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Fender Rumble Club

#3,201
"Don't mix cabs" is a good rule of thumb for people who are buying brand new, are looking at running them as a stack most of the time, have a choice between two identical cabs vs a mix, and there's no significant price difference. In that situation, two identical cabs is a no-brainer. It pretty much guarantees you the full benefits of driver coupling, eliminates the possibility of a bad match if you're buying them without a chance to test them on the gig, and also nets you slightly better horizontal dispersion in most cases.

There's also the possibility of blowing drivers if you have a high-powered amp, and one cab in the unmatched pair has a drastically lower power rating.

In this case, it sounds like the two boxes are pretty evenly matched in terms of power handling, so the risk of damage is minimal. If you're saving significant coin, and if you will only stack both together on rare occasions when you need just that little bit more, why not have 2 different cabs, and therefore two different tonal flavours to work with?

I would think that the Rumble V3 410 would be an interesting contrast to the G-K...
 
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#3,203
Fender Rumbles are the contrarians of bass amplification! We thumb our collective noses at conventional wisdom.

1) "Light; Loud, or Cheap - pick any two." WRONGO! Fender Rumbles are Light; LOUD, and very affordable/inexpensive! :cool: Fender Rumbles Don't Cost A Million $$$. They Just Sound Like They Do! :cool:

2) I only have $500 for a rig, better buy used. Wrong Again! Fender Rumble 500 combos at $500 brand new shipped are the world wide market leaders in their class both price and wattage.
:unsure: Why Buy Used When You Can Buy Better Brand New? :facepalm:

3) Fender bass amps don't sound good. :eek: WHAT?!!!! :eyebrow: One of the biggest lies ever told. :rollno:

:D Rumbles Rule! :D
 
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#3,205
Lethgar said:
Ahem...I'll just leave this here:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

And I quote:

"FENDER BASS AMPLIFICATION
Bassman® Hybrid 500
Rumble™ 112 Cabinet
Rumble 210 Cabinet"

This may just be the year I go Rumble :)
Click to expand...

A 210 cabinet? I might just see an extension cab in my future!
 
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#3,215
Whackjack said:
Hi you all,
Just sound tested my new Rumble 500 head & 410 cab in my kitchen while my wife was not at home.. Well, doors started to rattle in their hinges, the microwave handlebar came alive and so did all the glasses in the cupboard. Boy, did it feel good! Will use my new 'pagan weapon of sound' in our new band this sunday. Looking forward to it!
Click to expand...

If it's anything like my 500 combo, I am guessing you had the main and gain turned down pretty darned low too...
 
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#3,217
Whackjack said:
Hi you all,
Just sound tested my new Rumble 500 head & 410 cab in my kitchen while my wife was not at home.. Well, doors started to rattle in their hinges, the microwave handlebar came alive and so did all the glasses in the cupboard. Boy, did it feel good! Will use my new 'pagan weapon of sound' in our new band this sunday. Looking forward to it!
Click to expand...
Welcome to the Fender Rumble Club, Whackjack! :woot: You are member #322 :hyper:

:laugh: Rumbles Rock! :smug:
 
#3,220
bdplaid said:
So I liked my V3 500 combo so much I bought a 500 head. $320, couldn't resist. Comes with a great little gig bag; head weighs nothing, but feels a little on the cheap side. Bigger (wider) than you might expect, so you might need that bag. But I have a problem - brand new out of the box, the knobs are discolored. Looks like they were laying on dirt. anyone experienced that?

Anyway, here's why I bought the head... lots of things going on, so bear with me.

I originally bought the combo based not only on the sound of the whole combo, but on the toughness of the speakers and just how that box sounds. Man, to my ears, what a nice 2x10 box! Tight growly low end no matter what I do to the tone controls, especially on the B-string. Makes for very articulate low end. And man, can those 2x10s take it. I'm shocked at what I can do to those 10's with my B-string and get away with it. I should be arrested.

But, sometimes I don't trust myself and use an extension cab - a GK NEO 115-3, which is close to one of my fave cabs of all time (tight low end and a really nasty "bark". The problem using it with the combo is that the GK is so efficient, it overpowers the 2x10s. Still, using them together on an outside gig, it was the deepest, punchiest, growliest tone I've ever gotten. Made playing so easy.

So, in my paranoia about blowing up the combo, I bought the head mainly as a backup... until I realized I could use it as the power for the 115 and balance the cabs.

And then it occurred to me I could run in stereo...

I'll give a gig report the next time I play out (not for some time, though).

But in the meantime, if anyone has experienced those dirty knobs, let me know!
Click to expand...

My 500 head also has the discolored knobs, but it doesn't bother me. I even kind of like it, reliced knobs. Does that seem strange?
 

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