Mark Tremonti has revealed how Paul Reed Smith gave him the “Dumble itch”, and has reflected on his favorite memories of Eddie Van Halen, having been given the rare opportunity to write and record in the hallowed halls of 5150 Studios.
The Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist has long since been one of PRS Guitars' poster boys, and his connection with the luthier helped kickstart his Dumble obsession. Today, although he daren’t take one of his prestigious Dumble amps on the road with him, he's revealed how their spirit lives on in his Creed live rig, having worked with PRS on a Dumble-inspired signature head, the MT 100. But there was a point that Howard “Alexander” Dumble’s tube amps were solely the stuff of legend.
“Paul [Reed Smith] was the first person who let me play a Dumble amplifier,” he says, in conversation with American Musical Supply. “We were at a PRS event. He had all of his endorsees there; there were probably 10 of us, and he had all these amps on stage.
“He's like, ‘All right, guys, everybody get up. We're going to sound check.’ So, I ran up on stage and I saw a Dumble that I plugged right into,” Tremonti continues. “I had to hear it.
“I absolutely loved it,” he goes on. “So, from that day on, I was obsessed with getting that tone because Paul ended up giving that amp to a friend of his, and so I could never get it again. It was a 50-watt version.
“Since then, I've bought another Dumble from Paul that I think is the best Dumble I've ever heard.” However, he feels that some of the amps that PRS is currently building have a chance of usurping that cherished tube amp.
“Paul's dabbling more and more and more into amplifiers, and he's getting very, very sophisticated at it,” Tremonti reveals.
The firm had been in business for nearly a quarter of a century when, in 2009, it launched its first amps after Smith met boutique amp designer Doug Sewell at the Dallas Guitar Show. The Sonzera 20 & 50 combo amps were the first to hit the shelves, and plenty have followed since.
“Some of the stuff that he's turning out now is blowing my mind,” the guitarist adds. “Some haven't been released, but when they do come out, people are going to be slack-jawed. It's really great stuff.”
Tremonti, Myles Kennedy, and the rest of Alter Bridge are fresh out of the studio, having finished recording their eighth album. Key writing sessions and drum recording happened in Eddie Van Halen’s custom-built 5150 Studios, where previously, only Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen’s band, Mammoth, have tracked.
“That's one of the biggest honors you could ever ask for,” he beams. “We were the first band outside of somebody with the last name Van Halen to be able to do that in that studio. We only tracked drums there, I tracked guitars at home in Orlando, but we got to put the arrangements together [at 5150].”
The band spent a month in the studio. Every Van Halen record from “1984” was committed to tape in those four walls, and Tremonti often found himself daydreaming.
“Being able to just walk around and see the memorabilia and where it all happened, see the tiny little vocal booth where Roth did his vocals… Obviously they don't have the Frankenstein [Strat] and stuff lying around, but you'll see little things like the 5150 necklace from the cover.
“It's just amazing to be in that room, that space where all that magic happened, and hearing the stories about it. It’s a crazy honor.”
He’s also come away from those sessions with a little memento, courtesy of his longtime friend, Wolfgagn Van Halen.
“One of the amps I have on stage now [the 50-watt EVH 5153] was [from 5150 Studios]. I said I loved it, and Wolfie gave it to me.”
Tremonti has previously recalled how, when Creed supported Van Halen in the late ‘90s, Eddie had battled through a crowd of fans to give him a guitar, and has also spoken about the pressure of playing shows with the virtuoso watching on.
“He came to an Alter Bridge show in LA when Wolfgang was filling in on drums,” he tells Loudwire. “You'll play a show and see him there, smiling, looking down. It was hard to shake the nerves, but it felt good for him to be there.
“We went to see them [Van Halen] practice at 5150 Studios, and they were playing the new album [2012's 'A Different Kind of Truth']. They finished a song and I was like, ‘Wolfie, that was a killer song, I loved when you did all the chordy stuff,’ and Eddie was like, ‘Were...were my parts good?’ You're Eddie Van Halen, your parts are always good! But he was always pushing to be the best he could be.”
Speaking to Guitar Player earlier this year, the guitarist has also revealed his strange-but-effective tip for writing unique solos, and it’s easier to pull off than you might think.
