Fender Rumble Club

[squarewave]

My vertical 4x8 array, with a small footprint, even horizontal dispersion, and tall enough for me to reach the controls and hear the amp.

 

[Linnin]

My vertical 4x8 array, with a small footprint, even horizontal dispersion, and tall enough for me to reach the controls and hear the amp.

View attachment 475783

KUDOS! LUV how you also verticalized the Fender Bass Amplification badging to match. Very Cool And Hey, Guess What? Welcome to the Fender Rumble Club, squarewave! You are member #238

Rumbles Rule!

 

[steve_rolfeca]

according to the specs I would say something like a beta (the 4-10 is rated 1000w, the beta 250)

I'd love to see a gut shot of the new 2*10 or 4*10 to confirm, but it's unlikely that they are using Beta's.

Beta 10A's are rated at 250w continuous and 500w program, so a 4*10 could be rated 2000w program and 1000w continuous. Fender is only rating the V3 4*10 at half that (1000/500 program/continuous).

IMO/IME, Betas would need a bigger tweeter or maybe a cone mid with a more complex crossover to approximate this sound, and that would drive the price up out of Rumble territory.

Does anybody know what type of speakers they use in the Combos? I'd like to build a pair of 2-10's for my V2 head, but I really like the sound of the v3 speakers and they seem to be rated either 4 or 16 ohms so they would be perfect for an 8 Ohms 2-10.

If you want to build a box with a similar tone, I would call Fender, and see if they sell the V3 drivers through their parts line.

The 12 in my V3 100 is made by Eminence Dongguan, in China, and it looks to be a custom build:

The magnet structure looks similar to the regular Alpha 12A, but it's smaller, and there are other differences.

The light construction of this driver probably contributes a lot to the harmonically rich sound of the V3 100. I've built and loaded a lot of cabinets with Alphas and Betas over the years, and they haven't had as much complexity in the upper mids and treble.

The Legend series have a much bigger magnet structure than this, and would also sound quite different:

 

[ShowMeTheDANI]

I bought my Rumble 100 way back and I've been using it on small venue gigs but mostly at home. I don't get why I never see Fender Bass amps on sets it's always Hartke amps (which I like as well).

PS Fender redesigned the Rumble series and gave it their classic vintage look only their Guitar amps usually had but I guess they're making it their signature look

 

[vdub75]

so @steve_rolfeca what speakers would your recommend for a good 210 cab for rock sound? Beta 16b? Delta 16b? I'd even try the alpha but it's only available in 8 ohms.

 

[Silas Stingy]

Very keen on pulling trigger on a 500 V3, but like some others I'd like to run a matched 2x10 extension cab for bigger gigs, so not quite joined the club yet.

 

[Linnin]

I bought my Rumble 100 way back and I've been using it on small venue gigs but mostly at home. I don't get why I never see Fender Bass amps on sets it's always Hartke amps (which I like as well).

PS Fender redesigned the Rumble series and gave it their classic vintage look only their Guitar amps usually had but I guess they're making it their signature look

Welcome to the Fender Rumble Club, ShowMe TheDANI! You are member #239 I take it your Rumble 100 is from the original first release or V1? 1x15 or 2x10? You are most definitely going to start seeing a lot of Fender Rumbles on a lot of stages in a lot of venues. The new retro look is a variation on the classic Fender silverfaced amp of the late 1960's through the 70's. My Bassman Ten and 100 looked very simular. So to me the new V3 Rumbles look like old friends that I haven't seen in a while.

Rumble On!

 

[Linnin]

Very keen on pulling trigger on a 500 V3, but like some others I'd like to run a matched 2x10 extension cab for bigger gigs, so not quite joined the club yet.

An Avatar 2x10 with the Fender silverfaced grill cloth to match loaded with Eminence ceramics will run you a little more than a Rumble 410. There are so many reviews and gig reports on the shear magic of the Rumble 500 combo + Rumble 115 cab that's a sure fire way to proceed. If you simply must have all 10's then the Rumble 410 is a most excellent option. Rumble 500 head atop a 410 is a very viable alternative. Accolades Abound!

 

[Wiggle]

It's been just over a month since I did my first post here on the TB forums and got my Rumble Club number, even though I hadn't received my new rig yet - I ordered a v3 500 watt combo and v3 410 extension cabinet at the beginning of June and waited patiently for 2 solid months to finally get the chance to pick up my new rig in its entirety in August. One jam session and 3 gigs later I'd like to post on my experience. One word... WOW!! I've always been a fan of Fender gear, especially the look of the classic Bassman amps. I really dig the recreation of the vintage style in these affordable new Rumble v3's.

