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Fender Rumble Club

Ended up scoring a V3 1x15 off the local Facebook buy/sell gear group for the not so princely sum of $100. Hooked it up to my Rumble 500 Combo and man...that really fills out the low end. I still like my two Rumble 500 Combos daisy chained, but I can see this combo+115 being plenty for any gig I can imagine playing.

View attachment 2805313
Congrats.
Looks like it'd be a perfect match stacking the 115 on its side too.
 
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Just wanted to give a quick thank you to all who replied to my previous query... I still haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm planning on tripping down to one of my "local" GC's soon (both about 40 miles in either direction) to do some play thru's to see, ney, hear for myself what these various drivers sound like. Perhaps that'll solidify my decision a bit.

On the other hand... your replies, and several of the hundreds of posts I've read here so far have led me to make an observation that I would still welcome comments/opinions on. It would seem that, at least on "the rest of" TalkBASS... the idea mixing driver sizes when creating stacks; i.e. bottoming a 1x15 topped with a 2x10 or some other combination... is a big, defacto NO NO, or at the very least seriously advised against. Warnings of mismatched SPLs, under/over powering one or the other cabs, and even "holes" in the frequency responses due to unforeseen cancellations abound. And most of the corresponding recommendations to those who bring this topic up is to always match drivers... 15's with 15's... 10's with 10's, and 12's with 12's.

But here, in the Rumble Club... (INSERT: All of this is in regard to the V3's!) I have read time and again of people mixing up the extension cabs with their combos, or stacking two cabs under a head... and there are soooo many examples of every possible combination of driver sizes. In almost every case (of a mismatch,) it would seem like the resulting sound has been overwhelmingly positive. Is there some certain bit of magic in these Rumble V3 heads/combos/cabs that defies the laws of "don't mix driver sizes?"

To the casual observer... it sure seems like there is; in which case, that's probably pretty AWESOME!
 
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Just wanted to give a quick thank you to all who replied to my previous query... I still haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm planning on tripping down to one of my "local" GC's soon (both about 40 miles in either direction) to do some play thru's to see, ney, hear for myself what these various drivers sound like. Perhaps that'll solidify my decision a bit.

On the other hand... your replies, and several of the hundreds of posts I've read here so far have led me to make an observation that I would still welcome comments/opinions on. It would seem that, at least on "the rest of" TalkBASS... the idea mixing driver sizes when creating stacks; i.e. bottoming a 1x15 topped with a 2x10 or some other combination... is a big, defacto NO NO, or at the very least seriously advised against. Warnings of mismatched SPLs, under/over powering one or the other cabs, and even "holes" in the frequency responses due to unforeseen cancellations abound. And most of the corresponding recommendations to those who bring this topic up is to always match drivers... 15's with 15's... 10's with 10's, and 12's with 12's.

But here, in the Rumble Club... (INSERT: All of this is in regard to the V3's!) I have read time and again of people mixing up the extension cabs with their combos, or stacking two cabs under a head... and there are soooo many examples of every possible combination of driver sizes. In almost every case (of a mismatch,) it would seem like the resulting sound has been overwhelmingly positive. Is there some certain bit of magic in these Rumble V3 heads/combos/cabs that defies the laws of "don't mix driver sizes?"

To the casual observer... it sure seems like there is; in which case, that's probably pretty AWESOME!
Manufacturers can design a line of cabs to work complementary to each other, and this seems to be the case with at least the current generation of Rumble cabs. I think a big part of the reason that you're seeing this so often with the Rumble series is because the "full sized" Rumble combo is a 210, which logically will be paired with an extension cab in a lot of situations, the cheapest of which is the 115. The 210 + 115 combo is a common one and not usually seen as a problem in mixed driver setup discussions if the two cabs are designed to go together. The problematic speaker setups are usually 1) 410s on their own or in conjunction with a 115, 2) a much larger speaker matched with a smaller one and driven hard, or 3) mixing and matching cabs not of the same series. All of this said, the idea of choosing multiples of the same speaker cabinet is sound and good advice generally, especially if you are not certain if a manufacturer designed their cabs to work well together.
 
Just wanted to give a quick thank you to all who replied to my previous query... I still haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm planning on tripping down to one of my "local" GC's soon (both about 40 miles in either direction) to do some play thru's to see, ney, hear for myself what these various drivers sound like. Perhaps that'll solidify my decision a bit.

