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Well, now you have. I should write a 'Rumble Talk' on Jay. Here he is, and you get to see Dave Lewis too.I've never heard of him.
and here he is playing a Cabronita through a Fender Rumble combo.
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and a funny bit. Jay is getting his leg pulled by his boss Senior Vice President of Marketing Richard McDonald.
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Jay introducing the then brand new second generation Fender Rumble combos in 2010. Heads & cabs would come out in 2011. You can see and hear why Fender Rumbles made such a huge impact.
Today’s Rumble Talk puts the spotlight on Jay Piccirillo the former Senior Bass Marketing Manager for Fender Bass Amplification. The following comes directly from chapter 27 – Fender Bass Amplification of Tom Wheeler’s book The Soul Of Tone: Celebrating 60 Years Of Fender Amps. Published 2007.
“Jay Piccirillo was brought in to head FBA in 2002. His education includes a bachelor’s degree in music performance with an emphasis in business and years of performing as a professional musician. He has held marketing positions at Cakewalk, Yamaha, and Gibson along with being a writer and reviewer at Bass Frontiers magazine and a buyer of amps and effects at retailer Musician’s Friend. He is the first person to hold the title of Marketing Manager, FBA.”
Senior Vice President of Marketing Richard McDonald gave Jay permission to use the Rumble name, but Jay stated “there was a bit of an internal battle” about it. “Sonically, the identity of FBA became ‘thick, natural, and balanced’. Our amps support the natural sound of the instrument – much like our guitar amps have always done – without forcing an artificial voicing that makes all basses sound the same.” On the success of the original Fender Rumbles: “Yes, and they’re successful on a global scale. I believe they are the most popular family of bass combos in the world.” ~ Jay Piccirillo. In 2006 Richard McDonald called the Rumble 100 “Probably the best selling bass combo in the world right now.”
Jay and the FBA R&D team with most notable engineer Dave Lewis who would go on to be promoted to Principal Engineer and co-design the second generation Rumbles in the midst of the ‘Great Recession’. First introduced in Winter NAMM 2010 with heads & cabinets following in 2011.
For whatever reason, Jay Piccirillo would go on to a new position as Category Manager for Guitars at Sweetwater. From a Sweetwater press release dated Feb. 5, 2014:
"Jay Piccirillo is a life-long musician and home studio owner. After serving in the Army (including being recalled in support of Desert Storm), he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance w/emphasis in Business from the University of Massachusetts, which included an internship with Yamaha Drums. He became the Product Manager at Yamaha guitars, then the Buyer for Amps & Effects at Musician's Friend. As a writer, he reviewed products and CD's for Bass Frontiers magazine.
After discussing bass products during a trip with Fender, a new position was created and he became the first person in the company's history to focus solely on the bass category. In his 10 years as the Sr. Product Manager for bass amplification, his team developed successful products including the Rumble and Bassman lines. While in charge of bass guitars he revamped the American Standard and Deluxe lines along with the 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass and numerous artist models."
Today’s V3 Rumbles were introduced in 2014. Fender Rumbles are success after success after success. They attained best selling bass amp status on a global scale and have stayed there year after year after year for at the very least 10 years now. Indeed I have never seen any amp sell out completely shipment after shipment for well over a year as the Fender Rumble 500 combos and heads have done. It is simply unprecedented.
“Jay Piccirillo was brought in to head FBA in 2002. His education includes a bachelor’s degree in music performance with an emphasis in business and years of performing as a professional musician. He has held marketing positions at Cakewalk, Yamaha, and Gibson along with being a writer and reviewer at Bass Frontiers magazine and a buyer of amps and effects at retailer Musician’s Friend. He is the first person to hold the title of Marketing Manager, FBA.”
Senior Vice President of Marketing Richard McDonald gave Jay permission to use the Rumble name, but Jay stated “there was a bit of an internal battle” about it. “Sonically, the identity of FBA became ‘thick, natural, and balanced’. Our amps support the natural sound of the instrument – much like our guitar amps have always done – without forcing an artificial voicing that makes all basses sound the same.” On the success of the original Fender Rumbles: “Yes, and they’re successful on a global scale. I believe they are the most popular family of bass combos in the world.” ~ Jay Piccirillo. In 2006 Richard McDonald called the Rumble 100 “Probably the best selling bass combo in the world right now.”
Jay and the FBA R&D team with most notable engineer Dave Lewis who would go on to be promoted to Principal Engineer and co-design the second generation Rumbles in the midst of the ‘Great Recession’. First introduced in Winter NAMM 2010 with heads & cabinets following in 2011.
For whatever reason, Jay Piccirillo would go on to a new position as Category Manager for Guitars at Sweetwater. From a Sweetwater press release dated Feb. 5, 2014:
"Jay Piccirillo is a life-long musician and home studio owner. After serving in the Army (including being recalled in support of Desert Storm), he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance w/emphasis in Business from the University of Massachusetts, which included an internship with Yamaha Drums. He became the Product Manager at Yamaha guitars, then the Buyer for Amps & Effects at Musician's Friend. As a writer, he reviewed products and CD's for Bass Frontiers magazine.
After discussing bass products during a trip with Fender, a new position was created and he became the first person in the company's history to focus solely on the bass category. In his 10 years as the Sr. Product Manager for bass amplification, his team developed successful products including the Rumble and Bassman lines. While in charge of bass guitars he revamped the American Standard and Deluxe lines along with the 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass and numerous artist models."
Today’s V3 Rumbles were introduced in 2014. Fender Rumbles are success after success after success. They attained best selling bass amp status on a global scale and have stayed there year after year after year for at the very least 10 years now. Indeed I have never seen any amp sell out completely shipment after shipment for well over a year as the Fender Rumble 500 combos and heads have done. It is simply unprecedented.
