Joe Bonamassa has demoed Lowell George’s prized Dumble amplifier, 45 years after it was last played.
Last month Joe Bonamassa ended a 15-year quest when he welcomed Lowell George’s Dumble Overdrive Special Reverb, complete with matching cab, to his home-cum-gear-museum, Nerdville.
He’s now linked up with his ‘Uncle’ Norm Harris to demo the amp – which hasn’t been played since the night before the legendary slide guitarist passed away – over on the Normans Rare Guitars YouTube channel.
A somewhat overlooked talent who counted Eric Clapton and Eddie Van Halen as fans, the Little Feat guitarist had a well-documented working relationship with Howard Alexander Dumble.
In a 1977 interview with Guitar Player, George had called the custom Dumble he was using at the time, “the best amp I’ve ever played through”.
As Bonamassa explains in the video, the amp was last played by George at the Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC on June 28, 1979. A day later, the guitarist tragically died and it hasn’t been used since.
That led to Norman introducing the amp head as a “royal piece of history,” with Bonamassa adding: “You don’t get many opportunities to own your guitar hero’s amp, let alone the one and only.”
“You don’t get many opportunities to own your guitar hero’s amp, let alone the one and only…” Joe Bonamassa puts Lowell George’s Dumble amp through its paces – 45 years after it was last played publicly
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