Here I am, after a month of using the Rumble combo + 2x10" cabinet in the rehearsal. I'm posting my impressions.
Premise. I play in a stoner band, quite loud in terms of volumes, in which one guitarist has 100W tube Orange + 4x12" Orange cab, the other one, instead, a Peavey tube amp of 30W, 12" cone + handcrafted 12" cabinet.
The sound requirements of the band are for a bass that is not ringing, but rather dark enough and with a certain belly, so as to act as a "carpet".
Before talking about the amp, I wanted to report that I set the fuzz with tone at 9 o'clock, sustain at 11 o'clock, while on the VT Bass I boosted the bass at 13 o'clock, cut the treble at 11 o'clock, flat mids, drive at 11 o'clock, character at 10:30, which allows the sound to be darkened a bit, while still maintaining a certain presence on the mids: this will be the crucial point of my post.
Until I brought my stack to the rehearsal room, I was using an Ashdown Electric Blue, with a 12" 100W cone, which, I'll tell you the truth, surprised me a bit in terms of sound and perceived sound pressure : not too swollen on the basses (which in other amps of the constructor contributes to mixing the sound), well present on the mediums. With the volume I was practically always at the limit of the amp, but fortunately it has an amp that never sat down.
About my stack, things have changed dramatically and sadly not all for into better way.
Basically, I use a 10-14-14-10 equalization in order to have a slightly flatter response from the head, and from there I adjusted slightly and progressively.
I did the first test in "low" mode, so, given the presence of the additional speaker, I went with 200W. In this situation I was at the limit of the amp's possibilities, so the clip light sporadically turned yellow, which signals that the limit had been reached. The "carpet" was well developed, but I felt the lack of presence in our fundamental frequencies, let's say between 300Hz and 1000Hz, so much so that with every little boost of the guitars, I'm not saying that I disappeared completely, but let's say that I was noticed much less. From the next test I then set the amp to "full" mode, therefore with a maximum output of 800W. The situation has improved significantly. Obviously I have more volume and more headroom to get out of the mix, but, and this is my hypothesis, probably since the amp is no longer "neutered" in a certain way, everything sounds just better: honestly, I can't tell if the harmonics stand out more or that, but on medium frequencies the response improves a lot, however staying fat as in the previous case.
Note: for those wondering, given the difference between the magnets of the combo and those of the cab (the former neodymium, ferrite the latter), the combo and the cab sound substantially the same, the cab perhaps has slightly more accentuated bass, but the "imprint" is in a mid scooped tone.
Going back to the stack... and coming to the slightly less positive points...
Despite the overall improvement in "full" mode, I still have the feeling of having the need for more presence in the midrange, also combined with greater definition and, probably, greater compactness in the low frequencies, which IMHO are the point of strength (along with some nice crisp but not strident or intrusive mid-highs) of this system, but which for my tastes and overall feeling probably isn't 100% what I'm looking for.
In terms of volume, there's enough output volume. If I was playing in my old punk bands, this would be an excellent stack and I would certainly have had different sensations: for example, less fatter, drier guitars, like the guitarists used in my previous punk bands, would have given more space to a sound like this one of this Rumble stack, which would have completed and filled the spectrum of available frequencies, enveloping the resulting band sound.
Unfortunately for me, my last amp experience was with GK, keeping fixed the NEO 212-II cabinet, I switched from a 1001RB-II to a MB Fusion 800, in retrospect preferring the former. Punchyness, definition, volume... It was a flash of lightning. Due to the sars-cov-2 and the period of inactivity (which however started in October 2019) I sold everything. In the meantime I rented a new apartment, which does not have an elevato.
So, when I started searching for an amp in November 2022, the tone needs of the band, combined with my need to get something light and easily to transport up 3 flights of stairs, led me to this Rumble combo.
Only later did the band rent a rehearsal room shared with other bands and, hence, the possibility of parking the amp in the rehearsal room: having known it before...
In any case, concluding, I realized that GK is "my home", I found an incomparable feeling. I also realized that, always "unfortunately for me", I like traditionally designed amps more than class D ones: even about the GK heads I've had, the MB Fusion 800 sounds great, nothing to say, with the gain at 11 o'clock it has a nice grit and a nice growl, but... I still had that feeling that something was missing compared to the RBs, which however I didn't know and I can't define. What I predict is that I will replace my Rumble stack with a 700RB-II, either with 2 CX115 or CX115+CX210 or 2 NEO115.