I chose the 500 watt combo and 410 extension cabinet on the basis of having ample power and headroom while performing at smaller outdoor venues or even indoors with the 500 watt combo, and the band I joined have always tended to perform heavily in the summer months at outdoor festivals and events - which is where I chose to compliment the 500 watt combo with the 410 extension cabinet. Let me tell you, these Rumbles deliver!! I've used the 500 watt combo on its own for two performances, one at a bar, and one semi-outdoors in an old machine shop for a private party with the bay doors open. The 500 watt combo on its own drastically outperforms my aging Fender BXR100 that it replaced. It has great clarity and is able to make my Geddy Lee Jazz Bass "growl" stand out in the mix with little effort. It was able to keep up with the rest of the five piece ensemble (lead, rhythm, bass, vocals and drums), with headroom to spare. We play mostly classic rock with a mix of original southern rock material.

I've also had the opportunity to run the entire rig including the 410 extension cabinet at one single outdoor festival. The venue had some challenges in terms of scheduling and execution (which I won't go in to more detail), but for the mere 35 minutes that our performance actually lasted, it was well worth it to finally perform with both the combo and cabinet together. Paired together, the rig has a stereophonic characteristic that rings with even more clarity, without adding unwanted boom or muddy tones. It is a far cry from the washed out and muddy tone I was getting from my underpowered 115 Fender BXR100, which always got used as a stage monitor and relied on FOH PA support, yet still couldn't keep up on stage. I've had no concerns with driving the new rig too hard in any way, as I mentioned before there is lots of headroom in the 610 configuration.

Some comments I have received from our phenomenal drummer (and best friend) are that "I can finally hear all those funky fills that you play", or even "though I can't hear any of the vocals from the stage monitors, I just sync up to those bass lines and ride it out perfectly".

Since it has only been just over a month since having the rig, I'm still experimenting with the tonal qualities from the EQ. I've found a decent growl and enough lows even keeping things nearly all at 12 o'clock. At the last outdoor performance I had the following settings:

Gain: 2 o'clock (to get a mildly driven sound without overdrive)
Low: 1 o'clock (to boost the lows just a bit for a wide open nearly ground level stage)
Low Mid: 1 o'clock
High Mid: 11 o'clock
High: 11 o'clock
No Bright, Contour or Vintage enabled, and no tweeters on

Overall, I'm extremely happy with my upgrade to my new Rumble v3 rig and I'm not looking back.

I saw some mention of amp covers just a few posts ago, so I wanted to throw a shout out to Canadian-based custom dealer called Coveramp based in Montreal Canada (sorry, couldn't do a link just yet since I haven't posted enough). I wrapped both my 500 watt combo and 410 extension cabinet with their hand made covers, and I am absolutely thrilled with the end result. It is run by a couple, Pierre and Nancy, who provide top notch service. I gave them my measurements and Pierre responded within their guaranteed 12 hours and added both items to their online store for me to validate and review the quote. Pierre quickly picked out that I had made a mistake in the measurements for the 410 extension cabinet along the way and asked me to re-check them. I sent him the corrected values after coming home from work one day, and received a shipping notice for the entire order the next day. I was floored that they were able to finish both covers in such a short time (4 days total from time of purchase), and shipping was fast because I'm in Ontario. They use a high quality and durable synthetic leather, and can provide anything from no padding, to just front padding for the speaker grill, all the way up to full padding on all sides. You can choose things like the colour of the stitching and extra pockets if desired as well. Without asking, they even take extra care to provide extra padding around any dials and control knobs (like on the top and rear of the 500 watt combo).

I've added some pics of my new Rumbles for your visual enjoyment, both wrapped and unwrapped... Rumbles Rock!!

View attachment 475690 View attachment 475691 View attachment 475692 View attachment 475693 View attachment 475694

I also run a Rumble v3 500 Combo with the additional 4x10 cab and I am in COMPLETE agreement with Neogeek, it freakin rocks! It’s not even so much about getting “louder” as it is getting “fuller”, it just seems to fill in the sound. I wanted to go with the combo + cabinet route rather than head / cabinet just so things would be simple when I wanted them to be where I didn’t need a big behemoth of a stack, yet could still pack the punch if needed when playing live. I originally thought about going with the 1x15 cabinet but it just wasn’t for me and my style of playing and music. …and I DO so love the sound of 10’s, I always have. So far I haven’t experienced anything that’s made me question the rig.

