Just bought a Fender Rumble 500 V3 from Guitar Center for $450. I guess we'll see if it meets my needs. Thanks to EVERYONE who responded to this thread and put their two cents in. Information is something we can never get enough of!
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Entry into the bass amp world
- Thread starter Nic Olas
- Start date
So, within your budget, for the duties you need it to do (carry FOH & stage bass, and even do outdoor gigs), the one saving grace that would find you a rig for the job for the price would be to go used and heavy. The older heavy amps and cabs sell for pretty cheap bc everyone wants lighter stuff.
If you can’t do heavy, no worries - that just limits you a bit, but the Rumble 500 would be the next best bet.
For indoor gigs - well, depends the style of music and how loud the band plays - but you’ll probably want something like a 2x12 or 4x10 cab with 300 watts or so (expandable to 500 watts with a second cab).
Alternatively, look around for an Eden Nemesis rig. They were made as combos or separate amp/cab, and were surprisingly not heavy - using a special construction for the cab. I used a 2x10 Nemesis combo for years, pairing it with a matching 2x12 cab or daisy chaining to a second Nemesis 410 combo for outdoor gigs. A pair of these amps should run you under $600 - but they’re going on 30 years old now, and you gotta find one that is 100% functional and well kept.
I too would suggest used Genz-Benz gear.
Yeah Fender bought and killed GB
But the individual humans who actually built them are still around, supporting their work.
Plus a head+cab leaves you open for extension cabs and future improvement
EDIT Oops looks like you went Fender Rumble
I wonder sometimes if that's what fender did with the Genz- Benz tech they bought.
Congrats! Looking forward to hearing your initial thoughts and your thoughts after having an opportunity to play it at a gig.
I've got the Acoustic B410C cab and it got pretty farty (and blew its tweeter) on outdoor gigs with my Ampeg PF-500. I ended up replacing the crappy 100w drivers and disconnecting the tweeter, so my $200 cab investment at the time turned into $600. Great cab now, BTW. Works great outdoors.
CONGRATS ON THE FENDER RUMBLE 500. It's strong, it's compact, it'll get the heavy lifting done without the heavy lifting. I've used these a couple times as provided-backline with some hard hitting drummers and they had plenty of vital headroom on tap. And for your stated styles of bass playing, the "vintage" setting sounds and feels awesome.
Good luck with the bass pursuits, BTW. I'm a decent pro-level guitarist currently doing one token guitar gig a week, and vastly preferring my 2-3 weekly bass gigs. I like hanging out in the engine room & locking in with a good drummer.
A used GK MB210-II combo would be a decent way to go. I have one that I gigged 2 and 3 nights for a year. And I did it without an extension cab (350 watts @ 8ohms through it's two internal 10s). There were times I was pushing it hard and started to feel like I was running out of gas, but not many. And adding another 8ohm 210 extension cab into the equation would have gotten me 500 watts @ 4ohms as well as doubling the amount of air getting pushed, 4 speakers vs 2. And the combo only ways 37 lbs, plus you can always add a used CX 210 or CX 115 cab later.
The only problem I see, is finding a used one at a decent price. I paid 650 for mine brand new in 2018, they currently go for 1100 new.
Outside of utilizing GC's return policy, this may perhaps be too late, but I would also recommend buying used. I recently scored a used GK MB212-II combo amp under $500 from GC that sounds great and is louder than I'll need. I haven't seen too many of them used and I may have just gotten lucky but it's a huge savings from a new unit.
The guitar player in a band that I used to be a member of had one of these at this house that I used for rehearsals. It was enough for a living room, but not for gigging.
that is a good option, it should serve you well and if you need more, you can always add a second cab. I was about to chime in and steer you away from the "beef up your pa and plug in there" option. In my experience, this only works well if the whole band is going threough the pa. Subs dont help alot, they are not full-range and again in my experience, can often hurt more than help sometimes by just muddying things up.
Normal indoors or intimate outdoor setting, I don't use Subs or put my bass in the mix (so my bass rig provides the lower frequencies making the subs not missed.
Only on larger outdoor gigs (like car shows where everyone is waaaay out there around the cars) do I add Subs and put bass in the mix.
Last edited:
So, the Fender Rumble 500 I ordered showed up today. Plugged it in and it's fat sounding. Plenty loud for the places I play. I like that it has direct out as well as an ext. speaker connection. Gives me options if I need them. I will need to sit down and really dial in my sound, but just ballparking it it sounds really good. I cannot get over how light it is!!!! That is a HUGE bonus! Thanks to all who recommended this one, I'm happy with it!
