The Combo Club

[JakobT]

Another way to mitigate the 'boomy' of a Rumble combo is to fill up the cab with synthetic pillow stuffing. @JakobT wrote about it here... Fender Rumble Club

Thanks for the mention! It’s worth noting that the larger the cab, the more difficult the pillow stuffing trick gets. It works great with the 15, and might work for the 25. The 40 is on the large side, but people don’t usually complain about boominess with the 40. With the 100 and up, acoustic lining may be a better choice.

 

[WestyBassBob]

I have to say, it CAN be floor shaking if I turn the sub knob up. I have to be mindful of playing on a hardwood floor or concrete/stone stage with it. The good news is that I barely have to move the master to get volume and projection from it.

Perhaps it was designed to be used in those rooftop concerts or on top of a PA pole? It’s definitely an unusual feature.

 

[WestyBassBob]

Thanks for the mention! It’s worth noting that the larger the cab, the more difficult the pillow stuffing trick gets. It works great with the 15, and might work for the 25. The 40 is on the large side, but people don’t usually complain about boominess with the 40. With the 100 and up, acoustic lining may be a better choice.

I think boominess is definitely associated with low end small speakers and of course back in the day there were no good small bass speakers.
It’s actually a sort of mudiness. I’m not sure about the physics of it. But at louder volumes the low frequencies seem to produce a strange sort of feedback loop in the cone and you get this loud muddy blast of sound that I think most of us would describe as boominess.

With these new drivers we can get much better sound out of smaller speakers. We’ve all heard @Morrighan rave about the PJB combo. And I believe it. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone discovers that a stack of 20 5” speakers produces incredible sound without all the weight.

My 10” cab sounds even better than my old 15”. I say 10 is the new 15.

 

[GwenOnBass]

A 210 as a combo or as a cab is a whole lot of sweet spot to me.

It's a funny feeling that I can do more today with a combo that doesn't reach my knee than with two roaring 1x15s [ long time ago ]. It makes me laugh, really, how incredibly good our rigs are today. Often hear we are in a golden age of bass amps, and not going to dispute that.

 

[Black Out Jazz]

I think boominess is definitely associated with low end small speakers and of course back in the day there were no good small bass speakers.
It’s actually a sort of mudiness. I’m not sure about the physics of it. But at louder volumes the low frequencies seem to produce a strange sort of feedback loop in the cone and you get this loud muddy blast of sound that I think most of us would describe as boominess.

With these new drivers we can get much better sound out of smaller speakers. We’ve all heard @Morrighan rave about the PJB combo. And I believe it. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone discovers that a stack of 20 5” speakers produces incredible sound without all the weight.

My 10” cab sounds even better than my old 15”. I say 10 is the new 15.

Another fun factoid is the speakers in the little Rumbles are chinese junk. Some day I'm going to put a nice Dayton in the 25.

 

[JakobT]

I think boominess is definitely associated with low end small speakers and of course back in the day there were no good small bass speakers.
It’s actually a sort of mudiness. I’m not sure about the physics of it. But at louder volumes the low frequencies seem to produce a strange sort of feedback loop in the cone and you get this loud muddy blast of sound that I think most of us would describe as boominess.

With these new drivers we can get much better sound out of smaller speakers. We’ve all heard @Morrighan rave about the PJB combo. And I believe it. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone discovers that a stack of 20 5” speakers produces incredible sound without all the weight.

My 10” cab sounds even better than my old 15”. I say 10 is the new 15.

I agree that the 10" is the new 15". I am not sure about exactly what causes the boominess, but I suspect that since lining helps, the cabinets are at least part of the equation.

 

[WestyBassBob]

Another fun factoid is the speakers in the little Rumbles are chinese junk. Some day I'm going to put a nice Dayton in the 25.

I haven’t owned a Rumble but I’m sure you’re right.

 

[WestyBassBob]

Oh Yeah!! I’m from the North Shore, so I’m familiar with the weather!!
Went to Constitution after the USS Salem when we landed- then the Sherman tank at Patton Park in South Hamilton… View attachment 4307195View attachment 4307200View attachment 4307201 View attachment 4307199
yes, wrong beer, but I had a Sam Adams “Wicked Hazy” at Fenway.



Aaahhh. The “proof is in the Pudding”

I’m not originall from MA and I don’t really like Sam Adams. My favorite beer is probably Henry Weinhart’s but I’ve never seen it here.

 

[WestyBassBob]

I agree that the 10" is the new 15". I am not sure about exactly what causes the boominess, but I suspect that since lining helps, the cabinets are at least part of the equation.

