Legendary Amplifier Insanity

[tarahall]

In over 50 years playing professionally I have seen a lot of things and heard a lot of myths about amplifier tone, what such and such a brand of amp can do where another one can't, etc, etc. I have seen musicians both Pro and Am as well as semi-Pro and hobbyist pay excessive amounts for supposedly legendary guitars, amps, pedals and accessories but this ad for one I came across by accident on Reverb.COM takes the cake.

https://reverb.com/item/6607993-dumble-overdrive-special-1985-black

I know Dumble makes good quality amps, as do Mesa, Marshall, Fender and many other manufacturers but seriously $115,000 (yes that's the asking price) for a 60w Dumble with 1 x 12" speaker is beyond belief. Whether it's tube or solid state is not the issue, nor is whether it is hand-made with p2p wiring and NOS "matched" valves/tubes.

What could it possibly have in it that would make it worth even 1/5th of that price is inconceivable.

[phatt]

This whole game of the music industry is all about Name Dropping, (much like life in general).
If you can get enough air play in the right place at the right time then you or a product you made is suddenly wanted by all the dedicated followers of fashion. (which are just eager fools who never read the fine print)
As to the Dumble name, you will find that Stevie R Vaughan had a lot to do with the Dumble amp becoming famous. Interesting that the ones that fetch the big dollars are mainly Dumble OD models,, while in fact Stevie used the SSS Dumble which was not an OD model. These where just fender circuits with oversized transformers made for the Pedal steel players who wanted more grunt and I think some had a Fet front end as well.
So really nothing like an OD dumble which was aimed a guitar players.
SSS Dumble's would be hard to find nowadays.

SRV used many amps but his favorite was the rather rare Vibroverb model with a 15 speaker not 2x10. These where also aimed at the steel players who wanted the bigger bottom end.
Country was a big market back then and fender wanted to cash in on that market so they tried the 15 instead of 10's for more grunt. Stevie wanted the big sound and owned a few.

Manufactures have for years cashed in on the fashion phases and quirks of wanna be youth and you can't blame them as they have to turn a profit.

Yes I totally agree that the asking price for some old gear is just insane but that is the nature of the beast.
I've had folks come to me with really old half working valve amps they purchased on ebay for big dollars and they are just crud and really hard to find Valves for them. I turn most away as it's just not worth my trouble. I tell them to scrape off all the original 1940's Valve dust and bottle it and sell it on Ebay.
Sell it as genuine vintage valve dust,, just sprinke some on your new Valves and re-live the magic sound of the 50's.  :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:
Phil.

[Enzo]

Who says the ASKING price has to be realistic?  it got your notice, and what do you know, it now is being discussed on the internet.   DUmble amps are a sought after brand.  IMagine a 1957 Chevy car.  It isn;t really a far superior car to a 1956 or a 1958, but those years don't draw nearly the interest or prices.  SO if your Dumble isn't really worth ten or a hundred times a equivalent Fender, it still has that draw.

Sometimes a price like that gets you to wonder, gee what else is this guy selling?  And you find stuff at more reasonable prices. HEY, it got you in the door.

MArketing.

[J M Fahey]

What could it possibly have in it that would make it worth even 1/5th of that price is inconceivable.

Didn´t know about SRV , who I associate more with Fenders, but the Dumble was the *exclusive* amp both for Lary Carlton and Robben Ford (who actually paid around $4000 each for theirs).
Now if Howard Dumble can make , say, 6 amps a year (say 2 Months each, from order to getting parts to actual building to delivery) and he gets 80 orders a year, then, Offer and Demand rule the Market, nothing new here.

FWIW 100% pure Coke costs U$1000 a kilo in neighbouring Bolivia ... 20% pure in NY is $60/80 a gram so 60k to 80k a kilo of the adultered one , would mean >300k a kilo of the pure one.
Offer and Demand.

EDIT: Dumble would-be buyers are not kids, not Heavy, not Punk, but because of musical taste I presume middle aged , affluent males, maybe Lawyers, Doctors, Bankers, etc., who left the band days long ago to pursue other, economically rewarding goals (and they succeeded) and now want to "be" :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TaY_4wc9JA

since reaching this is possible but requires long years of hard practice, maybe they think they can *purchase*  the "magic dust"  instead.

In concept, not too different from the 13 y.o. kid who wants to become

and buys the starter ESP guitar and 10W amp, plus cord and lesson booklet for $199 .

[galaxiex]

Hey JM, you got some of that Magic Dust for sale?  :lmao:

I want/need some!   :loco