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My new Rumble 100 next my very old Musicmaster Bass amp, 12 watts and a 12” speaker. Took both to rehearsal last night for fun.
Very different, the Musicmaster is designed to be a practice amp only and with just 12 watts and an open back cabinet design it’s pretty anemic compared with the Rumble. But it was the first amp I bought and since it resembles visually my newest amp I thought I’d play them both and take a family photo.
Yep, back in the '60s, I quickly learned the difference between closed and open back amps!
The Musicmaster was a good guitar amp also. Great overdrive with no harsh highs. Wish I had one to go with my Musicmaster bass!
Every so often, I like to build tube amps. The Musicmaster Bass Amp has been one of the lead contenders to build. Of course I would use a more modern diver and build the cab as to be closed back/ported as to the driver's needs.
I did find a modified version of the amp that has Volume, Bass and Treble controls and uses more readily available 6V6GT tubes.
My new Rumble 100 next my very old Musicmaster Bass amp, 12 watts and a 12” speaker. Took both to rehearsal last night for fun.
Attention: Rumble Club Wiki Edit Alert!
Thank you, @Mastermold, for sharing this. moldy, your "Fender Bass Family" portrait has been linked on the Rumble Club Wiki page near the top of the Rumble Artwork section, fourth pic down, right under GonePlaid's big Fender Family portrait with his Thunderbird. This is a great comparison of the old and new bass combos in general, and the advancement of Rumbles in particular.
Thanks, moldy, for your musical perspectives and for sharing with our great community.
Rumble On!
.
Yeah playing guitar through it, it's got the warmth and sound you expect from a low wattage tube amp. Even playing bass through it I was able to push it such that it was just barely loud enough to be heard with a drummer, two guitarists (playing tweed Deluxes) and a keyboard player. But for bass it's really just a practice amp.
One of our guitar players builds his own amps as well, and we were talking about how we could possibly modify my Musicmaster to get more out of it. But I'm content with keeping it stock, plus it's a sentimental amp for me since it was the first one I ever bought back in 1982 when I started playing. I got it at the Guitar Center on Main Street in Santa Ana, CA, which at the time was only the second Guitar Center in existence. This was before they franchised nationally.
That's the good thing about building from scratch, You can do whatever you want, without destroying the originality of a vintage or sentimentality of an amp.
You also don't really save anything building it yourself, as the parts these days will cost about as much as buying a vintage one. You can just spread the cost out over time as you assemble the parts. It's a labor of love and the satisfaction of doing it yourself.
I would vote for keeping it original...
Open backed amps should never have been used for bass, unless they were mic'd, IMHO.
Since I don't have manual to my Rumble 350 head
Speaker hook up question
On the back of the head are 2 inputs for speakers
On the back of my Rumble 112 there are 2 inputs
If I run a second Rumble cabinet (both cabs being 8 ohm):
Do I use the 2 inputs on the back of head OR use the other input on one of the
speaker cabs to hook up second speaker.
Both Cabinets and Head are labeled parallel inputs at respective locations so does it even matter?
Thanks for any help
Speaker hook up question
On the back of the head are 2 inputs for speakers
On the back of my Rumble 112 there are 2 inputs
If I run a second Rumble cabinet (both cabs being 8 ohm):
Do I use the 2 inputs on the back of head OR use the other input on one of the
speaker cabs to hook up second speaker.
Both Cabinets and Head are labeled parallel inputs at respective locations so does it even matter?
Thanks for any help
Yes! Either, OR. Or even both, iff you have a couple of 16 ohm cabs to chain into an 8 ohm load and another 8 ohm to plug directly into the head.
No. No, it doesn't really matter. That's the beauty, and convenience of parallel connections like that!
BTW, here's a link to the Rumble 150 & 350 manual for future reference.
.BTW, here's a link to the Rumble 150 & 350 manual for future reference.
Thanks for the link.
My bass player was over last night for jam using the Rumble 350 and mentioned he felt compression while playing. I do see from that link that the Rumble has Delta-Comp limiter built in.
In that manual it says: using the -6 db switch and/or setting volume lower will provide less compression.
Are they referring to the -6 db switch on the amp, cabinet, or both. Just trying to understand this head.
I really like it and the more I understand it the better for anyone using it.
My bass player was over last night for jam using the Rumble 350 and mentioned he felt compression while playing. I do see from that link that the Rumble has Delta-Comp limiter built in.
In that manual it says: using the -6 db switch and/or setting volume lower will provide less compression.
Are they referring to the -6 db switch on the amp, cabinet, or both. Just trying to understand this head.
I really like it and the more I understand it the better for anyone using it.
BTW The fan on the Rumble 350 is way quieter than the fan that was on my 'now sold' Ampeg PF 500 head. If fact in most cases I can't hear it at all.
The Ampeg was a bit annoying at times although it was a nice head. So far I'm glad I switched to the Rumble 350.
The Ampeg was a bit annoying at times although it was a nice head. So far I'm glad I switched to the Rumble 350.
