Joe Bonamassa has revealed why he’s started to buy Dumble guitar amps again, after he sold his three personal examples eight years ago. Recently, Bonamassa made guitar magazine headlines when he announced his latest vintage gear purchase: Lowell George’s famed Dumble Overdrive Special Reverb, which he snapped up after a 15-year quest . That particular amp was the late Little Feat guitarist’s main amplifier, and prior to Bonamassa’s purchase, it had been last played the night before George died in June 1979.
The historical and musical significance of this particular boutique tube amp goes without saying – its very sound is etched into the annals of rock guitar lore – but it marked something of a left-field purchase for Bonamassa. After all, as the blues rock guitar titan once revealed in an interview with Total Guitar (via MusicRadar ), Bonamassa had previously sold his entire collection of Dumble guitar amps back in 2016, preferring instead to play vintage Fender Tweeds. “I sold all my Dumbles,” Bonamassa said at the time.
“I had three at one point and I sold them all. One I traded for a ‘59 Les Paul, which I get way more joy from. “Two years ago, I mothballed that whole cliché of the rig I’m most associated with – the two Marshalls and the two Van Weeldens and the Dumbles and the effects board and everything.
” Now, the Dumbles are back in full force. In a new interview with The Zak Kuhn Show, Bonamassa was quizzed about why such amps didn’t wo.