Overdrive and amp fanatics are surely familiar with the unattainable Dumble amps (the Overdrive Special model, in particular), the most expensive guitar amplifiers on earth, hand-built and customized on order for stars of the caliber of Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Mayer.
There’s a not-too-small niche of pedal builders dedicated to attempting to recreate the “D-Style” magic, and the Universal Audio UAFX Enigmatic 82 is a noteworthy new entry in this group.
Although, unlike all Dumble-inspired pedals currently on the market this unit is digital rather than analog, it brings a lot of features found in the UAFX series that you won’t find in any other stompbox of this kind, such as multiple mic/cab sims (3 + 6 via the app), presets, an editing app (compatible with both iOS and Android), stereo in/out and USB/Bluetooth connectivity.
However, those familiar with Universal Audio’s history of modeling legendary analog gear will not be too concerned about the digital nature of this circuit: the Enigma 82 captures the tone of a Dumble Overdrive Special amp while providing the most common features found in the original, such as the 3-band EQ, Bright and Presence knob, the Ratio control, and the unmissable Rock/Jazz voice switch – integrated with en extra Custom option, which lets the player mix and match different elements of different variants of the Dumble circuit.
The stereo output can also be used in 4-cable mode, bypassing your amplifier’s preamp when the pedal is on.
