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Fender Rumble 100: problem

S

superbadj

Jun 28, 2008
8
0
#1
I'm a guitar player, and quite new to basses, so forgive me if this has been covered.

but...

Just bought a nice Precision Special in flat-black, and a used Fender Rumble 100. I play with some buddies for fun, and we needed a bass (we'll sorta trade off at it).

Anyway, I tested the rumble 100 at the house where I bought it, and it seemed OK. but now that I'm home, I notice that it seems there's a weird buzz coming from it when I hit ANY note, even very, very lightly. The thing shakes the walls of my small music room, so I don't think the main speaker is blown. Might that piezo horn be blown? Can I just disconnect it (I won't be doing slap bass, just a nice low-end, classic Stax sound).

Anyone else have this problem? I thought I got a good deal on the thing, but hopefully it's not screwed up too badly.

:(

Help...
 
#2
FYI, here's the bass I bought. $275 used, included a really nice, mint hardshell case (that's worth $100 right there, easily). Pretty good deal, methinks.
 

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#7
My son plays through a Rumble 100 and he has had no problems at all. Good Fender sound. I'm not crazy about the ground effects (lighting) but he thinks that part is cool.

We did have to tweak it a bit, since there are a lot of features and controls on this particular combo. Maybe you could adjust something to keep a good sound while eliminating this buzz.
 
#8
It could be possible that the buzz is coming from elsewhere in the room. When I first got my 77 B-15N, I drove myself crazy trying to find a buzz in it, only to find that the buzz was coming from the sliding doors in the closet of my studio ;) So try it in a different environment before you conclude that it's the amp.
 
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#10
i have afender rumble 100 also. its about a year old now and i too have the same problem. i have an ibanez gsr200 and they sound good together but i also hear that annoying buzz.

i always thought it was my bass that caused the buzzing but i guess not. haha

but i sort of fixed the problem buy purchasing a compressor/limiter/noise gate. it helps i recommend you buy the alesis 3630. its 100 dollars at guitar center. =] hope that helps. sort of new to this site.
 
#12
That would be my first suggestion - I've had my Rumble 100 for a few years now, nary a problem... though come to think of it, I don't care for the ground effects, but I guess I stopped noticing it.

Anyway, that buzz could be anything loose rubbing the speaker, the tweeter, or perhaps your bass. I would definitely see if I could plug something else in it to make some low-end and see if it's still there.

Also, you could plug in the headphones and see if you're getting the noise there - if you are, it's the pre side, and if you're not, it's not, know what I mean?
 
#13
I had a fender rumble 100 bought it new about 5 years ago. Within 2-3 months it had broke already. I was at band practice turned it off for a waterbreak came back turned it on 10 minutes later and it just buzzed no sound from the bass just a constant buzz. I took it to an authorized fender repair shop and after about 6 long months (they said it would take 1 at the most but fender kept putting it off sending a new one) they got a new one and gave it to me. It worked perfectly up until the time I sold it. I never really knew what was wrong with it but it was fixed and worked for me
 
#14
Ok.....it turned out to be a busted amp, and Fender is replacing it under warranty.

I'm GLAD it's a transferrable warranty, because I bought this thing used.

Apparently, the Rumbles have had loads of problems. THe local shop said that they have to return somewhere in the neighborhood of 15% to 20% of all the rumbles they sell.

Crazy!

Anyway, hopefully the replacement will be a good one.
 
#16
I just picked up a new Fender Rumble 100. I had played them before and always loved them. I saw one at the store recently. I knew I wanted one so I went ahead and bought it. I didn't even try it at the store. I knew I liked them.

Anyway, I took it home and tried it out the next day and just like you described there was a buzzing/fluttering noise. I got up close to the speaker and I noticed that the noise was coming out of the tweeter. I tried various settings but I was still getting noise and clicking out of the tweeter. It's going back for a replacement.

The sound coming out of the 15" speaker was pure sweetness but that tweeter noise ruined it all.
 
#17
I bought one from a guy I that auditioned me for his band a few months ago, (got the gig but band folded real quick). He bought it so bassist wouldn't have to bring a rig to his house. He sold it to me on the spot very cheap, it was only a couple months old then, I just cut him a check. I never even knew about the warranty. That's good to know. But do ya need a reciept to show em?

Heck I used this amp at a weekly, outdoor Sunday afternoon, biker bar gig, no Pa support, 5 string bass, with a 3 pc alt country band, it worked fine. Of course whenever the biker dudes came and left they'd drown the hell outta this little amp, lol.

Its now kept under my PC station as a practice amp. I love to run a Y-cable from Fender to my PC then use my headphones to practice along with CD's, YouTube vids, etc, late at nite, works great for that. No issues yet and I used to throw this in back of my SUV for those Sunday gigs and rolled it along cracked sidewalks, then bang away at it. Its hangin in there. :cool:
 
#18
there was a thread not too long ago about somebody's mains power playing with the magnetic field... it might just be in your practice space that it's a bit odd.

alternatively, before you do anything to it, get in touch with fender. see what they have to say. they're generally very good with tech support!
 
#19
I had bad experiences with Rumble amps. Went through two of their practice amps in very little time just practicing at low volume levels. It sounded like the pre-amps were shot or something, maybe the speaker, but they fried pretty easily. Buzzy noises, losing volume...
After the second one blew I demanded a store credit and bought the Behringer BX300 (30w, 10") which not only sounds WAY better, I was able to buy 2 sets of strings (along with the amp) for the credited amount. That was almost 3 years ago and the Behringer still rocks. I even did a long, failry loud jam with it and it held up nicely (although I had to EQ the heck out of it).
As far as the inexpensive 15" combos are concerned, IMO you're better off with the Acoustic B100, B200, or the Carvin BR15.
 

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