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I have a 112 cab on the way to pair with my V3 500 combo and also will only use it to add a little bottom end. I mostly play at small to medium size clubs but we have some outdoor gig's coming up w/o PA support so will need the cab and all 500 watts from my combo. I also had the same idea of adding another 112 and pick up a 500 head, but would be a purchase made from Rumble love. The 500 combo and 112 would cover all my needs.
Hey Linnin,
I can't remember what kind of Rumble set up do you have.
Do you have a couple of Rumble 115 cabinets with the Rumble 500 head?
Or do you know anyone that has that kind of setup?
I can't remember what kind of Rumble set up do you have.
Do you have a couple of Rumble 115 cabinets with the Rumble 500 head?
Or do you know anyone that has that kind of setup?
I'm poor and am running a V2 rig of Rumble 350 head into a pair of Rumble 112 Neo cabs.
The Rumble 500 head into a pair of 115 cabs has got to be killer especially if your are looking for that vintage tube vibe without going to the expense of the new Bassman 500. One way to get a grip on the what the tone will be like (only much more of it) is to simply audition the Rumble 200 combo. Same front end (which is where the tone comes from) and identical 15" Eminence driver. The key here is the broad; smooth, and solid midrange dispersion plus powerful low end grunt. Eminence has really outdone themselves in designing such a pleasant woofer.
Thanks Linnin,
I've been thinking about running a Rumble 112 and Rumble 115 together.
And eventually adding another pair of those for a total of 4 cabs with my 900 watt head.
I've been thinking about running a Rumble 112 and Rumble 115 together.
And eventually adding another pair of those for a total of 4 cabs with my 900 watt head.
I would advise buying an identical pair of cabs at a time for coupling effect if nothing else.
Rumble On!
And assuming you have 2ohm head for running 4 cabinets at a time.
And assuming you play arenas to need all that, lol.
And assuming you play arenas to need all that, lol.
In terms of wars with guitar players...I've been busy so haven't had a chance to post, but about those 112 cabs... there should be a word stronger than "love."
They get the job done is a way that really can't be beaten. I love the midrange of 15's, but sometimes they can get boomy and othertimes just weird. The rumble 112's have a lot of the midrange bark of a 15, but IME none of the boom.
In gigging with them recently I've pretty much abandoned my combo 500 in favor of the 500 head and either one or two 112's... and you can't believe how well the 112 works by itself for a gig. in any reasonably-volumed band, a single should work fine, but the two 112's add meat to the midrange, and especially, raise the upper speaker where you can actually hear it. Note however that it takes more juice to get the 12's up to the same volume as the 210 - if you like the volume of the 500 combo at about 10 o'clock, expect to put the rumble 500 head's volume around 12 o'clock.
Someone said that Fender recommends placing the 112 on the floor, and I agree. I've had mine in the air about chest high, and it loses all bottom. put in on the floor and it suddenly doubles in volume and quadruples in depth. and still no boom.
and they weigh next to nothing and take up very little space. two in the backseat is an easy thing. try that with a 410.
as for my 500 combo - it's my practice amp now. backup if I ever need one. I've had it in situations where it was as boomy as anything you can imagine, so even though I still like it a lot and am not selling it, the 112 cabs sound so much better...
and an important thing worth noting - I've been playing around with mixing and matching cabs and amps - combinations of rumble 500 head, Rumble 500 combo, GK MB800, MarkBass LM800, GK Neo115-III, Rumble 112. The short of it is that the Rumble amp seems to make up the bulk of the sound we all seem to like, so don't make the mistake of thinking it's all the cab. It's the combination.To use a football analogy, It seems like the Rumble amps gets to you the red zone, but the cabs take you home.
So this weekend gonna stretch out with the two 112s. looking forward to it!
ps: for those following my war with the loud guitar player, he bought a Laney 5W combo. It sounds killer, and the volume came down dramatically. But he's having issues with it, so I'm sure it's back to the Fender this weekend. we'll see how those Rumble 12's work him over...
I took my 500 Combo and new 210 cabinet yesterday to rehearsal and it was plenty, which was pleasing. I ran the Gain at around 1500/3pm and Master at 0100/1am. It was great to be able to hear myself, the next step is getting better at setting the EQ for when everyone is playing, that I imagine will take some practice.
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That's whole lot of gain! Do you really need that much? Remember this is a solid state bass amp and not an all tube guitar amp where you would overdrive the power amp with high gain. Use the master to get the volume you need. By running the master higher than the gain you are going to get fuller headroom; more dynamic range, and cleaner faster transients.
re: Try before you buy - what I did was find a store with a rumble 112 combo (is that the 100?) and play through it to get a feel for the speaker. I liked it and bought the 112 cab. I also tried the 15 and interestingly did not like that - maybe too smooth, definitely not enough mid bark for me. But the 112 cab has a couple of things I like and have been looking for for years - there's a sort of "throatiness" to it that I like a lot. and the low end seems to fall away in just the right spot to tame boom. pretty easy to get a growl out of it too.So what your saying is these cabs are pretty great
I'm glad to hear such a glowing review, a buddy and I gave those 15's a good workout with my v2 350 and it was smooth as hell, I didn't feel any boominess but his v3 500 had a lot more bottom on tap so I can see where that would come from. If the 12's are sonically similar id love to save the size and weight (Sweetwater says like an 8lb difference per cab) so that definitely interests me. Guess Ill have to try before I buy haha
the only thing that gives me pause is the power rating on the cab - but if I blow a speaker, I already have a 400W eminence picked out. but I've played pretty loud through even a single cab and all was well.
actually I've run my gain all the way up and adjusted the volume with the master. no ill effects. also not much tonal difference.
