thrashmetl
Member
So I’ve had my unit for a couple years now and, frankly, I never could bond with the various Dumble style amps in the Fractal. The Dumble sound in my head was Robben Ford, period. That chewy, saggy, mid heavy tone. The fact that I couldn’t make any of the Dumbles get anywhere near what I wanted was interesting because I’ve been using modelers for 20 years and have had no problem getting a satisfying Robben Ford tone from much lesser modelers.
I’m a 50’s and 60’s amp tone guy. I’m all about the Tweed, Brown, and Black Fenders, the Vox’s, the Marshall’s, and all the Boutique variant’s in the Fractal. I’ll spend weeks digging through a particular amp type with either my Tele or my Les Paul and then something will eventually trigger me to move on to another amp type.
I recently decided to make another effort to try to make sense of the Dumble style amps again. My biggest hurdle in the past had been that just about all of the “appropriate” IR’s for the Dumble style amps have been way too dark for me. Coming from Fender’s, Vox’s, and Marshall’s I’m used to a sparkly top end and I did not find that at all. I’m also a purist when it comes to cabs for certain amps and with Dumble’s I won’t consider anything other than EVM12L’s or G12-65’s (or clones). To me, these are essential for the Dumble sound and with anything else they lose what makes a Dumble special.
My trigger this time was a John Nathan Cordy video on the Two-Rock J35 and while my style is nothing like his, the tones he was getting were not dark and muffled. Thankfully he said the factory IR’s he used and as soon as I plugged these in, everything made sense and the Dumbles all sounded glorious. I was also coming at it from more of a John Mayer Dumble angle instead of Robben Ford. The tones I’m getting are so incredibly balanced and definitely have their own vibe going on. The clean and edge of breakup tones are amazing.
For the record, the cabs are the Bludo 2x12 57 A and the Jay Mitchell Farfield G12-65. I roll the level on the Jay Mitchell back -6.0, absolute perfection.
Once I spent some time just dialing in tones that sounded good to me on a few of the Dumble style amps, I thought I’d take a stab at the Robben Ford sound again. Unfortunately though there is one massive part of the sound that I just can’t get. THE SAG! I can get close to his tone, but neither the ODS Ford or the Bludo, amps based on Robben’s Dumble, have enough sag to them. When Robben kicks in the gain for a lead there is sag for days like an old cranked black or brown Fender. The low notes fart out in the most glorious way. I can get the Fenders in the Fractal to sag out like this all day long, but none of the Dumbles in the Fractal will do this.
So the question is, is there some deep dive parameter that I’m missing that will allow me to dial in some sag? I’ve messed with the sag parameter which I think is in the power supply section of the amp block, but I barely notice any effect at all. Is there anything else I can mess with to get more saggy, chewy, creamy, farty goodness?
Here’s some tone examples of what I’m talking about:
I’m a 50’s and 60’s amp tone guy. I’m all about the Tweed, Brown, and Black Fenders, the Vox’s, the Marshall’s, and all the Boutique variant’s in the Fractal. I’ll spend weeks digging through a particular amp type with either my Tele or my Les Paul and then something will eventually trigger me to move on to another amp type.
I recently decided to make another effort to try to make sense of the Dumble style amps again. My biggest hurdle in the past had been that just about all of the “appropriate” IR’s for the Dumble style amps have been way too dark for me. Coming from Fender’s, Vox’s, and Marshall’s I’m used to a sparkly top end and I did not find that at all. I’m also a purist when it comes to cabs for certain amps and with Dumble’s I won’t consider anything other than EVM12L’s or G12-65’s (or clones). To me, these are essential for the Dumble sound and with anything else they lose what makes a Dumble special.
My trigger this time was a John Nathan Cordy video on the Two-Rock J35 and while my style is nothing like his, the tones he was getting were not dark and muffled. Thankfully he said the factory IR’s he used and as soon as I plugged these in, everything made sense and the Dumbles all sounded glorious. I was also coming at it from more of a John Mayer Dumble angle instead of Robben Ford. The tones I’m getting are so incredibly balanced and definitely have their own vibe going on. The clean and edge of breakup tones are amazing.
For the record, the cabs are the Bludo 2x12 57 A and the Jay Mitchell Farfield G12-65. I roll the level on the Jay Mitchell back -6.0, absolute perfection.
Once I spent some time just dialing in tones that sounded good to me on a few of the Dumble style amps, I thought I’d take a stab at the Robben Ford sound again. Unfortunately though there is one massive part of the sound that I just can’t get. THE SAG! I can get close to his tone, but neither the ODS Ford or the Bludo, amps based on Robben’s Dumble, have enough sag to them. When Robben kicks in the gain for a lead there is sag for days like an old cranked black or brown Fender. The low notes fart out in the most glorious way. I can get the Fenders in the Fractal to sag out like this all day long, but none of the Dumbles in the Fractal will do this.
So the question is, is there some deep dive parameter that I’m missing that will allow me to dial in some sag? I’ve messed with the sag parameter which I think is in the power supply section of the amp block, but I barely notice any effect at all. Is there anything else I can mess with to get more saggy, chewy, creamy, farty goodness?
Here’s some tone examples of what I’m talking about:
