Fender Rumble Bass SUB 4x10 cab?

[G-Dog]

Ahahaha.

Remember when I said you couldn’t find a single picture of a Rumble on the web till I uploaded one?

Guess whose Rumble is the Custom Shop Poster child in the Rumble Wiki.

That’s mine! ... ... ...

Even more reason for you to be inducted into The Club!​

​

So, you posted that pic? Glad to finally find that out!​

... ... ... And for several years that really was the only Google image of a Rumble out there.

That’s funny AF. I went to post a picture and it’s already there.

Well, there certainly is quite a few out there now! Thanks for starting the posting trend. ​

​

​

 

[Passinwind]

The idea was to test the waters to see if a custom shop amp/cabinet thing would even work out. Sometimes these seen like great ideas until it hits the market, this family may have been one of them.

This sort of thing is also offered as "specials" to foreign distributors, to incentive-ize the brand in the export markets. This may be part of why there may be more overseas than here in the states. They may also have been given or placed with endorsers, or given to high profile players to gauge viability and a retail product.

I have very limited info on this, but it was one of Dave Lewis's projects (using most of Bill's power amp design) and he's still at Fender (Jeff, Scott and I worked with him). I don't recall Bruce Zinky designing anything with this amp... in spite of the internet rumors. We also built some of Fender's short run and prototype cabinets at our Genz Benz facility since we were local the Fender. I don't recall ever seeing these however. Jeff's relationship with Fender goes back a long time.

For a big company, a "one-off" can be anything from say 10 to a couple hundred units (kind of a very limited run like what we did on the new Mark C II++, which was limited to 200 units). I'm confident that there are well less than 200 units of any of these pieces that were produced. I would be surprised if more than a hundred of any of these were built, but at the time these speakers could have also been used or marketed with other custom shop projects. Regular production volume over the lifespan of a product is typically in the "many thousands", so for a big company, "one-off" has a different meaning than for a small company.

The sub cabinet was odd in that used a foam surround, high compliance driver in a sealed cabinet... something that I can't recall Fender using in any other bass cabinet.

Here's the owner's manual, you will notice that it's more or less a draft and not like a production owner's manual: https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10004/Rumble Bass.pdf

What's interesting is that I'm pretty sure that was Dave's project, but Mike Cozza'a name is noted on the schematic as the engineer. Maybe Dave managed the project and did the initial design, but Mike did mostly guitar amps IIRC. Bill's name isn't on the power amp schematic either, but it's absolutely based on Bill's previous designs (buffered LTP PI/driver) of which I am VERY familiar.

Regardless, it's a cool look... but the Rumble concept went a very different way ultimately. Dave designed a lot of the Rumble products after this as well.

I worked very briefly in the Oregon factory, not long before production moved to Aridzona. There was at least one Rumble prototype floating around at that time and I remember Zinky's name being mentioned, but it could easily have been in context to the Vibroking amps that my direct boss was wiring up. The "Custom Shop" at that time was basically one workstation just behind mine, plus whatever happened in Dave Lewis' engineering office. I was very interested in procuring a Rumble on the employee deal but they were not ready to go and I met a girl, and ultimately never moved to Oregon, and commuting 75 miles each way at night wasn't happening. But I had a great time during the 6 weeks or so I was there!

 

[agedhorse]

The Vibroking was one of Zinky’s projects.

 

[Passinwind]

The Vibroking was one of Zinky’s projects.

I never even touched any of the hand wired amps from that era, the vast majority of what I worked on were early generation Blues Deluxe and Blues Deville amps, which were huge sellers at that time and kept me in constant overtime mode. I did work on a few of the bigger BXR heads for cross training, but they wanted me to be a quick and easy tube amp guy to just plug into the production line and go. You've studied the production details in depth and would certainly know who designed what in much greater detail.

And yeah, the Interweb lore effect is pretty crazy. Paul Rivera gets blamed for a lot of short lived designs he had little or nothing to do with, for instance.

 

[barebones]

Reply from Fender:



Hi Matt,

Thanks for reaching out!

