I have noticed on my active jazz bass that if the neck pick up is fully on it over powers the speaker if I play hard. It won’t do it on the bridge pickup.
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Hmm. I only use the neck pups(active or passive). I'll try that just for grins.
Nope, not just you. That's how I learned about my first active bass, too.
Way before the solid state Rumbles existed, my volume reduced and the tone distorted. I was accustomed to keeping my bass volume turned down, so I turned it up. That worked for just one song of the rehearsal, but didn't fix the tone. Cranking the amp, likewise, didn't help for long. It was getting worse! And fast!!
The guitarist said it was my instrument cable and he threw me another one. No! Then he saw the little box on back of my bass and asked what it was. I told him it was the preamp battery, but it still didn't click to me. He had to ask when was the last time I changed it? I said, "Never. I just got this bass a few months ago and now it (the bass) is dying!?!" He threw me a new battery that he stocked for his pedals and VOILA! TA-DAH! If he would have had a power supplied pedalboard I might have ended up being the fool who returned his bass to the store to learn about replacing the battery!
Now, 2 of my 3 main players are active basses. I am diligent to keep them unplugged anytime the amp is off, to preserve battery life. I likewise keep the preamp turned down, or off, whenever possible. I've had only one other such incident, but I recognized it right away and changed out the battery before anyone else noticed.
We live and, hopefully, we learn.
Rumbles work great with actives (I have an EBMM Classic Sabre) and due to the Delta-Comp limiter are darn near impossible to clip. Your battery is the prime suspect, IMHO.
Yeah, 4 passives and one active. My 2 5strings
are my least used basses(the Les Paul is the active). I hafta change most of the settings on the Rumble(s) if I hook up the LP.
I use 9v actives on my Rumble but I often don't even have to turn the gain down from 9 o'clock (my sweet spot unless I need lots of distortion from the OD).
Battery quality really matters with actives IMO. When they start to fall out of spec as they age or run low it does odd things to preamps. My old EBMM Stingray would get boomy and lose definition, my old SR300E would get really thin and lose frequency response well into the mid-range, and my Jazz goes from sounding like a beast to a passive Jazz. I have yet to experience (and hopefully don't) what my Ray copy and Jazz V sound like with dead batteries.
Battery quality really matters with actives IMO. When they start to fall out of spec as they age or run low it does odd things to preamps. My old EBMM Stingray would get boomy and lose definition, my old SR300E would get really thin and lose frequency response well into the mid-range, and my Jazz goes from sounding like a beast to a passive Jazz. I have yet to experience (and hopefully don't) what my Ray copy and Jazz V sound like with dead batteries.
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I've got an affinity PJ with a laurel board. It's beautiful in person. I was actually gonna wait on buying one but the fretboard just screamed you're gonna regret it if you don't buy me.
They're surprisingly good and pretty instruments those Affinitys. Enjoy!
Hey all. I currently have a Markbass Jeff Berlin, which is fairly portable for my needs and was originally purchased because I needed an amp to punch through two guitars/drums etc. I never used to DI my amps, but now I do with my current band. The Markbass has simply become my stage monitor. We also are playing some gigs on tour boats which means the smaller I can get my gear the better. BUT, we also play larger gigs and festivals so I don't want to go TOO small.
Soooo, I'm wondering if the Fender Rumble 40 might be enough for all my needs? It has DI out, and probably enough ooomph to be my stage monitor at larger gigs? I have used a Fender Rumble 100 (I think it was the 100) and I seem to remember I was pleased with the tone, so I do know about the sound of the Rumbles, just wondering about using it as my number amp for a do it all rig??
BTW....I use a Jack Casady as my main bass and a Hofner Club as back up (and small gig bass).
Thanks!
Soooo, I'm wondering if the Fender Rumble 40 might be enough for all my needs? It has DI out, and probably enough ooomph to be my stage monitor at larger gigs? I have used a Fender Rumble 100 (I think it was the 100) and I seem to remember I was pleased with the tone, so I do know about the sound of the Rumbles, just wondering about using it as my number amp for a do it all rig??
BTW....I use a Jack Casady as my main bass and a Hofner Club as back up (and small gig bass).
Thanks!
Actually, both my passive P’s run hotter than my Sabre. On the other hand, I’ve used both an EBMM SUB and an SBMM SUB both of which ran very hot indeed, especially the latter, without any clipping whatsoever.
Truth be told, I didn’t TRY to clip the amp either, but I did experiment quite freely with the gain control, and never had any hint of clipping. But as the gain control controls the strength of the input signal, it’s also key in finding the best sound from your bass, active or passive.
Absolutely true! Proper gain structure is critical to great tone, yet it is a concept that eludes most bass players.
I've used mine w/o FOH in some fairly good sized banquet halls, so it should cut it.
And, of course, great tone is an individual thing. I happen to prefer a 'clean' tone 90+/-% of the time. While I have fooled around with the o/d, it's just not my thing. Gain has never been above 9.5 on either the R40 or 200c.
One size never fits all.
I just checked out the Carnaby Army vid on your link. Cool band. I think you'd need at least a 200 to get over drums, keyboards, and two guitars. Just for some headroom, you may even want to consider the 500. For only $100 more, and getting two ten inch speakers as opposed to a fifteen (mud), I think the 500 would be the way to go. I have one, and I can't speak highly enough of them. You don't have to go balls out with it, of course. It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
I agree, nice sounding group..very tight.
D
Disagree.
The 15 in the 200c (and 115 cab) sounds great. The compression tweeter included in both even makes it a decent guitar amp.
I'd rather play an amp at 25% of capacity than dimed. And there will possibly be situations where you'd have to dime the 40.
Considering the sunsetting of the 200 head, I'm hoping the 200 combo survives. It's just too good of an amp. I bought mine as soon as the v3 Rumbles were released. Never once regretted it.
Even better: 2 500combos slaved together. Run it at low volume with a huge sound plus a back up if one craps out.
