In-depth review of the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive Guitar Pedal.
It’s been a while since I looked at stand-alone pedals, the last time being an overdrive pedal shootout followed by a period of happily plodding along with my BOSS Katana and ME-80 multi-fx. Lately, I’ve come back round to the idea of valve amps, and the tonal delights of good-old analog pedals to add to the recipe. The first piece of the jigsaw just so happens to be this, the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive.
Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive: What you need to know
The Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive guitar pedal is a low-mid gain, true bypass, transparent overdrive pedal, based on the rare-as-hens-teeth Dumble amplifiers made famous by the likes of Eric Clapton, John Mayer, and Larry Carlton. It has a 2-band EQ (bass and treble), gain, volume, and a 3-way mode switch. More on that later.
First Impressions
Check out the vid for the unboxing reaction and let’s address the elephant in the room nice and early. There’s no 9v battery option on the Donner Dumbal Drive. This could be a serious omission for some players, but let’s look a little deeper. This particular pedal is designed to be of the always-on, amp-in-a-box variety, not something you would stomp on occasionally for the odd solo. For that reason, a power supply is the better option to save on frequent battery switching.
So yeah, it looks like some thought has gone into this sensible design decision. I would personally recommend the Donner Pedal Power Supply Adapter DPA-1 which comes with a daisy chain to power 5 pedals.
At this point, there’s nothing more to criticize, as I said in the video it feels like a quality product, it looks great and the slightly smaller-than-usual dimensions are ideal when pedal-board real estate is an issue.
It’s also nice to have some candy in the box in the form of a decent manual, some stickers, and the really thoughtful touch of separate stick-on feet. As we all know, pedal feet can get in the way when trying to attach the base of a pedal to a pedalboard with velcro, so it’s nice that Donner gives you the option.
Oh, and I almost forget. What about those looks? The Matt finish with the pastel mint-green shades and the functional contrast of the black and white knobs, The arty flourishes around the LED and logo. I think it’s a fantastic-looking guitar pedal, what do you think?
Donner Dumbal Drive: Build Quality
Metal casing, a very high-quality footswitch with a re-assuringly loud and positive-feeling click; really nice metal jack sockets with rubber washers, and nothing loose. Great start. Metal pots aren’t expected at the sub £50 price point but these chunky knurled plastic ones do a fuss-free job better than most, with nice clear white on black markers to boot.
Even the mini-toggle mode switch, notorious for being the weak point on many a pedal, doesn’t feel like it’ll snap off in your fingers after a week.
Lastly, despite the metal construction, the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive is still a light pedal at 9.17 oz (260 g).
Very promising so far.
Donner Dumbal Drive: Design
In my last overdrive shootout, the Joyo Crunch Distortion stood out for being just about perfect (dimensions and controls-wise). However, the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive beats it on all counts. First off is the positioning of the LED, which is not only moved from directly under your foot to a more visible location but the LED itself has an opaque covering, which means you also won’t get blinded when you engage it.
Next up are the controls, which are the perfect size and position to not get in each other’s way, even the toggle switch is easy to get at, which is rare.
It just feels right. Everything is where you would expect and like it to be, with the main component, the footswitch, being particularly easy to hit. Even the positioning of the jack sockets is perfect, away from the controls so nothing gets knocked when setting up.
You can tell that some serious guitarist-minded thought and, more importantly, love, has gone into the design of this pedal.
Features
A few things worth mentioning here. The Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive, on the surface, has quite a niche/focussed application. It has a low to mid-gain range, with, it has to be said, not a great deal of output, but as I’ll cover later, this pedal is anything but limited.
Now the interesting stuff. The Mode switch.
Position I
In this mode, there is a bias towards the treble/high-frequency compression. In practice? As the gain (and the other interactive controls) increases, you’ll notice the high-end distorts/compresses earlier, while leaving the low end intact.
Position II
In this mode, the compression is balanced. In practice, This is the cleanest and most natural-sounding mode, which preserves the most frequencies overall, resulting in a more apparent volume boost.
Position III
In this mode, there is a bias towards the bass/low-frequency compression. In practice? As the gain (and the other interactive controls) increases, you’ll notice the low-end distorts/compresses earlier, while leaving the high end intact.
Interactive controls you say? That’s another nice surprise in that the bass and treble control gain as well as the actual EQ, for example, engaging Mode position III and cranking the bass control will give you a quite unusual but very rewarding overdriven low end, with the high end remaining relatively untouched.
Versatility
With the Mode switch and the EQ controls that are really gain controls, a world of possibilities opens up to you, but first of all, it’s worth noting what the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive can’t do. Slightly unfair on my part, as Donner doesn’t claim it can do these things in the first place!
Lead volume boost for an already overdriven tone
Not enough volume for this I’m afraid.
Mid to heavy overdriven rhythm tone for a clean amp.
For a squeaky clean amp, the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive doesn’t possess quite enough gain to get you into AC/DC levels of rock rhythm gain, for example.
Now we get to the many tones we can achieve with this brilliant little pedal.
Volume/gain boost for a clean amp.
