Fender Rumble gigging question

[mrwink]

I use as Rumble 200 with a GK112 for a restaurant/sports bar gig and it's perfect... yes, it can be really 'loud', but it easily tames and has a great full sound for cheeps! I was using a GB Shuttle 112 before the Rumble - the Rumble works/sounds better, though YMMV.

 

[pappabass]

Yeah, it causes issues when you play small places & large places. I sold my super heavy stuff due to back injuries & since I played such small venues. Never figured I would play anything large or I just could plug into the pa system. That changed. Our leader has a outdoor venue we play at now and I can not plug into the pa system. About burned up my small combo (160w 12" with extension cab). So I have since bought a TC electronics head & a lighter weight 15" cabinet. Now on my small indoor gigs I take the 12" cab (30 lbs). I don't feel out of place bringing a giant combo amp on the the small stage. The larger/outdoor stuff I take the 15 & the 12 if needed. Sorry, I did not exactly answer the rumble question! I do have a Rumble 25 for practice !

 

[Josh Gone]

Yeah, it causes issues when you play small places & large places. I sold my super heavy stuff due to back injuries & since I played such small venues. Never figured I would play anything large or I just could plug into the pa system. That changed. Our leader has a outdoor venue we play at now and I can not plug into the pa system. About burned up my small combo (160w 12" with extension cab). So I have since bought a TC electronics head & a lighter weight 15" cabinet. Now on my small indoor gigs I take the 12" cab (30 lbs), & larger/outdoor I take the 15 & the 12.

Very similar reason for my buying a Rumble. I figured I could always add my Ampeg 115 as an extension speaker.

 

[Paulabass]

PSA: whether driving an amp to its limits sounds good is dependent on the amp - some distort gracefully, some even pleasantly, however it is not torture on your speakers. Underpowering is a myth.

Distortion, and overdrive are different things from clipping. Clipping is never a pretty sound unless your into some very out there sounds.
If there is ANYTHING digital in your signal path, and it gets clipped, say goodbye to your tweeters.

 

[waveman]

Thanks for the comments so far, I appreciate all of them!

I'm confident in how I had the preamp stages set for the 200, tone stack controls at 12 o'clock, no voicing selected, no overdrive amount or gain, and input volume fully counter-clockwise. It's possible that the 200 I auditioned may have had an issue (Guitar Center, brand new amp).

As soon as I raised the master up to where the bass came through it was LOUD. There was a very small area of the control between fully CCW and 8 o'clock that I could get an intermediate volume, but it was REAL touchy. It did get louder past 9 o'clock but there's no way I was going to dime this in Guitar Center.

After a lot of years of having a crash cymbal off my right ear I don't play with loud drummers any longer. Once in a while I get involved with a pickup project where a drummer is involved, but all these guys now play nice percussion and there's usually not even a crash cymbal on their kits. My tinnitus can't take the abuse any longer.

I gave up actively playing a few years ago for various reasons but I still do an occasional bar gig doing Cajun/Zydeco, early country, or old time / Bluegrass / Americana stuff, but sans loud drummer. I used to play Tele mostly, but I've went to acoustic guitar, again due to the volume issues.

I'm still totally up in the air on any long-term decision, I currently use a Workingman's 12 for bass and that does fine volume-wise. The extreme light weight of the Rumble combos is a huge plus for me.

Keep those cards n' letters comin'...

FWIW, this is why I eventually dumped the 500. I didn't use it for bedroom practice, and didn't need it for that. I had to turn my gain to about 8:00 -9:00 to even use it with my smaller cab, which meant I was getting a cleaner sound than I really wanted. When I had the gain set to 10:00 - 11:00, my master behaved the same way... too much, too soon. It was great when I needed my 410 at bigger venues though.

Also, If want the other extreme, go with an Ampeg PF 500. It doesn't get cooking until about 11:00 and has plenty of travel to adjust for lower volumes. The master seems to be designed to crank it.

 

[Element Zero]

... I don't get this. Honestly. Why can't you just turn the volume down if it's too loud? Or turn down the input so the master isn't as sensative? I use my 800 watt head, 115 and 112 for home practice/gigs. I just don't turn it up as loud as I would for band rehearsal or performance. Surely the same can be done on ANY amplifier.

 

[rudy4444]

It sounds to me like there might be a design or quality control issue that causes this odd volume behavior to crop up occasionally, at least for the 200s and 500s mentioned here.

As I've stated a few times in this topic "Input gain was fully counter-clockwise and the amp was pretty much at full volume when the master was advanced to the point of the amp being audible."

I can't set the input gain any less than zero!

 

[rudy4444]

... I don't get this. Honestly. Why can't you just turn the volume down if it's too loud? Or turn down the input so the master isn't as sensative? I use my 800 watt head, 115 and 112 for home practice/gigs. I just don't turn it up as loud as I would for band rehearsal or performance. Surely the same can be done on ANY amplifier.

I know you don't get this, but there shouldn't be a need to set my instrument volume control to about 5% to get the Rumble 200 to a level below earthquake level (even with all of the preamp settings including input gain at minimum).
The only "turning down the volume on the amp" was the master, and it was pretty much no volume or loud enough in Guitar Center that I felt sorry for the sales staff. That seems pretty plain to me.

If you can explain to me why this amp shouldn't react any differently than the many amps I've used over the years that would be good.

 

[SLO Surfer]

brand new amps sitting on the sales floor

I gotta add to this discussion that any gear sitting in a guitar center I would not classify as brand new. I consider all of their basses and amps to be used and abused by the hundreds of punks and sales people that mishandle them daily. So this can definitely be a malfunctioning/broken/damaged amp you were trying out.

The Rumble 200 combo I tried in a guitar center did not act as you describe. The master knob was linear and useful from a very low volume up to a loud stage volume.

