New mod announcement: Dumble OD Special

[Jaded Faith]

Is Rob OK?

"Human Rob" is doing okay, or as well as possible.

My wife was driving home from work the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and traffic on the Interstate was at a complete stop due to a fatal car accident in the opposite direction. The driver behind her wasn't paying attention and slammed into my wife's car at 45mph with a large SUV.

She wound up with a severe concussion and her car was completely totaled (the least of my concerns). We spent the entire holiday weekend back and forth to the ER for CAT scans and just went to see the best Neurologist around 2 days ago. She has literally been crippled with headaches that never stop, super sensitivity to light/TV/Computers, limited spurts of energy (she was a long distance runner in great health) and difficulty concentrating. Caring for her has been a full time job these past two weeks and has to be my #1 priority.

That said, I have been working 6-7 days a week from 6AM to 10PM to keep your orders as on time as possible. I had to shut down for all of last week to deal with the hospital trips and insurance companies, so I had a hefty backlog of work pile up. Compound that with trying to keep the holiday's feeling as normal as possible and "Human Rob" is probably doing as well as he can right now! :lol:

I didn't want to put it out in the public eye, but I sincerely wanted to thank all of you for your concern, well wishes and understanding this past week. It's been nothing short of amazing and a much needed smile during the rougher days.

 

[Rod]

God, that's awful...I'm so sorry Rob... Our best wishes to your wife and her recovery...My prayers are with you...Rod

 

[Hamner1]

Our prayers are with you man. Take care of yourself & your family.

 

[Julia]

Hi all. Its Rod who did the sound clips of the OD Special.
I used my RM50 combo loaded with gold lion Reissue KT66s. The module has a lot of dynamics. Using my Zoom H1 it was more of a room mic. The smooth thing is part.me and part module. I use Zhangbucker 10000 ohm humbuckers. With single coils it's more open sounding. I also used a WGS British lead high powered speaker. Rob really nailed this tone. Very different (in a good way) than my other lead mods. Any other questions.. just ask

Hi Rod, since I'm on suspension from The Gear Page, I need to ask you about this..... would TAG know the difference?

 

[djd100]

So sorry to hear Rob, our thoughts are with you both!

Is Rob OK?

"Human Rob" is doing okay, or as well as possible.

My wife was driving home from work the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and traffic on the Interstate was at a complete stop due to a fatal car accident in the opposite direction. The driver behind her wasn't paying attention and slammed into my wife's car at 45mph with a large SUV.

She wound up with a severe concussion and her car was completely totaled (the least of my concerns). We spent the entire holiday weekend back and forth to the ER for CAT scans and just went to see the best Neurologist around 2 days ago. She has literally been crippled with headaches that never stop, super sensitivity to light/TV/Computers, limited spurts of energy (she was a long distance runner in great health) and difficulty concentrating. Caring for her has been a full time job these past two weeks and has to be my #1 priority.

That said, I have been working 6-7 days a week from 6AM to 10PM to keep your orders as on time as possible. I had to shut down for all of last week to deal with the hospital trips and insurance companies, so I had a hefty backlog of work pile up. Compound that with trying to keep the holiday's feeling as normal as possible and "Human Rob" is probably doing as well as he can right now! :lol:

I didn't want to put it out in the public eye, but I sincerely wanted to thank all of you for your concern, well wishes and understanding this past week. It's been nothing short of amazing and a much needed smile during the rougher days.

 

[Rod]

Hi all. Its Rod who did the sound clips of the OD Special.
I used my RM50 combo loaded with gold lion Reissue KT66s. The module has a lot of dynamics. Using my Zoom H1 it was more of a room mic. The smooth thing is part.me and part module. I use Zhangbucker 10000 ohm humbuckers. With single coils it's more open sounding. I also used a WGS British lead high powered speaker. Rob really nailed this tone. Very different (in a good way) than my other lead mods. Any other questions.. just ask

Hi Rod, since I'm on suspension from The Gear Page, I need to ask you about this..... would TAG know the difference?

