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Fender Rumble Club

#21,944
See, I told you he was my friend!!! BFF even :D

If I interpret my BFF, Fender Knowledge God, dial a frowny face on the graphic eq.

I'm not picking on Linnin, he does know a hell of a lot about Fender stuff! And I am happy to see my friend is feeling well enough to condemn me to Fender Hell for my blasphemous thoughts!
 
#21,950
So I was in a music store in Springfield, Missouri this morning making an exchange and simply could not resist buying the used Rumble 15 at half-price. $50 for a perfect little practice amp. It will be great for giving my Taylor GS Mini-Bass just the little lift it needs to play along with unplugged acoustic guitar comfortably. Not too shabby with my Precision for the same purpose. It will never be used for a gig unless it is an unplugged acoustic show.
 
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#21,951
Flippy said:
redhotblues said:
HEY RUMBLERS!

Do you prefer your Rumble's dirt channel or do you prefer to get your dirt form a pedal?

Bonus points for 'why'.
Click to expand...
Dirt pedal. I really don't like what rumble's drive channel sounds like and it loses lots of low end.
Click to expand...

I take that back. I was without my pedalboard today and I used the built-in drive. I'm not sure if I'd want to switch this drive on in the middle of a song, but it's a fantastic always-on medium-gain drive :hyper:
 
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#21,952
redhotblues said:
HEY RUMBLERS!

Do you prefer your Rumble's dirt channel or do you prefer to get your dirt form a pedal?

Bonus points for 'why'.
Click to expand...
I like the onboard overdrive on my Rumble 200. It's convenient, and with the Fender footswitch which has an LED, you don't have to wonder if it's on or off. However, I've had to convince a couple of sound guys to use the XLR out from the amp instead of taking the signal straight from my bass. If I can muster an equal growl from my Zoom B3, I may start using that, but I haven't quite copied the sound.
 
#21,953
#21,954
voided3 said:
For the kind of gigs I do, it makes a huge difference. I play in a 10-piece Motown/R&B band so the rhythm section gets wedged in behind our three singers and horn section, meaning I'm always within two feet of my amp. I've done a gig with a single 2x10 cabinet elevated and slightly tilted on an amp stand, but I felt it ran out of gas on the low end. The pair together keeps the floor coupling (plus the two cabinets coupled together) but still elevates the top cabinet to where you can hear it, and the lows just sound so much bigger. We always have full FOH support so I don't need to be insanely loud, typically running the master at noon, but we do get quite loud on stage as we typically are running between six and eight powered monitors.

That said, for times when I can only bring one cabinet due to limited vehicle space, I bring my Orange OBC115 to use with my Rumble head as it's quite aggressive and "vintage" voiced, making it a great standalone cab. I elevate it about a foot off the ground on a utility case and am good to go with that arrangement, but the pair of Rumble 2x10s is awesome, especially outdoors when you can open up the master volume. I also like that I can bring a pair of 39 pound cabinets that when stacked are the same height as an 8x10!
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An 8x10 is a few inches taller I think. The 2x10 stagger is a little shorter than if they were side by side mounted and stacked vertically on their side. But then again I didn't measure.

redhotblues said:
HEY RUMBLERS!

Do you prefer your Rumble's dirt channel or do you prefer to get your dirt form a pedal?

Bonus points for 'why'.
Click to expand...
What does an 80 yr old woman smell like? Depends!

Depends on the situation. When I first got the rumble I was using the OD as an "always on" because I liked to run my amps with the preamp hit hard for that 74-82 geddy Lee type sound. The rumble would not do that with dimes gain alone, so I had to use the OD, and run the gain and overdrive on the low side. My first gig with the system tribute I ran the rumble clean with a high gain setting for maximum overdrive with the rumble OD for a song that needed distortion on the intro.

Subsequently I added my ODB-3 pedal to the rig for that tone, and went back to using the rumble OD as a light grit setting for some songs. I can't run an "always on" grit for that band because it isn't appropriate, but some songs need it, so it is nice to switch back and forth. I don't have a problem with the lows dropping out with the OD either, but setting things to balance out is a no brained for me.

During some guitar solos (one guitar band), I kick on both the ODB-3 and the OD for some extra snarl to fill in for missing rhythm guitar. The ODB-3 is nice because you can get a high gain distortion but only blend it in as an added layer and keep the dry bass prominent in the mix.

Ironically. The only way to get the natural light overdrive ala geddy with the boss ODB-3 is to run the blend to full OD and use a low gain setting.

