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Fender Rumble Club

#13,841
Another noob question for everyone: how can you tell how many "watts" of cabs you can put below a given amp head?[/QUOTE]

I'm hopeless with maths and electronics so Im clueless as to how many watts or ohms or whatever. But at a guess I'd say the max watts into a stack would be the max capacity of the lowest rated cab. This is a guess remember.

The whole stack cost around A$1700 here in Oz. Really good value in my book. My basses are a Ray34, Japanese Aerodyne, and a Fender Pawn Shop SS Mustang. My one and only pedal is a tuner.
 
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#13,845
azfatboy said:
Gman, I am seriously green. Now THAT is a stack!

Another noob question for everyone: how can you tell how many "watts" of cabs you can put below a given amp head?
Click to expand...

I'm surprised nobody answered this yet.

The answer is, well not as simple as I was originally going to put it. But basically that thinking is in reverse. Cabinets receive the power that the amp puts out. Cabinets do not provide any power, they just handle the power given to them. So basically, you want your cabs to match or have higher ratings than your head. In the case of most solid state heads, cab impedance effects the output power (500 is 350w @8 ohm 500w @4 ohm for instance), so any single 8ohm cab should handle 350w or more if you plan on cranking it (this should be RMS or continuous rating, not max or program), a pair of 250w rated 8ohm cabs should be able to handle the head at 4 ohms, but caution should be used when using only one.

It gets more complicated when one cab is a different impedance than the other, since the power won't be equally distributed in that case. That is only something that applies to heads that can do 2.6 ohm or lower, which the rumbles can't, or an 8+16 cab which equals 5.3 ohms. Generally, 1/3 will go to the 16 and 2/3 will go to the 8. 16 ohm bass cabs are not common, however 2x10 cabs that came as 4 ohm can be rewired to 16 ohm, which makes them better paired with 8 ohm 410s, each speaker in the stack then gets the same amount of juice.

I ran a 700w 410 with a head that puts out 220-240w at 8ohm for almost 20 years, never had a problem. The whole stack was rated at 1050w when the head was putting out 350w (4ohms), not a problem.

Generally, only worry if the cabs handle less than the head puts out. Yes the whole post can be summed up in this one line.

And in a qui gon jinn voice, @Linnin will. Be. Fine.
 
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#13,846
GManfromOz said:
Another noob question for everyone: how can you tell how many "watts" of cabs you can put below a given amp head?
Click to expand...

I'm hopeless with maths and electronics so Im clueless as to how many watts or ohms or whatever. But at a guess I'd say the max watts into a stack would be the max capacity of the lowest rated cab. This is a guess remember.

The whole stack cost around A$1700 here in Oz. Really good value in my book. My basses are a Ray34, Japanese Aerodyne, and a Fender Pawn Shop SS Mustang. My one and only pedal is a tuner.[/QUOTE]
Damn good guess GmanfromOz, I was going to say ''when you hear farting then back off or turn down, I have had my share of recones too.:laugh:
 
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#13,851
ubernator said:
The answer is, well not as simple as I was originally going to put it. But basically that thinking is in reverse. Cabinets receive the power that the amp puts out. Cabinets do not provide any power, they just handle the power given to them. So basically, you want your cabs to match or have higher ratings than your head. In the case of most solid state heads, cab impedance effects the output power (500 is 350w @8 ohm 500w @4 ohm for instance), so any single 8ohm cab should handle 350w or more if you plan on cranking it (this should be RMS or continuous rating, not max or program), a pair of 250w rated 8ohm cabs should be able to handle the head at 4 ohms, but caution should be used when using only one.

Generally, only worry if the cabs handle less than the head puts out. Yes the whole post can be summed up in this one line.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I didn't ask the right question. I really understand that the cabs just receive--and I vaguely understand the whole impedence thing. I guess I want to know how to tell the "optimum" head for a given cab configuration, or vice versa. For example, Gman has the Rumble 500 head, paired with a 410 (rated 500W/100W peak), and a 115 (rated 300W/600W peak). Is this head ideal for this stack? Or too much or too little? Why? And are there options with this combo that affect impedence? And does this mean that pairing the 500 head with just a 115 could potentially damage the cab if the head was putting out >300W for a sustained period? I'll stop there, but these are some of the uber-basic questions floating through my head.
 
#13,852
OK, I'll give this a try (and Ubernator is correct in his post above).

The Rumble v3 500 head is rated at 350w @ 8ohms and 500w @ 4 ohms.
If you use just the 8 ohm 410 *or* the 8 ohm 115, the single cab could get up to 350 watts (the 500 head @ 8 ohms).
Ignore peak ratings, just consider continuous/RMS.
The 8 ohm 410 is rated at 500 watts, so as long as you're reasonable and listening for speaker stress there shouldn't be a problem, since the 500 head puts out 350 watts at 8 ohms.
The 8 ohm 115 is rated at 300 watts, so you'll want to be a bit more careful but it's still doable.
If you use the 410 and the 115 together, the 500 head is presented with a 4 ohm load, and each speaker cabinet gets 250 watts (1/2 of the 500 watt output from the head at 4 ohms).
On the face of it this is not a problem, but while 15 inch speaker is getting 250 watts, each of the 10 inch speakers in the 410 cabinet is getting only 62.5 watts (250 watts divided by 4).
So, the 115 cabinet could be working hard and the 410 is barely breathing.
Hope this helps...

Bob
 
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#13,853
However in real life, at the db's you'd be putting out, because you are saying you have the amp at full volume, using all 500 watts through those 2 cabinets... Your ear drums are going to blow before the speakers.

A 350 watt head through a 300 watt cabinet is fine, assuming you aren't running the amp at 10, and assuming you are eq'd properly.

Let's not forget these are modern design heads and cabs, you're not racking out all the controls to 11
 
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#13,854
DerekW said:
However in real life, at the db's you'd be putting out, because you are saying you have the amp at full volume, using all 500 watts through those 2 cabinets... Your ear drums are going to blow before the speakers.

A 350 watt head through a 300 watt cabinet is fine, assuming you aren't running the amp at 10, and assuming you are eq'd properly.

Let's not forget these are modern design heads and cabs, you're not racking out all the controls to 11
Click to expand...
Well stated.
 
#13,855
gl1234 said:
Question for big and little Rumble combo owners:

I just picked up a Rumble 25 for practice and was really impressed at how nice it sounds, actually i admit i was surprised at how nice it sounds. Are the big combos (115 and 210) in the same tonal world as the little 25?
Click to expand...
I have the 40 and 500. Yes they are very similar and i run my eq flat on both with contor and vintage buttons engaged. Love them!
 
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#13,859
gl1234 said:
Question for big and little Rumble combo owners:

I just picked up a Rumble 25 for practice and was really impressed at how nice it sounds, actually i admit i was surprised at how nice it sounds. Are the big combos (115 and 210) in the same tonal world as the little 25?
Click to expand...
Even better. The sound is definitely Rumble. The larger amps just have more tonal control. I have a 25, a 100, and a 500 with a 2x10 extension.
 

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