Hi Julia....TAG is on permanent suspension...Yea, he'd know the difference cause it's not a Dumble amp...and that dumb Politician song. What did you do to be on suspension? Sounds off knowing your informative posts

 

[rhequiem]

Wow, Rob - sad to hear about your wife. I'm sure everyone here understands the situation and hopes you nothing but the best, and will be more than willing to wait patiently for their modules while you deal with more important matters.

 

[Rod]

Wow, Rob - sad to hear about your wife. I'm sure everyone here understands the situation and hopes you nothing but the best, and will be more than willing to wait patiently for their modules while you deal with more important matters.

Absolutely......

 

[VitaminG]

Wow, Rob - sad to hear about your wife. I'm sure everyone here understands the situation and hopes you nothing but the best, and will be more than willing to wait patiently for their modules while you deal with more important matters.

Absolutely......

+1
look after your family first. We'll still be chasing tone once that's done.

 

[wesarvin]

Wow, Rob - sad to hear about your wife. I'm sure everyone here understands the situation and hopes you nothing but the best, and will be more than willing to wait patiently for their modules while you deal with more important matters.

Absolutely......

+1
look after your family first. We'll still be chasing tone once that's done.

Your strength and diligence is truly an inspiration.

 

[Jaded Faith]

Thank you all so much. Your support is a big part of my strength.

I worked on the bench until 1AM last night and have 6 modules shipping out this morning. I am heading back down there now to try to finish 3 more.

 

[Rod]

Rob, Is your wife doing any better now? Has time helped?

 

[Jaded Faith]

Rob, Is your wife doing any better now? Has time helped?

Today was the first turn for the better in 12 days with only a few mild headaches, far better than the past few days. Keeping my fingers crossed for continued progress.

 

[BigBrewtus]

Rob, Is your wife doing any better now? Has time helped?

Today was the first turn for the better in 12 days with only a few mild headaches, far better than the past few days. Keeping my fingers crossed for continued progress.

Our prayers are with you Mod Master. Glad to see some progress being made. Take care. Josh

 

[Rod]

Rob, Is your wife doing any better now? Has time helped?

Today was the first turn for the better in 12 days with only a few mild headaches, far better than the past few days. Keeping my fingers crossed for continued progress.

Oh good...You all have been in our thoughts....

 

[drewiv]

Rob,

I'm very glad your wife is taking a turn for the better. I wish the best for you and your family and hope the good news continues.

I was absolutely AMAZED :shock: when my OD Special (with special alternative font :wink: ) arrived in the mail Monday. I was also extremely pleased when I got to fire it up last night. I got it late Monday night and it was froze to the bone and I hate firing things up when the temp difference is so far outta whack. This module is very smooth, from clean to gain. The Jazz/Rock switch is awesome. Although, mine probably won't move from the Rock position. :wink:

Thanks, Rob. It's a keeper, for sure.

 

[Jaded Faith]

That's excellent news and so glad you like it. I shipped about 6-7 mods out Monday and Tuesday and I think there were 4 of the OD Specials in there. I just got back into full blown production again and we should see orders flying out the door daily again starting tomorrow. Thanks to all of you for your understanding and patience these past two weeks while I had to deal with other priorities.

I guess shipping a half dozen orders under those circumstances was pretty impressive now that I think about it! :lol:

 

[palebluedot67]

Hey Rob:

First of all, I have to start my first post on this forum by wishing you and your wife best wishes on a speedy recovery. I'm one of those poor wads that had him down in the basement cranking on an ODS mod and a Plexi/Tweed while he was dealing with this stress. I wish you had told me about this because I would have asked you to take it easy and ship after the holidays. Thank you for honoring your unwavering dedication to customer service, but your family is simply far more important.

