Fender Rumble100, VERY nice!

[G-Dog]

Rumble on! As you requested, @G-Dog , @G-Dog. And one more time, thanks @G-Dog! That makes three times.

Heh, heh, heh! Don't look under yer bed tonight, know what I'm sayin'? Heh, heh.

 

[BassicJazzy]

OP, how do you get away with playing out loud in an apartment? Given the way bass carries through walls and floors, I would have thought you'd annoy someone no matter what time of day you try to practice.

Here is a pic of the setting I use on the Rumble100 for apartment playing. Also, I have the volume on the bass itself dialed back to about 60 - 70% of max, and tone off with blend highly favoring the neck pickup. Set for jazz walking. The enhancement buttons are all off on the amp, if I turn them on it gets too loud.

When I played with the SWR BB2 I had gain at 50%, Aural Enhancer at 10 o'clock, master at about 9 o'clock, equalizer flat. Setting on the bass comparable to where I have them now. So the Rumble is perhaps 20% louder? I guess one 12" speaker beats 2 x 8" plus a 5" tweeter? Or modern tech has just gotten that much more efficient?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

The rumble 100 is my rehearsal amp. Lightweight, good sound and loud enough to hang with a drummer.

I have two that I daisy chain for use at church in a small (50-60 people) venue with lots of reflective surfaces. I only use one R100 at home for practice. The gain is set to about noon and the master to about 9 o'clock - a bit more for home, a bit less at church. The volume is similar, a combination of using two amps at church and using a practice room that eats sound. Both Rumbles together weigh about half of what my two different 100+ watt 2x12 tube guitar amps[1] and my Lab L5 2x12 solid state guitar amp each weighed.

Oh, yeah. Once at an outdoor gig we played to about 60-70 people spread out over maybe a 40x60 space with some trees thrown in for good measure.. I put one Rumble either side of the stage, up off the ground. It was a bit loud down front, and a bit quiet in the back, but overall worked for the setting.

[1] Univox's response to the Twin Reverb and a Peavey Heritage.

 

[BassicJazzy]

Have discovered one issue with my Rumble100. It is not a big one, but I find that at lower volumes I have a hard time distinguishing a low E from low F. I don't remember having this problem when I played on the SWR BB2. I am wondering if anyone else has this issue with the amp? My hypothesis is that the lack of a tweeter results in fewer higher level harmonics, which are useful for distinguishing those lower notes.

 

[KenB]

Have discovered one issue with my Rumble100. It is not a big one, but I find that at lower volumes I have a hard time distinguishing a low E from low F. I don't remember having this problem when I played on the SWR BB2. I am wondering if anyone else has this issue with the amp? My hypothesis is that the lack of a tweeter results in fewer higher level harmonics, which are useful for distinguishing those lower notes.

Could be some kind of room effect?

Try putting the amp on a chair, moving the amp across the room, or into another room and see if the problem goes away. You never know!
Weirder things have happened...

 

[BassicJazzy]

Could be some kind of room effect?

Try putting the amp on a chair, moving the amp across the room, or into another room and see if the problem goes away. You never know!
Weirder things have happened...

I found a solution, use "vintage" setting on pre-amp. That enhances the bass frequencies and makes them a lot clearer.

 

[John D Harris]

I found a solution, use "vintage" setting on pre-amp. That enhances the bass frequencies and makes them a lot clearer.

Your bass guitar, how it is set up, tone control, how you are playing it and its strings can affect that as well.

 

[BassicJazzy]

Your bass guitar, how it is set up, tone control, how you are playing it and its strings can affect that as well.

All of that is true. My Sire P5 with flats is not as clear at the bottom as my Ibanez SR with tapes, or my Fender Jazz Plus with pressure wounds. Also, let's not forget to add 1) age of the player's ears (70 not as good as 20), 2) number of times player was seated 20' directly in front of speaker column at '70's rock concerts, 3) number of years player used overpowered amp and no monitor, playing louder, instead of better, etc., etc.

All this said, I do miss the tweeter from my SWR BB2. With they had put even a small one on the Rumble100, but the "vintage" setting workaround seems to suffice, for now.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

All of that is true. My Sire P5 with flats is not as clear at the bottom as my Ibanez SR with tapes, or my Fender Jazz Plus with pressure wounds. Also, let's not forget to add 1) age of the player's ears (70 not as good as 20), 2) number of times player was seated 20' directly in front of speaker column at '70's rock concerts, 3) number of years player used overpowered amp and no monitor, playing louder, instead of better, etc., etc.

All this said, I do miss the tweeter from my SWR BB2. With they had put even a small one on the Rumble100, but the "vintage" setting workaround seems to suffice, for now.

To each their own! I have never wished for a tweeter in my R100s.

 

[John D Harris]

To each their own! I have never wished for a tweeter in my R100s.

Even a cheap tweeter would raise the price, heck even making it an option would raise production costs.
My ears cannot tell the difference anyway - too much firearms, motorcycles, and Rock&Roll!

 

[BassicJazzy]

Even a cheap tweeter would raise the price, heck even making it an option would raise production costs.
My ears cannot tell the difference anyway - too much firearms, motorcycles, and Rock&Roll!

You make an excellent point. I wasn't thinking about the impact on price, which is of course one of the main things I like about the R100, and a reason I didn't go for a GK112. My SWR BB2 retailed for about $850 in '94, which is about $1,500 in inflation-adjusted dollars. R100 sounds nearly as good, and is louder, so forget about the tweeter, you are right!

 

[John D Harris]

You make an excellent point. I wasn't thinking about the impact on price, which is of course one of the main things I like about the R100, and a reason I didn't go for a GK112. My SWR BB2 retailed for about $850 in '94, which is about $1,500 in inflation-adjusted dollars. R100 sounds nearly as good, and is louder, so forget about the tweeter, you are right!

I was hoping to check out the R100c with my Two Notes Opus run into the FX Return today, had everything loaded in my car.
I live about 45 minutes from the town that stocks Rumbles.
I had to take care of some business while there and as I was about to head for the music store, I noticed the inside tread of one of my front tires on my vehicle was worn dangerously low.
So I immediately drove to a tire store and bought a couple of tires, by the time they got done it was 15 minutes before the music store closed.
Another time maybe.
I'm still deciding between the R100c and an Electro-Voice ZLX-12P-G2 active PA cab.
The R100c is less expensive and if my Opus had problems, I could just run my bass into the front end of the combo.
I still suspect the EV would make a better FRFR for modeling than the R100c.