Here's the info we have on file for that cabinet:

CR235571 0813101000 RUMBLE BASS 410 SUB ENCL 09-2005

Description: Rumble-Bass® 4-10" SUB Speaker Enclosure
Part Number: 0813101000
Series: Custom Amp Amplifiers
Type: SUB Bass Enclosure
Output: N/A
Power Handling: 600 watts
Speakers: 4-10" Fender special design steel frame speakers
Ohms: 4 ohms
Channels: N/A
Features: 13-Ply Baltic Birch Plywood Cabinet
Straight face with "hidden" slant speaker baffle
Closed Back
Removable casters
Controls: N/A
Tube Compliment: N/A
Covering: Blonde Tolex with Oxblood grillecloth
Dimensions: Height: 24.5"
Width: 24.5"
Depth: 18.5"
Unit Weight: 73 lbs.
Shipping Weight: 80 lbs.
Cover: NONE
Footswitch: NONE
Accessories: NONE
U.S. MSRP: $649.99
Source: Corona (U.S.)
Specs: Prices and Specifications Subject to Change Without Notice


Regards,

Will Dixon Gear Advisor Fender Musical Instruments Corp. 17600 N. Perimeter Dr. Suite 100 Scottsdale AZ 85255 1-800-856-9801 –[email protected]

 

[sunburst79]

Even more reason for you to be inducted into The Club!​

View attachment 7327242​

So, you posted that pic? Glad to finally find that out!​

Well, there certainly is quite a few out there now! Thanks for starting the posting trend. ​

​

View attachment 7327243​

Yessiree

Who has the one out of the Akron area? One came up for sale a few years after I bought mine

The reason I ask is the sale posting looked like a similar house.

But that was two cabs and a head.

Same amp. Except to the left is a blonde Dual Professional. A 100 watt Tonemaster Head and CS blonde 4-12, a blonde RI Reverb unit. A early EL 84 Vibroking. And a LO ProSonic.

I finally managed to find a Vibroking and Prosonic I could afford.

But that’ll started with the Blonde Rumble

 

[DWA2469]

Is this for real? Seems cheap!
https://www.instrumentalusa.com/pro...m-shop-rumble-300-watt-tube-bass-guitar-head/

 

[6thplanet]

...well, you know what they say...if it's to good to be true...

 

[sunburst79]

Anonymous web store that no one’s heard of pops up selling stuff at greatly reduced prices and all contact is via email. No phone. No address. The about us page has a random “lifestyle” photo.

You might try dumping that particular picture into a Google image search and see where else it turns up.

It’s to good to be true.

The only reason for 1499.00 to 299.99 would be some really severe issues.

On the other hand if they were to mention it had major issues or had I dunno. Caught on Fireor something it would still be of interest to me as a parts unit. Any Rumble owner possibly. It’s not like Fender is going to reissue that.

The one time I bought some epoxy to use as pore filler that everyone was out of globally it was from some storefront very similar. After six weeks they still hadn’t shipped. It took about 2 weeks for my query to get responded too.

I did get refunded. Eventually. Twice. And about 5 months later the epoxy showed up. And I tried to contact them again to no avail. Wanting to sort it out. Never heard back.

Or something like that. Sketchy from the get go. Somehow I did retrieve my money after 8 weeks.

My advice.

Reach out before pressing the button. Shipping will be stupendous. And they could be anywhere on planet earth.

Is this for real? Seems cheap!
https://www.instrumentalusa.com/pro...m-shop-rumble-300-watt-tube-bass-guitar-head/

 

[Plain Old Barry]

Thanks a ton for tracking down that link! It’s rare that I run across a cab I’ve never seen before. I have no idea how it sounds yet, although I’ve played some sealed cabs in the past and have mixed feelings about them, but I’m tempted to snag this one just due to the rarity. And it’s dang good looking to boot!

There's been one for sale in Massachusetts for months:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[G-Dog]

Is this for real? Seems cheap!
https://www.instrumentalusa.com/pro...m-shop-rumble-300-watt-tube-bass-guitar-head/

Anonymous web store that no one’s heard of pops up selling stuff at greatly reduced prices and all contact is via email. No phone. No address. The about us page has a random “lifestyle” photo. ... ... ...

Yep, seems too good to be true, except no obvious way to investigate!

On the other hand, you got this on a long-term, reputable website:
https://reverb.com/item/86017552-fe...ad-w-4x10-cabinet-2000-s-blonde-with-ox-blood

 

[sunburst79]

I’ll admit being in Ohio I’m curious what store this came from. I’ve seen that ad before.