 

[waveman]

... I don't get this. Honestly. Why can't you just turn the volume down if it's too loud? Or turn down the input so the master isn't as sensative? I use my 800 watt head, 115 and 112 for home practice/gigs. I just don't turn it up as loud as I would for band rehearsal or performance. Surely the same can be done on ANY amplifier.

You would think so, but this was not a one-time phenomenon with this amp. It literally will go from being nothing to too much with 1mm of travel. So you get nothing, then a little muffled sound, then bam - loud.

The only explanation I can come up with is that it is how the circuit was designed. It did this with two different sets of cabs. My 210 would sound like it was about to blow if I didn't turn the gain down to somewhere between 8:00-9:00. The 410 went from nothing to glorious boom with the same setting. I would say it has to with the combination of preamp design and the Pot used for the Master.

 

[waveman]

The Rumble 200 combo I tried in a guitar center did not act as you describe. The master knob was linear and useful from a very low volume up to a loud stage volume.

Mine would do this with the gain set lower than I like.

 

[AstroSonic]

Mine would do this with the gain set lower than I like.

The 40, 100, 200 and 500 all share the same preamp, and differ only in power amp module and cab/driver(s). Any of these that jump from almost no volume to high volume are defective. Normally any of these can be adjusted smoothly from no volume to high volume. Any units purchased with this problem should be returned for repair or simply exchanged for a properly working amp.

 

[waveman]

The 40, 100, 200 and 500 all share the same preamp, and differ only in power amp module and cab/driver(s). Any of these that jump from almost no volume to high volume are defective. Normally any of these can be adjusted smoothly from no volume to high volume. Any units purchased with this problem should be returned for repair or simply exchanged for a properly working amp.

I don't believe the amp was broken. I think it is more of a function of the relationship between the Gain and Master controls.

 

[AstroSonic]

I don't believe the amp was broken. I think it is more of a function of the relationship between the Gain and Master controls.

The 40, 100, 200 and 500 all share the same preamp, and differ only in power amp module and cab/driver(s). Any of these that jump from almost no volume to high volume are defective. Normally any of these can be adjusted smoothly from no volume to high volume. Any units purchased with this problem should be returned for repair or simply exchanged for a properly working amp.

Whether you call it broken or defective, it's not functional. This is not a design defect because most of them work properly... unless the properly functioning ones are in fact defective!

 

[Sid s]

I gotta add to this discussion that any gear sitting in a guitar center I would not classify as brand new.

Sadly, the same applies to online stores. I bought my Rumble 500C brand new from Musician's Friend. It arrived in a re-stapled box, and surprise surprise - it had a scratchy main pot. So it seems that MF's way to deal with this Fender quality issue is to just ship returned, faulty units out to new unsuspecting customers.

 

[rudy4444]

Sadly, the same applies to online stores. I bought my Rumble 500C brand new from Musician's Friend. It arrived in a re-stapled box, and surprise surprise - it had a scratchy main pot. So it seems that MF's way to deal with this Fender quality issue is to just ship returned, faulty units out to new unsuspecting customers.

It shouldn't require any special luck to get a working product from on line suppliers, but sometimes that's the case. The single time I attempted to get an amp from MF was a bust. I ordered a small 5 watt tube amp from them and after 3 consecutive tries I gave up and just got a refund. All three were dead upon arrival. In their defense they were very apologetic and accommodating, it just wasn't happening for me. It made me extremely leary about ordering amp stuff from them. I'm sure in 99% of the cases it works out fine.

 

[rocu]

The current Rumble 100 DOES have a DI out: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/fender-rumble-100-1x12-100w-bass-combo-amp?rNtt=rumble 100&index=1 The current Rumble 40, 100, 200 and 500 all share the same preamp, EQ and DI.

Looks like the Rumbles, mine included, have a Line Out. I thought the 200 and higher had an actual DI out but I see I was mistaken.

I believe a line out is not the same as a DI out, it's not balanced and may not handle phantom power very well. That's something I learned on the internet so not guaranteed.

 

[rudy4444]

Looks like the Rumbles, mine included, have a Line Out. I thought the 200 and higher had an actual DI out but I see I was mistaken.

I believe a line out is not the same as a DI out, it's not balanced and may not handle phantom power very well. That's something I learned on the internet so not guaranteed.

No, The Rumble amps DO have a balanced XLR DI output. It would be more useful if it had a switch to select pre or post operation, but it's still a true DI.
I believe Fender is using the verbiage "XLR Line Out" to differentiate it from a DI that is pre/post selectable. The Rumbles are wired so all the controls and master volume all effect the DI output. Too bad, but it's a choice they made most likely to un-complicate use or even to minimize price.
Phantom power would be of no use in this case, but the amp will simply ignore it if phantom is engaged at the PA or other device that it's feeding.

 

[rocu]

No, The Rumble amps DO have a balanced XLR DI output. It would be more useful if it had a switch to select pre or post operation, but it's still a true DI.
I believe Fender is using the verbiage "XLR Line Out" to differentiate it from a DI that is pre/post selectable. The Rumbles are wired so all the controls and master volume all effect the DI output. Too bad, but it's a choice they made most likely to un-complicate use or even to minimize price.
Phantom power would be of no use in this case, but the amp will simply ignore it if phantom is engaged at the PA or other device that it's feeding.

Good to know. Thanks.

 

[Linnin]

The 40, 100, 200 and 500 all share the same preamp, and differ only in power amp module and cab/driver(s). Any of these that jump from almost no volume to high volume are defective. Normally any of these can be adjusted smoothly from no volume to high volume. Any units purchased with this problem should be returned for repair or simply exchanged for a properly working amp.

^^^Words of Wisdom^^^