Of all the exhibitors appearing at NAMM 2025, Dumble was by far the most surprising.
Howard ‘Alexander’ Dumble’s legendary eponymous amp brand has been the subject of much online discussion in recent months, after an official Dumble website promising new builds using “trade secrets” was stealth-launched late last year.
The quiet announcement caused a stir, and was on the receiving end of intense speculation as fans began to question what the future held for the Dumble name.
With the lack of any real explanation surrounding the re-emergence, some commentators were quick to critique the move, suggesting the company had been bought by a third party intent on producing amps purely for financial gain.
So, to get the full story on Dumble’s return and its plans for the future, Guitar World visited the firm’s private booth at NAMM 2025 – and it seems such speculation couldn’t be further from the truth.
As Drew Berlin – a leading vintage gear expert and close personal friend of Dumble’s – explained to Guitar Worldthe brand and its owner’s legacy are now both being overseen by what is officially calling itself the ‘Dumble Preservation Society’.
The society is headed up by Berlin and Michael Doyle – an amp specialist who wrote The History of Marshall: The Illustrated Story of ‘The Sound of Rock’ – after Dumble himself left the brand name to some of his closest colleagues in his will.
And, it turns out, building new amps was a necessity, not a luxury, in order to pursue that mission of preserving the Dumble name.
“We have (had) the Dumble Preservation Society since Mr. Dumble passed. We promised him that we would keep his legacy alive,” Berlin says. “A lot of it was legal problems that we straightened out, so we felt we should come to NAMM and let people see part of his world and some of his amps.”
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Showing part of Dumble’s world meant curating a hall-of-fame display of amps. For the show, the Preservation Society brought along the first amp Dumble ever made, the Steel String Singer that Stevie Ray Vaughan once took on tour, Carlos Santana’s old Overdrive Special, the ‘Woody’ module that would be loaned to players while Dumble built amps for them, and more.
As for those legal problems, and how the newly established Dumble Preservation Society hopes to live up to its name, Berlin continues: “After Mr. Dumble passed, we had an attorney that was trying to secure all of the legal copyrights, trademarks, all of that. He was able to do it, but it was getting ready to run out.
“I go, ‘That’s okay, renew it.’ He goes, ‘Okay, that’s fine, but what product do you have?’ I go, ‘What do you mean, product?’ He goes, ‘You have to have product. You have to build something and sell it in order to keep the trademark.’
“So I was thinking what Mr. Dumble would think of me doing that, because I never tried helping him with amps – I just played while he was dialing. I’m not an engineer, I don’t know how to build amps, it wasn’t my thing.
“(The attorney) goes, ‘Well, if you don’t do it, anyone can grab this and do it.’ So we got in touch with Mr. Dumble’s technical friend that he trusted, and I asked him if he would build a couple of these to help keep the trademark. And he did.”
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The result was not one, but two new amps. One that completed the last-ever unit Dumble himself worked on, and an entirely original amp that wasn’t made from an existing build.
“I wouldn’t want to put Mr. Dumble’s name on something that wasn’t the best, so I felt good it was worthy that we could put the Dumble name on it,” Berlin reflects. “We decided to come here and show people what we’re doing.”
The future of Dumble, then, doesn’t seem to be as simple as many believed would the case, nor does it sound like the Dumble Preservation Society will start mass-producing Overdrive Specials – again, a theory that had been floated prior to NAMM.
“We’re here to get feedback on what people want. There will probably be more and we have enough parts to take care of Mr. Dumble’s clients, so we’ve been maintaining them and servicing them.
“We’re keeping that part of what Mr. Dumble used to do and we’re just trying to preserve his legacy and do the best we can to keep the trademark. It’s a great process, we’ve had such wonderful feedback. A lot of people love his tone and his sound.”
Keep your eyes peeled to Dumble.com for updates.
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