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Dumble Bluesmaster 50 Clone Combo Build


badbluesplayer

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Guest Farnsbarns

That amp is high on my list. I was going to try doing it off the schematic. I'll watch this thread carefully, I'm very interested to see the kit in detail.

 

I'd say good luck or something but this'll be a brease for you. [thumbup]

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...There sure are a lot of capacitors in there!...

There's a lot of EVERYTHING in there!

I've never seen a busier rear panel than that. What are all those thingies (to use the technical term)?

 

I love the slide-show idea; it really gets the 'build' vibe across very clearly. Tighter-in shots would be great but I understand that snaps take a back-seat in the process.

And what are the three trick-switches between the Vol and Treble pots in the pre-amp section? The one at the far right seems to have 'Jazz' as the lower setting...

I've seen the same array on pics of Overdrive Specials but don't know what they are.

 

As has been said, BBP, that really is shaping up to be SuperCool!

 

[thumbup]

 

As a side point and excuse my complete ignorance on the matter but why do single-speaker combo's invaraibly have the speaker offset to one side of the cab?

Is it something to do with resonant frequencies, air-flow patterns and vibration cancelling "stuff"?...:-k

 

P.

 

EDIT : As a matter of interest; has anyone here ever played the Real Deal?

We all know the legend and how, famously, Santana was originally only loaned one (before he bought three!) but are they really worth $20,000 - $50,000 (used!) or (and?) is it (just?) the '59 'Burst of the amp world?

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The first thing I did was to figure out the schematic from the layout. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. This was a few weeks ago. Nik at Ceriatone doesn't give you a schematic.

 

I figured out what was going on with the tone stack and the three tone shaping switches. The rock/jazz one changes the slope resistance in the tone stack. Kind of like a Marshall/Fender switch - that's the big difference between Marshalls and Fenders. The deep one sends some of the bass signal around the treble pot in addition to the normal signal going from the bass pot thru the treble pot. Never saw that before. The mid boost changes the value of the treble cap.

 

The speaker being off-center. Usually the transformers are near the power end of the chassis. The output transformer - the one in the middle - is usually in the way of the speaker and you have to move the speaker off to one side to clear the tranny. Usually they put the speaker off to the side away from the end where the the other trannies are so the amp will balance o.k. when you're carrying it. So they're trying to keep the cabinet fairly small and having to fit everything in there and hoping it will kind of be in balance. You can see on the cabinet drawing where I did a balance calculation to estimate where the center of gravity will be. I would have had to move the speaker over like 6" off center or something to make it actually balance. I need to revise the calculations a little cause the trannies were heavier that I anticipated.

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EDIT : As a matter of interest; has anyone here ever played the Real Deal?

We all know the legend and how, famously, Santana was originally only loaned one (before he bought three!) but are they really worth $20,000 - $50,000 (used!) or (and?) is it (just?) the '59 'Burst of the amp world?

 

Early 2000's there was an ODSpecial at PhillyPhall show, and I was in there with three, 5 other guitar players from the innernetz, newsgroups of the old days. One of them was West Coast CF Martin rep, and he knew the dealer dealing the ODSpecial. I didn't use it, but I sat there while a couple folks tried it. I had no interest in it then, like 15 thousand or some such, and I still maintain that healthy lack of interest. No offense to Howard, or Ken Fischer, or Kitty Hawk, or HoundDog, or Sampson(Matchless) or any of them guys, but there really isn't anything anyone can do with an amp that warrants or merits some kind of Christ like mojo and treatment, there just isn't. It's an amp. It sounds like abouta zillion gained up Fender knock offs, including my(at the time) Prosonic made by Fender. A nice amp, but all couple hundred of them, epoxy and all, aren't worth what they want for half of one, if you ask me. So there you go, sure to be not popular, but there it is.

 

rct

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I had no interest in it then, like 15 thousand or some such, and I still maintain that healthy lack of interest.

A nice amp, but all couple hundred of them, epoxy and all, aren't worth what they want for half of one, if you ask me.

So there you go, sure to be not popular, but there it is.

Hey, 'Popular' is overrated...

 

I've heard Sonny Landreth playing through his and he sounded awesome - but then he could play through amplified toilet-roll tubes and still sound awesome.

 

I'd like to try one out for myself, though. Preferably on the day I get to borrow a very early 1960 Standard.....LOL!

 

Years ago I saw some fool on a youtube clip where he demo'd an ODS (I think it was) but he played through a rack of pedals.

What's the bloody point of shelling out the cost of a small house and then demonstrating how good it sounds through a sonic wall of pedals?!

