“I got a call one evening, and they said, ‘Dumble’s in the Valley. You’ve got to go over’”: Larry Carlton on the first time he met a legendary amp maker – and received a private concert from a guitar great

Larry Carlton has recalled the moment he first crossed paths with a Dumble – and how it was unexpectedly demoed to him by a fellow guitar great.

Carlton, who is perhaps best known for his work with Steely Dan – as well as his collaborations with Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, and Sammy Davis Jr., among others – was a loyalist to the Mesa/Boogie Mark I combo throughout the 1970s.

At some point during the following decade, though, he began to hear whispers from the guitar community of another amp that he needed to check out.

“Dean Parks [Steely Dan contributor] had met him first, and he said to me, ‘You’ve got to check out these amps, man. They’re really cool,’” Carlton relays of his first meeting with the late legendary amp maker, Howard ‘Alexander’ Dumble, in conversation with Vertex Effects.

Parks, himself an established rock and jazz session musician, didn’t have one of his own, but he knew their reputation was on the rise for a reason.

And so, when the opportunity came for Carlton to enter the orbit of Dumble, he didn’t think twice. And he ended up bumping into a guitar great who just so happened to be testing a Dumble amp at the time.

“I got a call one evening from somebody, and they said, ‘Dumble's in the Valley over at so-and-so rehearsal studio, you’ve got to go over and meet him and check out his amp,’” Carlton continues.

“My cousin Steve was with me, and he was my assistant engineer at the time. We drove to that studio to check out this Dumble, and Eric Johnson was there, playing up on a stage. It was all carpeted, and nobody was there.

“Eric's up there doing all his stuff, so I met Eric that night, and I got to experience the sound of the Dumble. And it was great. It had tone for days.”

However, there was a slight reservation for Carlton, stopping him from pulling his wallet out right then and there. A huge part of the Dumble Amps mythos is built around the fact that only Howard Dumble himself, by and large, builds and knows how to dial in the amps.

The Truth About Larry Carlton’s Amps (Not What You Think) - YouTube

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The same applied when something goes wrong. Dumbles were never mass-produced, and for much of his lifetime, there was a huge waiting list for anyone who wanted one of their own. Demand was huge, but they were extremely specialist.

Carlton continues, “I said, ‘I love your amp, man. I'd love to have one, but I've heard stories that you're the only one that can fix it, and if I can't get to you – I was touring the world at the time…

“And he was beautiful,” he adds. “He said, ‘If you want the amp and you buy the amp, I guarantee you that if something goes down, I'll take care of you immediately.’ And he did. For a number of years. It went out in Japan, and we shipped it back. He fixed it. He shipped it back, and I had it on the fourth day.”

The amp would become his workhorse for touring, but he's busted the myth that he regularly recorded with it, revealing that its incredible loudness would often “overwhelm” the rooms he recorded in. It was only recorded on special

In related news, while Eric Gales is yet to buy into the Dumble hype, Keith Urban has been left rueing the one that got away.