The Tanabe Dumkudo is a Dumble-style overdrive pedal built by Toshihiko Tanabe in Japan. It is voiced to work best with single-coil pickups: Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio calls it "a versatile overdrive voiced to work best with single-coil pickups," and Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson puts it more bluntly: "Dumkudo is the one for Single Coils"12. It sits alongside Tanabe's Zenkudo, a related Dumble drive aimed at humbuckers; Karlsson notes the Dumkudo "is generally much more available out there in the wild than the Zenkudo variety"2.
Controls and modes
The pedal carries four knobs and a three-position mode switch. MusicRadar's 2010 review described it as having "four knobs and three operational modes"3, and Delicious Audio lists the controls as "Gain, Volume, Tone and Jali (high EQ)"1.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Gain | Sets the amount of overdrive1 |
| Volume | Sets output level1 |
| Tone | Premier Guitar's reviewer found it "seems to roll off bass as much as it boosts treble"4 |
| Jali | High EQ1 |
| Mode switch (side) | Selects Red, Blue or Green voicing1 |
The three modes give the pedal distinctly different characters. In Delicious Audio's summary, "Red (Marshall mode) is of course the hottest output and highest gain; Blue is more of a round, original Dumkudo sound," while Green is the Dumble-style voicing the pedal is named for1. That makes the Green setting the one to reach for when chasing the smooth, compressed lead character associated with Dumble amplifiers, with Red and Blue covering hotter and rounder overdrive territory.
Where it came from and how it is regarded
The Dumkudo is generally much more available out there in the wild than the Zenkudo variety2. It has since become a regular name in D-style pedal conversations: it was one of seven D-style overdrive pedals compared on That Pedal Show in a December 2015 episode5. The Dumkudo used in that episode was loaned by Jason Sidwell of Guitar Techniques5.
Tanabe has since built on the same circuit family: the Santanabe Drive is a Zenkudo-derived overdrive aimed at Carlos Santana-style lead tones2.
Videos
Mike Hermans
La Chaîne Guitare
The Guitar Show
Questions
What is the Tanabe Dumkudo?
It is a Dumble-style overdrive pedal built by Toshihiko Tanabe in Japan. Delicious Audio describes it as a versatile overdrive voiced to work best with single-coil pickups, and it is the single-coil-focused counterpart to Tanabe's humbucker-oriented Zenkudo.
What do the three modes on the Dumkudo do?
A side switch selects between three voicings. Red is the Marshall mode, with the hottest output and highest gain. Blue is a rounder version of the original Dumkudo sound. Green is the Dumble-style voicing, which is the mode the pedal is best known for.
Sources (5)
- Best Dumble-Style Pedals For Your Needs & Budget, Delicious Audio, 2024-09-25
- Guitar Pedal X, Guitar Pedal X, 2024-03-26
- Dumkudo pedal, MusicRadar, 2010-02-18
- Toshihiko Tanabe Dumkudo Overdrive Pedal Review, Premier Guitar, 2010-12-21
- Are You Dumble? Seven of the best D-style pedals. And a Boss BD-2, That Pedal Show, 2015-12-18
