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Fender Rumble 500 vs. Fender Stage 800

ClassicJazz

ClassicJazz

Bottom Feeders Unite!!
Supporting Member
Sep 19, 2005
4,765
9,833
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Delray Beach, Florida
#1
So I have been using my Rumble 500 now for many years and countless number of gigs. It is certainly a workhorse, never had one issue. And with the matching 2x10 cabinet it is a monster bass rig! Punchy, warm and just sounds damn good. So right before Covid hit I had my eye on the Stage 800, figured having that extra power would be a good thing and as a bonus, all those built-in effects and amp modelers. So bought one. Unfortunately right after I got it.....lost all my gigs so never had a chance to really put it through it's paces.

Well now that I am gigging regularly now, I have had a chance to see what this amp can do and how it compares to the Rumble 500. So here are my thoughts.

First and foremost, you really need to take time to learn the Stage 800 and all that it can do. It is amazing the features they packed into this bass combo and versatility when creating sound patches/programs. There are probably almost an infinite amount of sounds you can get between all the built-in effects, amp and cabinet models. Compared to the Rumble 500 which is pretty much as simple as you can get bass combo.

So I started with very simple sound patches, the first emulating the Rumble 500 (why not since I love how it sounds!). Then I built up from there. Creating patches that have compression, chorus, envelope filters, etc. Did take a bit to learn how to use the foot pedal, not the most intuitive in my opinion. But I really like the Fender app, I can create and tweak programs from my iPhone. That is really cool. Allows me to get in front of the stage and tweak the tones. So feature wise, the Stage 800 is a big winner! But that is about all the good things I can say.......

Sound wise the Stage 800 is very disappointing. Bottom line, it is TOOO digital sounding and everything sounds way too processed. As I mentioned the first program I made was to emulate the Rumble 500. This should be easy, same speakers in both. The cabinet is the same and I assume the power section in the amp is of the same design. But wasn't even close...

When A-B with the Rumble 500, the 500 was the clear winner. It just sounded that much better then the 800. The 500 just had a much more warmer, unprocessed tone which is much more suitable for bass.

My pedal board which is just a Boss OC-2 Octave, VSN Chorus and a TC Electronic Spectra Comp. I was not able to come up with a patch that sounded anywhere as good. Again main issue, everything sounded just too processed. I spent hours working on these patches with same result.

And the final straw, even my band asked me to go back to using the Rumble 500. They even heard a difference.

So the clear winner here is......The Rumble 500.

A valiant effort by Fender by packing so many features into an amp at that price point. But they definitely lost something in the process. Whenever you start piling all sorts of digital processing on a bass, it just sucks the warmth out of it.

I actually just got the Rumble 800HD head. I am curious how that will sound using the Rumble 2x10 extension cabinet.

So the basses I used while A-B the Rumble 500 and Stage 800 were either my Fodera Emperor five string, 1972 Fender Jazz or my Custom P-Bass.

This is my Rumble 500 and extension cabinet at a gig with my Fodera Emperor.

fodera.jpg
 
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#2
Thanks for the detailed comparison. I recently bought a Rumble 800C, but haven't had a chance to gig with it. I use my Rumble 40 for practices. Hoping that since we play classic rock, I won't notice the lack of warmth of the 500C that you notice. I wanted a 500C, but couldn't find one when I was looking. I was looking at used amps only, and have since seen 2 available near me. Should have waited.
 
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#6
I had a different experience with the 800. I found the sound to be deep, rich and articulate to the point where it displaced my 300 watt all tube head +610 and my Eden rig. It took ~5-6 gigs to find that sound though. I get lots of compliments on my sound with it and probably have 40 or 50 gigs on it by now. I also found the 100, 200 and 500 to have this muddiness that I could never dial out.

Completely unrelated, but seeing that Fodera close to the water makes me uneasy...
 
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#7
BossOnBass said:
I had a different experience with the 800. I found the sound to be deep, rich and articulate to the point where it displaced my 300 watt all tube head +610 and my Eden rig. It took ~5-6 gigs to find that sound though. I get lots of compliments on my sound with it and probably have 40 or 50 gigs on it by now. I also found the 100, 200 and 500 to have this muddiness that I could never dial out.

Completely unrelated, but seeing that Fodera close to the water makes me uneasy...
Click to expand...

That is an amphitheater right on the water. Not too close to it!

Interesting you mention muddiness. That is something I never experienced with the 500. I get a warm but very clear articulate sound from it be it slap or finger style. From two end of the extremes going from my active Fodera to my 1972 Jazz.

jazz.jpg
 
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#8
BossOnBass said:
I had a different experience with the 800. I found the sound to be deep, rich and articulate to the point where it displaced my 300 watt all tube head +610 and my Eden rig. It took ~5-6 gigs to find that sound though. I get lots of compliments on my sound with it and probably have 40 or 50 gigs on it by now. I also found the 100, 200 and 500 to have this muddiness that I could never dial out.

Completely unrelated, but seeing that Fodera close to the water makes me uneasy...
Click to expand...
Would love to know what settings you’re using!!
I’ve got a Stage 800 and have been wondering if I shouldn’t switch to a 500C. There is a lot of complexity to the Stage, I wonder if I wouldn’t be happier with just 4 physical eq dials.
I use the “Clean Focus” setting as my go to and think it is pretty articulate. The Super Bassman preset sounds great with my USA Geddy, but not with all of my instruments.
I haven’t fooled around a lot with either adjusting the provided preset eq’s (I wish there were physical high and low mid knobs on the Stage vs. having to go into the app to adjust all the eq’s) or the effects, a rabbit hole I’m not prepared to descend into yet, but I like the idea of having all that on-board when I feel like getting to it.
 
