Double Bass Best 100wt Bass Amp?

[Joe Tully]

Any opinions on the Fender Rumbler 100wt?

 

[nogbert]

all the (newer) fender rumble amps are surprisingly good and lighter than expected. for the money theyre hard to beat tbh. they also work well with high impedance pickups e.g. piezos. I dont know off hand what their input impedance is, but i can run my realist lifeline direct into one and it sounds great.

I've only played with the 500W combo, so I don't know what kind of volume the 100W puts out, but it should be good for small to medium rooms with no/a quiet drummer i would think. YMMV

 

[Matt Ides]

I have not played the rumble but you might want an amp with a bit more watts so you have some headroom depending on what playing situations you are in.

 

[Joe Tully]

I have not played the rumble but you might want an amp with a bit more watts so you have some headroom depending on what playing situations you are in.

I have a K&K preamp which seems to make a noticeable difference with my old 75wt Peavy. How big a venue for over 100wt are we talkin'?

 

[Jim Dedrick]

Depending on what you want to do with it, 100 watts might be a little light. I’ve got a rumble 100 and it is fine for small rooms and no drummer combos. The DI out is nice to have. To me it really is an EB amp and can work for DB. A few years ago I bought an AI Clarus and the fender has not left the house since.

 

[Treblefree]

I had this amp. I guess technically I still do. I left it at a church I used to play at for a little while since they didn't have any backline and I got tired of lugging it back and forth each week. I guess by default I consider it donated to them now.

In any case, it was a very good amp for the money. It could the play the gym where the contempory services were held no problem even with my brother on drums who really hits hard and a guitarist playing a large all tube Orange half stack. Of course we weren't trying to pound the room and were all run through FOH as well, but it could get loud enough to hang in that situation and I don't remember turning up past 5 ever. It's tone is good for the money, but I eventually bought a Zoom B3 to get some better tones that I liked more. It is a very standard Fender tone much like an old BXR 400 I used to have 2 of. I prefer Ampeg, so that's where I eventually went with replacement chasing that tube tone that I really love.

 

[Joe Tully]

Will I be good to go with a 100wt Ampeg?

 

[Inky13]

I know it’s more watts than you posted, but I’ve had good results with a Rumble 500H into one or two 1x12. If I were to get a combo, I’d get the 200.

 

[Ric Vice]

We used to gig with much less amplifier power. As an example my B-15N is a 25 watt RMS Amplifier. Standard amplifier power these days is @500 watts rms, I tried using smaller amplifiers and was

disappointed in the sound. With Double Bass only you can get away with a bit less.

 

[Joe Tully]

Where do you gig - Madison Square Garden? 500wt seems like an huge amount. Typically how far up do you turn the volume?

 

[Ric Vice]

Pre Covid, I did mostly casuals, assisted living, small theaters, and clubs. I just don't feel today's 100 watt amplifiers have enough headroom into todays cabinets. Other's I'm sure feel differently.

I tried the TC Electronics BAM 200 with a small cabinet. It was fine, but just underpowered at 136 watts into a 8 ohm speaker cabinet. Drummer less gigs of course take less. Just my take. When I was

a kid I played lots of Ramada and Holiday inns with a B-15N. These days my gigs are outside which are more comfortable with a little bigger amplifier.

I've usually got the Channel volume some where between 4-6 with the master volume around 7.

 

[BarfanyShart]

I feel like everyone likes the 500 best, and it is kind of the best deal going. I've always liked Fender solid state amps for DB, even if they aren't the most DB thing, I gigged with a Bassman 100 for years.

This suggestion may be off the wall and it's a real rabbit hole, so take it with a grain of salt, but the Rumble Studio 40/Stage 800 modeling amps have an Acoustisonic model that is really wonderful for piezos, and acoustic sim settings that do a good job of making your DB or EUB sound like a different kind of DB.

 

[Joe Tully]

I feel like everyone likes the 500 best, and it is kind of the best deal going. I've always liked Fender solid state amps for DB, even if they aren't the most DB thing, I gigged with a Bassman 100 for years.

