MOSRITE TUBE HEAD SER# 00007 (DUMBLE'S MOSRITE?)

[MWaldorf]

MosritesForever was kind enough to send me photos of his amp and echo (and 300 guitar, in another thread). Hopefully, he'll chime in with details of what we're looking at:

[jnslobaugh]

NEW PICS TO CHECK OUT

[Strat-o-rama]

I like the styling on the Dumble/Mosrite head enclosure. Very cool.
I'll guess its about 35 watts? Look forward to the evaluation.

[MWaldorf]

Here, thanks to MosritesForever, are pictures of Don Wilson playing what appears to be a Dumble Mosrite. This is what he told me about the pic:

I found this picture of Don Wilson onstage in Japan, March 1966. It shows him playing through a Mosrite piggyback amp. I believe this is the Dumble tube amp as I have never seen another Mosrite piggyback amp anywhere. At least until the one on the forum. This is very early for a Mosrite amp. Ed Sanner told me he made mine in 1965 so this would be about the right time for a finished Dumble Mosrite to be out there. It's the only shot I could find that shows it.

and a close up detail:

[dubtrub]

Here's a link to an earlier post where Arpsum posted a photo of his piggy back amp. It's about half way down the page and appears to be a solid state amp. Piggy back

[arpsum]

As I checked again the article of Ed Sanner on 'Vintage Mosrite', he mentioned he also built piggy back amps for The Ventures. It had been done before declining a request of the development new amps with short terms. If so, which was made by Ed Sanner? According to the catalog of 'Mosrite Distribution Company' printed in 1966, we can see two Award amps. At least they were built before 1966.

Award amps

According to 'Guitar Player' published in Sep.1985, Howard mentioned he built 10 amps for Semie when he was 18 years old. As he was born in 1945, he seemed to do that in 1963. As far as I recognize, Ed Sanner started working for Mosrite in 1960. As Howard directly negotiated to Semie at that time, at least it is appropriate to assume Ed knew the person named Howard so-and-so was asked to make amps for Semie in spite of a younger boy than Ed. If this were the fact, I could make sense Ed made his own designed piggy back amps later. If he hadn't designed his own piggy back, he might have mentioned about Howard's amp as his own design at the interview.

As for my guess, JSL's one must be made by Howard.

[jnslobaugh]

As for my guess, JSL's one must be made by Howard.

Some time ago I found H.A.Dumbles My Space page. It is not something that he checks often.
Last night I sent him an email through his link. In essence I briefly mentioned that I may have one
of his prototypes and if he was interested he could follow a link to the photos with contact information as well.
I honestly do not think I'll ever get a direct response.

[Mr. Bill]

Everybody: Great new photos!

From the original photos I couldn't tell that the top and bottom panels on the Dumble were arched. Very cool look!

[mosriteforever]

Hello all,

Just some details on the amp pix Mwaldorf was kind enough to post for me. Ed Sanner told me he built it in 1965. I haven't opened the back in years as I am afraid of the mojo escaping. When I did I found some of the pots dated 65 and some 68. All of the knobs are the short type with the T and V. I have to clean the Volume pot peiodically or it gets scratchy. I like the tone and reverb better than on my Model 400 amp that has a Fuzzrite. I cannot play it around flourescent lights as it tends to pick up a hum, but it sounds great with the lights off. It has a ground switch as it is only a 2 prong plug. Ed said they got the grill cloth from Radio Shack. I got it from Bakersfield and the gentleman I purchased it from said it had been in a church in Goshen for 25 years or so before he got it. He thought it was a bass amp as it had no Fuzzrite. Ed told me they hadn't made the Fuzzrite to put in the amps yet. Ed did say he built 4 or 5 of these so there may be some more floating around somewhere. As for the echo, it was built by Tel Ray and Mark Moseley said there were 4 or 5 prototypes made for Mosrite, but they never went into production. I have never seen any other pictures of the Ventures with the piggyback Mosrite amps so I am guessing that this may be the Dumble. I was also unaware that Ed made any piggyback amps but anything is possible with Mosrite! When I say piggyback, I am refering to the controls being on the top of the amp, not just a seperate amp head. Thanks for your kind indulgence!

Mosriteforever!

[Strat-o-rama]

Jeff,
Have you had a chance to crank the Mosrite/Dumble head yet? I'm expecting it to sound kinda Vox-like (AC30). I don't know why, just sort of a gut feeling.