I had a gig last night, it was a medium venue around 500 people on a school gym, I use my Rumble 100 as stage monitor and ever since we started playing it sounded distorted, I was afraid it might be damaged but I tried it today at home with the exact same setting and it didn't sound distorted at all, could it be the venue power supply?
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Fender Rumble 100 distorts on stage but not elsewhere
- Thread starter Bassmanny11
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- distorted rumble 100
You sure you didn't crank it higher at the gig? You may have just maxed out the amp's headroom live.
I didn’t I thought at the beginning on that and lower the gain to around 10:00 am and volume at 3:00 pm y tried higher settings at home without distorting, I did used though a generic power supply instead of the original one on my pedal which is a EH battalion, thinking that may be causing the issue as well
How were you wired? That is did you get your signal from your bass and use the line out to send to the board or did you use a spliter or some other method. This could be the problem.
I use a EH battalion pre amp which has direct out, I connect the bass to the tuner then to the battalion from the battalion goes to the board and to the amp
Were you playing harder? Gyms have terrible acoustics and you might have been playing harder to accommodate all the background noise. Take into account how loud a 500 person audience can be in a big verb box. At work we have a very reverberant concert hall that seats 2000, and I’ve db metered the crowd at 105db when cheering.
IMO/IME a 100 watt amp is underpowered for loud environments and doesn’t leave you any headroom at all.
IMO/IME a 100 watt amp is underpowered for loud environments and doesn’t leave you any headroom at all.
That ^
It happens to near everyone when playing live, just to varying degrees. You've got adrenaline of performing and that excitement can translate into harder playing. I'm also surprised you were able to hear yourself at all using it at a gig that size.
It happens to near everyone when playing live, just to varying degrees. You've got adrenaline of performing and that excitement can translate into harder playing. I'm also surprised you were able to hear yourself at all using it at a gig that size.
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Most likely not enough rig for the gig, plus playing harder to hear yourself over the din...
Sounds like AWFUL acoustics, and in a space with that many open air cubic feet, the amp was likely running pretty hard. I would say almost with 100% surety that venue power supply has nothing to do with the phenomenon you are encountering. Even with the exact same setting and volume, you might be playing with enough energy to drive the amp into a place were something is rattling in or on the amp, whereas playing it at home with the same volume, and settings but NOT the same energy won't duplicate the phenomenon? Also... if you have an active bass, check your 9-volt battery/batteries. If any doubt there based on age or condition, simply replace them and eliminate that as a possibility- A 9-volt going dead in my experience WILL cause an amplifier to sound distorted. Then recheck the amp, and play it at both the same settings, AND playing energy. Check loose screw heads, or anything physically on the amp, including the (removable?) speaker grill, to see if anything loose could be causing the sympathetic vibrations.
500 ppl in a gym.
Way too much work for the amp to do, imo.
Way too much work for the amp to do, imo.
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All those things everyone else said.
Plus, also, could have been a sympathetic vibration nearby, or the stage itself rattling if it's a fold-out stage, or just the amp rattling against the stage. If the stage isn't perfectly level and all four corners of the amp aren't firmly planted on the stage floor, it'll rattle itself against the floor.
If it's the amp rattling against the stage, a scrap piece of carpet or foam underneath will fix it.
If it's a sympathetic rattling, you gotta find it, and prevent whatever it is from rattling.
Sometimes sympathetic vibrations just sound like rattling or buzzing in the room. Sometimes they sound like distortion or broken amp or blown speaker. Depends on what's vibrating into what. Can't tell you how many times i've had a mild panic attack thinking my amp or speaker somehow broke itself because sympathetic vibrations in my room sounded like broken amp/cab distortion, only to find it was that thing i put on my desk or shelf the other day.
But, that said, what everyone else said about digging in harder on the bass sounds very much like what's going on.
Plus, also, could have been a sympathetic vibration nearby, or the stage itself rattling if it's a fold-out stage, or just the amp rattling against the stage. If the stage isn't perfectly level and all four corners of the amp aren't firmly planted on the stage floor, it'll rattle itself against the floor.
If it's the amp rattling against the stage, a scrap piece of carpet or foam underneath will fix it.
If it's a sympathetic rattling, you gotta find it, and prevent whatever it is from rattling.
Sometimes sympathetic vibrations just sound like rattling or buzzing in the room. Sometimes they sound like distortion or broken amp or blown speaker. Depends on what's vibrating into what. Can't tell you how many times i've had a mild panic attack thinking my amp or speaker somehow broke itself because sympathetic vibrations in my room sounded like broken amp/cab distortion, only to find it was that thing i put on my desk or shelf the other day.
But, that said, what everyone else said about digging in harder on the bass sounds very much like what's going on.
So everyone is saying it’s not enough but you’re just using it for a monitor…. I really it was the power either. Probably just a bad cable or weird acoustics.
100W for a bass amp/combo is simply not enough, even for a large studio, imagine a venue with other instruments and the audience....
The MINIMUM, even for a monitor, I would say something between 180W-250W at least.
But that's only my opinion, YMMV.
The MINIMUM, even for a monitor, I would say something between 180W-250W at least.
But that's only my opinion, YMMV.
I have a Rumble 100 that I use for low volume practices, it is nowhere near enough for a monitor on a room that holds 500 people. You were playing harder than you think you were just to hear yourself.
Just an FYI - dropping the gain to 10 o'clock an running your master up to 3 o'clock makes the amp work harder and makes the signal noisier. You need to find the sweet spot on your gain with your bass. Unfortunately the Rumble amps don't have a set gain light or a gain clipping light, so you have to use your ears.
