Always loved Larry Carlton and Robben Ford’s tone, and even tried to build my own Dumble clone at one point. It didn’t sound good, and I didn’t have the expertise or time to make it sound good. Anyway, 13 years later and I’ve moved on in the music I play, but I still get GAS for that tone. Recently there have been more and more pedals trying to get that sound, and some of them are starting to come close. Here’s a list of the ones I know of:
- Zendrive (Robben Ford uses one of these)
- Zendudo (Larry Carlton uses one of these)
- Simble (One of the closest)
- Ethos Overdrive (Expensive and long waiting list)
- Fishbone Overdrive Special (Zendrive clone)
- Dumbloid
- Stampede SOV-1/SOV-2
- Fuchs Plush Drive (From the makers of Dumble clone amps)
- DMBL Overdrive
- Van Weelden Royal Overdrive
- Retroman Dum-box
- Amplified Nation Bloom
- Wampler Euphoria
- Jitter GS 124
- Velvet Pedals Umble
- T1M Punch Driv (Also used in The Pearl)
- Quinn Amps Hot Butter Scotch (Discontinued)
- Weehbo Effekte Dumbledore
I’ve owned both a Fishbone (Zendrive) and an SOV-1. When I compared the two the Fishbone sounded closer to me, less saturated and more touch sensitive. It was also smaller and didn’t run off mains voltage, so I kept it. Having heard demos of the Simble I was tempted to get one of those, however recently I’ve just bought a Fulltone Fulldrive 3 to replace my Fulldrive 2. I found that with the comp-cut mode, I could get close to the Dumble sound too. I hope to put up a comparison soon, but first impressions are, the FD3 comp-cut sounds more open and transparent (something I wanted out of the Simble) and is even more touch sensitive than the Fishbone, but a little bit more saturated when playing harder. The fishbone has a more pronounced midrange, making it to my ears sound more like Robben Ford, and the FD3 comp-cut more like Larry Carlton.
Update: Here’s a demo of the Fulldrive 3 (Comp-cut mode):
Oh I almost forgot, there was also the infamous Freekish Blues Joyo Alpha Drive
