“There’s nothing the Dumbles did for me that other amps hadn’t done before”: Eric Gales doesn’t get the hype around Dumble amps

Favoured by the likes of Carlos Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford and John Mayer, Dumble amplifiers have long occupied a near-mythical place in guitar culture. Built in tiny numbers by the late Howard Dumble and whispered about in reverent tones, they’re often treated less like amps and more like holy relics.

But not everyone is convinced.

In a new interview with Guitarist magazine, Eric Gales admits he doesn’t quite understand the obsession. While he acknowledges that Dumbles sound excellent, he says they didn’t offer anything he hadn’t already heard from other “great” amps. As the guitarist puts it, there was no moment where the “heavens opened up”.

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Asked why Alexander Dumble’s amps are held in such high regard, Gales replies: “To be honest, I don’t know. There’s a bit of a taboo fascination with them. Obviously, they are highly respected and deeply admired for the sound they make, but I don’t see the big draw factor.”

“Sure, they sound great, but I’ve heard other amps that sound great,” says the virtuoso, who played through a Dumble on his new album at the suggestion of producer Joe Bonamassa.

“I’m very honoured and privileged to have plugged into one a few times, but it wasn’t like a ‘heavens opened up’ sort of moment,” Gales continues. “I’m not speaking bad about them, I’m just saying there’s nothing the Dumbles did for me that other amps hadn’t done before, you know? I was just going off a suggestion and I trusted Joe enough to go with it. He has plenty of Dumbles and runs through them pretty rigorously. I had no reason to go against it.”

In practice, Gales’ setup was about as straightforward as it gets. He plugged his Magneto signature guitar into Bonamassa’s Dumble, and into his own signature DV Mark amp, and let his playing do the talking.

“If [the Dumble] was the only amp that was there and my DV Mark wasn’t around, I’m sure I would have been fine,” he says. “I have some really nice amps, like my Two-Rock, and the Dumble did nothing less than that. If it wasn’t as good, then I wouldn’t have used it on the record. I remember it had great sustain and delivered every single nuance I put through it. At the same time, my DV Mark was doing the same thing. Both amps were standing tall beside each other, doing a great job in giving me what I needed to accomplish this record. That’s all I can ask for.”