Dumble Amps On Tour with Kenny Wayne Shepherd

[@premierguitar]

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[@maxwellblakely7952]

Love it when rockstars aren’t all burnt from drugs and can speak clear concise sentences. JB and Kenny should have a podcast where they just sit down and just talk gear and music. I would tune in for every session.

[@hootowl6354]

Genetics and education can have the same effect, so 'drugs' shows a lack of understanding. In fact, this guy could be high as a kite right there and if he has the gift of gab you might not know it. It's obvious he's a talker.

[@robnamowicz8073]

Your experience with Dumble was somewhat like my work with David West, of West Labs here in Michigan. Dave always had a collection of circuits and guitars, though I usually brought one or more of my own instruments. Dave would entirely navigate the tone stack and volume controls, looking for a sound he was hearing in his head, not mine. I was only a catalyst for him to analyze the performance of the amp components or speaker performance. He wanted an amp that would make anyone sound good rather than tailoring to one player at a time. Often I would play a phrase three to six times so the signal would be consistent for him to alter with the knobs on the preamp or power circuit, depending on which we were testing. My goal was often to 'crash' the circuit. For speakers there were multiple identical cabinets with different 12" speakers, and several A/B pedals between. David liked large, full sound, clarity was important, clipping sine waves only came with much volume. And David liked it loud,,,,Gone to Glory now.

[@killingmasheen]

Jim Marshall did the same especially during the plexi era. All the biggest name guitarists of the day were coming in and out of his factory trying stuff out and making suggestions of what they wanted which transformed the JTM-45 from Fender clone into the 1987/1959 Superlead. All the West Labs amps I've ever seen were pretty much the Fender AB763 normal channel coupled to a higher wattage output section with KT-88s or 6550, were there other models or rather different types of circuits they used or were they just going for clean, loud and reliable? They're really well built with much larger transformers compared to a Fender or a Marshall for that matter. Those things were built not to fail but unfortunately that's not how filter caps work but yeah, I can see how difficult it would be to get it to break up.

[@rareform6747]

Grand Funk ..Red

[@Bwiser63]

I was hoping to hear the amps.

[@blckbldng]

there is another much longer video. Meh. He plays better than the amps sound.

[@RolandSpecialSauce]

If you really want to know what the amp sounds like you would have to hear it in person. It's not going to sound like itself through KZbin compression.

[@lexist7]

Voodoo or not, the service of listening to the artist shows how much he cared about the musician.

[@justinguitarcia]

Yeah the dumble thing is so blown out. His amps selling for 6 figures is the market. For all intents and purposes Dumble sold his products new, m2m, at a cost lower than a two rock today. Its the same as getting a bespoke suit. You go to the tailor and have something one of a kind made for you, thats the craft, no obligation to mass produce. Dumble was the bespoke tailor of the amp world, he worked with who he wanted and thats it. The myth and insanity occurred after the fact

[@Spidouz]

