“All of the Eric Johnson signature sounds are inside this preamp and power amp”: Vertex Effects played Eric Johnson’s $400,000 Dumble rig – here’s what it sounds like

Though it has plenty of its own products, Vertex Effects also has a YouTube channel that highlights other killer gear from outside its stable.

It was Vertex, for instance, that got to exhibit in video form a lost Dumble Overdrive Special that's been called “possibly the greatest amplifier ever made,“ and Dumble is on the menu once again in the company's newest video.

This time, the Vertex lads – owner/CEO Mason Marangella and electric guitar player Gabriel Bergman – have managed to get their hands on something perhaps even more special, Eric Johnson's custom made Dumble Manzamp Preamp (a rack-mount based version of a Dumble Overdrive Special), and Odyssey Concert Amplifier Poweramp.  

The combo is cited as not only the “rarest of rare” in the Dumble line, but also contains – according to Marangella – “some of the weirdest and most unobtainable Dumble models in existence.” Accordingly, the combo – which was recently put up for sale on Reverb – has been valued at an even $400,000. You can hear it in action above.

This will likely not come as a surprise to anybody, but the tones those Dumbles (which Johnson is said to have used through the mid-1990's, in the time leading up to and beyond the Venus Isle album) produce, particularly the crystal-like cleans, are absolutely stunning. Bergman demonstrates both the amps' clean and driven tones via some of Johnson's most classic tunes.

Wielding, obviously, a Stratocaster, Bergman kicks the video off with – what else – Cliffs of Dover. With the Overdrive channel on, Bergman then takes viewers on a journey through some of the standout licks from Johnson's classic Hot Licks lesson, before moving onto SRV, Friends, and Desert Rose.

Marangella acknowledges that “most Dumbles are not known to take pedals particularly well," and nods to that and the no-effects purists by having Bergman demonstrate a pure clean tone, but the pair also cycle through a number of Johnson-approved effects – a Fuzz Face, a Boss DD-2 delay pedal, a TC Electronic chorus pedal, and a Tube Screamer overdrive pedal. Marangella says that the Dumbles still sound fantastic even with any of these engaged, and we're not about to disagree.

The bottom line, Marangella says, is that “all of Eric Johnson's signature sounds, from clean to overdrive, are inside this combination of preamp and power amp.”

The full $400k listing also includes a pair of Dumble 2x12 speaker cabinets loaded with vintage Vox Alnico Blues and Hiwatt Heavy Duty drivers, both of which were added after Johnson relinquished the Dumbles.

For more of Vertex's videos – including the company's recent sit-down with session guitar legend Dean Parks – visit the company's YouTube channel.