Founder
Howard Alexander Dumble
1944–2022 · California, USA
The man who hand-built the dream — and vetted the customer first
He built fewer amps in a lifetime than Fender builds in a day. Every one of them is now mythical.
Alexander 'Howard' Dumble began modifying Fender amps in 1960s California. He befriended Carlos Santana, then Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, Stevie Ray Vaughan — guitarists who wanted something beyond factory standard. Dumble built what they asked for, one cabinet at a time, signed, numbered, delivered with a contract forbidding resale without his consent.
He never made a catalogue. He had no website. He didn't always answer email. An estimated 300 amps were built across his entire career. A Dumble Overdrive Special today sells for 100,000 dollars and up.
Anecdotes & moments
- Every Dumble was potted in epoxy inside to stop other techs reverse-engineering the circuit. People have copied him anyway — there's a whole underground industry of Dumble clones.
- Stevie Ray Vaughan's Steel String Singer head still sits on a Hard Rock Cafe wall somewhere. The original schematic has never been published.