@@justinguitarcia actually, yes and no… I’ll explain myself. Yes, hand made tailored craft (like Dumble) is never cheap and I do believe it’s up to the tailor to decide of the price, even if it’s really REALLY expensive, since it’s a one-on-one transaction, if it’s too expensive then it’s up to the buyer to decide to not purchase it. And I don’t believe any Dumble owner ever regretted buying his amp, if not just for their resell price alone (in case they would dislike the amp). But no, we can’t say that Dumble amps were cheap, or even cheaper than Two-Rock today. We can see different interview where it’s mentioned that Dumble were selling his amp for $2,000 back in the ‘70s or ‘80s when good quality amps were costing only $300. So they were easily 6 time higher than average amps. And later on, in the ‘90s, he was already selling his amps for $6,000 (from other interview if we cross answer), so again, he adjusted his price to the market, inflation, etc… and yet again, it doesn’t mean they were expensive, just that they were more expensive than the market. So if we compare to current Two-Rock, they sell in the range of $3k to $6k-ish, maybe $7k with suede, and yet a good quality amp could be easily in the $1,000 price range, so again, we’re in the 6 to 7 times range. Of course, Two-Rock are not one-on-one, but they do claim (and I would agree with that) that they provide amps that matches Dumble quality and tone. And this is also true for other “boutique” amps such Dr Z, Fuchs, Friedman, Diezel, Milkman, you name it. Because of the inflation, $2,000 in 1980 is $7,200 today, $6,000 in 1990 is $13,000 today, so we can clearly see that Two-Rock is not really more expensive than what Dumble was at the time. And I have no doubt that for $13,000 current money, you could find someone like Bludotone or else that would build an amp for you… the think is: but what’s the point if all you want is a “Dumble Amp”, since most of Dumble amps have been degupted and analyzed and reproduced now… to the point that if you don’t like the clone, you would probably not like the original one either since they were all adjusted and made for each player. So all we can say is that today we have the luxury that a lot of information is available online and then we can find and test so many clone from so many manufacturers to the point it’s almost impossible to not find *the right* amp for us… and all that with only paying a fraction of what it would have cost us to have an amp designed by someone like Dumble. So yeah, some of those clones such Two-Rock could seem expensive, but they’re still way cheaper than a real Dumble. And you might not like Two-Rock (and it’s fine), then just pick another brand you like more… I personally got 2 Two-Rock so far and I like them, I’m happy with them and don’t find the need to search for more Dumble clone (or real for that matter). But they’re not amps for everyone and you might find your happiness with another brand… maybe even a cheaper one, after all, there’s no magic dust and unicorn fart component in any high-end boutique amps, or Dumble amps… they’re just good selected components that work well together. We mainly pay for the overall quality and the year of knowledge and expertise to reach this perfect balanced circuit. Sorry for the long comment, but I think it was important to provide an argument to why I think you were both right and wrong. It all depends from where we see it. So yeah, Two-Rock aren’t one-on-one building experience, but yet they provide amps that matches quality and tone, so they might be exactly what some players are looking for and overall, they’re cheaper once we consider “adjusted dollars” over the years. PS: Oh, one last thing, Dumble did contribute a little bit to the “myth and insanity” when he gupted his circuit to make sure no one would analyze them and reproduce them… just like the Klon. Sure it was a good circuits (in both cases), but there was no magic, just well made amp. However, we all know that guitarist have tendency to LOVE to have the “unicorn that nobody else can have”, just so they’re guaranteed they will develop an unique tone… when we all know that most of the real tone comes from the fingers anyway, and any top guitarist hero will always sound just like himself/herself regardless the kind of gear s/he’s using… Dumble or not, Klon or not, Two-Rock or not. PPS: And on a final note, we could think that it’s harder to be a bestspoke amp builder, but in fact I would argue differently. I believe it’s harder to make a product that will please a large amount of people instead of just one at the time. If you spend enough time with a guitar, you will learn what he likes and what he doesn’t like and if you’re a good amp builder you will find how to tailor an amp to their taste. This is what any amp builder is doing today for all Amp that are Signature Series. While it’s harder to design an amp that will be good enough for the large majority of players that will play the amp… because we all know that we can have 100 guitarist in a room and we will have 100 different opinion about tone… maybe even more. So we shouldn’t consider “non-bestspoke” amps as inferior to Dumble, regardless if we talk about Two-Rock or Fender or else. If you try an amp, and you love it, it doesn’t matter if it was made for you by Howard directly or not, what matters is that you love the amp. It doesn’t matter if it’s a prestigious brand name associate with it or not… it won’t change its tone. In the end, it’s just music. Have fun ;)

[@Seibeltron]

What a great interview! Remember getting my mind blown by his first record when I was in high school. Glad he’s still such a great dude.

[@bryant8635]

Many years ago a friend had an old Fender Twin head and Cab that was gutted and redone by the guy who became Top Hat amps when that was barely a thing. The clean channel was modeled after a Dumble and the drive channel after a plexi (albeit with 6L6’s). It was the definition of a “sleeper” and sounded like sparkles and magic.

[@markw9512]

The thing I’m wondering now that Mr Dumble has passed, is who’s gonna fix those things when components wear out, etc., especially when a number of them have the components enshrined in goop by Mr Dumble to prevent anyone from making a schematic?

[@jcrbama]

My only guess would be to reach out to Taylor Cox at Amplified Nation and see if they could sus it out. They are the best a getting close to the circuitry and are Dumble "experts". Pretty sure they could inspect and figure it out.

