Doc Rock
Inspired
RIP Mr Dumble. In his honour, permit me to re-post here a limerick I wrote when I saw one of his amps sell on eBay for $US85,000.
An amp builder named Mr Dumble
saw his finances starting to crumble
so he went to the corner
like Little Jack Horner
and started to mutter and mumble
Then an idea, brilliant, but humble
came into his head with a tumble
to create some distortion
he'd boost a big portion
of the power of the preamp wire jumble
He started quite well but would stumble
over just how to make the thing rumble
with the failure to salve
all the grunt of the valve
and all he could do was to grumble
He continued to fiddle and fumble
(with the wiring and not Mrs Dumble)
shouting words so impious
as he worked out the bias
but all he could do was to bumble
Then suddenly one day in summer
He shouted "Oh shit - what a bummer"
as he soldered a joint
and he went point-to-point
and the AC broke through as a hummer
But then Lady Luck turned the tables
as he realised just how to run cables
from the ends of resistors -
no sign of transistors -
till he created the circuit of fables
The boost of preamp to power stages
became stuff of legend for ages
and overdrive mania
from New York to Tasmania
took up numerous magazine pages
So the good Howard Alexander Dumble
Was no longer so poor nor so humble
now his amps sold to scholars
for eighty five thousand dollars
on eBay with nary a grumble
This is, though, a story with moral
and although has a language quite floral
just discovered in time
that there's no need to rhyme
for a punchline to finish a limerick.....
An amp builder named Mr Dumble
saw his finances starting to crumble
so he went to the corner
like Little Jack Horner
and started to mutter and mumble
Then an idea, brilliant, but humble
came into his head with a tumble
to create some distortion
he'd boost a big portion
of the power of the preamp wire jumble
He started quite well but would stumble
over just how to make the thing rumble
with the failure to salve
all the grunt of the valve
and all he could do was to grumble
He continued to fiddle and fumble
(with the wiring and not Mrs Dumble)
shouting words so impious
as he worked out the bias
but all he could do was to bumble
Then suddenly one day in summer
He shouted "Oh shit - what a bummer"
as he soldered a joint
and he went point-to-point
and the AC broke through as a hummer
But then Lady Luck turned the tables
as he realised just how to run cables
from the ends of resistors -
no sign of transistors -
till he created the circuit of fables
The boost of preamp to power stages
became stuff of legend for ages
and overdrive mania
from New York to Tasmania
took up numerous magazine pages
So the good Howard Alexander Dumble
Was no longer so poor nor so humble
now his amps sold to scholars
for eighty five thousand dollars
on eBay with nary a grumble
This is, though, a story with moral
and although has a language quite floral
just discovered in time
that there's no need to rhyme
for a punchline to finish a limerick.....
