Amp modelling… Dumble ODS

A gem from LA’s laid-back, boutique amp producer

The Dumble Overdrive Special refers to a specialised range of guitar amplifiers built by Alexander Dumble during the 1970s and early 80s. Based in Santa Cruz, California, Dumble’s origins were repairing guitar amps for the local music community, which led to his first amp design-related work for Mosrite. Like other contemporary LA amp hot-rodders, including Randall Smith and Paul Rivera, Dumble pursued his own high-gain ideas and built amps for customers on a bespoke basis.

There are several different types of Dumble amplifier but the most famous is the Overdrive Special, which features a clean channel that cascades into a foot switchable overdrive circuit with a passive EQ and pre-gain EQ switches that pre-set the EQ for different styles. Dumble did not expand his operation and self-built all his amps from scratch, resulting in long lead times and alleged eccentric order terms and conditions. All Dumble amplifiers were built to suit the requirements of the original customer and all are different to a greater or lesser extent. Their use by some of the most respected players in LA, including Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Carlos Santana has added to the Dumble legend, while their rarity (it’s estimated there are fewer than 300 real ODS’s) has driven up used values to extreme levels, typically £100K-£150K.

Most Dumbles are based on Fender circuits and Fender-type amp models are generally closest to the Dumble sounds, which are typified as very open, almost hi-fi cleans with a violin-ish smooth overdrive distortion.