 

[squarewave]

KUDOS! LUV how you also verticalized the Fender Bass Amplification badging to match. Very Cool And Hey, Guess What? Welcome to the Fender Rumble Club, squarewave! You are member #238

Rumbles Rule!

Thanks, but I already have a number. 142 if I recall correctly.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

so @steve_rolfeca what speakers would your recommend for a good 210 cab for rock sound? Beta 16b? Delta 16b? I'd even try the alpha but it's only available in 8 ohms.

Guys who use overdrive a lot tend to like tweeterless cabs. That requires a different type of driver, with a lot of "paper sound" in the upper mids. Legends work best in that application, giving a pretty good approximation of the SVT sound.

Clean, modern tones are usually better served by a two- or three-way cab with a pro-sound woofer, like a Delta or a Kappalite along with a properly designed crossover plus separate mid and/or treble drivers, like Greenboy's fEarful and fEarless cabs.

Given that you just bought a Rumble, I don't recommend either option.

You obviously like the old-school Bassman tone that Fender is building into these amps, and from what I've seen, the new drivers they're using are very much part of that sound. There's a certain amount of cone distortion going on, that you're not going to get from Alphas, Betas, Deltas or Kappalites.

Like I said in my last post, my recommendation would be to see if you can buy a set of V3 drivers, and then build a clone of the combo cab. The cabinet work is quite simple, and should be well within the skills of anyone who has built cabs before.

If you copy the internal volume and porting exactly, you should end up with an extension cab that perfectly compliments your combo.

I'd also recommend that you at least try the 115 extension. There are good technical reasons for trying to run matched pairs, but under the right circumstances it's not that unusual to get a complementary thing going between dissimilar cabs. You don't even have to like the tone of the 15 when it's soloed. What counts in a stack, is the blend.

In this case, the numbers work out OK in terms of power per driver, etc., and there are a lot of guys reporting that they dig the 210/115 stack...

 

[vdub75]

You got me wrong. I have a Rumble 350 HEAD, I play it through a Hartke 210/115 stack with eminence speakers atm (115 TP with Delta 15a, 210 TP with 2 Beta 10 a wired to 16 ohms) and before I fit new speakers into that 210 tp again, I'll go the complete DIY route I think. Gonna be much cheaper (a 115 Rumble Cab is 310€ in germany, a pair of delta 16b is around 130€ and the wood and hardware are around 50€ so it would save me like 40% of the cost compared to buying a pair of 115 rumble cabs). Or do you thing I should just keep my 115 and build a better 210 to fit it?

I like the basic sound of the rumble but in my speedrock-band I always have my sansamp on and in many songs I use and extra overdrive. The Beta cab sounds good on its own but is a little weak due to the smooth voicing of the betas and maybe because it's wired 16 ohms.

 

[Linnin]

Thanks, but I already have a number. 142 if I recall correctly.

Oops! You sure are #142. Sorry I missed that. I'll recycle #238

 

[Linnin]

I also run a Rumble v3 500 Combo with the additional 4x10 cab and I am in COMPLETE agreement with Neogeek, it freakin rocks! It’s not even so much about getting “louder” as it is getting “fuller”, it just seems to fill in the sound. I wanted to go with the combo + cabinet route rather than head / cabinet just so things would be simple when I wanted them to be where I didn’t need a big behemoth of a stack, yet could still pack the punch if needed when playing live. I originally thought about going with the 1x15 cabinet but it just wasn’t for me and my style of playing and music. …and I DO so love the sound of 10’s, I always have. So far I haven’t experienced anything that’s made me question the rig.

There you are Wiggle! I was wondering just where you wiggled off to. Thanks for your valuable testimony. Lets not forget that this is just a killer rig for only nine hundred simoleons.

Rumbles Rock!

 

[steve_rolfeca]

You got me wrong. I have a Rumble 350 HEAD, I play it through a Hartke 210/115 stack with eminence speakers atm (115 TP with Delta 15a, 210 TP with 2 Beta 10 a wired to 16 ohms) and before I fit new speakers into that 210 tp again, I'll go the complete DIY route I think.

...Or do you thing I should just keep my 115 and build a better 210 to fit it?

I like the basic sound of the rumble but in my speedrock-band I always have my sansamp on and in many songs I use and extra overdrive. The Beta cab sounds good on its own but is a little weak due to the smooth voicing of the betas and maybe because it's wired 16 ohms.

Sorry, I had you mixed up with someone else!

