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Rumble 40 sound

fordkisskrazy

fordkisskrazy

Jul 6, 2009
176
24
Aurora co.
#1
Hi all, been away for some years and started trying to play again, I have bought a used fender rumble 40 off my local c.l. and I can't for the life of me get any of my bass's to so good through it. It just sounds....cheap?
Boxy?
Any help with settings for it would be helpful. I play a fender American 63 vintage p bass and a squire classic vib 70's jazz with s.d quarter pounders. Just so you know what I'm using.
Neither one sounds like they should. I keep trying different settings on the amp but it just sounds wrong!!
Not playing out right now, just playing at home. Thanks!
 
#4
Old Garage-Bander said:
It might help if you could be more descriptive on how it sounds. Most of what you described, "cheap", "Wrong" don't really tell us much in the way of tonal characteristics.

"Boxy" does however, provide us some clues.

Perhaps refer to the Bass Tone Glossary for additional phrases you can use to describe how it sounds.
Bass Tone Glossary | TalkBass.com
Click to expand...
It sounds dull, not articulate. Everything just sounds dead.Thin and weak, no punch what so ever. My bass's sound blah. I don't expect it to sound like a 210 or anything close to something bigger. It really only sounds half good with the vintage button on.Both my bass's have new strings and last night I went to a friend's house and played on his acoustic b100c and they sounded great! They really sound great on his ampeg! Lol. But that's a whole different animal!!!
 
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#5
First thing I’d suggest is cut the bass to 9 or 10:00 and turn the vintage off. “Boxy” may live in the low mid, so make sure that’s not too high either. Try it off the floor, on a chair or amp stand. A 10/2/2/10 EQ is a good starting point, flatting out the fender scoop.

know that the gain is essentially a variable input pad and there is a delta comp limiter, a variable compression, responding to the gain signal. In short it is unique and not like other gain structures. Some report better clarity with gain all the way down; I always thought they sound great with the master cranked and control volume with the gain knob. My point is, play with the extremes of the volume knobs.

The Rumbles have a pretty heavy handed baked in tone, and seem to have a love/hate relationship. If you can’t love it, I wouldn’t feel bad, you won’t be the first!
 
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#6
CallMeAl said:
First thing I’d suggest is cut the bass to 9 or 10:00 and turn the vintage off. “Boxy” may live in the low mid, so make sure that’s not too high either. Try it off the floor, on a chair or amp stand. A 10/2/2/10 EQ is a good starting point, flatting out the fender scoop.

know that the gain is essentially a variable input pad and there is a delta comp limiter, a variable compression, responding to the gain signal. In short it is unique and not like other gain structures. Some report better clarity with gain all the way down; I always thought they sound great with the master cranked and control volume with the gain knob. My point is, play with the extremes of the volume knobs.

The Rumbles have a pretty heavy handed baked in tone, and seem to have a love/hate relationship. If you can’t love it, I wouldn’t feel bad, you won’t be the first!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll try all that!
 
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#7
I struggled to find a tone I liked for the first few day with my R40. When I remembered the 10/2/2/10 setting and tried that I nearly found the sound I was after from this amp. I found something close to what I wanted. I had a Dayton Audio PA255-8 and tried it with the port mods and cab lining as described by @AstroSonic in the Wiki Page. Right away it was louder, deeper firmer and very Bluesy to Blues-Rock or a country style tone. Very much a baked in tone, that I love in the appropriate styles.

As for most everything else I like to play, my Ashdown Studio 8 & AAA Five-15 are my overall favorite sounds. They have their own baked in sounds too, but to me are more rock, pop and worship to me.
 
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#8
fordkisskrazy said:
It sounds dull, not articulate. Everything just sounds dead.Thin and weak, no punch what so ever. My bass's sound blah. I don't expect it to sound like a 210 or anything close to something bigger. It really only sounds half good with the vintage button on.Both my bass's have new strings and last night I went to a friend's house and played on his acoustic b100c and they sounded great! They really sound great on his ampeg! Lol. But that's a whole different animal!!!
Click to expand...
Thanks.
Some people just don't like how a certain brand of amp is voiced.
I think Ampeg and Fender are kinda near opposite ends of that spectrum.
Find what works for you and play the heck out of it.
 
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#10
If you can't easily get it to sound pretty good with its very decent 4-band e.q., then either something is wrong with it, you aren't good at controlling your amps, or you have unsound expectations from the amp. (Insert any number of "and/ors" in that list.)

It may be low powered, but it's very tonally malleable, and can provide a quality sound when operated thoughtfully for a use in which it stands a chance of sounding good.

A settings list and a video with good sound quality is the only place we can really go from here.
 
