I am the AntiTone!

[Icetech]

Well.. i finally got a mic today.. and recorded a bit, and now realize how bad i suck:) anyway... my tone is soo not fordish.. im still just happy the amp has worked for weeks without catching fire:)

anyway.. if your bored you can check these out...
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/roadrebel/clean.mp3
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/roadrebel/od.mp3

Used audacity program to record (free and seems to work ok)
and a cheap pyle mic from ebay... which doesn't seem to pic up highs well:( and i had more reverb than normal on the amp and it still didnt pick up ok...
P.S. i know how bad a player i am.. just pick on the bad tone not the playing:)

[Bob-I]

Damn... why so hard on yourself.

The tone is 100% Dumble. Not perfectly Ford but very close. Even Ford told me that he's bever happy with the tone, he's constantly taking it to Dumble for "internal adjustments" then unhappy when he gets home.

BTW, typically reverb isn't heard in recordings like it is live. I always add reverb or delay after I record. Also, mike position makes more difference than you might think. I'd experiment with that mike, especally the angle and distance from the center of the cone. You'll find a sweet spot that will pick up all the frequencies and tone.

[Normster]

I'm with Bob on this one...you're being too hard on yourself. The tone is great and very Dumble-like. I went through the same thing with my first build. Fired it up and it didn't sound anything like Ford playing Golden Slumbers. I tore the whole board out and built another one. Guess what, still no Golden Slumbers. The Dumble circuit is a great sounding design, but it's got a lot more tonal variety than you might think. Get to know the amp and you'll never look back. IMHO, of course.

[Icetech]

Actually.. i kinda like the looser sound.. i been a sabbathy guy all my life, really loved my 18watt.. but after doing one of these.. the 18watts seem like a kiddie amp (prolly catch hell for that)

Yeah i have never recorded anything in my life.. and i was also very stiff.. soon as i put the mic away i loosened right up.. i had the mic facing straight into a cone in one of the 12"'s..

BTW.. that was my MIM strat with kent armstrong humbuckers wired with a megaswitch.... those pickups are a smokin deal at $30... i am gonna redo the OD network soon and get some more gain, which im hoping to get rid of some fartiness on the low strings when i use the neckpickup...

[Icetech]

P.S. that was at a VERY low comfy bedroom level... i havn't really opened the thing up yet... i think im getting old and grumpy.. need a hotplate:)

[Bob-I]

Actually.. i kinda like the looser sound.. i been a sabbathy guy all my life, really loved my 18watt.. but after doing one of these.. the 18watts seem like a kiddie amp (prolly catch hell for that)

Not from me you won't. The 18 watt is a nice amp but no comparison to these.

Yeah i have never recorded anything in my life.. and i was also very stiff.. soon as i put the mic away i loosened right up.. i had the mic facing straight into a cone in one of the 12"'s..

Try moving the mike about 1/2 way to the edge of the cone, angled in slightly and maybe 6" away. Start there and move it around, recording small clips until you find the closest to what you hear live. Take a pic so you can remember for the next time.

BTW.. that was my MIM strat with kent armstrong humbuckers wired with a megaswitch.... those pickups are a smokin deal at $30... i am gonna redo the OD network soon and get some more gain, which im hoping to get rid of some fartiness on the low strings when i use the neckpickup...

I too love the Kent's, awesome bang for the buck. I actually replaced a Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" with a Kent PAF in my Hamer Echotone because the Seth was too dark for the 335 style guitar.

Which schematic did you use for your amp? I'm sure dogears will jump in too but there are several changes you can make to tighten up the bottom end.

For started OD2 cathode cap should be 1uF, you can raise the value of the snubbers on the OD stages, the Hybrid shows 350pF, swap to 330pF ceramic's, measure them and put in caps that are closer to 310pF if you can. The treble cap in the tone stack on some show 500pF, swap with a 330pF for more top end. The 390pF that parallels the 220k resistor before CL2, raise that to 470pF or even 500pF.

As for the gain, if you're using the 67:1 rule on plate/cathode resistors you should have plenty of gain. Use 220k/3.3k on OD1 and 150k/2.2k on OD2. Use a quality metal film resistor on the plate resistors, Vishay Dale's are excellent.

Good luck,

[groovtubin]

Actually.. i kinda like the looser sound.. i been a sabbathy guy all my life, really loved my 18watt.. but after doing one of these.. the 18watts seem like a kiddie amp (prolly catch hell for that)

Not from me you won't. The 18 watt is a nice amp but no comparison to these.

Yeah i have never recorded anything in my life.. and i was also very stiff.. soon as i put the mic away i loosened right up.. i had the mic facing straight into a cone in one of the 12"'s..

Try moving the mike about 1/2 way to the edge of the cone, angled in slightly and maybe 6" away. Start there and move it around, recording small clips until you find the closest to what you hear live. Take a pic so you can remember for the next time.

BTW.. that was my MIM strat with kent armstrong humbuckers wired with a megaswitch.... those pickups are a smokin deal at $30... i am gonna redo the OD network soon and get some more gain, which im hoping to get rid of some fartiness on the low strings when i use the neckpickup...

I too love the Kent's, awesome bang for the buck. I actually replaced a Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" with a Kent PAF in my Hamer Echotone because the Seth was too dark for the 335 style guitar.