What you are trying to do is give the power section the strongest clean signal possible for it to amplify. If you send it too weak of a signal, it has to work too hard to bring it up to your expected level and the sound although not distorted, is not as clear as it can be. It doesn't have as high of a signal to noise ratio because running the power section hotter adds noise from the power section. Conversely if you run the gain to high, it delivers a distorted signal to the power section to amplify, and it is not a desirable distortion like your drive channel is. The sweet spot gives you the clearest, cleanest, and loudest sound from your amp. But since you don't have a gain set-light or gain clipping light, you're really going to have to use your ears to find it.
To find it, go ahead and start with your gain at about 9 o'clock and play a pattern that goes all the way from lows on the E string to highs on the G string. Be sure to include your loudest and lowest notes you'll normally play in a gig. Then turn it up to 10 o'clock and you'll already hear a difference. Continue playing the pattern and moving the gain up an hour as you go. You will make one of those moves, perhaps between noon and 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock, or wherever, and the sound really and suddenly comes alive. It is noticeably clearer and louder. That's when you've found the general area of your sweet spot. Now to refine that, move the gain control down 1/4 of an hour at a time until you hear that sound drop in both level and clarity - it will sound duller. Move it back up until you just hear that cleaner/clearer sound and WRITE IT DOWN! That's the sweet spot for that bass.
If you use a different bass, it may very well be in another spot, especially if you are switching from a passive bass to an active bass. With the battery-driven active electronics on an active bass, it typically sends a much hotter signal to the bass input, which is why most amps have a pad button - The Rumbles don't have that. A Pad button (or an "Active" input) will typically drop the signal from your bass down by 10db. Whereas an active bass in the normal input will send such a strong signal that you need to turn it down to 3 o'clock, you really don't get any granularity of adjustments from there. The tiniest adjustment will make a huge difference. So with a pad button used on a hot signal, it allows that gain-set sweet spot to be somewhere between about 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock with much more granularity of adjustment possible inside that range.
If you do use a second bass, either active or passive, find the sweet spot on the gain for that bass using your Rumble 100 and WRITE IT DOWN. A simple thing to do is write it on a note card and put the note card in your bass's case or gig bag. Be sure and include the brand and model of the bass the note card applies to so you don't have any confusion when you're gigging.
Also, besides the information I gave you above, be aware that you may just plain have too little rig for the gig, especially since it only puts out 100-watts and has just one 12" speaker. I would call your venue a large medium-sized room and would NOT expect that rig to handle it. Be aware that if you are running a DI out to a soundboard for FOH system, you're still going to need to be able to hear yourself. Setting that combo up on an amp stand or even a chair will help, but if you have a loud drummer and enthusiastic guitarists in the group, It will be rough to hear yourself. I've used 2x112 cab set ups for medium-sized venues just fine, but I was feeding them a LOT more power. Bad news is you can't add an extension cab to it.
Also, be aware of the distance from the stage to the back of the room. Long rooms eat your sound. I would expect a Rumble 500 to be good for that room, although without FOH reinforcement you would probably need a Rumble 210 extension cab so you end up with a 500-watt 410 solution. Another 100 occupancy would make it a large venue and 100 less would make it a "real" medium-sized venue (IMHO).
To give you some perspective on that, back in the early 70's I was touring for 3-years playing 5-nights a week, 50-weeks per year. I had a 1966 Fender Bassman blackface amp that I had bought new in 1966. It was a 50-watt rms, all-tube amp, and I'd used it through high school and some college with no problem at all being heard. Then about 2-months after I started touring with it in the Summer of 1971, our guitarist and our keys players both bought Vox Super Beatle amps (120-watts with 412 cabs). We were playing a large club (occupancy 900+) in Lincoln, Nebraska and they just buried me. Everybody was telling me to turn up. My amp couldn't handle it. If I turned it a hair over #7 on the dial it would fart out those standard Jensen speakers. Just not a worse feeling than when everyone tells you to turn up and you're already maxed out. Your situation sounds very similar to what I ran into. I don't think your Rumble 100 is up to the task.
Next day I went into a local music store and came back with an $1100 Standel piggy-back amp ($8,563.73 in 2024 USD). It was only 200-watts, which is not a lot now but was a LOT back then. That was the same power as the acoustic 360/361 which also had a 200-watt powered cab. The speakers were perfectly matched to the amp and I could turn it all the way up and hit my low E without getting any distortion out of it, while shaking everything off the walls. That night I found out I could not turn it up above #3 in that large club in Lincoln. I never again had "not enough rig for the gig".
Currently I can get that same level of sound at wide open Music Festivals using my Eden WT500/800 bridged at 800-watts into my 8Ω DNS-410 cab (handles 1400-watts rms). It's a lot more power and it sounds a lot better because those custom speakers are FAR better than anything available back in the 70's.
I have a number of rigs I use though depending on the size of the venues. For small venues I use a single Eden EX-112 driven by a 225-watt Eden TN226 class D amp. That's twice as much power as your Rumble 100 and I only use it for small venues. I have used two of them powered by a much bigger amp for medium-sized venues and that would also handle smaller Large-sized venues. I now use my 8Ω DNS-210 for medium and large venues driven by 400-watts from my DNA-800 amp.
If you decide to upgrade...don't go half way because you'll just need to sell that amp and buy a better one in a year or two. If you are going to stick with the Rumble series, go right to the Rumble 500. It is a 210 cab powered by a 500-watt class D amp that will put out 350-watts into its internal speakers and a total of 500-watts (250-watts each cab) when you add a Rumble 210 extension cab. That combo by itself is fine for small to medium-sized venues. Large and outdoor venues are going to need the additional speaker cab and that 500-watt x 410 rig will be enough "rig for the gig" just about anywhere. If you expect to continue gigging, I would highly recommend you get at least a 500-watt (better yet 800-watt) amp with either a 410 cab, or get 2x210 so you don't have to lug a 410 to venues where the 210 will do.
