“You don’t get many opportunities to own your guitar hero’s amp, let alone the one and only…” Joe Bonamassa puts Lowell George’s Dumble amp through its paces – 45 years after it was last played publicly
Joe Bonamassa has demoed Lowell George’s prized Dumble amplifier, 45 years after it was last played.
Last month Joe Bonamassa ended a 15-year quest when he welcomed Lowell George’s Dumble Overdrive Special Reverb, complete with matching cab, to his home-cum-gear-museum, Nerdville.
He’s now linked up with his ‘Uncle’ Norm Harris to demo the amp – which hasn’t been played since the night before the legendary slide guitarist passed away – over on the Normans Rare Guitars YouTube channel.
A somewhat overlooked talent who counted Eric Clapton and Eddie Van Halen as fans, the Little Feat guitarist had a well-documented working relationship with Howard Alexander Dumble.
In a 1977 interview with Guitar Player, George had called the custom Dumble he was using at the time, “the best amp I’ve ever played through”.
As Bonamassa explains in the video, the amp was last played by George at the Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC on June 28, 1979. A day later, the guitarist tragically died and it hasn’t been used since.
That led to Norman introducing the amp head as a “royal piece of history,” with Bonamassa adding: “You don’t get many opportunities to own your guitar hero’s amp, let alone the one and only.”
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It is believed to be Dumble’s first Reverb model which came, as Bonamassa says, “very early in his tenure” as an amp builder.
Joe Bonamassa’s 1976 Dumble Overdrive Special Reverb – YouTube
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For the demo, the amp is paired with a sunburst ‘50s Fender Stratocaster, and it sounds suitably historic. Its tone almost has a sepia hue; it’s a little gritty but it’s warm and incredibly personable.
“This amp is a Strat amp, I determined that off the bat,” JoBo ascertains. “It sounds pretty good with a Les Paul but as far as the amp itself, if you get a maple neck Strat of any era [that’s when the magic happens].”
“The thing about Dumble stuff,” adds Bonamassa. “[Is that] he gets headroom and frequency where many other amp builders don’t They’re polarizing amps, some people don’t get it, but if you cut it with a Fender it really fills a lot of the frequency gaps.
“It’s about the feeling that you get under the strings, how it twists and turns and articulates and blooms, which you’ll never get on video.
“And the recovery rate is so fast on them,” he expands. “You hit a note and it recovers and it’s ready for another note. Some amps will squish and sag and you’re kind of playing catch up. This is pretty special.”
Bonamassa purchased the amp from George’s son, with the amp staying in the family after his death. Now he owns it, Bonamassa has made it clear it won’t simply be a museum piece – he intends to take it out on the road with him later this year.
“It hasn’t been on the road, this is its first public appearance in 45 years,” he says. “It needs to be played.”
Bonamassa’s Nerdville has recently been the subject of a second mini-documentary, which includes the story of Bonamassa’s strangest guitar deal, trash bag Flying Vs, and séances with Tommy Bolin.
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