Which schematic did you use for your amp? I'm sure dogears will jump in too but there are several changes you can make to tighten up the bottom end.

For started OD2 cathode cap should be 1uF, you can raise the value of the snubbers on the OD stages, the Hybrid shows 350pF, swap to 330pF ceramic's, measure them and put in caps that are closer to 310pF if you can. The treble cap in the tone stack on some show 500pF, swap with a 330pF for more top end. The 390pF that parallels the 220k resistor before CL2, raise that to 470pF or even 500pF.

As for the gain, if you're using the 67:1 rule on plate/cathode resistors you should have plenty of gain. Use 220k/3.3k on OD1 and 150k/2.2k on OD2. Use a quality metal film resistor on the plate resistors, Vishay Dale's are excellent.

Good luck,

fwiw, i dig micing my vtg marshall cab w/about 5-6 " of AIR, recorded back, its like OMAGAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pure heavenly fatness.. Bob is RIGHT ON MAN!

[Icetech]

That is norms ODSreverb layout.. with the 1 tube reverb.. with a few changes (like the backwards od circuit) with 360pf snubbers.. already did the vishay dale thing a few weeks ago in another thread:) But yeah i have tweaking to do, problem is anytime i get near it i wanna play, i havn't had it apart in like 2 weeks now.. so i guess its not that bad..

What i need to do is build a second one so i have 1 to tweak and 1 to play:)

[dogears]

Hey Bob,

The treble cap is one of several things in the Dumbles I have seen. 390pf in series with 2000pf, 330pf, or 270pf. Never 500pf. If you use 500pf, you should series it with the midboost 1000pf. I use 470pf in series with the 1000pf.

Snubbers probably don't need to be brighter than 360pf to 390pf. If you need to lower them, maybe something else is wrong like too much shielded cable.

The non HRM amp uses 4.7uf on OD2. I have a switch on mine for CL2/OD2 bypass sizes and I prefer 4.7uf on OD2 just like the Dumbles.

Good clips btw! Not bad at all.

Actually.. i kinda like the looser sound.. i been a sabbathy guy all my life, really loved my 18watt.. but after doing one of these.. the 18watts seem like a kiddie amp (prolly catch hell for that)

Not from me you won't. The 18 watt is a nice amp but no comparison to these.

Yeah i have never recorded anything in my life.. and i was also very stiff.. soon as i put the mic away i loosened right up.. i had the mic facing straight into a cone in one of the 12"'s..

Try moving the mike about 1/2 way to the edge of the cone, angled in slightly and maybe 6" away. Start there and move it around, recording small clips until you find the closest to what you hear live. Take a pic so you can remember for the next time.

BTW.. that was my MIM strat with kent armstrong humbuckers wired with a megaswitch.... those pickups are a smokin deal at $30... i am gonna redo the OD network soon and get some more gain, which im hoping to get rid of some fartiness on the low strings when i use the neckpickup...

I too love the Kent's, awesome bang for the buck. I actually replaced a Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" with a Kent PAF in my Hamer Echotone because the Seth was too dark for the 335 style guitar.

Which schematic did you use for your amp? I'm sure dogears will jump in too but there are several changes you can make to tighten up the bottom end.

For started OD2 cathode cap should be 1uF, you can raise the value of the snubbers on the OD stages, the Hybrid shows 350pF, swap to 330pF ceramic's, measure them and put in caps that are closer to 310pF if you can. The treble cap in the tone stack on some show 500pF, swap with a 330pF for more top end. The 390pF that parallels the 220k resistor before CL2, raise that to 470pF or even 500pF.

As for the gain, if you're using the 67:1 rule on plate/cathode resistors you should have plenty of gain. Use 220k/3.3k on OD1 and 150k/2.2k on OD2. Use a quality metal film resistor on the plate resistors, Vishay Dale's are excellent.

Good luck,

[Bob-I]

Hey Bob,

The treble cap is one of several things in the Dumbles I have seen. 390pf in series with 2000pf, 330pf, or 270pf. Never 500pf. If you use 500pf, you should series it with the midboost 1000pf. I use 470pf in series with the 1000pf.

Norm's layout shows 500Pf and I agree that's it's not the best. I settled on 330pF with .001uF in parallel on the mid boost.

The non HRM amp uses 4.7uf on OD2. I have a switch on mine for CL2/OD2 bypass sizes and I prefer 4.7uf on OD2 just like the Dumbles.

I too found the bottom end farty with the neck PU. Reducing this to 1uF took care of the issue without thinning out the sound.

[Icetech]

Thanks bob ill try a 1uf on the od2 and see how that works for me:)

[llemtt]

Thanks bob ill try a 1uf on the od2 and see how that works for me:)

Try also a 1uF on od1 instead and see if you like it.

Teo

[Funkalicousgroove]

That's a VERY Dumble Tone, kinda reminds me of David Lindley on "Your old Lady" from El Rayo-X.

The only way to make your amp sound like Robben Ford is to get Robben Ford to play through it!! Make it sound like you man!!!

[Icetech]

I would rather sound like setzer than ford anyway:) But hell... not gonna be playing either of their stuff in the next 20 years:)

[BobW]

Icetech, Nice tone on your amp, and agree with the rest of the guys, it's definitely a dumblesque (is that a word?) like tone. Don't worry about your chops, they will only get better.