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Fender Rumble Club

#2,402
Well, I got to try the Rumble 100 on two gigs this weekend on the upright bass with my rockabilly band, and gotta say that it performed great! The first gig called for me to push it a little even though there was PA support, but it worked great within the limits of a 100 watt combo, and had a great thump and low end, very surprising for such a small package. Had to keep reminding myself that I didn't have my TV bassman 15 behind me!! Second gig was a very low volume casino gig, and again the amp sounded great. I use it in vintage mode and it has a really sweet old school vibe and a great match for my upright. I was a little worried that the low end thump of an upright bass might overwhelm the small size of this cab, but it passed the test. I'm very happy with the rumble 100!!
 
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#2,403
Oh! Henry said:
Well, I got to try the Rumble 100 on two gigs this weekend on the upright bass with my rockabilly band, and gotta say that it performed great! The first gig called for me to push it a little even though there was PA support, but it worked great within the limits of a 100 watt combo, and had a great thump and low end, very surprising for such a small package. Had to keep reminding myself that I didn't have my TV bassman 15 behind me!! Second gig was a very low volume casino gig, and again the amp sounded great. I use it in vintage mode and it has a really sweet old school vibe and a great match for my upright. I was a little worried that the low end thump of an upright bass might overwhelm the small size of this cab, but it passed the test. I'm very happy with the rumble 100!!
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Great gig report Oh! Henry! It's important to have reasonable expectations of what various Rumbles will do well and where. Glad to hear that you're happy with the Rumble 100. :thumbsup:
 
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#2,404
This is the perfect time to have a little Rumble Talk about reasonable expectations. Read post #2402 and compare it with post #2409. Both concerning the Rumble 100 in conjunction with a URB. Very different outcomes from the same amp.

This really goes for all bass amps. Expecting to use a 100W amp with 12in speaker at an outdoor gig and get reasonable stage volume similar to the more common indoor gig is asking a bit much. Outside gigs with the lack of room reflections which reinforce low frequencies are the worst possible scenario for bass amplification. On the flip side there are ‘boomy’ rooms (from resonances created by the reflections) as others have lamented that creates a different challenge. Pretty hard to come up with a one-size fits all solution for every room/gig situation, which is where having a flexible EQ comes in handy. However, one must know that turning up the bass tone control or volume to compensate for being outdoors will eat up headroom and move towards a situation where speaker farting may occur.
 
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#2,405
stringmaster54 said:
I'm considering both the 200 and 500 v3 Rumbles. Either will cover my need power wise. I'm after an old-school tubey sound--will likely use the vintage mode exclusively, tweeter off. For those who have tried or own both, which will get me more into that 60's Fender deep bass sound? Does the 15" have more bottom, or the 2x10" with more speaker surface? Thanks
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I keep the vintage on all the time. It does give you almost the old tube bassman sound. I would go with the 500. The price isn't that much more and you will appreciate the extra headroom. I have the 2x10 because that is what was available at GC and because I like the punck of the 2x10. I can always add a 1x15 extension if I want to, but I'd probably just XLR to FOH instead.

What I find most interesting is my MIM P sounds better through it than my American J.
 
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#2,407
jthisdell said:
We I recently bought a Rumble 100 v3 and had mixed results.

My P sounded good, plenty of volume, especially for such a small package. But when I tried to get some volume out of the NXT I really could not. The volume difference between the two was just huge. I was running the NXT through an Eden WTDI preamp but not the P. In order to get any volume out of the NXT I raised the gain on the preamp to 2:00, the master on the pre to nearly max, the gain on the Rumble to 2:00 and the master on the Rumble to 3:00. of course this was a terrible setting and the Rumble started farting.

...Yesterday I set up the NXT and the Rumble and added one piece of my signal chain at a time and it sounded ok. I checked all my pretty new cords, etc. Tried it with my P, also ok.

