Fender Rumble Club

[KenPompanoBeach]

So the Rumble 200 is on my radar. Long story short, I am returning to playing and hopefully will be doing some small clubs and pubs in the near future and need something both acceptable for home, transportable and loud enough that it can do some fairly heavy rock.

Is this my guy? Sell me on it!

Excellent choice! The Rumble 200 will sound great at home with the Vintage switch enabled...awesome in pubs with just Contour ( and possibly Bright and the horn) enabled. Fender put a quality Celestion in the 200. If you need the full 200 watts, plugging in an additional 12" or 15" 8 ohm cabinet should give you mega volume. I've not needed to do that. The line out works great......Mine weighs in at 34.5 lbs.....and with a wheely cart my old back handles it just fine.

 

[G-Dog]

So the Rumble 200 is on my radar. Long story short, I am returning to playing and hopefully will be doing some small clubs and pubs in the near future and need something both acceptable for home, transportable and loud enough that it can do some fairly heavy rock.

Is this my guy? Sell me on it!

I should also throw the 500 on the table. 200 feels like a halfway house, and the 500 is still really light

I'm a Rumble 500 combo owner and I highly recommend it. Prior to that, my Bassman 250/115 was only occasionally lacking, volume-wise, when not going FOH. The 350 of the R500c alone has never actually been lacking for me (though I did add an extension cab a couple times for the full 500).

I've also used it for what turned out to be intimate acoustic gigs with no drummer. But, cranking down the Master Volume does a great job. I can even still get a nice soft overdrive tone at very low volume, with no noise.

I also used to greatly prefer my perceived tonal difference of 15" speakers, and became biased against 10" speakers. But, the R500c cured me of that. It's 2x10s go as low and full as any 15s I can recall! It's astonishing. Have read that all Rumble cabs are engineered to work/sound good together, and I believe it.

 

[mbell75]

So the Rumble 200 is on my radar. Long story short, I am returning to playing and hopefully will be doing some small clubs and pubs in the near future and need something both acceptable for home, transportable and loud enough that it can do some fairly heavy rock.

Is this my guy? Sell me on it!

How heavy rock and how hard does your drummer hit? Will you have PA support? The heavy blues rock band I was playing guitar in had a hard hitting drummer and between him and my Rockerverb 100 with Orange 2x12, we could easily bury our bassists Rumble 500 if we didn’t watch volume levels. A 200 would be really underpowered in a heavy rock band unless the guitarists have low wattage amps, your drummer doesn’t hit very hard and/or you have PA support for every gig.

 

[richwag]

How heavy rock and how hard does your drummer hit? Will you have PA support? The heavy blues rock band I was playing guitar in had a hard hitting drummer and between him and my Rockerverb 100 with Orange 2x12, we could easily bury our bassists Rumble 500 if we didn’t watch volume levels. A 200 would be really underpowered in a heavy rock band unless the guitarists have low wattage amps, your drummer doesn’t hit very hard and/or you have PA support for every gig.

I’ve had a similar experience too. A loud band can bury the 500 combo. Vintage switch helps a lot though.

I’ve even been buried with the 1x15 extension cab running too.

But I’ve learned to push back too. Turn it down.

 

[CaptainBoxman]

Well, my issue there is that I can't afford a full SVT 8x10 backline

The guys I'm playing with aren't Sunn O))) or Sleep, and though I understand it could be buried, I don't anticipate that I will be at this point considering the venues.

A 350/500 watt amp is probably more than enough for my needs right now, although I don't really know where I'd go from here in terms of practicality. Like I said originally, I'm looking for something light, transportable and practical for home, studio and smaller gigs whilst still being affordable.

 

[mbell75]

Well, my issue there is that I can't afford a full SVT 8x10 backline

The guys I'm playing with aren't Sunn O))) or Sleep, and though I understand it could be buried, I don't anticipate that I will be at this point considering the venues.

A 350/500 watt amp is probably more than enough for my needs right now, although I don't really know where I'd go from here in terms of practicality. Like I said originally, I'm looking for something light, transportable and practical for home, studio and smaller gigs whilst still being affordable.

Get the 500 then. Its only $100 more and a few pounds heavier than the 200 and you get twice as many watts. You can always add another 2x10, 1x15 or even a 4x10 if needed.

 

[GonePlaid]

Hey, @GonePlaid ... any gigs upcoming near my neck of the woods (Plantation)? Would love to hear you guys.

We can't even get any bookings south of the Martin/Palm Beach County line-not for lack of trying. Seems no one wants to try a 'new' band. We're talking to an agent tomorrow so if things change, I'll post it/them.

