GuitarTonePro

The most infuriatingly awesome overdrive.

August 10, 2021March 23, 2023Andrew NuttallLeave a comment

Love it or hate it (or sometimes both) the Dumbloid pedals by Shin’s Music are some of the most fantastic overdrive tones you can get. Shinichi Suzuki is probably “the guy” to go to in Japan if you have a Dumble amp that needs service or repair. In his years of working on these amps, he’s learned a bit of the magic that makes them so special, and has translated some of that aural magic into his Dumbloid pedals.

So what makes this pedal frustrating at times? For me it comes down to the Accent control and the fact that this pedal sounds SO good in many different settings. First lets look at the Accent control, which is essentially a sort of a presence control that also affects the transient response of the note. The transient response is the initial attack of the pick on the string that give a note “bite” and is a big part of the Dumble ‘thing’. However this control isn’t perfect as sometimes it creates and unwanted buzzing noise when playing lightly with lower gain settings.

Turning down the Accent control all the way completely solves the issue but also muddies the tone a bit. Luckily you can max the tone control to match and have all the beautiful singing high end back in your signal. I find these controls (Tone and Accent) live in the most harmony when set inversely proportionate. When the Accent goes up, the tone goes down, but keeping the tone above the 10 o’clock position.

The other “issue” is that I love this pedal as a slightly dirty clean boost; and as a medium gain tone shaper; and as a high gain singing lead tone. It sounds so good at so many settings that I have trouble picking just one. While the Chase Bliss Automatone can get close and give you presets, it doesn’t quite have the same magic. Luckily this can be solved to an extent by buying a Dumbloid Twin. Two Dumbloids in one box, with the optional boost circuit.

To sum up, like many great amps and other effects, the Dumbloid series of pedals require some work and playing around with to find the sweet spots, but when you do it’s simply magic.

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Return of the Strat

October 24, 2020June 3, 2024Andrew Nuttall1 Comment

Regret and reconnection, these two words sum up my history with this guitar. December first, 2017 after selling off some 50 pedals and other assorted gear I finally ordered the 1959 Stratocaster I had been dreaming of. I had worked with the buyer over couple days coming to a price that worked for both of us and was now in my budget.

When it first arrived I felt immediate regret. The tuners felt loose, the neck was super skinny (which I later found out is common on Strats of this year) and some of the controls were pretty sloppy feeling. Had I bought a dud? When people say that vintage guitars have their own personalities, they mean it. This guitar likes heavy gauge strings (11’s minimum at Eb) and prefers to be in standard tuning unless you go even heavier. At that point the tuners are rock solid, the frets play smooth and clean, and the guitar sounds incredible. Learning how to get it into the 2 and 4 pickup positions took a little while but have their own rewards. Did you know on a three way selector there are more than 5 pickup combinations? Apparently the 2 and 4 positions can actually “lean” towards the middle pickup and the neck/bridge. Resulting in different tonal combinations which for example could sound pretty much identical to the neck pickup, but both tone pots would affect the tone, giving very slight variations.

I had owned the guitar for just just over a year, have learning all the intricacies and foibles of the guitar over that time. However a new focus on financial freedom, and an immediate need for money to purchase a rental property would mean a need to sell. After fees I made a very small profit but was content that I essentially borrowed a vintage Strat for a year and got paid to do so.

A year and a half goes buy, replacing my guitars with a ‘61 Reserve SVL, which after replacing the middle pickup with a non-reverse wound one got as close to the tone of the ‘59 as any other guitar I had tried in that time. But then came the messages, first from someone who contacted me to see if they could get the buyer information of the Strat to see if they could buy it. That deal didn’t happen, but I was reminded of the guitar and new the buyer still had it and was willing to sell now though. Later when moving videos from my old YouTube account to the new one, I was reminded how incredible that 1959 Stratocaster sounded.

Some messages later, an agreement was struck to essentially refund the original purchase and return the Strat back to my possession. So now it’s back, and this time I’m not making the mistake of letting it ago again… well at least that’s the plan for now.