Yes. But it’s very hard to make a good cabinet for a single 8” speaker. Even harder if it’s on a shoestring budget. I’ll never miss my first combo which was an Acoustic 8”.

 

[GonePlaid]

Oh Yeah!! I’m from the North Shore, so I’m familiar with the weather!!
Went to Constitution after the USS Salem when we landed- then the Sherman tank at Patton Park in South Hamilton… View attachment 4307195View attachment 4307200View attachment 4307201 View attachment 4307199
yes, wrong beer, but I had a Sam Adams “Wicked Hazy” at Fenway.



Aaahhh. The “proof is in the Pudding”

Re the Constitution "you mean on top of everything else this ship is rigged?"-from "Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America"-a hilarious album(if you know history).

 

[Black Out Jazz]

Or just get an Ampeg!

-10

 

[StatesideRambler]

I’m not originall from MA and I don’t really like Sam Adams. My favorite beer is probably Henry Weinhart’s but I’ve never seen it here.

Henry’s is a Portland, OR staple. I refuse to choose a “favorite” because the wide range of beer here in the Pacific Northwest makes it moot. My wife doesn’t understand it but I nearly always go for a beer I’ve not tasted before. Our town of 7,000 has eight [or is it nine?] breweries with two of them, Full Sail Brewing Company and pFriem Family Brewers, being large. Expand to the full county and the nearby (within 25 miles) towns plus the count goes high into the teens.

I noted sometime ago that my sister-in-law took me to a “brew pub” in a Chicago suburb. I pointed out that not a single one of the beers on tap came from any source but an industry giant. She didn’t get it because her benchmark was whether they advertised on TV.

Small breweries and small amps are my bailiwick.

 

[SoulReflection]

Henry’s is a Portland, OR staple. I refuse to choose a “favorite” because the wide range of beer here in the Pacific Northwest makes it moot. My wife doesn’t understand it but I nearly always go for a beer I’ve not tasted before. Our town of 7,000 has eight [or is it nine?] breweries with two of them, Full Sail Brewing Company and pFriem Family Brewers, being large. Expand to the full county and the nearby (within 25 miles) towns plus the count goes high into the teens.

I noted sometime ago that my sister-in-law took me to a “brew pub” in a Chicago suburb. I pointed out that not a single one of the beers on tap came from any source but an industry giant. She didn’t get it because her benchmark was whether they advertised on TV.

Small breweries and small amps are my bailiwick.

I normally have a "few" glasses of Chardonnay. If the temps get above 90F, I will go for whatever cold beer is available that is fit to drink. In other words, I am not a connoisseur...

 

[GwenOnBass]

It is a Belhaven Scottish Ale what tops my VLD. As in Very Long Day, not a Vintage Loudspeaker Destroyer dial. A forward malty nose sounds like what happens when a Scrambler is in it's sweet spot.

 

[GonePlaid]

It is a Belhaven Scottish Ale what tops my VLD. As in Very Long Day, not a Vintage Loudspeaker Destroyer dial. A forward malty nose sounds like what happens when a Scrambler is in it's sweet spot.

I'm just not a hoppy person, thus my preference in general for the darker, maltier brews.

 

[StatesideRambler]

You’ve got a great idea, there. There are even more wineries than breweries in our area so we have a wealth of choices and hot weather is imminent. Between those and the many small music venues here (outside COVID times) it’s painfully hard to avoid bragging.

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

I always go a for a local brewer, so my brands change as I change location. I'm always up for a light lager in the summer, a darker ale in the winter and a 15" driver.

 

[GwenOnBass]

If memory serves (hic!) the Scrambler Overdrive pedal is arguably more useful than the SCR-DR's Scramber because it has a blend function.

A blend function is okay in some distilled products too.

 

[GonePlaid]

If memory serves (hic!) the Scrambler Overdrive pedal is arguably more useful than the SCR-DR's Scramber because it has a blend function.

A blend function is okay in some distilled products too.

'Cept Scotch-or Irish-Whisky. Single malt for me.

 

[JPDsma]

We just finished up in Moab Utah. Despite the formerly severe alcohol regulations in UT, there were MANY breweries (and distilleries) in the town and the several I tried were outstanding. My fav was a Double IPA. Outstanding Cascade hops, great maltiness, and ABV +/- 9.6% Made for fun practice with my Amplug ‘combo’ and the single cutaway JB I built. After a day fighting gusty cross winds, we head to California Sunday. Many good micro brews and micro distilleries where we are headed.