The Fumble is a faithful production version of the other circuit Josh Scott cloned for John Mayer: the Dumble BBC-1. Once the NOTADÜMBLË V1 was discontinued, customers started telling JHS how much they loved that circuit and how they wished it was sold separately. The Fumble is that exact circuit, now in its own compact enclosure with its own self-deprecating name, an $89 price point, and no kit to build.

Here is where the story gets stranger than fiction. While digging back through the original Dumble unit's history, JHS realized the BBC-1 isn't really a Dumble circuit at all. It's a JFET preamp lifted almost part for part from a Barcus Berry acoustic preamp made in the 1970s — the kind of small utility box that bridged piezo pickups into electric guitar amps in an era when nobody had a modern acoustic preamp. Howard cloned it, put it in his own enclosure for a handful of local LA players, then used the same JFET stage inside his amplifiers and called it the FET mode.

Which means the legendary Dumble FET sound — the one inside $200,000 to $400,000 amps — is a clone of a 1970s piezo preamp.

The Fumble is a clone of that clone of that clone. Three generations deep into one of the strangest chains of events in pedal history.

WHAT IT DOES

The Fumble has two knobs, true bypass switching, and creates a particularly enhanced clean tone.

OUTPUT is the master volume. Turn it up for more volume.

INPUT is the control that surprises people. It is not a standard gain knob. It attenuates bass and input gain at the front of the circuit simultaneously. Fully right has no cut — consider it a bypass of the control. As the knob is turned to the left, bass and gain are gradually attenuated. Roll it down for a thinner, tighter response. Roll it up for a fuller, louder one. There is almost nothing else on the market that boosts in this way.

Use the Fumble four ways:

1. As a permanent buffer and clean boost at the front of a board. Set the output low and dial the input to taste. It tightens up everything downstream and gives players a sweetener they stop noticing because they never want to turn it off.
2. To slam the front of overdrives. This is the secret most players miss. Players default to stacking gain after gain after gain. Putting a clean JFET boost like this before a Timmy, a King of Tone, a Klon, or a Morning Glory — that's often the better second stage players have been hunting for without realizing it.
3. To slam the front of a dirty amp. Tweed, Plexi, anything broken up. The Fumble makes it bigger and more articulate. Roll the input back for a tighter, treble-forward attack into a cranked amp.
4. As a solo boost at the end of the chain. Crank the output, set the input where it feels best, hit it for the chorus or the solo. Done.