This suggestion may be off the wall and it's a real rabbit hole, so take it with a grain of salt, but the Rumble Studio 40/Stage 800 modeling amps have an Acoustisonic model that is really wonderful for piezos, and acoustic sim settings that do a good job of making your DB or EUB sound like a different kind of DB.

Thank you Bethany Short

 

[AGCurry]

The wattage of an amp is not the best indicator of how loud it will get. My 200-watt Traynor SB112 isn't noticeably louder than my Ampeg B-15N (30 watts) ... but it's about 60 pounds lighter!

The amplifiers of the new millenium put out a lot of watts, but they aren't significantly louder than old amps that make substantially fewer watts. We have smaller, lighter amps, thank goodness, and the higher power output makes up for smaller and lighter as well as providing headroom. If you want more volume, the most effective approach is more speaker and/or more efficient speakers.

 

[Matt Ides]

For the record my current set up is BAM 200 with crazy 8. Nice rig, light, and never need to really use the ext. cab for DB. Loved the GB Shuttle 3.0 for BG and DB but those are few and far between since they don't make them anymore. I am also in the camp of smaller cabs for DB.

 

[Ric Vice]

The wattage of an amp is not the best indicator of how loud it will get. My 200-watt Traynor SB112 isn't noticeably louder than my Ampeg B-15N (30 watts) ... but it's about 60 pounds lighter!

The amplifiers of the new millenium put out a lot of watts, but they aren't significantly louder than old amps that make substantially fewer watts. We have smaller, lighter amps, thank goodness, and the higher power output makes up for smaller and lighter as well as providing headroom. If you want more volume, the most effective approach is more speaker and/or more efficient speakers.

I’m really glad you pointed this out Andy. Watts are much less expensive now and amplifiers weigh considerably less, but something was lost along the way.

 

[Joe Tully]

I think where I'm confused: I am assuming that equipment is more efficient than it used to be and that would translate to more sound per watt than before. Maybe it has to do with ohms and resistance and try not to confuse me futher with the facts... Did I mention I'm using a preamp?

 

[two fingers]

Where do you gig - Madison Square Garden? 500wt seems like an huge amount. Typically how far up do you turn the volume?

You are too closely tied to the old school thinking of "watts = volume".

In a sense, all other aspects of a rig being equal, sure, more watts will get you more volume..... but not by much. 200W will NOT get you twice the volume of 100W with all other aspects of the rig being equal. It doesn't work that way.

What's my point?

Forget watts. That one number alone should have little to nothing to do with your choice of amp.

Choose an amp that has the features and tone you like (based on reviews and YouTube, etc.), and ENOUGH wattage to get the job done.. or more.

I play in a really good "dad band". We play local clubs. On occasion I do fill-in gigs on larger stages. I have an 800W amp. But I have also done plenty of gigs on the same stages with a 30W Ashdown LB30 and an Epifani UL410 cab. It gets plenty loud. Plenty.

So watta mean squat, to a certain extent. Relax when it comes to watts. If you find a 500W amp with the features you like within your budget, get it and only turn up the volume high enough for your gig.

 

[AgostoMortal]

The rumbles are surprisingly good for DB and are what I would call "loud" for the wattage in the label. input impedance is good for any piezo (like FC). The 40 can be used for small jazz gigs in trio & quartet configuration almost everywhere and has an XLR output.

 

[TroyK]

I have 300W and 500W amps. It would be unusual to really push them on a jazz gig, but I'm never sorry that I have the headroom.

I gigged for years with a GK MB head (150W) I think. And had a few in the 200w range. They work fine for a lot of stuff, but in a bar with room noise and a heavy handed drummer, I had some rough nights. It's not so much that they can't do it, as it is that the quality of the sound degradates and maybe more importantly for me, I have trouble hearing myself. The sound makes it to the back of the room, but we have trouble hearing it on the bandstand. If you have monitors, maybe that covers it, but I don't reliably have monitors where I play.

I've played similar rooms with no amp and in some ways, I prefer that to struggling to hear the amp or keeping the tone clean, but that's always a tough night too.

Then again, there were a lot of gigs those years that low wattage amps were just fine. It's not impossible to have bad sound nights with really great amps with lots of headroom, but it happens a lot less often with better tools.