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#9
ShawnG said:
Would love to know what settings you’re using!!
I’ve got a Stage 800 and have been wondering if I shouldn’t switch to a 500C. There is a lot of complexity to the Stage, I wonder if I wouldn’t be happier with just 4 physical eq dials.
I use the “Clean Focus” setting as my go to and think it is pretty articulate. The Super Bassman preset sounds great with my USA Geddy, but not with all of my instruments.
I haven’t fooled around a lot with either the preset eq’s (I wish there were physical high and low mid knobs on the Stage vs. having to go into the app to adjust all the eq’s) or the effects, a rabbit hole I’m not prepared to descend into yet, but I like the idea of having all that on-board when I feel like getting to it.
Click to expand...

With my gear, 98% of the time I run the amp flat. With my Fodera, I can pretty much tweak what I need directly from the bass itself. With my passive basses, again I run the amp flat with a minor tweak now and then depending on the room. One plus with the 500, tweaks are simple on the fly.

So many pros I've met over the years have told me that is basically how they run their amps, flat. As to not to add color to the actual tone of the bass. That kind of adds to what I was saying in regards to the 800 sounding too processed. I could hear that even more with the Fodera, it took away that amazing tone that bass has.
 
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#10
I have a Stage 800. I copied all the various Amp/Cab emulations and made them all flat and took out any effects each preset had. This makes a HUGE difference in how you perceive the Stage 800. With all these set flat, it was apparent what each emulation was copying (Ampeg, GK, etc.). I'm not an effects oriented bassist, but I am a tonehound. I've tailored the flat emulations to taste and honestly most often call on the Studio Pre because it is so squeaky clean. As for "too processed" or too processed sounding, I believe it depends on the user's settings. Mind you, I don't have many bass guitar gigs on my schedule (upright, yes), but this amp is more than adequate. I actually love using a magnetic pickup on one of my upright basses and dive into the effects because it's so cool and different, but I wouldn't do that on a "normal" gig just artsy fartsy gigs of which I have a few. EDIT: Can OP test the Stage 800 in the Studio Pre set flat? Thanks, let me know what you think.
 
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#12
Sam Reese said:
I have a Stage 800. I copied all the various Amp/Cab emulations and made them all flat and took out any effects each preset had. This makes a HUGE difference in how you perceive the Stage 800. With all these set flat, it was apparent what each emulation was copying (Ampeg, GK, etc.). I'm not an effects oriented bassist, but I am a tonehound. I've tailored the flat emulations to taste and honestly most often call on the Studio Pre because it is so squeaky clean. As for "too processed" or too processed sounding, I believe it depends on the user's settings. Mind you, I don't have many bass guitar gigs on my schedule (upright, yes), but this amp is more than adequate. I actually love using a magnetic pickup on one of my upright basses and dive into the effects because it's so cool and different, but I wouldn't do that on a "normal" gig just artsy fartsy gigs of which I have a few. EDIT: Can OP test the Stage 800 in the Studio Pre set flat? Thanks, let me know what you think.
Click to expand...

I run all my amps flat. Rarely do I vary from that. With that in mind all patches I made were with the EQ flat. As I mentioned my first patch was to emulate the Rumble 500 so I had a good base line to start with. Yet when A-B the two Amps side by side, there was a huge difference in sound. Again what I mentioned, the sound was too processed and it took away from the character and warmth of the bass. I even tried the SWR models since I was a SWR user for many years.
 
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#16
Well I just fired up my new Rumble 800HD head running a Rumble 2x10 extension cabinet. Wow, sounds incredible! Talk about punch and clarity! Sounds amazing. Sorry to say, literally took me a minute to setup, all controls flat and plugged my Sire M5 into and man it sounded great. Something I just couldn’t do with the 800 even after spending days playing around with it making programs and using it live. Again my opinion, some may like the processed sound. But I have very particular basses and where they excel is uncolored in regards to tone. That’s what I hear with this 800HD head like the Rumble 500 which I feel Fender hit out of the ballpark!

B9599BB5-34B8-4D3F-8B10-1E9A92C7D79C.jpeg
 
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#19
ShawnG said:
There is a lot of complexity to the Stage, I wonder if I wouldn’t be happier with just 4 physical eq dials.
Click to expand...

ClassicJazz said:
One plus with the 500, tweaks are simple on the fly.
Click to expand...

I tried the 500 and the 800 Stage along with a GK MB212. I used an A/B switcher so I could compare one to the other while I was playing, tweaking things and then switching back and forth again.
The two comments above are exactly why I didn't get the 800. I was actually able to get a tone out of the 800 that I preferred over the 500 but tweaking things live would have been a lot more hit and miss. I definitely prefer having 4 physical eq dials.

Unlike many of you I much preferred the sound of the GK anyway. To me, every time I switched from either the 500 to the GK or the 800 to the GK it was like a cover was removed from the Fenders. There was just a muddiness to them whereas the GK sounded more full-range with more clarity.
 
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