...So on paper the new Rumble should have been great, smaller, lighter, slightly more power and with a better ! sounding Eminence driver. But at gig volume, it just did not work with the NXT. It appears to be the ceramic driver, don't know for certain.

...This kinda highlights how the NXT is a unique animal and needs to be treated as such. So unfortunately I will return the new Rumble and go back to my old one.
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None of this matters, since you found something else that worked for you. Still, your experience sounds like a classic example of poor gain staging.

The Eden has a rather nasty compressor/limiter, tied to the gain control. I had the WTX260 head, which shares the same preamp section as the WTDI, and even with relatively quiet passive basses, I had to keep the gain low to maximize headroom.

Meanwhile, the gain control on the new Rumbles is not a conventional input attenuator. My 100 V3 will play at pretty healthy levels with the gain all the way off. The gain control is more like a built-in boost pedal, designed to add to the wooly, vintage vibe.

I suspect that if you had dimed the master volume control on the Rumble as well as on the Eden, then only brought in as much "Rumble Gain" as you needed to get a good level, you would have had much better results.

Still, trying to play an outdoor gig with a 100 watt compact 1*12 combo is an exercise in futility. I suspect that you would have been far better off with at least the Rumble 200...
 
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#2,408
steve_rolfeca said:
None of this matters, since you found something else that worked for you. Still, your experience sounds like a classic example of poor gain staging.

The Eden has a rather nasty compressor/limiter, tied to the gain control. I the WTX260 head, which shares the same preamp section as the WTDI, and even with relatively quiet passive basses, I had to keep the gain low to maximize headroom.

Meanwhile, the gain control on the new Rumbles is not a conventional input attenuator. My 100 V3 will play at pretty healthy levels with the gain all the way off. The gain control is more like a built-in boost pedal, designed to add to the wooly, vintage vibe.

I suspect that if you had dimed the master volume control on the Rumble as well as on the Eden, then only brought in as much "Rumble Gain" as you needed to get a good level, you would have had much better results.

Still, trying to play an outdoor gig with a 100 watt compact 1*12 combo is an exercise in futility. I suspect that you would have been far better off with at least the Rumble 200...
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Thanks for your heads up post, Steve! This kind of real life experience is exactly what we need in the Fender Rumble Club.
 
#2,409
steve_rolfeca said:
None of this matters, since you found something else that worked for you. Still, your experience sounds like a classic example of poor gain staging.
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Thanks, that's interesting and I will keep in mind next time I hook up the Eden.

I did start with more modest gain on the Eden, a higher master level and low or no gain on the Rumble.

What was curious is that at a second outside gig my Rumble 150 v2 into a 1-15 (8 ohms so only 75 actual watts) was way kicking loud and I was a tad too loud at 10:00. (The v2 has no gain control and I had the Eden set the same with gain at 10:00 and master at 2:00.) Most reviews I've read say the 150 v2 is very conservatively rated so in practice more like 200 w (so 100 at 8ohms). And while both gigs were outside the first had a brick wall directly behind my amp and a hard cover overhead. The second was on a temp stage under a tent. I still think that the issue may be the ceramic neo driver and the NXT and I've posted over on the NXT thread but have not received alot of response (the DB people are mostly asleep).
 
#2,410
jthisdell said:
...I still think that the issue may be the ceramic neo driver and the NXT and I've posted over on the NXT thread but have not received alot of response (the DB people are mostly asleep).
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There's no such thing as a Ceramic Neo driver.

The Eminence in the 100 V3 is a straight, old-fashioned ceramic-magnet driver. The amp is so light because of the lightweight cab construction, not a neodymium driver.
 
