I am fairly new to bass playing, better yet playing in general. I got a Fender Rumbler 100 couple months ago and used it with my beginners fender bass (passive pickups). Last week i bought an ESP B205 with SB-5 pickups. I plugged it into my rumbler 100 and the amp started smoking. Call tech support and they told me there is a switch to use that amp with active pickups. But dont see it. I have it on one of my older prometheus amps but not the rumbler. PLEASE HELP. Can i use the ESP B205 with my rumbler 100 amp?
The LTD B-205SM has passive pickups, it should be fine. myth busting - just because your bass has a battery, doesn't mean the pickups are active Something is wrong with the amp, which I doubt very much has to do with the pickups in the LTD. If you need more proof that the pickups are indeed passive: B-205SM {}
There are different versions of the Rumble 100. The older v1 and v2 did indeed have a switch to select between active and passive instruments, while v3 does not. Yours is a v3. I don't know why technical support didn't take this into account, but they didn't do right by you. Smoke should never emanate from an amplifier, regardless what bass is plugged in. If you've only had it a few months, return it for replacement or repair. Don't think for a moment that your 5-string is to blame and don't let the service guys jerk you around.
The amp worked fine though for several weeks with my older bass. I only had problems when i plug in the new ESP bass that i just purchased. It actually fried an older amp i have before i could unplug it.
If this has happened twice with the same bass, return the bass. It sounds like there's a short on its output.
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