JHS finds NOTADÜMBLË clean side used wrong circuit, issues Fumble

May 1, 2025 · 1 sources

JHS Pedals has released the Fumble, a $89.00 USD true bypass JFET clean boost, after discovering that the clean side of its NOTADÜMBLË pedal used the wrong circuit. The company says it found the error a week after the NOTADÜMBLË launched in May 2025, while planning a Short Circuit episode about the pedal.

According to JHS, the NOTADÜMBLË's clean side was meant to be a reverse engineered copy of the "A Box Later," a buffered effects loop device the company says Howard Dumble built sometime in the 1980s. Instead, JHS says it used a different Dumble preamp box it had also reverse engineered in 2019 for John Mayer, the BBC-1. JHS says it sold through the remaining inventory, discontinued the NOTADÜMBLË V1 after its batch of 15,000 sold out, and refunded anyone who asked to return their unit.

The Fumble has two controls: Output, which JHS describes as master volume, and Input, which the company says is not a standard gain knob but attenuates bass and input gain at the front of the circuit at the same time. JHS says the pedal is a production version of the BBC-1 circuit, and that while researching the original unit it concluded the BBC-1 is a JFET preamp lifted almost part for part from a Barcus Berry acoustic preamp made in the 1970s.

JHS also lists a NOTADÜMBLË V2, which it says updates the V1 with the proper Box It Later clean section and the overdrive channel in a single solderless DIY kit with two footswitches, an order toggle, and an added effects loop.