 

[GonePlaid]

Hmmm, I haven't thought of tuning as an effect before! But, now that I think about it, this arrangement makes sense to me.



That's good news! When using the XLR Post and FX Send, I have control of the muting. I like that!



I think feeding the FOH from the XLR Pre output is one way, because it gives control to the FOH board. If the FOH is willing to accept that control, then it is their job to mute the mains between songs, while keeping monitors active to allow for tuning (it's not always all visual)! For FOH control, with great power comes great responsibility.

Does FOH have the setlist and know when to change bass tones for different songs, or even within some songs at certain musical points?



Seems to me you are working for the FOH instead of vice versa. Who is the artist and who is the technician? JK! I believe that, properly done, there is much artistry in the FOH. Although, too often, some just want to "set it & forget it", but raise all kinds of heck if a Post-EQ/Post-Master Volume XLR changes their mix at any point! But, cooperation usually makes for the best experience for all concerned.

I prefer to use the tones I've crafted, practiced and rehearsed for my live performances, and use the Post XLR to send them to FOH. It's a part of the creative, and/or artistic, control I feel responsible for. This is especially true now, with my Rumble Studio, where I can create setlists of tones, easily switched! So, there will be both volume and tonal dynamics, under my initial control. Then, the FOH will do what they must to blend it into that mix. I believe this practice is not uncommon among the better FOHs.



I believe that Fender reps do read this thread, and others like it. The Rumble 800 HD is a great example of applying our feedback.

But, I don't see a need for a fix, in this case. Seems to me they got it just right.

Setlist?? We don't need(or use)no stinkin' setlist.
FOH?Wuzzat?!? I know what 'tis, we just never have it.

 

[GonePlaid]

Excellent choice! The Rumble 200 will sound great at home with the Vintage switch enabled...awesome in pubs with just Contour ( and possibly Bright and the horn) enabled. Fender put a quality Celestion in the 200. If you need the full 200 watts, plugging in an additional 12" or 15" 8 ohm cabinet should give you mega volume. I've not needed to do that. The line out works great......Mine weighs in at 34.5 lbs.....and with a wheely cart my old back handles it just fine.

I've used mine with my R112 at one place-overkill. The built-in 140W is plenty.

 

[G-Dog]

. . . . , we could easily bury our bassists Rumble 500 if we didn’t watch volume levels. . . . .

. . . . A loud band can bury the 500 combo. . . . .

OMG!!! And I thought I played with some loud guitars, keys & drums! Maybe, not so much. The few times I added a 115 to my R500c, for 500 watts, it was too much. The even fewer times I used my R500c slaved to my Bassman 500 w/115 cab, for 700 watts, it was way, way overkill. 'Course I was XLR'd to FOH each time, too.

 

[Ronzo]

Thanks, man!

We can't even get any bookings south of the Martin/Palm Beach County line-not for lack of trying. Seems no one wants to try a 'new' band. We're talking to an agent tomorrow so if things change, I'll post it/them.

 

[G-Dog]

Setlist?? We don't need(or use)no stinkin' setlist. ... ...

Well, the sticklers in my country cover band required, and fought tooth and nail over, a "definitive" setlist! (Even more so than fighting over every ... single ... note ... in ... almost ... every ... other ... chord!!! When they would look at me as a tiebreaker I'd say, "I'm just playing the root." Then they'd both tell me I'm s'posed to be playing their desired note o' the moment! ) Then, at performance, the singer would fake a little cough and make us skip whatever he wanted!

... ... FOH?Wuzzat?!? I know what 'tis, we just never have it.

The singer, who owned the PA and put his name on the band, tried, lawdy how he tried, to get us to use just the PA for all instruments. It happened for exactly one rehearsal, which I thought went great! But, at the performance, both guitarists brought their amps and sent their post-EQ signals to FOH, just like before, over the singer's grumbled objections. I had expected as much. So, by the time I brought out my little R500c, nobody said a mumblin' word or batted an eyelash. (It was a much better bass monitor than the shared PA monitor.)

 

[GonePlaid]

Well, the sticklers in my country cover band required, and fought tooth and nail over, a "definitive" setlist! (Even more so than fighting over every ... single ... note ... in ... almost ... every ... other ... chord!!! When they would look at me as a tiebreaker I'd say, "I'm just playing the root." Then they'd both tell me I'm s'posed to be playing their desired note o' the moment! ) Then, at performance, the singer would fake a little cough and make us skip whatever he wanted!




