(I think I heard that on an episode of Kung Fu in the 70s.
)Anyway, I thought I'd raise a little rabble by starting a discussion about your philosphy of Dumble amp building. It occurred to me that the more we try to imitate Dumble, the further we are from actually nailing the tone.
I've built 5 clones so far and each of them sounds different. In particular, I built 2 identical clones into Bassman donors that should sound the same but are entirely different. Different iron maybe, certainly tolerance stackup on components, but the difference is very distinct. The biggest problem is that I built one for a friend who prefers the sound of mine over his.
My point is that part of the joy of building for me is not necessarily "nailing" a particular tone, but in discovering the unique voice of each amp I build. My latest build is more of a '70s replica than a clone and is very raw sounding. Not nearly as smooth as my other amps, but I'm really starting to dig the edge on the tone. It'll never do fusion, but it kills for blues.
Sooo...do you build and tweak with a tone in mind or do you try to bring out the best in the iron and tubes at hand?
Now where did that iron go!