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#11
fordkisskrazy said:
It sounds dull, not articulate. Everything just sounds dead.Thin and weak, no punch what so ever. My bass's sound blah. I don't expect it to sound like a 210 or anything close to something bigger. It really only sounds half good with the vintage button on.Both my bass's have new strings and last night I went to a friend's house and played on his acoustic b100c and they sounded great! They really sound great on his ampeg! Lol. But that's a whole different animal!!!
Click to expand...
Your description of the problem is a little lacking in detail, so it’s a little difficult to pin down. Moreover, you haven’t really told us what sound you’re looking for. As the Rumble 40 is a 110, shouldn’t sound a whole lot different from a 210 except for volume, allowing for differences in the drivers themselves.

It sounds to me like you might have a problem with the voicing of Rumbles in general. If you like the Ampeg tone, Rumbles may simply not be your cup of tea. As @Old Garage-Bander observed, Ampegs and Rumbles are voiced very differently, and if not actually opposites, don’t really sound like each other at all. Rumbles tend more towards the vintage side of the spectrum, so the 10/2/2/10 o’clock setting for bass, low-mid, high-mid and treble respectively is what constitutes a flat response for a Rumble. This is a good starting point for experimentation, especially if you’re not in love with the baked-in Rumble tone.

Some other interesting Rumble tones can be found here:



Also, you should pay a visit to the Rumble Club, where you’ll find helpful folks and lots of good tips. We’d love to see you there! :)

Fender Rumble Club
 
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#13
As a R40 owner i can share the OP’s frustration...

I don’t think that the problem comes from the baked in tone but from the quality of the tools you get for sculpting your sound.
The EQ section sounds barely decent to my ears so you can only adjust by very little amounts before it starts sounding processed and unnatural which is a problem when you start far away from the sound you wanna achieve.

I usually ended up with both vintage and contour ON and a lot of low mids down before i got a SushiBox Detective and resetted the amp settings. The sound i have now feels warm and natural as if the bass itself sounded like that as opposed to overprocessed.

As a sidenote my R40 ports were also farting a lot on any notes lower than B on E string. Had to put socks in the ports to solve that. Sounds ok now but very limited volume wise. Me playing in a treated studio environment might not help tho as the room has very little life to help with perceived volume...
 
#15
fordkisskrazy said:
It sounds dull, not articulate. Everything just sounds dead.Thin and weak, no punch what so ever. My bass's sound blah. I don't expect it to sound like a 210 or anything close to something bigger. It really only sounds half good with the vintage button on.Both my bass's have new strings and last night I went to a friend's house and played on his acoustic b100c and they sounded great! They really sound great on his ampeg! Lol. But that's a whole different animal!!!
Click to expand...

It really sounds like something's wrong with your Rumble 40. I would describe mine as the exact opposite of what you describe. If you're anywhere near a Fender authorized repair center, you might have it looked at. It could be a simple fix.
 
#16
I have nothing but good results with my Rum 40. (I play mostly jazz) Set the bass EQ at 11 o'clock low mids at 1:00, hi mids at 12:00 and treble at 10:00. This is what works for me and my Precision bass. I never use overdrive at all, Hot Tip here: With the overdrive knobs both full CC, the overdrive enable button then serves as a perfect stand by switch. Try it. I use that on my Rumble 100 as well.
 
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#18
I have 2 R40's and 1 R25. They all sound great now. There is a guy on this forum who posted great info on how to improve these amps. On the 25 I had to add an extra port and then tuned them both lower with tubes I got from Amazon. Then add baffling to the inside and change the speaker. It was about an extra $100 for each amp and some labor but the difference is huge. He gives very detailed instructions. Search.
 
#19
I tried a rumble amp a few years ago. Sounded like mud. They happened to have a mesa subway 800 and subway cabinet next it so I plugged into that. It was like night and day. The bass sounded like I expected it to.
 
#20
I had a Rumble 200, but realizing that my chances of playing out were getting slimer to noner each day, I traded in for a Rumble Studio 40. So I have a more manageable home amp and with a lot of bells and whistles that make it fun.

Being a modeling amp it needs to cover quite a bit of ground tonally. Both the Studio 40 and Regular 40 have the same power and same size speaker (assumed to also be the same speaker?). The obvious difference is the modeling aspect of the Stage 40. I also have heard that the Studio uses a class D output where the regular 40 does not. Since voicing is derived mainly in the preamp, I would expect that being class D or not would have a significant impact. Especially when playing clean.

It will emulate Ampegs, and while it sounds quite different from a Rumble emulation, I don't know how close it really comes to being Ampegish. It emulates a lot of other types of amps as well. So it seems to have a wide range of flexibility. Does this carry over to the regular Rumble 40? Do they use the same preamp architecture? Or are the Studio/Stage versions of the Rumble void of any such voicing so they can better model other amps? Inquiring minds would like to know.
 

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