Fender Rumble Club

[Never2Late]

After realizing the grill cloth on my R500v3 was quite vulnerable to becoming a cat scratching toy and becoming shredded, I decided an amp cover would be a good idea. I read good things about Fender's cover here, so when a GC coupon code popped up, I bought one.

This cover is really nice!!! It completely exceeded my expectations. Relatively thick material with rubbery (liquid resistant) backing, reinforced corners all the way around, reinforced and double-stitched around the top hole for the handle, and beautiful sewn Fender emblem on the front.

Hats off to Fender for offering something this nice for just over 20 bucks.

 

[brianrost]

I picked up an ivory Rumble 25 from my local Guitar Center in the St. Louis area a few days ago. They also had an R500.

Are these a GC exclusive? Every post online I've seen mentions getting one at GC. Same price or an upcharge?

Getting all nostalgic about the blonde/oxblood 1961 Bassman head I used to own.

EDIT: went to GC’s website and yes it’s an exclusive and yes, it’s an extra $35. Now if only the grille was oxblood

 

[G-Dog]

Are these a GC exclusive? Every post online I've seen mentions getting one at GC. Same price or an upcharge? ... ... ... EDIT: went to GC’s website and yes it’s an exclusive and yes, it’s an extra $35. ... ... ...

Well, it's very nice of GC to let MF in on their "exclusive". And the 25 is only $10 extra.

Shawnee Press Books, Sheet Music & Media Pg 91 | Musician's Friend

Get the best price and selection of Shawnee Press Books, Sheet Music & Media at Musician's Friend. Many Shawnee Press Books, Sheet Music & Media are eligible for free shipping.

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... ... ... Now if only the grille was oxblood

The grille cloth is easily changed.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Well, it's very nice of GC to let MF in on their "exclusive". And the 25 is only $10 extra.

Shawnee Press Books, Sheet Music & Media Pg 91 | Musician's Friend

Get the best price and selection of Shawnee Press Books, Sheet Music & Media at Musician's Friend. Many Shawnee Press Books, Sheet Music & Media are eligible for free shipping.

www.musiciansfriend.com

The grille cloth is easily changed.

MF is GC.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Happy Canada Day to our hoser friends in the Great White North, eh!

 

[Stealth57]

Happy Canada Day to our hoser friends in the Great White North, eh!

Hockey trivia. The term hoser comes from the fact that the losing hockey team had to hose down the rink after the game. Pre-Zamboni era. Another unusual fact, the Zamboni company is in SoCal the home of freezing winters

 

[MadJack]

Getting all nostalgic about the blonde/oxblood 1961 Bassman head I used to own.

EDIT: went to GC’s website and yes it’s an exclusive and yes, it’s an extra $35. Now if only the grille was oxblood

I have the Vox Mini-SupeBeetle Audio and the MonoPrice Invalid Link Removed & (first version w/TV front)Invalid Link Removedtube amps. They come in a cream colored Panama weave type Tolex. Those amps color is a little lighter than the Cream/Vanilla Tolex the early '60's Fenders came in. The current Ivory looks even more white than my other amps. The Vox comes with the Brown Diamond (very close to the Oxblood color) looks great with the Cream. The Mono Prices come with black/charcoal and it looks good too, but I prefer the Brown Diamond.

If you do recover the grill, I would recommend the Invalid Link Removed, not the Invalid Link Removed (image used turned 90 degrees). I don't think the Oxblood with Gold will look quite right with the Ivory.


The Vox, a Fender Mini (Christmas Present from my daughter) and my 6G2 Brownface Princeton.

BTW, the MSB Audio does play guitar or bass. If you plug straight in, it simulates a decent AC30-ish sound. You can plug in the AmPlugs too for other voicings. It resides in my bedroom as a Bluetooth speaker and practice amp.

The color in this picture is more accurate to the actual color.

 

[cornfarmer]

Uh oh

 

[G-Dog]

MF is GC.

GC owns MF. But it's still nice they shared this "exclusive".

 

[Miles_ONeal]

GC owns MF. But it's still nice they shared this "exclusive".

They tend to carry identical merchandise. Zzounds and AMS are separate companies but share inventory; I don't know what their contracts say, but they both have the same exclusive Epi VPs (purple sparkle, blue sparkle). That one surprised me more than ivory Rumbles at both GC and MF given that MF is a part of GC.

 

[cornfarmer]

Oh no

 

[lowend4life]

Hi everyone. I recently bought a Fender 500 Rumble which I'm diggin'.

I have a question regarding the Overdrive section. I was reading the manual and confused on what the controls are.


In simple terms what does the Gain do? Also from my understanding the Drive just adds more distortion?

Thank you for your time. Take care!

 

[JumboJett35]

Hi everyone. I recently bought a Fender 500 Rumble which I'm diggin'.

I have a question regarding the Overdrive section. I was reading the manual and confused on what the controls are.


In simple terms what does the Gain do? Also from my understanding the Drive just adds more distortion?

Thank you for your time. Take care!

The drive controls the overdrive and the gain controls the 3 EQ settings.

 

[lowend4life]

The drive controls the overdrive and the gain controls the 3 EQ settings.

Thank you. Controls it in what way?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Hi everyone. I recently bought a Fender 500 Rumble which I'm diggin'.

I have a question regarding the Overdrive section. I was reading the manual and confused on what the controls are.


In simple terms what does the Gain do? Also from my understanding the Drive just adds more distortion?

Thank you for your time. Take care!

Gain is the input gain for the whole amp (assuming you use the input jack rather than FX return from a pedalboard or another amp). It's basically to get your instrument level up to optimal for the rest of the amp. Think of it as a variable pad control or gain control on a mixer.Drive basically pushes the next stage harder, typically adding distortion.