There was a set with a head and two or more cabs on eBay quite some time ago. Like a decade or more.

There’s supposedly only 60 or so made. Some type or registry or tracking of serials would be kind of cool.

EG where these consecutively serial numbered as a model line. Or where they just issued a serial in based on the place in the que as they where made.

There's been one for sale in Massachusetts for months:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[Plain Old Barry]

Yep, seems too good to be true, except no obvious way to investigate!

On the other hand, you got this on a long-term, reputable website:
https://reverb.com/item/86017552-fe...ad-w-4x10-cabinet-2000-s-blonde-with-ox-blood

The Craigslist poster in MA has listed lots of higher end guitar and bass gear for years. I haven't responded because I don't want the amp, but the poster seems very legitimate.

 

[AntiguaGuy]

I saw this on Guitar Center/Musician’s Friend recently:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I don’t really need something this heavy, but I love the blonde/oxblood esthetic, and I’m guessing that this is pretty rare. So I might go for it. Do you think it would be usable at all as a primary bass guitar speaker cabinet, or is it voiced strictly as a subwoofer?

 

[6thplanet]

Shows sold out, guess you bit.

 

[AntiguaGuy]

Shows sold out, guess you bit.

No, I missed it. I went back to the GC website to buy it, and when I tried to put it in my cart, it was already sold.
What I really wish is that Fender would do a run of Class D combo Rumbles (like the 500 or 800) in the blond/oxblood combination.

 

[G-Dog]

No, I missed it. I went back to the GC website to buy it, and when I tried to put it in my cart, it was already sold.
What I really wish is that Fender would do a run of Class D combo Rumbles (like the 500 or 800) in the blond/oxblood combination.

You could get this and easily change the grille clothe to oxblood:

Fender Rumble 500 V3 2x10 500W Bass Combo Amp -

Get the guaranteed best price on Solid State Combo Bass Amplifiers like the Fender Rumble 500 V3 2x10 500W Bass Combo Amp - at Musician's Friend. Get a low price and free shipping on thousands of...

www.musiciansfriend.com

 

[AntiguaGuy]

You could get this and easily change the grille clothe to oxblood:

Fender Rumble 500 V3 2x10 500W Bass Combo Amp -

Get the guaranteed best price on Solid State Combo Bass Amplifiers like the Fender Rumble 500 V3 2x10 500W Bass Combo Amp - at Musician's Friend. Get a low price and free shipping on thousands of...

www.musiciansfriend.com

View attachment 7381742​

You could get this and easily change the grille clothe to oxblood:

Fender Rumble 500 V3 2x10 500W Bass Combo Amp -

Get the guaranteed best price on Solid State Combo Bass Amplifiers like the Fender Rumble 500 V3 2x10 500W Bass Combo Amp - at Musician's Friend. Get a low price and free shipping on thousands of...

www.musiciansfriend.com

View attachment 7381742​

Thanks, G-Dog. I’ve seriously considered doing what you suggest - buying the ivory 500 and replacing the grill cloth. But I really want a combination that emulates a vintage Fender amp, and I don’t remember an ivory/oxblood model. (I actually think that the ivory Tolex probably looks better with the silver grill cloth than it would with oxblood.)
So I think that if I bought the ivory Rumble, I’d probably leave the silver grill cloth on it. I like the ivory/silver combo better than the standard black/silver combo, and I like the limited edition tan/wheat combo much better (however, I can’t find one to buy). But I’m really holding out for a tweed/oxblood or blonde/oxblood combo.

 

[G-Dog]

Thanks, G-Dog. I’ve seriously considered doing what you suggest - buying the ivory 500 and replacing the grill cloth. But I really want a combination that emulates a vintage Fender amp, and I don’t remember an ivory/oxblood model. (I actually think that the ivory Tolex probably looks better with the silver grill cloth than it would with oxblood.)
So I think that if I bought the ivory Rumble, I’d probably leave the silver grill cloth on it. I like the ivory/silver combo better than the standard black/silver combo, and I like the limited edition tan/wheat combo much better (however, I can’t find one to buy). But I’m really holding out for a tweed/oxblood or blonde/oxblood combo.

These were available about 6 years ago. Might be one out there somewhere in the used market!