All that said, I will gladly share some of my thoughts on both of these modules for the curious; with a few qualifiers. First: I have had only a few hours of quality, hands on time with these guys. Second I have owned a fair number of vintage Marshalls, tweed Fenders, and lots of Blackface stuff ... but no D Style amps (liked Zendrive into a super reverb, wanted to explore more). Third: I have had my hands in a reasonable number of tube amps over the years (more EE than perhaps player), but I'm just way too busy flipping bits these days instead of tubes, so I wanted to let Rob do the heavy lifting this time around.

I have to admit I was a bit intrepid about this "mod" process. Rob builds a heck of a lot of stuff and this MTS technology does cater towards a lot of the higher gain players. Now, just so I'm clear, I think any guitar playing is cool and I listen to some of that gainer stuff myself: but my playing style doesn't fit that mold very well. If high gain were the modern NBA, I'd be in 1950's shorts, crew cut, with converse all stars ... though maybe a little Bob Cousy razzle dazzle tossed in and making change at the top of the backboard to leave heads scratching.

All that nonsense aside, I think Rob has a very nice set of ears and he is to be commended to making what I consider a very fine pair of preamps. My MTS setup is an RM50, 6L6, into a THD 2x12 with an older G12H and, oddly, a Jensen style cone from Ted Weber. Other stuff is a couple 60's fenders and a 59 tweed Gibson. Guitars are all single coil: Fender / G&L strat and tele things. The ODS is extremely dynamic and touch sensitive. This is no cliche in any sense of the word. If you like to ride the volume control or have an expressive pick attack, this is a great place to hang out. To my ears, it can be set up to capture the warm, singing tone that these amps are well known for. Just be warned that the ODS style Tonestack is very interactive and quite different from a traditional Fender / Marshall setup. You want to spend a little time factoring in every element from fingers through speakers to get the sound you may be after. This module does clean up rather well, but I haven't explored much with the pristine cleans (just yet) as I have those sounds in spades elsewhere.

If you are a classic rock type player, I am equally impressed with the Plexi-Tweed. This is a tone I know well. Rob does all the right kind of things with this module as far as I'm concerned: the gain appears to be lower than stock (good IMO) and better in quality. He adds an integrated boost to allow some very nice, punchy lead tones. The Tweed setting is very cool ... a bit more open and warmer. It too creates a nice woody tone with presence in the treble but not biting/spitty (what I like). The Plexi side ... sounds like a good Marshall. The tonestack switch locks in a slope resistor with more mids and nuts. Unlike the old amps, Rob gives you an option on the coupling caps to tailor bass and upper mids to your guitar. The module, to my ears, sounds as good as any vintage Marhall I have personally owned or built. When you factor in what it offers for flexibility and $$$, its better. Well done.

You guys certainly know Rob better than I, but I'll echo that he seems to be a standup gent.


Chris

p.s Rod ... nice web site. Wish I caught your band when you were hanging around in Sante Fe.

 

[wesarvin]

Alright. Rob. You are a beast.

Voxless is sooooo much better than the old Super V. It's an AC30 tone that I actually like (and I don't care for many AC30 tones). Waaay too many tones on tap to mention.

ODS is something special. It never gets too high gain and fizzy, yet literally has sustain for days. While some call it dynamic, I call it the opposite. This, however, is a good thing for this tone. It gives violin-like leads without the buzz saw created by the gain normally needed for that sustain. The higher you crank the mids, the more it sings.

I can't wait to save up for more mods.

 

[Jaded Faith]

Reading this post was a fantastic start to my Friday!

I am so glad to hear the large batches that went out Friday - Tuesday are making their way home safely and you all seem to be loving them. There are so many options out there for those aboard "The Gain Train". It's been great to nearly strictly focus on some mid-gain tones this past week, as I think I built more Voxless, OD Specials and PlexiTweeds that I have in a long time. There are unique challenges when tuning those tones for both feel and the player that typically enjoys them most. When they are tuned and dialed in they are so rewarding. I played more SRV bench testing orders this week than my fingers can handle! :lol:

Never a need to thank me for my dedication to service. I wouldn't be here doing this if it wasn't for you guys and I never lose sight of that.