i spoke with a guy that bought a dumble back in the day. paid the money ($3.5 gs) up front. couldn't call about it or the "contract" indicated dumble could refuse to send him the amp and keep his money.
2+ years later after he thought he'd been ripped off and basically went through the full range of human emotions, the amp showed up on his doorstep.
i asked robben ford at a clinic about the whole dumble mystique and he said he was neighbors with the guy, and felt very fortunate to have him as a friend because dumble still *occasionally* services his stuff but you could tell it wasn't even easy for ford to interface with him ad he is about as close as one will get to calling dumble a friend. ford mentioned mike landau was at that time waiting for a modded fender dumble had for over 2 years with no end in sight.
side note, alf hermida mentioned that as robben's dumble amps became increasingly more fickle (and valuable) on the road to maintain, he sought an alternative for his tone, particularly for fly dates, wanting to rent an old twin and be good.
so when alf sent ford's tech
the zendrive, he showed it to robben, and robben took it to dumble's house and they extensively tested it against ford's dumbles and both gave it the thumbs up for being very close to "the" tone.
my feeling is this; the BEST live tone i've ever heard in my life to date was carlton's dumble at the sun theater in anaheim after hearing ford open the show with his dumble.
yes that chewy quintessential DUMBLE thing that everyone seems to want and be an absolute expert on, yet few have actually experienced or referenced.
next was landau's dumble modded super reverb clean tone.
i swear i find the 50g dumble ebay price tag so revolting and absurd, but if you'da heard just those two tones, for a minute you *might* think twice because tone that unbelievable turned my heart to putty.
robben ford's dumbles (and his rhythm gtr player's) tones were excellent at a coach house gig i went to, when he used to play his sig fender model axe. his newer tele and custom les paul kick not as sweet imo.
i've also heard ej's dumble, scott henderson's dumble modded bandmaster, and SRV's dumble live, but those weren't as life-altering dumble tones. oh and the dumble od special that used to be at makin music hollywood was just good..
i'd like to see dumble do a two year stint at two rock and issue 100 amps a year at 10G where he oversees production and testing, and then licenses his name to those guys for a dumble sig model in perpetuity.
make enough money so he can just sit back and rake in the money and feel good about officially passing the torch to people who care and can support the demand.