Premise. I play in a stoner band, quite loud in terms of volumes, in which one guitarist has 100W tube Orange + 4x12" Orange cab, the other one, instead, a Peavey tube amp of 30W, 12" cone + handcrafted 12" cabinet.
The sound requirements of the band are for a bass that is not ringing, but rather dark enough and with a certain belly, so as to act as a "carpet".
Before talking about the amp, I wanted to report that I set the fuzz with tone at 9 o'clock, sustain at 11 o'clock, while on the VT Bass I boosted the bass at 13 o'clock, cut the treble at 11 o'clock, flat mids, drive at 11 o'clock, character at 10:30, which allows the sound to be darkened a bit, while still maintaining a certain presence on the mids: this will be the crucial point of my post.
Until I brought my stack to the rehearsal room, I was using an Ashdown Electric Blue, with a 12" 100W cone, which, I'll tell you the truth, surprised me a bit in terms of sound and perceived sound pressure : not too swollen on the basses (which in other amps of the constructor contributes to mixing the sound), well present on the mediums. With the volume I was practically always at the limit of the amp, but fortunately it has an amp that never sat down.
About my stack, things have changed dramatically and sadly not all for into better way.
Basically, I use a 10-14-14-10 equalization in order to have a slightly flatter response from the head, and from there I adjusted slightly and progressively.
I did the first test in "low" mode, so, given the presence of the additional speaker, I went with 200W. In this situation I was at the limit of the amp's possibilities, so the clip light sporadically turned yellow, which signals that the limit had been reached. The "carpet" was well developed, but I felt the lack of presence in our fundamental frequencies, let's say between 300Hz and 1000Hz, so much so that with every little boost of the guitars, I'm not saying that I disappeared completely, but let's say that I was noticed much less. From the next test I then set the amp to "full" mode, therefore with a maximum output of 800W. The situation has improved significantly. Obviously I have more volume and more headroom to get out of the mix, but, and this is my hypothesis, probably since the amp is no longer "neutered" in a certain way, everything sounds just better: honestly, I can't tell if the harmonics stand out more or that, but on medium frequencies the response improves a lot, however staying fat as in the previous case.
Note: for those wondering, given the difference between the magnets of the combo and those of the cab (the former neodymium, ferrite the latter), the combo and the cab sound substantially the same, the cab perhaps has slightly more accentuated bass, but the "imprint" is in a mid scooped tone.
Going back to the stack... and coming to the slightly less positive points...
Despite the overall improvement in "full" mode, I still have the feeling of having the need for more presence in the midrange, also combined with greater definition and, probably, greater compactness in the low frequencies, which IMHO are the point of strength (along with some nice crisp but not strident or intrusive mid-highs) of this system, but which for my tastes and overall feeling probably isn't 100% what I'm looking for.
In terms of volume, there's enough output volume. If I was playing in my old punk bands, this would be an excellent stack and I would certainly have had different sensations: for example, less fatter, drier guitars, like the guitarists used in my previous punk bands, would have given more space to a sound like this one of this Rumble stack, which would have completed and filled the spectrum of available frequencies, enveloping the resulting band sound.
Unfortunately for me, my last amp experience was with GK, keeping fixed the NEO 212-II cabinet, I switched from a 1001RB-II to a MB Fusion 800, in retrospect preferring the former. Punchyness, definition, volume... It was a flash of lightning. Due to the sars-cov-2 and the period of inactivity (which however started in October 2019) I sold everything. In the meantime I rented a new apartment, which does not have an elevato.
So, when I started searching for an amp in November 2022, the tone needs of the band, combined with my need to get something light and easily to transport up 3 flights of stairs, led me to this Rumble combo.
Only later did the band rent a rehearsal room shared with other bands and, hence, the possibility of parking the amp in the rehearsal room: having known it before...
In any case, concluding, I realized that GK is "my home", I found an incomparable feeling. I also realized that, always "unfortunately for me", I like traditionally designed amps more than class D ones: even about the GK heads I've had, the MB Fusion 800 sounds great, nothing to say, with the gain at 11 o'clock it has a nice grit and a nice growl, but... I still had that feeling that something was missing compared to the RBs, which however I didn't know and I can't define. What I predict is that I will replace my Rumble stack with a 700RB-II, either with 2 CX115 or CX115+CX210 or 2 NEO115.
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Just a bunch of Rumblers posting pix and telling stories about how their Rumble(s) is(are) better'n anything else, or answering quexxions about the best EQ settings for this or that tone or mods from Rumbling noobs, or about shopping specs from Rumbling wannabees, debates over the best Rumble for metal, and bragging rights from a Rumble number in your TalkBass Signature, and a 