The key to the built in OD is the gain knob. At low.settings.the OD range is more natural, and at high settings it is more of a heavy distortion. The gain is always in play. The.overdrive is not a channel, the 3 knobs work together, gain, overdrive, and level just balances so you can match your clean and overdrive levels.
 
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#21,955
I think that even if they were scooped, a twist of extra midrange should give you some punch. I haven't heard a Fender amp right in front of me for some years, but I would definitely remember if they were scooped. Like with my RCA Pro LX550 speakers, first I think of, then those nice smooth no beaming Linaeum tweeters. They are scooped, but I can mud them up with too much midrange if I want to. And running them with flat or only a bit + or -3db of bass or treble, I can listen to them for hours with no listener's fatigue.
 
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#21,956
Back now, seems like people pack attack a scooped system. To me it's only to define the system's response profile with controls at the flat position. There are different things done to the response profile to define some trademark sound you like and can get by simply running the controls flat. Suppose you have some personal profile, the knobs get moved during transport, and you forgot where to dial it all in at.
The ones that buy a system for that sound only need to glance and see the controls are at the neutral position and they are good to go.
The bottom or top could be rolled off or extended to get a sound (poor examples it's usually awful) and no pack attack. Scoop must make an impression we are cheated out of some harmonics we should get for the money. LOL
Hey man they cheated me out of my harmonics.
 
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#21,957
Had a very tight stage at a pub gig on the weekend.
So tight that I took the short scale Fender Mustang with flats on thru the Rumble 500C. Really just a stage monitor and I used the onboard DI to the PA
Did a great job. Quite a loud band as it's 7piece with keys n percussion. ..along with gtr, bass,drums and 5 vox
I hadda stand right on top of it, so it was tilted back.
20170929_222838_zpsthzisiqz.jpg


Bass
20151217_110702_zps3w2dnj4n.jpg
 
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#21,960
Linnin said:
Let me rant on a minute or two. The anti-Fender propaganda is that all Fenders are 'scooped'. All their amps are 'scooped'. All their pickups are 'scooped'. All their strings are 'scooped'. [No joke! Some have said that they don't like Fender strings because they are 'scooped'.] Hell, even Fender straps are 'scooped'!

When Leo Fender was designing what became known as the 'Brownfaced' amps in 1960, he added the first midrange control to his now famous passive tone stack. His amps had so many mids that he made his midrange control cut only. That's right, Fender amps had so many mids that he made his midrange control cut only. Bass & Treble were boost only. Not all amps had a midrange control. And to make things even more confusing all the tone controls were passive and interactive. If you turned down the treble you also turned down the mids (whether or not you had a midrange control, it made no difference). Same thing with the bass control. Turn up the bass and you turned up the mids at the very same time. I remember the Fender tone stack well. B.B. King set his at 6-6-6. I set mine at 7-7-7.

At this time Leo Fender invented the 'piggy back' amp head in 1961-62. These were the very first amp heads. Showman first then the Bassman. These amps would go on to become the much vaunted and highly sought after 'Blackfaced' series launched in 1963-64 as the Brownfaces had to be sold before new Blackfaces were manufactured. Later in 1968 they would become the 'Silverfaced' amps. There were some circuitry mods but the same basic Leo Fender design. These things sold like hot cakes & bourbon on Sunday morning. I loved my Silverfaced Bassman 100.

If you want to know about the birth of Fender Bass Amplification and the Fender Rumble series, read chapter 27 of Tom Wheeler's 'The Soul of Tone'. Fender Rumbles were based on the signature Fender tone from day one. This has not changed. Fender amps have never been 'scooped' and they never will be.

Introduced in 2003, Fender Rumbles were well received. They sounded good and were as teenager proof as you could make an amp. The pulsating 'disco' LEDs on the Rumble 60 and 100 added to teenage appeal. By 2009 Fender Rumbles were the best selling bass amps world wide. A global achievement that Fender Rumble would continue to reach year after year, and even today they are still the world's best selling bass amps.

Fender Rumbles outsell all but one company's total annual output. Some day soon I look forward to announcing that Fender Rumble sales have outstripped all bass amp companies combined. It is very close, but not today. Soon.

Edited with accurate dates thanks to @RColie
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I’ve always had trouble understanding the whole «scooped» thing. Even if it were true, «un-scooping» a Rumble should be easy to do by just boosting the mids, right?
 
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