[@TheToneGeek]

I'm happy to submit my resumé 😎

[@ROKZLEON]

Custom made amps designed for your playing style. That's tone chasing at a whole other level!!!

[@smithscarborough]

This is the sickest setup ever. Love KWS!

[@EddieB2047]

Wow what a great story….Love listening to Kenny….very passionate about his gear

[@svbarr]

KWS knows his tech fo sho....

[@RichFranks]

"average, run-of-mill vintage, Fender Amplifiers" LOL

[@Doty6String]

Fascinating how he talks about how dumble tweaked it for him

[@bluglass7819]

AB763 (Dual Showman) is probably my favorite. I wish I could play through that AC763 just once.

[@garyatkins4479]

So cool , great interview

[@keithrochford1954]

Play the darn things!!!

[@Superjet113]

I'll wait..

[@bluesful]

I think Landau has a Slidewinder.

[@rabbirelax]

That was great!

[@Turbo-D]

hidden dumbles, thats amazing 🤣🤣

[@thegoodguy44]

Absolutely awesome

[@JazzCatzs]

Let’s hear them !!!!!😢

[@neoaureus]

Run of the mill vintage Fender amps....lol

[@Mike6StringsIn]

So we didn’t get sound sample or did I just miss it?

[@markmnorcal]

We missed out.

[@alexcorona]

I know KWS from the car world, I've never actually listened to his music I probably should.

[@aobyungcp4330]

He probably isn’t allowed to play them because of his endorsement only reason I could see him having cabs labeled as Fender other than aesthetics

[@hybridjohn1]

did I miss the sound samples?

[@vintagepipesnightmares]

Some sounds would have been amazing

[@snapfinger1]

Must be as comfortable as Hugh Hefner’s silk pajamas.

[@yeahboee]

9 minutes of talking.. thanks guys, well done

[@TuesdaysJustAsBad]

*tailor builds amp just for KWS* *has to leave bass off*

[@Hellseeker1]

Whoop dee do

[@BlackDotPatrick]

Hard to believe all this.

[@jerryfraker377]

Why?

[@kane6529]

Love the interview but him not playing 🫤

[@nativeeats8719]

Ok that’s all fine and dandy but do they go to 11? 😂

[@davidbrucemusicvideo]

Why do they even have the Fender logo on them?

[@aobyungcp4330]

Endorsement purposes i’m assuming

[@davidbrucemusicvideo]

@@aobyungcp4330 nah. Fender wouldn’t pay Kenny money if those amps are all Dumbles.

[@aobyungcp4330]

Thats what I mean why put a Dumble in a Fender Cab? It’s like u said he wouldn’t get paid if he uses another brand than Fender

[@davidbrucemusicvideo]

@@aobyungcp4330 yes, he’s not getting paid by Fender.

[@charlesbolton8471]

Dumble modded actual Fender amps. For what it’s worth, Fender allows its endorsees to use non Fender amps, and believe or not other non Fender guitars.

[@anthonyrichard461]

With all due respect I would take the Fender emblems off of the amps that were not made by Fender.

[@garrrrrryyy]

This is frustrating all this yap yap let’s hear it man

[@macarius8802]

Exactly!!!

[@doctoribanez]

We will take your word for it I guess. Since you didn't play anything lol. A sample of each would have made this video worth watching

[@musicproductioncentral4540]

This guy made a living copying SRV licks and tone literally verbatim. Never liked him or any other of the millions of SRV copy cats.

[@Tyrannosaurine]

Funny because that’s the exact same reason why I never liked SRV. I don’t need to hear the redneck version of Jimi Hendrix. I’ve heard Hendrix. I’ve heard Albert King. Between Hendrix and King, SRV, great as he was, never played an original lick in his life.

[@jeffreyburmeister6775]

No sounds? all talk

[@jeffreyburmeister6775]

Just believe him, it's the best thing ever.

[@devilsbow]

show us a dumble but not how it sounds. ridiculous.

[@AudiophileTommy]

9 minutes and he did NOT playe a single note !😡

[@SasquatchLovesMe]

interesting interview...except we never heard the damn amps man! lol.

[@draghitatismanaru837]

Absolutely awesome