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Fender Rumble Club

#27,601
RumbleMan3 said:
and do tubes sound better? are they clearer? personally never had chance to try a tube amp.
does the bassman offer anything tonally and in versatility and quality over the rumble?
or is it not worth the extra few bucks.

cos i was also looking at bassman 500 head with 115 neo enclosure, or a rumble 500?
Click to expand...

You need to listen to some Rumbles and some Bassmans, or Bassmen, yourself and see what sounds best, or good enough, to you. Stop worrying about what "others" say is best. It's all a matter of taste, and personal preference, anyway.

The Rumbles have NO tubes, but the blendable overdrive can give a very tube-like sound. The Bassman hybrids, the 500 and 800 have only pre-amp tubes, but get a very tubey growl from them and their blendable overdrive. The Bassman 100T and Super Bassman 300 have both pre-amp AND power amp tubes, to get that all natural tube goodness. Can you really hear the differences? Many people can't. Don't worry if you're one of them. Go with what sounds good, or good enough, to you!

I've got both. G-Dog's Rumble 500 and Bassman 500 Comparison

See the Bassman heads and cabs, sizes, weights & costs listed here.

And they all work well together! Many have mxed their Rumbles and Bassman together.
 
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#27,602
Linnin said:
You need to stop listening to naysayers, and pay strict attention to the hands on experience of the Rumble owners. There is one in particular that went into a recording studio, and the engineer mic'd the cab and ran the XLR out to the board. He was going to mix the two. He was so pleased with the quality of the XLR signal that he chose to use that for the entire recording. His account is right here within the many pages of the Fender Rumble Club.
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Recording Experience with Rumble XLR Out Post-Master Volume Levels
 
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#27,604
Linnin said:
Yes, that's one, and @bdplaid also had another. There are also others. It's amazing how good the XRL output is for both live work and in the recording studio.
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I was in the studio with a former Allman brothers engineer and we discovered that the rumble 500 head with its XLR output is a really nice preamp right into the channel . For that session we didn’t mic a cabinet or anything all we did was run straight from the rumble 500 into the channel and that was our DI.
 
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#27,611
I saw only a hint of down-talk about the Rumble 2 pages back, so I'm not sure where this is coming from.

G-Dog said:
You need to listen to some Rumbles and some Bassmans,
Click to expand...

Our local Fender dealer had both at one time & the Bassman sounds better, even to my tin ears.
I don't think this is a negative on the Rumble, since we're still talking Fender family.
 
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#27,615
RumbleMan3 said:
does the bassman offer anything tonally and in versatility and quality over the rumble?
or is it not worth the extra few bucks.

cos i was also looking at bassman 500 head with 115 neo enclosure, or a rumble 500?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure of the pricing down under, but here in the U.S. there's a pretty big difference in price between a Bassman setup & a Rumble setup.
I think anyone would agree tubes are better, but is it worth the extra money? Only you can decide.
 
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#27,616
gjohnson441496 said:
I used to be like, "yeah, gotta have a separate cab and head," until I bought a Fender Rumble...
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I think the whole anti combo thing is an image issue. Some will see a combo as a kids toy. As you know now, that isn't always true. I enjoy the convenience of a combo amp, particularly for band practice, I use my 100, my 40 is my home practice amp, and I keep my 25 at the Union Gospel Mission where I play on Thursdays. Up until a few months ago, I was gigging with a 500c and a 2x10 cab. Then I heard the Bassman 500 is basically a Rumble 500 with a tube preamp and more EQ control. So I tried one. Now my regular bar gig I gig it with 2 1x15 Bassmen neo cabs. But, I still think in my 50 years of gigging, this is the best SS amp I've ever used.
 
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#27,618
RumbleMan3 said:
and do tubes sound better? are they clearer? personally never had chance to try a tube amp.
does the bassman offer anything tonally and in versatility and quality over the rumble?
or is it not worth the extra few bucks.

cos i was also looking at bassman 500 head with 115 neo enclosure, or a rumble 500?
Click to expand...
I never met a Rumble I didn’t like.
 
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