 

[G-Dog]

Turn the "vintage" setting off. Mine is permanently on whenever I use my rumble 40. I'm likely sure you've pushed all buttons and turned all knobs so not sure what help anyone will be here without seeing or hearing it. We can only guess what your definition of "muddy" is.

Oh no

Hi everyone. I recently bought a Fender 500 Rumble which I'm diggin'.

I have a question regarding the Overdrive section. I was reading the manual and confused on what the controls are.

In simple terms what does the Gain do? Also from my understanding the Drive just adds more distortion?

Thank you for your time. Take care!

Holy guacamole, it's triple play Tuesday!
@JumboJett35, you are now member #1852, and
@cornfarmer you are now member #1853, and
@lowend4life, you are now member #1854 in the Fender Rumble Club.
Congratulations and welcome. Put your number in your TalkBass Signature for safe keeping. Then make yourselves at home here and on your Rumble Club Wiki page, the repository of all Rumbling wisdom and knowledge.

Jumbo, I hadda find your Rumble in another thread, since you didn't mention it here. But, whoop, there it is!

corny, is that a 40 or a bigger-than-I-thought baby looking at a 50? Cute kid, either way.

lowly, you should check out the Rumble Talks section of your Rumble Club Wiki for answers to your questions, especially the one about the Overdrive Gain, Drive & Level controls.

How about each of you telling us a bit about yourselves, such as your bass experience in general and your Rumble journeys in particular? You're all bound to fit right in here since we have all kinds. But we all love to ... ... ...

Rumble On!​

 

[cornfarmer]

The ivory one above is a 500. Regular sized baby. I would've been fine with a 40 or 100 but it seems the choice was limited to the 25 or 500 and I thought I'd probably not be into a dinky 8" combo. I'm pretty happy with the baby though.

This wouldn't be in my house if it wasn't ivory, it just looks so sharp. It's been a while since I bought a new/modern combo amp, so some first impressions: my expectations were not high based on past Fender products, but this amp really sounds good. I played a JB-75 and '66 Mustang both w/ LaBella LTFs through it, and a Kramer Striker strung BEAD w/ steel rounds. Plenty of growl and bump is on hand, I'm not used to 2x10's but I'm getting those sea legs back (I actually just added an SVT-210 HE cab to the pile and have been getting used to it vs. my usual 1x15 go-to's).

The EQ seems fine, as usual I have no use for the horn/tweeter so it's turned off - thank God they have it on a switch. I get that people want it, but to my ears it only adds maybe 5% more high freq. signal. Otherwise I have it all set flat, the gain at ~3 o'clock and master to taste. This seems just fine set flat. The 3 EQ/tone settings are OK, I don't really have a need for them but nice to have. I'm not a big fan of the how the overdrive sounds at any setting. This is really the only thing where I have to pull out my corksniffer card. No biggie as I've got other fuzz pedals that do a better job, but nice to have it either way. It would still be a great amp without the EQ buttons, horn and overdrive, but I get why options are added to products to make them competitive, etc. Overall a solid buy!

That makes 10 amps in the house now. Time to STOP and/or see what can be disposed of.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

The ivory one above is a 500. Regular sized baby. I would've been fine with a 40 or 100 but it seems the choice was limited to the 25 or 500 and I thought I'd probably not be into a dinky 8" combo. I'm pretty happy with the baby though.

This wouldn't be in my house if it wasn't ivory, it just looks so sharp. It's been a while since I bought a new/modern combo amp, so some first impressions: my expectations were not high based on past Fender products, but this amp really sounds good. I played a JB-75 and '66 Mustang both w/ LaBella LTFs through it, and a Kramer Striker strung BEAD w/ steel rounds. Plenty of growl and bump is on hand, I'm not used to 2x10's but I'm getting those sea legs back (I actually just added an SVT-210 HE cab to the pile and have been getting used to it vs. my usual 1x15 go-to's).

The EQ seems fine, as usual I have no use for the horn/tweeter so it's turned off - thank God they have it on a switch. I get that people want it, but to my ears it only adds maybe 5% more high freq. signal. Otherwise I have it all set flat, the gain at ~3 o'clock and master to taste. This seems just fine set flat. The 3 EQ/tone settings are OK, I don't really have a need for them but nice to have. I'm not a big fan of the how the overdrive sounds at any setting. This is really the only thing where I have to pull out my corksniffer card. No biggie as I've got other fuzz pedals that do a better job, but nice to have it either way. It would still be a great amp without the EQ buttons, horn and overdrive, but I get why options are added to products to make them competitive, etc. Overall a solid buy!

That makes 10 amps in the house now. Time to STOP and/or see what can be disposed of.

By flat do you mean all EQ knobs at 12 oclock, or closer to 10-2-2-10 as covered in the wiki? Just curious because whatever works is best!
A lot of us use the OD switch as a mute - just leave drive and level at minimum. The OD is ok to me, but like you I have pedals I like better.
And some never want OD at all.

 

[Stealth57]

By flat do you mean all EQ knobs at 12 oclock, or closer to 10-2-2-10 as covered in the wiki? Just curious because whatever works is best!
A lot of us use the OD switch as a mute - just leave drive and level at minimum. The OD is ok to me, but like you I have pedals I like better.
And some never want OD at all.

Interesting idea when you add a foot switch...

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Interesting idea when you add a foot switch...

I tend to only mute after setup, waiting to play, or during breaks. I'm right there by the amp, not playing, so I just hit the button on the amp. Then again, I'm normally using 2 stacked amps or one amp on a table, so it's all easily in reach with a bass strapped on. But I know some folk here use a footswitch!