Fender Showman 4x12 w/ 75 watt celestions.  I also use a '65 Fender Twin Reverb RI for cleans. My three main guitars are a R8 Les Paul, '57 AVRI strat, and a mid 70's Gibson SG w/ BB pros.  I run a stock Vox wah, TS808 RI(to add mid girth and gain to the marshall), a Boss DD6 in the fx loop of the marshall, and a EH Holy Grail to add 'verb to the Bassman. I have a separate rig for the Twin, a Small Clone chorus and EH Deluxe Memory man for the EJ type clean textures.  I can get a nice tone on the Bassman by cranking the bajesus out of it but I need lower volumes.  Money and value are really not as much of an issue as nailing that nice articulate Dumble Overdrive Special sound.

'67 and '74 Fender Twin Reverbs, '74 Marshall 1987 lead mkII, Metro Superlead 100. Pedals from TC Electronic, Ibanez, Dunlop, BK Butler, Electro-Harmonix, Fulltone, Maestro/Gibson, Loopmaster switching, VoodooLab, Boss. Gibson and Fender guitars, Dimarzio pickups.

Re: Best dumble pedal?

stratpaulguy86 wrote:

To clarify, here is my current rig.  I run a Marshall DSL100 head and a '65 Blackface Fender Bassman head into a Fender Showman 4x12 w/ 75 watt celestions.  I also use a '65 Fender Twin Reverb RI for cleans. My three main guitars are a R8 Les Paul, '57 AVRI strat, and a mid 70's Gibson SG w/ BB pros.  I run a stock Vox wah, TS808 RI(to add mid girth and gain to the marshall), a Boss DD6 in the fx loop of the marshall, and a EH Holy Grail to add 'verb to the Bassman. I have a separate rig for the Twin, a Small Clone chorus and EH Deluxe Memory man for the EJ type clean textures.  I can get a nice tone on the Bassman by cranking the bajesus out of it but I need lower volumes.  Money and value are really not as much of an issue as nailing that nice articulate Dumble Overdrive Special sound.

it sounds like you're set. save your money!

nah what am I thinkin!? we never stop "jones"ing for the latest and coolest stuff!!!

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping. cool

Re: Best dumble pedal?

phatfil wrote:

yeah, i've read the wiki page. i was wondering if i could get a description of their sound from the fine folks here (i find it very interesting to hear people's terminology when they describe the sound of an amp). or even some clips if they are good ones.

It's hard to explain....but imagine a hot-rodded Fender Twin.....excellent note clarity but with a gorgeous smoky crunch.

It's a distinctive sound, and a good one. But you can get close with a good tube amp, and there are a lot of them, and a really good pedal....the ones I mentioned above for example.

The main thing is that a tube amp sounds much different to a solid state.....and not just because it sounds 'warmer' as many people believe (though they do of course). It runs deeper than that.

If you look at the harmonic distortion of tubes on a spectrum analyzer, you will see a very strong 2nd order harmonic along with the predominant 3rd order harmonic, and more of the rest of the even and odd order harmonics than you will see in a solid state device. Solid state devices like transistors, FETs, MOSFETs and opamps have primarily third, fifth and seventh order harmonic distortion and very little of the rest of the harmonics. Musically speaking, the second is an octave above the fundamental and is almost inaudible yet it adds body to the sound, making it fuller.

essentially, this means that, first, the tube generally sounds "warmer" to the listener's ears. This is due to higher levels of harmonic distortion in tubes than in solid state devices and I think that also accounts for some of the reasons why some guitar players dislike distortion pedals - they can hear that difference.

secondly, power tubes also have higher levels of inherent distortion when pushed to their limits than preamp tubes do, and EL34s have more than 6L6s do for example. For these reasons, I guess it just sounds better when the clipping is occuring at the output stage than it does in the preamp stage because the original signal hasn't been pummeled to death in the preamp stage. You can get a more dynamic sound because of this. NB: Al though EL34's have higher levels of inherent disstorion, in relaity, that breakup often has as much to do with the circuit design (voltages, mainly) as the tubes' inherent tendencies....just the way amp manufacturers gerenally use them...they see that as the right way to do things. Call it psychoacoustics if you like!

I'm not sure of everything that's going on in an amp that creates distortion in the preamp section (as most of them do), but they are basically clipping the heck out of the signal and then sending that to the power amp section. There's basically two ways to control the amount of clipping - in the preamp section and/or in the power amp section. The type of amp also is important. A single ended Class A amp will generally distort much more easily than a Class AB will.

That being said, I have also heard some solid state amps that I feel have a killer crunch to them. One example would be the Lab Series L5 - Ty Tabor uses one to great effect on the early King's X albums.

So set a good valve amp to the point of break up, and push it over the edge with an OD pedal...fine tuning is done with your volume and tone controls on your guitar (and I use RS electronics upgrade kits on all my guitars....you won't believe the difference til you've tried it....imagine; vol and tone controls that work smoothly and taper off evenly without interering with each other, even at low settings)....this should give you a good tone.

Re: Best dumble pedal?

I mentioned the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde pedal above,
here it is in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyWOPd-rXFE

Re: Best dumble pedal?

dude - is that you playing???

I could watch that all day!

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping. cool

Re: Best dumble pedal?

Vette335 wrote:

I mentioned the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde pedal above,
here it is in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyWOPd-rXFE

that is awesome tone for whoever that is playing.   Great licks too.

Don't play leapfrog with a unicorn

Re: Best dumble pedal?

I hear really good things about the Fuchs Plush Drive.  I have never got to hear one or played one but hear fantastic things about them.  Also have heard people rave about the Ethos Overdrive.  Again not familiar with either of these pedals but am sure they can do somthing along the lines.  Anyway best of luck.
Mike

Re: Best dumble pedal?

the fuchs pedals are alright.  they more of a just an average overdrive than anything specific.  its definetly not a fuchs in a pedal.  just MHO.