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‘61 Reserve from Simon Law

December 19, 2019January 5, 2021Andrew NuttallLeave a comment

Today I received the first look at my soon to be here ’61 Reserve from SVL Guitars, and what a beauty it is. But let’s step back; who is Simon Law and what makes his ’61 Reserve special?

Simon Law is a UK guitar builder and guitar tech that works with many big names. His guitars are used by some of the blues greats (Robbin Ford and Matt Schofield to name a few) and are revered for feeling, sounding and playing like old guitars but with new guitar reliability. He also works as a guitar tech for a number of other artists, and in fact part of the reason my guitar took so long to complete (more on that later) is the fact that he was on tour with the WHO for some time.

So he definitely has the knowledge and ear to build a fantastic instrument, but there are lots of great builders, why go with him? Lots of reasons. His guitars are hand built, to spec, with old wood and experience of what makes a vintage guitar sound and feel the way it does, and how to get as close to that as possible. As good as the best at Fender, at a price that is remarkably doable, and with a much more reasonable wait. When some of the best blues players go to him for instruments that respond to their touch and feel, you know he’s doing things right.

So now let’s talk MY guitar. Vintage radius fretboard, Katalox fingerboard (like Brazilian Rosewood but more consistent) 6105 sized frets; this vintage with taller frets combo is what I’ve found to be the perfect mix of comfort and playability and was what I had on my vintage ’59 and Silver Sky.

Pickups are ’59 Reserve set from Mark Foley with some custom tone cap values, everything high quality and vintage spec. Vintage style hardware rounds out the build, and a medium relic to the black body with tortoise pickguard gives it a story.

All in all it costs only around the same price as a standard custom shop Strat from Fender, but with master built options and quality. The only downside? This is a one man operation and his main gig is with the stars, so from order to delivery your looking at around 9 months. Roughly the same amount of time an expecting father would have to wait, and certainly worth the wait.

2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster

April 29, 2016August 2, 2016Andrew NuttallLeave a comment

2012 Fender American Stratocaster Here it is, the Stratocaster that I often refer to as “the first”, “the original”or if I’m channeling my inner Stevie, my “Number One”
because it is the first American made Stratocaster (and guitar) that I’ve owned. It was a birthday present from my wife, though I did spend many hours picking it out from all of the strats at the local guitar super store. It’s an ash bodied American Standard with a Sienna Burst paint job and Custom Shop Fat 50s in all 3 positions. The maple neck is well finished with the edges rolled nicely and the fret ends filed smooth. It has a beautiful, subtle wave like grain with a birthmark on the third fret and consistently impresses me in that it feels more like a nicely worn in neck then some Custom Shop necks I’ve tried in the past.

It really exemplifies a guitar who’s tone rings out loud and long. Recently when hammering in a nail into my recently finished basement wall, the same wall where my guitars were hanging, I could hear exactly how different my guitars were acoustically. My recently acquired John Mayer Signature Strat rang out significantly longer then my Black American Standard and my Gold Strat Copy, but my Sienna Strat rang out for what seemed like double the length and volume of even the John Mayer. The neck and body of this guitar are just matched perfectly and the setup from the store was perfect, so much so that I use those measurements to setup the rest of my strats.

Pickups are great all around pickups for The Strat Sound. Bold and punchy but undeniably single coil with sweet tones in the 2 and 4 positions (standard 5-way switch). The bridge pickup is a little shrill at full blast, but thankfully the second tone pot is wired so that you can roll back some of the harshness to get some great rock tones. I run the bridge decked with 5 springs holding it down (no block) so I can’t comment on the tuning stability when using the whammy bar, but I have no reason to doubt it would be fine for normal use.

All in all I am often seduced into playing one of my other, more interesting strats, but every time I plug this beauty in I am reminded why I chose her in the first place. Tone for days and a comfort in playing that makes you want to forget about pedals and just lay back on a comfy couch and play out the rest of your days, and that is exactly how long I intend to keep her.

Find one now on Amazon.com