I WANT TO HEAR THE AMP, YOU IDIOT!...................

 

Ah well; if BBP gets a move on....[smile]

 

[thumbup]

 

P.

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Hey, 'Popular' is overrated...

 

I've heard Sonny Landreth playing through his and he sounded awesome - but then he could play through amplified toilet-roll tubes and still sound awesome.

 

I would venture out on a limb to say even I could make slide sound good using his stuff the way he uses it to get his sound. I could probably sound a pretty convincing EJ using his stuff too. Using one of those great amps, in great conditions(volume, optimumalisticalized acoustics and such) I'm pretty sure most experienced guitar players could make some righteous noise.

 

rct

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Hey! We're getting updates on the photo front already!.....[thumbup]

 

BBP; have you decided what 'look' you are going for?

Just to refresh my hazy memory I googled some Dumble snaps after I read your post and had forgotten how varied a bunch the originals are from across the decades!

 

And I also checked out the Ceriatone site.

Some great products there at pretty reasonable prices.......very intresting indeed.

 

P.

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Really really nice work. I see handwired stuff all day most days, not amps but systems, don't get to see much work as conscientious and clean as that. Really nice job, too bad you have to pour that black gunk all over it to make it Gin You Wine!

 

rct

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Early 2000's there was an ODSpecial at PhillyPhall show, and I was in there with three, 5 other guitar players from the innernetz, newsgroups of the old days. One of them was West Coast CF Martin rep, and he knew the dealer dealing the ODSpecial. I didn't use it, but I sat there while a couple folks tried it. I had no interest in it then, like 15 thousand or some such, and I still maintain that healthy lack of interest. No offense to Howard, or Ken Fischer, or Kitty Hawk, or HoundDog, or Sampson(Matchless) or any of them guys, but there really isn't anything anyone can do with an amp that warrants or merits some kind of Christ like mojo and treatment, there just isn't. It's an amp. It sounds like abouta zillion gained up Fender knock offs, including my(at the time) Prosonic made by Fender. A nice amp, but all couple hundred of them, epoxy and all, aren't worth what they want for half of one, if you ask me. So there you go, sure to be not popular, but there it is.

 

rct

 

 

I have to agree.......maybe it is because my ears are not that great, but I could never justify the price of an original......That is why I love the idea of this project....brings them to more people than could ever even try one.

 

My only question is.....if I plugged a 59 burst into a klon into a dumble.....would the earth stop turning from all the mojo?....lol....only kidding.

 

NHTom

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I have to agree.......maybe it is because my ears are not that great, but I could never justify the price of an original......That is why I love the idea of this project....brings them to more people than could ever even try one.

 

My only question is.....if I plugged a 59 burst into a klon into a dumble.....would the earth stop turning from all the mojo?....lol....only kidding.

 

NHTom

Blooz lawyers everywhere would spontaneously combust.

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I have to agree.......maybe it is because my ears are not that great, but I could never justify the price of an original......That is why I love the idea of this project....brings them to more people than could ever even try one.

 

My only question is.....if I plugged a 59 burst into a klon into a dumble.....would the earth stop turning from all the mojo?....lol....only kidding.

 

NHTom

 

Used to have some great Klon bashing in the newsgroups back then. I have a couple really good true life Klon stories. They should serve beer in this forum.

 

rct

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Really really nice work. I see handwired stuff all day most days, not amps but systems, don't get to see much work as conscientious and clean as that. Really nice job, too bad you have to pour that black gunk all over it to make it Gin You Wine!

 

rct

I can't take credit for the nice board work. Nik at Ceriatone assembled the main boards and I'm building it up from there. We'll see how clean the rest of it is. If I can make it look half as nice as his work I'll be lucky.

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I can't take credit for the nice board work. Nik at Ceriatone assembled the main boards and I'm building it up from there. We'll see how clean the rest of it is. If I can make it look half as nice as his work I'll be lucky.

 

Yeah, but your other stuff has been on here and looked just as great, so I figured you had done this as well. Will you gunk it up for authenticity? Or is that just a myth and Howard didn't really do that as much as we think he did?

 

rct

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I got it wired up and it's working. I had a couple of hiccups trying to figure out the footswitch/manual switch wiring and how it hooks up to the relay boards. I had to trace the wiring layout backwards on the backside of the diagram to make it look right. Now I just need to turn these couple of panel switches around 180 degrees to get them going the right way. Man, the drawing must have been a view of what it looks like from Nik's shop in Malaysia, cause it was like inside out or something.

 

But I finally got that wired right this morning. I just need to put it through some paces here in a little bit. More pix and stuff to come.

 

[laugh]

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