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Rumble 200 turned out to be eggshell fragile
- Thread starter Lowandfat
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- rumble rumble 200 to
Well said. My next amp is almost certainly going to be a Rumble bass amp, unless I luck up on a better used amp cheap. I don't particularly care about weight, but the combination of sound quality and cost, built with all the durability I'll ever need, is irresistible.
If you're gonna check it out at a music store, you won't need a lot of time to find a great tone out of the Rumble! I used my 38 year old Pbass to try it, but once I got home, it sounded perfect with my 6 other basses. And you have a ton of options as well! I don't think you'll be disappointed at all in the Rumble. Cheers
Dang it, Texican! You keep making me want to buy a Rumble 500! What am I going to do with all these bass heads? I already wanted one of Andy's creations. And now, this. Gees, Louise.
Anyway, I suspect the Rumble excels within its class as you pointed out because Fender doesn't pull as high a margin on them as some of their competitors selling at similar price points. If I'm right, you would then get more bang for your buck with the Fender, and Fender would be making up for the lower margin on volume. This design philosophy works out better for the musician purchasing the bass head. Not as much profit per unit for the retail outlet, though.
I spent several years managing retail stereo / home entertainment outlets back when Pacific Stereo was all the rage in California. The manufacturer's listed price for a piece of electronic equipment has little to do with the actual cost of the unit to the retail store. The difference is what we call "margin". A commissioned salesperson will in most cases have a strong inclination to push the products with the highest margin because they make the biggest commissions on selling those items. Sometimes, as an extra incentive, manufacturers or retail outlets will offer commissioned salespeople a cash payout immediately after they sell certain high profit margin items. We used to call these cash pay outs a "spiff".
I've heard salespeople who I happen to know work on a commission basis talk down the Fender Rumble line, and I believe lower margins may possibly be the reason. If so, then there would be other products at the same price point that would make such a sales person a higher commission per sold unit, and in some cases, certain sales people will hawk those items. So depending on what you buy, you might be spending a higher percentage of what you pay to the sales person and retail outlet, than others. I think there's a reason Fender has done so well with their Rumble line. Same with Mesa.
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My commission on Hartke amps was about double what I made on Fender (dollar for dollar). I hated sales and only spent 3 months there before transferring to the warehouse.
The only Rumble I have played through was a Rumble 350 2x10 combo. It’s the first Fender bass amp that I really liked.
I've said in the thread more than once that the Rumble 200 sounded great, like REALLY great. All external parts are metal save the plastic knobs and switches. It took a freak bump that caused a catastrophic failure of a component in the amp. We are still trying to figure out exactly what might have caused it, and I've learned a lot from reading the responses in this thread.
Grumble 115 update: So far so good! Played two medium light gigs with it this weekend, and it covered both well without waffling. First was a small club with solid house sound, but the second was our club system on a good sized outdoor bar patio. Inside it was plenty of juice, and definitely filled the stage better than it did stock. Outside I was definitely near the limit, but playing that same gig with it stock a bunch of times, it was def a bigger bottom presence and more overall spl. Putting the KappaLite 3015 in it this week, and I will play it that way for the next few shows before starting to fine tune the box/ports. I know it's a bit too much for the volume, I would never question agedhorse's judgement on that, but after using it for two of the kind of shows I am hoping it will cover, I am nothing but encouraged. I'm confident the end result will be worth the minor fuss. It doesn't have the tasty tone stages of the the Rumble head, but I think with the freedom to throw a bit more at it with the beefier driver, I can get some dirt in there from the shuttle without fear of sizzling. As has been mentioned, the Shuttle might eat the stock driver by asking too much of it. I was pretty gentle with it over the weekend and it still did the jobs nicely. A fringe benefit is I will now more regularly be using the Shuttle 6.0 as the main head again, and the DI always sounds fantastic. FOH guy always smiles when they see my head.
Grumble 115 update: So far so good! Played two medium light gigs with it this weekend, and it covered both well without waffling. First was a small club with solid house sound, but the second was our club system on a good sized outdoor bar patio. Inside it was plenty of juice, and definitely filled the stage better than it did stock. Outside I was definitely near the limit, but playing that same gig with it stock a bunch of times, it was def a bigger bottom presence and more overall spl. Putting the KappaLite 3015 in it this week, and I will play it that way for the next few shows before starting to fine tune the box/ports. I know it's a bit too much for the volume, I would never question agedhorse's judgement on that, but after using it for two of the kind of shows I am hoping it will cover, I am nothing but encouraged. I'm confident the end result will be worth the minor fuss. It doesn't have the tasty tone stages of the the Rumble head, but I think with the freedom to throw a bit more at it with the beefier driver, I can get some dirt in there from the shuttle without fear of sizzling. As has been mentioned, the Shuttle might eat the stock driver by asking too much of it. I was pretty gentle with it over the weekend and it still did the jobs nicely. A fringe benefit is I will now more regularly be using the Shuttle 6.0 as the main head again, and the DI always sounds fantastic. FOH guy always smiles when they see my head.
- Feb 12, 2006
- 60,994
- 5
- 220,790
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
If you have reasonable expectations it might be fine. You will have to try it out and see how it works for you.
For sure, I'm not expecting the world, and everything we've done is from parts on hand.
Knee surgery took me out for a few months, but I am now back working again, and finally got the Grumble reloaded with a Kappalite 3015! It is now a Shuttle 6 driven 350w 15" combo that weighs about 35lbs. I am so happy with how this is turning out. Frankly, it is better than I hoped, and we haven't even started mucking around with tuning the cab. Handles low B with more strength and punch than I expected. My thought was the big jump in moving air would cause waffling, but so far it is performing like a champ. We're opening for GE Smith Friday, gonna get to try it with a second cab on a bigger stage in a theater that holds about 800. To all combo builders, this is what we want. Small, light, well voiced, will take a second cab, and have enough power built in to get the job done. With the 450w rating on the kappalite, I even have enough head room to mount my Streamline 900 on top, and the extra 300w over the Shuttle 6.0 would add all of about 2lbs. My trouble now since I pulled the 3015 out of the FliteCab it was living in, I now only have the low wattage but super-heavy Rumble speaker to put in there. Kind of defeats the purpose when you turn a 25-pound cab into a 37-pound cab.
Unless your 800 seat theatre is intent on raising the roof with the PA you won't need a second cab except as a stand for Grumble.
