Oh noticed more than one number between us.. must have been asleep then.. any how .. welcome to the club man!
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Amp report. I had another band practice and the rumble 100 is just not cutting it. I tried moving the amp around. Closer to walls, up on stand, eqing differently. Used some drive and bumped the high mids and was pounding my bass to cut through, but it worked. The gain was at half and the master at 3/4 and I was afraid to go anymore. We're doing heavy blues, hard rock stuff and the drummer is loud! So i'm gonna need some more power and volume. I had some questions that will hopefully help me decide what to do.
Keeping it in the Rumble family, Im wondering if I sell the 40 and buy another 100 to chain together, if it will be noticeably louder than if I got rid of the 100 for a 200. So breaking it down, 2 100w amps into 2 12" speakers, or 1 140w amp into 1 15" speaker. Which will be louder/handle more? Or is it even going to be a noticeable difference? I feel the 100 really isnt that much of an upgrade over the 40, so is the 200 without an ext cab really that much more powerful than the 100?
I've also thought about getting any cheap loud combo I can to run the 100 into. There is a crate 210 powered cab for super cheap on craigslist, but i'm having trouble getting ahold of the guy. Would something like this work? Using the 100 for tone and a little volume and then effects send into a louder combo/powered cab? Im out of my element with a full on rock band here.
Keeping it in the Rumble family, Im wondering if I sell the 40 and buy another 100 to chain together, if it will be noticeably louder than if I got rid of the 100 for a 200. So breaking it down, 2 100w amps into 2 12" speakers, or 1 140w amp into 1 15" speaker. Which will be louder/handle more? Or is it even going to be a noticeable difference? I feel the 100 really isnt that much of an upgrade over the 40, so is the 200 without an ext cab really that much more powerful than the 100?
I've also thought about getting any cheap loud combo I can to run the 100 into. There is a crate 210 powered cab for super cheap on craigslist, but i'm having trouble getting ahold of the guy. Would something like this work? Using the 100 for tone and a little volume and then effects send into a louder combo/powered cab? Im out of my element with a full on rock band here.
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Unfortunately, budget doesn't allow for this. I just missed the return window on the 100, so I still owe full price! Payments are not much since I got a decent deal, so I would just keep paying on it and use whatever cash i'm able to get from selling the 100, plus a little more. Kind of a weird situation, but whatevs. I'm thinking my budget is probably gonna be around $300, might be able to stretch it a little more, but from what i've been checking out on guitarcenter, i should be able to get a cab and a head. I'm thinking a 4x10 hopefully, and as many watts as I can afford. Any other advice?
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I had also wondered about keeping the 100 and doing eric_B's mod to allow me to use it as practice combo/100w head. And sell my 40 to fund a cab, aforementioned 4x10 maybe. More speakers=more volume? or enough volume I guess I should say haha.
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same here, finally got myself a used rumble 500 and now i'm happy. already did two gigs with it and had gain on 9 and volume on 11. one other thing i noticed: playing at home at low volumes is easier now because somehow my rumble 500's volume pot isn't like "either silent or full on" in the lower range, like my rumble 100 was. and it is less boomy, maybe because of the dampened inner back. i also thought about two 100s because of the super light weight. but when you look at the dimensions and portability of two combos, the 500 is the winner, even in weight.
Yea, my main thinking for this was because I already have one, and I feel like a pair of 100s would get me that extra oomph I need at practice, but I don't think it'll cut it for any gigs.
Could you connect the R40 to the R100 in the meantime for practice? That would give you a little more insight to the R200 question I think.
Apart from saving for a new R500; you could keep trawling the TB classifieds. If you can't get a V3 Rumble 2nd hand, I've noticed a few positive comments around the older models... You may be able to get by with a R350 combo, or head + cab/s. I assume there would some coming into the used market.
Maybe someone with experience of the older Rumbles could chime in with their thoughts?
I chained them the time before and had the same issue with volume. Like I said, i'm just new to playing at full band volume, its always been just some friends jamming or just acoustic stuff. I was way unprepared for the power needed for bass. I am going to try to sell one of my rumbles and keep an eye on used gear for now.
I'm doing a bit of self-quoting here!
Hoping someone might remember if this was indeed true that the 500 amp improves when pushed, rather than amp/cab setup at very low volume.
I'm sure Linnin can assist me here!
You might want to check this post on gain structure by Linnin: Fender Rumble Club
In fact, I'll read again to refresh my memory
Actually every amp has a 'good tone zone' where it is making full clean continuous power without strain. You get the full headroom that you can really feel and the best tone the amp has to offer. On my Rumble 350 that is half volume. You have to experiment.
It also seems that Scott truesdell's statement of post 10883 maybe true; the more I play on my new cabs the better they sound. BTW-I went ahead and purchased the r500 head to accompany my existing 210 cab and another future 210 cab.
I agree with @Scott Truesdell about breaking in your woofers. The concept is somewhat controversial, but suffice it to say that new speakers are stiff and could use some exercise. I've run into many old speakers that do indeed sound old and tired. Just like old people, their bottoms get flabby. Even though they are not blown they could do with a recone to revitalize them. Too bad I can't be reconed. 
so where I'm new with the rumble head is there anything I shouldn't do with the head that people have learned by using them? the single input had me concerned at first but figured I'll mostly be using a P bass thru this, I may use a double soap bar active bass thru it to but not much. the manual says just turn down the gain if the input is too strong but where the gain is set now its for some grit in the first place so wouldn't it be hard to know if the signal is too much by hearing it (unless it starts clipping?)
now playing live,, one of the gripes is there's only a post out on the rumble so far mine I have everything flat except the gain at 2 o'clock and the contour and bright are in together,,,,, if I play a club and he wants to come out of the post on this head should I change any settings to give him the cleanest direct signal do you guys shut off the bright,contour vintage.
now playing live,, one of the gripes is there's only a post out on the rumble so far mine I have everything flat except the gain at 2 o'clock and the contour and bright are in together,,,,, if I play a club and he wants to come out of the post on this head should I change any settings to give him the cleanest direct signal do you guys shut off the bright,contour vintage.
My vote is to take a solid inventory of gear you don't need and sell it all to fund the 500. You can use this amp for everything, instead of having parts and pieces littered between home, rehearsal, and gigs. It's much better than doing the mod, banking on the hope that it will ultimately lead to more output.
I'm not familiar with all the versions of the Rumble, but on the V3, the gain does not cause any grit. I also use multiple basses with mine, from passive to active. Nothing has ever *clipped* it. Just use your ears to judge how hard you are pushing the speaker(s).
Don't gripe about a well engineered feature that is actually a blessing. You want your sound & tone coming out of the PA don't you? For the price of a mic cable the Rumble's XLR out gives you sound quality as good or better than any $200+ mic on your cabinet, and is excellent for recording too.
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my passive eb bass equipped with dimarzio model one clips (even in single coil mode), when i hit hard and have my gain at noon. i can def hear it because i use flatwounds and at some point there's loud distorting highs, where there were none at all before. if you use a compressor/limiter before input it may work though. i use my gain at 9 now, because this way i can use the drive channel as some kind of "presence-enhancer" without any high fuzz (drive all the way down, volume at 1pm). but i agree, it might be different with any other bass/strings/taste...
you're not alone.I agree with @Scott Truesdell about breaking in your woofers. The concept is somewhat controversial, but suffice it to say that new speakers are stiff and could use some exercise. I've run into many old speakers that do indeed sound old and tired. Just like old people, their bottoms get flabby. Even though they are not blown they could do with a recone to revitalize them. Too bad I can't be reconed.
