Double Bass First gig with Fender Rumble 40

[crgaston]

I picked up one of the new Rumble 40 amps yesterday and did a small bar gig with it tonight. Never more than 40 people in a 40x40 room with a 15' ceiling. Just got home and wanted to share. In short... This thing is great! Much more natural sounding than anything I've used so far. I can't compare it to the boutique amps, but heres what I have used:
GK MB200-> Eden D112XLT
GK MB200-> Bergantino EX112
GK MB200 as a preamp for a QSC K12
Alembic F-1X -> QSC 3402-> either the Eden or Bergantino.

My bass is a 1950 Kay C1 with Spiro S42 Mittels and a Fishman Full Circle. The amp's input impedance spec is not posted online anywhere I can find, but I did call Fender before I test drove the amp and they confirmed that it is 1 megOhm. Perfect for the Full Circle. I just plugged straight in.

The group was a 5 piece... Acoustic Guitar (DI to PA), Mandolin (mic to PA) Pedal Steel (amp only), Bass (amp only) and one guy who alternated between snare/hi hat (nothing) and fiddle (mic to PA).

At the beginning, I had it pointed towards me, maybe 5 feet back, but after a few tunes the drummer aimed it at himself. I lost a little high end. He said it sounded great. The pedal steel player also plays jazz upright and he said he was definitely getting one.

I had the master volume set about 90%, the gain knob around 10%, and cut a little low and low mid, boosted a little high and high mid. Bright switch on. Never did I have the first hint of feedback, and it never even felt like the amp was pushing back at the bass. Also, I didn't hear the first rattle or flub to indicate it was being pushed too hard. And it was plenty loud for that situation. A couple of musician friends were in the audience and they said the mix was nice and even, and that the bass sounded like a bass.

So, for low volume gigs, I couldn't be more pleased. Especially considering that it weighs 18 pounds. And that I got it for 207.00 including tax AND the extended "you-blow-a-speaker-and-we-fix-it" warranty from Guitar Center. Normally I support local shops as much as possible, but nobody else around here had one of these.

I test drove both the Rumble 40 and the Rumble 100 with both upright and electric, and honestly the upright sounded better through the 40. If I were planning on using one amp for doubling, I probably would have gotten the 100. And still might, depending on how the 40 performs on some upcoming gigs, thanks to GC's 30 day return policy. But for strictly upright...? This thing does what I want it to.

Hope some of y'all find this a useful report.

 

[eric.damstra]

I would expect that 40 Watt is not enough, even for low volume gigs.

I tried the 100 in a shop once and was very impressed. Sounded very natural and killer looks.

 

[crgaston]

Eric, yes the 100 was nice, too.

I've used this on 5 more gigs and a couple of rehearsals since my last post. All with no drummer. I've been putting it as far away from me as I can to forestall feedback issues, and so far haven't had any problems in that regard. It's held its own in situations ranging from small rooms with no PA support to a big stage in front of 500+ people. Sound engineers have been pleased with the DI output despite it being post-everything. And honestly, in the rock club, I appreciated being able to dial back the booming lows coming through the subs. It's not perfect, but it's been very good for my needs. After these last several gigs, I don't feel the need to spend the extra money for the 100 watt version. That might be different if I were playing more with loud drums, but for now, the 40 is more than enough.

 

[NJSouth]

I just had my Rumble 40 delivered today. Still playing with it but so far it sounds great. Glad to hear it worked in your gig... even if it was over a year ago. Any feedback on it now that you've had it a while?