The 500 and 200 head have been discontinued, and replaced by the 800 head. I won’t speculate as to the reason, but to me, the 800 is a more attractive proposition.
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Yes, the amp's manual has a block diagram that shows a built-in 2nd Order HPF, but no details about it are given. [Proprietary?] "2nd Order" means 12dB per octave roll-off. Each incremental increase in the order number adds 6dB to the roll-off, so 3rd order is 18dB/8ve. It can negate the advantage of some external HPFs.
Lots of other tech specs are discussed in the Fender Rumble Talks linked on the Rumble Club Wiki page (which is linked in my signature).
Fender's patented Delta-Comp Limiter is an adaptive compressor that reacts to your settings and the way you play. It can negate the necessity for some external compressors.
... ... 3. (OK... three questions) With such a versatile EQ section, I don't really need to run my MXR preamp either, do I?
It would be nice to lose the above mentioned items and their associated cabling (I'd just keep my trusty Sonic Research ST200 tuner). I guess some experimentation will answer these questions over the coming weeks, but I value the knowledge and opinions of this forums' members very highly so I thought I'd ask...
The "need" for external compression, HPF, and EQ is very subjective, so the answers to these questions are not the same for everybody. Unfortunately, you -need- to try various settings with and without your pedals to determine for yourself if they are really needed any more. See the Fender Rumble Club TONE POOL linked on the Rumble Club Wiki page for various settings contributed by our members.
Welcome to The Club, and good luck!
Possibly - but Fender doesn’t usually discontinue these things on a whim. Normally there’s pretty solid math behind it, and the fact that the combos outsold these heads by a wide margin suggest that they didn’t ultimately fill the niche they were meant to fill, and that the combos took that spot instead. In that case it would make sense to give the new head more power and professional features in order to cater to a more professional market.
Oh, just one more thing! Seeing JakobT again reminded me that he wrote a great Fender Rumble Talk about
Fender Rumble Overdrive, Adjust Gain, Drive and Level to Taste that should be required reading for all new Rumble owners.
Thanks again G-Dog... I've been reading through the Rumble Club Wiki - there's tons of interesting and informative stuff there for sure.
Welcome back, Linnin! Good to see you again!
You’re too kind, good Sir! Very glad to have been of service, I’m sure!
Thank you @JakobT. I intend to post as little as possible.
That, of course, is your privilege - but nice to know you’re around.
OK, 'clear advantage' might be a bit optimistic. When I first set it up as a baseline I set the knobs to the settings that the 500 had. What I see is that Fender is really evaluating customer feedback. The 500 main knob released the power very quickly, like 12 o clock was about 3/4 of the way to max. The 800, at least mine, is more like what we are used to, that is, the real power starts to be applied AFTER the halfway point.
The power light is an indicator of 'clipping', which was a complaint owners had (no clipping indicator). If you drive the preamp too hard then clipping (light goes amber) will appear earlier bassed (pun intended, sorry) on pre-amp settings. With the Gain turned down you can increase the volume before triggering the 'amber' condition of the light. ('Clipping' I guess) I have yet to hear it fart out but I have scooted several things off the shelves with it. It is a different animal, I might even call it V4 Rumble. I would love to play this through 2 215 cabs, granted that the 10 inch speaker is a quite capable animal. I actually think that then I would be close to the 2 215 Acoustic cabs I had with my SVT. (Sorry @JimmyM, please don't hit me, I loved my SVT). This Rumble 800 rig is awesome.
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Pbassmanca
In the pocket n' thumpy. So woody, so greasy...
Hey @Linnin! Welcome back from purgatory.
Looking forward to your posts and continued input over on the GHS threads!
LINNIN!!!Good to hear from you.
Good to see you back, Linnin!
Hello @Michael B. Being the contrarian that I am, I continue to confound medical science. Instead of my heart continuing to atrophy in a sure glidepath down into the grave, I have been getting healthier effortlessly. I even had to charge a new set of tires for my 17 year old Jeep. When I put the last set on five years ago, I said to myself that would be the last set of tires I would ever buy. Wrong. I'm wrong a lot so I should be used to it. Musically, I've been jamming a bit with a keyboard player. He was well impressed with my Studio 40. Sounds damn fine to me, and is extremely versatile.