#2,411
Ok rumblers, got a question. the P&W band is using in ears with avioms and I hate in ear anythings so I got a pair of Sennheiser 380 Pro headphones. The church uses these for the drummer. I tried them at the last practice and they seemed to work with the church system fine, The avioms get their mix back from the board the bass runs a di box to the board. At home however when I plug them into my rumble 150 I notice a couple of things. 1. the volume is really low and I have to crank everything almost to max (just short of it to avoid distortion) but 2. they sound like crap. Well, they sound totally different than what my bass sounds like through the amp. They require a completely different eq setting to get them to sound decent. Is this normal to have to completely readjust when plugging in headphones? Is the drop in volume some sort of safety feature so you don't blow out your eardrums? (Note: to rule out an issue with the headphones they sound great when plugged into an ipod or something similar. They just sound "buzzy," not really sure how else to describe it, until you readjust the eq on the amp.)
 
#2,412
furym said:
?..I got a pair of Sennheiser 380 Pro headphones. The church uses these for the drummer. I tried them at the last practice and they seemed to work with the church system fine,

...At home however when I plug them into my rumble 150 I notice a couple of things. 1. the volume is really low and I have to crank everything almost to max (just short of it to avoid distortion) but 2. they sound like crap. Well, they sound totally different than what my bass sounds like through the amp. They require a completely different eq setting to get them to sound decent. Is this normal to have to completely readjust when plugging in headphones? Is the drop in volume some sort of safety feature so you don't blow out your eardrums?
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1. Studio style cans are usually a difficult load, and require more gain than consumer earbuds. Try an external headphone amp.
2. The amp is driving a bass cab which needs a huge amount of EQ compensation. The headphones are more like plugging your bass amp into a pair of recording monitors, so you need different EQ. The volume drops because the big cans need more power, nothing to do with safety.
 
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#2,413
steve_rolfeca said:
1. Studio style cans are usually a difficult load, and require more gain than consumer earbuds. Try an external headphone amp.
2. The amp is driving a bass cab which needs a huge amount of EQ compensation. The headphones are more like plugging your bass amp into a pair of recording monitors, so you need different EQ. The volume drops because the big cans need more power, nothing to do with safety.
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Thanks, I guess I'm not crazy then. (well at least not because of this issue :D)
 
#2,414
Using the XLR output on my rumble to go to the soundboard at church and a loud noise like when you put your finger on the tip of your instrument cable is produced when I cut power to the amp. Any suggestions?


Fender Rumble Club #254, Praise and Worship Band Bassists Club #1364, Way Huge Club #13
 
#2,415
RandallAlvey said:
Using the XLR output on my rumble to go to the soundboard at church and a loud noise like when you put your finger on the tip of your instrument cable is produced when I cut power to the amp. Any suggestions?


Fender Rumble Club #254, Praise and Worship Band Bassists Club #1364, Way Huge Club #13
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No experience with this but (I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night ;)) There is a ground lift button usually next to the xlr output on the amp, have you tried it in both positions to see if that makes a difference?
 
#2,419
RandallAlvey said:
Using the XLR output on my rumble to go to the soundboard at church and a loud noise like when you put your finger on the tip of your instrument cable is produced when I cut power to the amp. Any suggestions?
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Don't turn your amp off until the sound guy mutes your channel... ;-)

Seriously speaking, unless your PA system uses stacked Fender Rumble cabs for FOH, it's pretty likely that your sound guy would be happier with a conventional DI anyway.

The line output on the Rumble isn't a regular DI feed. It's Post-EQ, whereas most sound people want your signal Pre-EQ. This is because the EQ they need to make you sound good in the house, is drastically different from what you need through a musical instrument speaker on stage.
 
#2,420
steve_rolfeca said:
Don't turn your amp off until the sound guy mutes your channel... ;-)

Seriously speaking, unless your PA system uses stacked Fender Rumble cabs for FOH, it's pretty likely that your sound guy would be happier with a conventional DI anyway.

The line output on the Rumble isn't a regular DI feed. It's Post-EQ, whereas most sound people want your signal Pre-EQ. This is because the EQ they need to make you sound good in the house, is drastically different from what you need through a musical instrument speaker on stage.
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Interesting the sound guy i played at friday loves the xlr out on the rumble.. really had a lot of compliments on it..
 

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