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Fender Rumble Club

I’ve been reflecting upon someone’s comments about the 500 not being that much louder than the 200 and Linnin saying trying to increase volume output by wattage is less efficient than trying to do so by increasing speaker area.
Let's look at that more closely with real Rumble combos and not just some hypothetical situation. An electrical engineering truth/rule of thumb is: to raise the SPL by 1dB you need to double the power/wattage.
Now a single decibel is lowest amount of volume the human ear can discern. Most humans can't even tell a 1dB difference. People with that kind of great hearing might be working in a mastering lab. For most of us 2-3dBs are required to hear a decent increase of volume.

Take the magnificent Fender Rumble 200 1x15 combo for instance. It is 140 clean continuous watts into the single 8 ohm Eminence 15" woofer. To get a single decibel more of maximum SPL you must double the power to 280 watts.

Now lets look at the Mighty Fender Rumble 500! (Oh Yeah!) It's 350 clean continuous watts at 8 ohms into a pair of 10" woofers. Since it is more than 280 watts, we know it is at least 1dB louder. But it is not 560 watts (2x280) for +2dB. OK? Everyone with me so far?

A pair of 10" woofers is roughly equal to a single 15" woofer in volume of air moved. You really must get down to specific scientific measurements and calculations to really know the differences. Larger drivers (speakers) have greater dispersion of the sound waves they reproduce. In this respect Bigger Is Better.

I stated that the Rumble 500 combo is about +3dB louder than the Rumble 200, but is it really? Who has a dB meter and wants to measure for us? Science and all that rot, you know?
 
Lets go right ahead and take this a little further. For anyone that has an actual dB meter, take any Fender Rumble combo and with: 0 Gain; no voicings, no OD, and all tone controls at high noon for 0 boost/cut and put your master volume at 12 o'clock high. Pluck, pick, or thumb evenly a low C on the A string. Take a dB reading right at the center of the voice coil one thumb width away from the grillclothe. Now turn the master up to 1 o'clock and take a reading. Keep doing this until you are wide open or smacking hard against the limiter portion of the Delta-Comp Limiter. Back it off until you're not, and take a reading. Report your findings. Thank You.
 
oWhile I'm on a roll and busy talking to myself, lets keep going. We've all heard the wives' tale that you need 500 watts and 410's to play a gig, right? Well we know that is pure baloney.

Let's take the Rumble 500 head and Rumble 410 cabinet. Nice gig-rig, right? Yes, of course it is. 350 clean continuous honest Fender watts into a super nice well designed and very well Eminence loaded Rumble 410 cabinet. Is Good, Yes? Yes! [but of course darling ones]

Now let us take the Rumble 200 head onto a stacked pair of Rumble 115 cabinets! WOOT! :woot: You can see right away that there is not going to be a lot of maximum SPL difference if any at all. 350 watts isn't quite twice 200 watts. No. 2x15's is about equal to 410's, right? What is the BIG difference here? Yes, that's right the 'cabinet coupling effect' of the stacked Rumble 115s! You are such smarties, and I am so very proud of you all. Big Red F's for all of you!!! :cool: Rumble On! :cool:
 
oWhile I'm on a roll and busy talking to myself, lets keep going. We've all heard the wives' tale that you need 500 watts and 410's to play a gig, right? Well we know that is pure baloney.

Let's take the Rumble 500 head and Rumble 410 cabinet. Nice gig-rig, right? Yes, of course it is. 350 clean continuous honest Fender watts into a super nice well designed and very well Eminence loaded Rumble 410 cabinet. Is Good, Yes? Yes! [but of course darling ones]

Now let us take the Rumble 200 head onto a stacked pair of Rumble 115 cabinets! WOOT! :woot: You can see right away that there is not going to be a lot of maximum SPL difference if any at all. 350 watts isn't quite twice 200 watts. No. 2x15's is about equal to 410's, right? What is the BIG difference here? Yes, that's right the 'cabinet coupling effect' of the stacked Rumble 115s! You are such smarties, and I am so very proud of you all. Big Red F's for all of you!!! :cool: Rumble On! :cool:
You’re not talking to yourself, @Linnin!
We’re all listening. This is really helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain!
I’m a big “research first” guy so I can minimize the amount of time I have to buy the right thing to replace the wrong thing.
This is all really helpful. I’m still a little ways off from the purchase, but I think I’ll be able to get the right thing when the time comes.
I can’t afford to make too many mistakes in a household that runs on two teachers’ salaries!
 
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The new Ensenada made Players are $650 USD and up to $700. They're KILLER! I have all American made Fenders because I'm a lefty and that is the level of quality I demanded.

I should have put CAD behind it.

Used MIM = $500-700
New MIM Standard (on clearance atm) = $800
New MIM Player/Classic = $900-1000
New MIM Deluxe = $1100-1200

Used MIA = $1200-1500
New MIA Pro = $2000
New MIA Original/Deluxe = $2800

As you can see the MIAs, at least the new ones make a huge price jump. Far too big a jump to warrant buying them here unless that bass is going to make you the money back. The MIMs are still pretty darn nice most of the time anyway, and they last ages. The one I had years ago was almost as old as me and still looked and played like new.

And it also shows that there's some great deals on the used market for MIA Fenders. On the lower end of the price scale vs. a new Pro you can easily save 1000 beaver bucks!
 
Does the 100 provide that extra bit of low compared to that 10" 40 Studio? I'm not sure how i feel about all the addition digital amps on the 40, I don't think i'll ever use more than a bit of overdrive.

The Studio 40 definitely has more high end frequencies available, with the 10" driver & the tweeter, but the 100 has a juicier low end.
If you want to avoid effects, get the 100. You can still plug any effects into the Effects loop on the 100, if you get some later.
If all you want is some O/D, then the 100 is fine.

There are things the Studio 40 can do that you might not be familiar with, like pitch shifting. For instance, you can have your bass tuned to E Standard, but program the amp so that what comes out is C Standard.
To take full advantage of the effects, it's best to get the optional footswitch, which activates the amp's onboard looper.
 
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If anyone is a home and/or studio/home recording player, the Studio 40 cannot be beat. This is tremendous flexibility and tone for years to come. Amazing stuff Fender.
I think it may take a while, but once the Stage & Studio catch on they will catch fire with raves from all quadrants of the bass player population. Especially re-amping in recording studios. They'll be more valuable than gold.