Umble pedal

[mojo]

Anyone here ever build or buy one of these and compare to the other "Dumbly" pedals/clones/real thing? Heres a link to a clip: http://www.olcircuits.com/audio/olc_umb ... demo01.mp3
Its the Umble by Officially Licensed Circuits.

[Bob-I]

Well, you posted in the wrong forum, but no big deal.

I built an Umble just for the fun of it. It's based on the architecture of a Dumble, more than the tone. It seems to translate well to a pedal and has a pretty wide range of tones.

It's a decent pedal, a tad dark sounding, but it's not a Dumble. The tonality is generally a bit muddy and the lows are farty and loose with all the tones on flat. Adjusting the bass down and highs up balances it out a bit but it's not really the charactor of a Dumble as expected.

Overall I like it, but for Dumble tones I'll stick to my Dumble clone amps.

[mojo]

Sorry, I guess I've been working too hard lately. I have an interest in both type amps, and forgot which area I was in. I started a similar post in Dumbleland. This thread can be deleted if the mods would like to tidy up - I'm not sure how. Thanks for the reply.

[Bernardduur]

Well, you posted in the wrong forum, but no big deal.

I built an Umble just for the fun of it. It's based on the architecture of a Dumble, more than the tone. It seems to translate well to a pedal and has a pretty wide range of tones.

It's a decent pedal, a tad dark sounding, but it's not a Dumble. The tonality is generally a bit muddy and the lows are farty and loose with all the tones on flat. Adjusting the bass down and highs up balances it out a bit but it's not really the charactor of a Dumble as expected.

Overall I like it, but for Dumble tones I'll stick to my Dumble clone amps.

I completely agree

I must say that the choice of JFETs really make a difference. J201 are a tad dark, 2N545x are more bright and open. Yes, it does not sound like the real deal but it can sound pretty nice when paired with a decent "clean" amp.

I've used another variant of this idea, a version of the Ampeg SB-12, on bass for ages as my SS bass amp did not OD'ed enough. I still use it sometimes

[Bob-I]

I must say that the choice of JFETs really make a difference. J201 are a tad dark, 2N545x are more bright and open.

Great, I'll have to try them. I've been wanting to try some different FET's but I know nuffin about dem.

[Bernardduur]

Not so much to know; they are easy to use and can behave a little bit like valves.

I generally use J201's, 2N5457's and MPF102 on which the J201's have the most gain but will sound the darkest. I usually try the others on different places to see how it fits the sound. Try to bias em right; close to 1/2 V+ is where they have the most gain. So a JFET biased at 3/4 V+ has less gain but will sound a bit a more open.

Experiment

These kind of stompbox preamps do take the market bit by bit. I know Menatone has a line of em for sale imitating real life amps. OK, they don't capture the right tones but get close to the OD sound of most of em.

[Structo]

I saw that schematic a while back and thought about building one.
But now that I have an amp that sort of sounds like a Dumble I won't need to.

[Bernardduur]

I saw that schematic a while back and thought about building one.
But now that I have an amp that sort of sounds like a Dumble I won't need to.

Same here man!

The stompboxes sound close...... but no way they sound like the real deal. Amps are great

[jerrydyer]

I built the FET input circuit into a pedal. Its called the More Pedal and it sounds great in front of fendery amps. Its a pretty clean flat booster. See siggy
go to mods and or pedal .