On the other hand... your replies, and several of the hundreds of posts I've read here so far have led me to make an observation that I would still welcome comments/opinions on. It would seem that, at least on "the rest of" TalkBASS... the idea mixing driver sizes when creating stacks; i.e. bottoming a 1x15 topped with a 2x10 or some other combination... is a big, defacto NO NO, or at the very least seriously advised against. Warnings of mismatched SPLs, under/over powering one or the other cabs, and even "holes" in the frequency responses due to unforeseen cancellations abound. And most of the corresponding recommendations to those who bring this topic up is to always match drivers... 15's with 15's... 10's with 10's, and 12's with 12's.

But here, in the Rumble Club... (INSERT: All of this is in regard to the V3's!) I have read time and again of people mixing up the extension cabs with their combos, or stacking two cabs under a head... and there are soooo many examples of every possible combination of driver sizes. In almost every case (of a mismatch,) it would seem like the resulting sound has been overwhelmingly positive. Is there some certain bit of magic in these Rumble V3 heads/combos/cabs that defies the laws of "don't mix driver sizes?"

To the casual observer... it sure seems like there is; in which case, that's probably pretty AWESOME!
Those who eschew mixing driver sizes also belong the the flat earth society.
 
on the mix cabinet debate...i think its more the case that when mixing cabs from different vendors, etc...there COULD be some negative impact due to different tuning, porting, etc. However, things could also match up quite well. I think the point is that you are introducing an unknown variable, it could work out or it may not
 
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I used to have a SWR set up that I purchased with my enlistment bonus from the Army in 2001. It was one of their 350 watt tube hybrid heads and a Goliath 3 410 cab. The cab alone weighed 83 pounds, and the head was another 20.

My 2 new Rumble 15s combined with my Rumble 500 head weigh less than the Goliath 3 did by itself, and the system is more watts and more SPL than the SWR rig. Don't get me wrong, the SWR was an awesome rig, but the Rumble is much more wallet and back friendly. It's also louder.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the Rumble set up that I have. I can't wait to use it out of my basement.
 
I was thinking of running 115 and 1 2x10
Good Good Excellent Pairing.
with a 500 watt ampeg portaflex (for the compressor control).
ACK! Bad Bad! The ampeg pottyflex has a very poor record of reliability. Also it just doesn't have 500 watts by any stretch of the imagination. The burst power method of rating that ampeg uses is dubious at best, so you can divide that in half and arrive at something far closer to the truth. Also you can (and should) buy a far better and effective compressor than the cheap on board ampeg.
 
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Good Good Excellent Pairing.

ACK! Bad Bad! The ampeg pottyflex has a very poor record of reliability. Also it just doesn't have 500 watts by any stretch of the imagination. The burst power method of rating that ampeg uses is dubious at best, so you can divide that in half and arrive at something far closer to the truth. Also you can (and should) buy a far better and effective compressor than the cheap on board ampeg.

What do you recommend for a head? I need something very versatile (80's cover band + original band + rock opera project).
'
EDIT: I loled IRL at "Pottyflex"
 
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I wish I could go to this! Now I need a copy for my Fender library.
23244056_1723391654360263_5234329070337925228_n.jpg
 
I can tell you mismatched brands and drivers is the worst of both worlds.

I did like the 2x10 + 15 Rumbles. But the 2 x 15s and a head are god of thunder great.

Glad you’re experimenting for yourself. Go drown out those shreddy freaks at the store and hear it for yourself.
Not the right post to quote, but that rosewood neck in your profile pic that we were talking about the other day... I was looking on the Warmouth website last night and it didn't seem like they were letting me choose a finish option when selecting Indian Rosewood as the shaft wood... Was it like this for you too? If so, is yours on the guitar unfinished or did you finish it yourself? I was looking at J bass necks, not sure if that makes a difference...
 
EDIT: I loled IRL at "Pottyflex"
I didn't make that up. The ampeg pf350 and especially the 500 (the pf800 hadn't been released yet) had a horrendous propensity for catastrophic failure. So much so that they were dubbed the 'pottyflex' because they took a dump right in the middle of your set. Failure rate was about 50%, so it was like playing Russian Roulette every time you turned it on. A one-two combination of 'The Great Pottyflex Debacle' along with Obama's Great Recession sent ampeg sales straight down the proverbial krapper! Where they languish to this very day.

Had Pottyflex burn victims (metaphorical) banded together they could have easily won a class action lawsuit and sued ampeg parent LOUD Technologies into utter oblivion. LOUD has recently changed hands from one set of venture (or vulture) capitalists to another.
 
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