We’ll detail tones later, but with a clean amp, there is definitely enough volume on tap for a lead boost, with the potential in the gain/eq to add a bit of heat. But there’s no need to focus on just a volume hike. Back it off and turn a clean amp into a blues machine. It’s in this clean amp scenario where the Dumbal feels like it has the most range and effect.
Making a slightly overdriven amp SING!
I wrote off an AC/DC tone only a couple of paragraphs ago, but it’s there waiting for you with an overdriven amp. Again, at this level of gain, the volume control runs out of steam a lot earlier, but that’s not the point. Stacking this on top of an already overdriven tone will give you a satisfying gain boost.
Adding a touch of class to a lead tone
As we reach the saturating point, the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive has a final trick up its sleeve. Adding control and smoothness to your most unruly lead statements.
Tone
Firstly, into a clean amp. What I’m instantly drawn to is that, although there isn’t a lot of gain available, the Mode III position with the gain and bass pushed is a new one for me. Everything is nicely transparent, clear, and natural, but what the gain tied in with the bass gives you is an addictive low-end rumble. Almost halfway to the best octave pedal you’ve ever heard.
Of course, you could explore till your heart’s content with this and a clean amp, and particularly a clean valve amp. SRV, Texas blues, all the gritty, chewy responsiveness you could wish for. In this world, the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive is a class act. It’s pristine, organic, and versatile, but it’s also subtle enough to impart just the right amount of its own character, without taking away from the amp or the guitar’s voice.
Switching to Mode II gives you more immediate oompf, whilst messing with your frequencies less, kind of like a Tubescreamer without the mid hump or the bass cut, but still with a bit of a bark.
Mode I is a taste and feel thing. On a Strat I didn’t much care for the treble-focused compression, preferring to keep it intact, but each to their own.
Into an overdriven amp is where things start to get a little more restricted (due to the volume headroom), but for my tastes probably the most fun. The Dumbal Drive absolutely excels at pushing a mildly overdriven amp into that sustaining but still articulate world where chords sound massive and you can branch off into a cheeky lick at will and still sound convincing.
Predictably, the controls have less of an impact as the gain winds up, but those bass and treble controls are the star of the show again, sculpting your finely-crafted filth exactly how you like it, with range to spare.
It’s at this point I’m realising what the Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive is all about. The pay-off for any lack of versatility is that there isn’t a bad sound in the box. Yes, I’ve owned pedals with a wider range, but none have sounded as consistently great across their range, or been as much fun to explore.
Finally, again just for the fun of it, let’s see how it fairs as a boost to a lead tone.
Yup, you guessed it. The Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive goes about its business just as pleasingly predictably as before. Of course, there’s no hint of a volume boost in this scenario, but this is your one-stop more pedal solution with all those EQ bells and whistles, although, If I’m honest, the modes become ever more indistinguishable as the gain increases. In this domain, it provides the fairy dust, the polish, and tightness to your tone which makes it both sing a little more but also, paradoxically, gives you more control. I had a lot of fun with how this pedal conjures up harmonic feedback at lower and more easily manageable volumes. Great for recording? Definitely!
To sum up the tone of this pedal, there is so much more to it than simply a low-mid gain amp-in-a-box. Although it excels with a lower-gain/clean platform, It can be applied to many scenarios, but in all cases, it sounds natural, organic, and transparent, with some surprisingly unique (and great sounding) tones to be had out of the bass control in particular.
Value for Money
The Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive, at £48.84 is around a quarter of the price of the Wampler Euphoria (also classed as D-Style overdrive) and significantly more affordable than the more affordable big brands such as BOSS. Although we aren’t in budget pedal territory, the Dumbal Drive’s bullet-proof build quality (with metal casing), brilliant design, classy, versatile tones, and not forgetting thoughtful packaging makes it an absolute bargain, and on par with pedals costing twice as much.
Specs
Model: Dumbal Drive
Casing: Aluminum
Color: Mint Green
Dimensions
Weight: 9.17 oz (260 g)
Width: 2.52” (64 mm)
Height: 2.07” (52.6 mm)
Depth: 4.47” (113.5 mm)
Electronics
Input Impedance: 1 M Ohms
Output Impedance: 50 Ohms
Current Draw: 5 mA
Led Indication: Yes
Controls
Knobs: Treble, Bass, Gain, Volume
Switches: 3 Modes Switch
Buttons: True Bypass
Input/Output
Input: ¼” Mono Audio Jack
Output: ¼” Mono Audio Jack
Power: Jack 9V DC adapter, 100 mA
Conclusion
After digital amps, multi-fx, Garageband, etc. The Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive is a timely reminder of just how amazing stand-alone analog pedals sound, especially into a decent valve amp. Although this type of low-mid gain pedal is not the type I would usually go for, its subtle, versatile, but most of all real guitar tones have been a bit of an eye-opener on the direction my guitar playing was going in.
It also helps that it’s brilliantly designed, looks great, is built like a tank, and costs less than a night out.
Buy one today! Donner Dumbal Drive Analog Overdrive Guitar Pedal
Thanks for Reading.