The Beta-loaded cab is bound to sound weak in your rig. At 16ohms, it strangles your Rumble 350 back to about 120 watts or so when it's on its own. In the stack, amp is still held back a bit, because you don't have a proper 4 ohm load. Plus, the 15 is getting double the power and drowning the 10's out.

Given what you're currently doing, why not try dropping a pair of Delta 10B's into your Hartke bin?

At 16 ohms per driver in parallel, you'll have a proper impedance match, plus their efficiency is better. The box volume is a bit large for Delta's in a sealed box, but they're so over-rated for the amount of power you have, that it shouldn't cause any problems.

If you like it you're done, with minimal time and expense invested.

If not, at least you've already got a pair of 16 ohm Deltas, and you can start looking at DIY cabinet designs to put them in.

Either way, you can sell the Betas to recover some of your costs...

 

[Wiggle]

There you are Wiggle! I was wondering just where you wiggled off to. Thanks for your valuable testimony. Lets not forget that this is just a killer rig for only nine hundred simoleons.

Rumbles Rock!

Thanks!

 

[vdub75]

@steve_rolfeca would the deltas work well in approx 70 liters vented? I'd tune both cabs to around 55 htz

 

[steve_rolfeca]

@steve_rolfeca would the deltas work well in approx 70 liters vented? I'd tune both cabs to around 55 htz

Sorry, mate. I'm a tech, not a speaker designer.

You need to take this question to the tech forum, and talk to some of the guys that have cabinet modelling software.

Or you could go to the manufacturer. Eminence has design info on their website:

Specifications:
http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=Delta_10B

Various suggested cab designs:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

BTW, according to Eminence, the Delta's don't like big vented boxes. It looks like only the smaller designs would work for stage use. The power handling drops off rapidly if the box is too large. The first design on that .pdf is limited to only 50 watts!

PS: another good reason to try them in your Hartke cabinet, which looks like a near-perfect match for the Delta's sealed cabinet specs.

 

[stevie p]

I'd like to talk a bit about Fender's patented Delta-Comp Limiter. This circuit was developed over 20 years ago and has been used mostly in solid state PA and bass amplifiers. It's been integral to the Fender Rumble since day one, and has been especially tweaked for this application.

If you look at the block diagram in your owner's manual, you'll see the Delta-Comp Limiter is placed in between the pre-amp and the power amp along with a special power amp clip detection circuit.

The Rumble 350's owner's manual describes Delta-Comp this way:
"Rumble bassamplifiers are equipped with Fender・s Delta-
Comp limiter to minimize power amp distortion and increase
sustain. Setting the VOLUME control to higher settings
or playing aggressively with hotter basses may result in a
heavily compressed sound with increased sustain. Using the
・6dB switch or setting the VOLUME control lower will provide
a less compressed sound with more dynamic range and
increased touch-sensitivity."

While the Rumble 500 owner's manual has almost nothing to say about Delta-Comp: "
Rumble amps are equipped with Fender's Delta-Comp™ limiter. Setting the MASTER higher or playing more aggressively will result in more compression and sustain! "

So what you end up with is a highly effective form of compression that is both dynamic and adaptive to you and your style of play in real time. Stompbox compressors or other brands built in compressors are very limited to the manual settings you select. They are static and cannot adapt to you and change themselves while you play. Also they are in front of the pre-amp, and not in between the pre & power amp stages as Fender's Delta-Comp is.
All this adds up to a highly effective but unseen bit of electronic magic that I call "the secret sauce" in Fender Rumble's signature tone. You hear the results, but you don't hear it actually working unlike heavy handed compressors that you actually hear working/breathing your signal's capture/compression/release cycle.

You'd have to spend more money than your Rumble cost to buy a studio grade compressor to get better.

Fender Rumbles Don't Cost A Million Bucks. They Just Sound Like They Do!

Hats off to David Lewis and F.M.I.C. !!!!! ive played through the rumble 150. it sounded good. but these v3's sound phenomenal ! still very happy with my purchase!!!!!

 

[RColie]

My vertical 4x8 array, with a small footprint, even horizontal dispersion, and tall enough for me to reach the controls and hear the amp.

Well, I have the Rumble v3 500 combo, which I really like, and I've been kicking around the idea of picking up a couple of neo 112s or 2x8s to try out before they're gone (I have a Rumble v3 500 head to drive these).. I'm thinking they might be a bit cleaner and more "modern" sounding than the v3 series, which will offer a nice contrast to the more vintage v3 sound.

Squarewave's post put me over the top and I worked out a "sweet" deal with Sweetwater to pick up a pair of Rumble neo 2x8s. It's great to have so many good choices!

Bob