The singer, who owned the PA and put his name on the band, tried, lawdy how he tried, to get us to use just the PA for all instruments. It happened for exactly one rehearsal, which I thought went great! But, at the performance, both guitarists brought their amps and sent their post-EQ signals to FOH, just like before, over the singer's grumbled objections. I had expected as much. So, by the time I brought out my little R500c, nobody said a mumblin' word or batted an eyelash. (It was a much better bass monitor than the shared PA monitor.)

A) We kinda try to feel out the crowd to determine what to play. Sometimes they want us to start softly for dinner music, which we are fully capable of doing(in fact, we can play a whole night of the Great American Songbook, or "belly rubbers"or jazz[]). Then see what kinda stuff they request.
B)There is one place we play that had asked us to pump our music into the separate smoker's bar through the house PA, so I bought sufficient mics to put us all through the PA(mine)into theirs. 2 gigs later, they decided to not have us go through the house PA, they'd listen to the juke box. [anybody wanna buy some mics-not really, 'cos as soon as I'd sell 'em, I'd need 'em]

 

[Ronzo]

A) We kinda try to feel out the crowd to determine what to play. Sometimes they want us to start softly for dinner music, which we are fully capable of doing(in fact, we can play a whole night of the Great American Songbook, or "belly rubbers"or jazz[]). Then see what kinda stuff they request.

Worked with a BL in NY that would ask the crowd, “Whaddaya wanna hear? Something slow? Something fast? Something half-fast?”

 

[Ted S]

RE: Use of internal tuner on the Studio 40 or Stage 800 does not mute XLR out.

G-Dog said:

"...I think feeding the FOH from the XLR Pre output is one way.....
But, I don't see a need for a fix, in this case. Seems to me they got it just right. [/QUOTE]"

Guess we have to respectfully agree to disagree my friend.
I remain unconvinced of any situation where anyone would want the XLR out NOT automatically & momentarily muted when using the internal tuner. And I do wish that would be corrected by Fender in a firmware update.

 

[mbell75]

OMG!!! And I thought I played with some loud guitars, keys & drums! Maybe, not so much. The few times I added a 115 to my R500c, for 500 watts, it was too much. The even fewer times I used my R500c slaved to my Bassman 500 w/115 cab, for 700 watts, it was way, way overkill. 'Course I was XLR'd to FOH each time, too.

We were far too loud in that band. We measured the decibal levels once and we were hitting 122db which is what a rock concert at an arena might hit and insanely loud for a 20x16 practice room. My new project where I play bass is much more reasonable volume wise.

 

[G-Dog]

... ... Guess we have to respectfully agree to disagree my friend.
I remain unconvinced of any situation where anyone would want the XLR out NOT automatically & momentarily muted when using the internal tuner. And I do wish that would be corrected by Fender in a firmware update.

Sorry, sir, I think it was my inner 6-strng guitarist coming out, being so adamant about my point of view.

But, I can certainly agree that having such feature flexibility in our gear, as you're requesting, is usually a good thing, my friend. I am, first and foremost, a proponent of "different strokes for different folks." There are many paths to artistic expression. Sorry, that I neglected that part of "my take".

 

[TheDayMan]

Anyone pair the older all black 112 with the current 200 combo? I assume it should work okay...

 

[G-Dog]

Anyone pair the older all black 112 with the current 200 combo? I assume it should work okay...

You got me curious, Daymian, so I did a search and found where those Rumble V2 Eminence neo 112s are rated for 500 watts program, which would be 250 watts continuous; just like the V3 112 cabs, except for having neo magnets.

So, yeah, the 100 watts it could get from the Rumble 200 combo would be no problem at all. I heard one with a Rumble 350 head in a store many years ago and remember being very impressed with the tone for such a "beginner level" amp, at the time. And when the salesman mentioned 350 watt amp & neo speaker I made a mental note: "possible serious lightweight bass rig" for future reference.

Hope this helps.

 

[Cardsfan_69]

Holy mother of low frequencies Batman! This combo is B-string friendly and not so pictures hanging on the wall firendly!
I've owned the following 4x10 cabinets.
Peavey 410tvx
Hartke 410 XL
GK neo 410
Eden 410 xlt
Hartke HyDrive 410.
2 of those gave me as big a smile as this vertical 4x10 stack did on the first riff and run down to an open B.
It certainly does change the voicing of the presets I've manipulated and saved. It will take a little woodshedding but that's half the fun.
I'm a little confused with the wattage rating and the resistance. I thought adding that cab would yield me the full 800w of my Stage 800 but if I'm reading it right it's an 8 ohm cab so it's 400w peak out of my amp?