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Warning: Do not buy a Fender Rumble 350

#41
Bass_Pounder said:
If there was one thing I wish every player knew about their amps it would be this:

The volume knob position means absolutely nothing.

"5" does not mean 1/2 power !
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+1
Your car has a gas pedal. If you put it to the floor and hold it there eventually you'll blow the engine. User discression is needed with cars the same as with amps, combo or not. The only point I see as valid here is that the OP's amp doesn't have a line out for another set of speakers - that's a poor design by Fender. Then again this is about marketing and if they limited the output wattage to the speaker load they'd never have a Rumble line-up over 50 to 100 watts.
 
#42
rimbaud said:
+ 10 000 000 000 000 000 !!

If you don't know how to setup correctly your EQ, you can blow out ANYTHING ! One of my bass-mates, a killing bass player, a nice guy also, already blown a 10" speaker in a Hartke VX 4x10 combo. How ? simple, he thinks that because his drummer and his guitarist play loud, he must set his EQ as a V, full bass, full treble... no mids .... :rollno: Hartke says that you MUST BE CAREFULL with the 30 or 50 HZ control on their graphic EQ, cos' it can results in severe damage for speakers.

What they say is just common sense.

And before saying "hey guys I'm playing since bla bla years and my sound is perfect bla bla bla" , hummm.... sometimes it's good to take a new look at oneself and to take into account all the parameters of a problem, not just saying "Fender, you are guilty" :rolleyes:
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What YOU, and the operator of the Amp DO NOT realize is that you DONT NEED 30 to 50 Hz to get lows. If you'd bother to use the Low Mid, and Mids MORE....you'd get the " punch " you so desire.
 
#44
I'm going to step in and defend the Rumble 350 here. I've been gigging a Rumble 350 regularly for the last 15 months and it's fantastic. When my Warwick is plugged in the volume never needs to get past 10:00. With a cheap beginners bass I've heard the volume maxed out and it still isn't as loud as my bass on only 10:00. However when gigging, I run the DI out the the mixer and the volume stays on about 9:00.

Also the bassist in a mates metal band uses a rumble 350 with a 5 string detuned and he plays louder than I ever will and his Rumble 350 is still kicking.
 
#46
I always wonder if these folks are either "haters" of the brand or simply mad that they got a bad one or didn't know how to use it properly.

The fact that they complain bitterly and then disappear in a poof of smoke tells me more than what they say and the firestorm they set off..........

IF you flame a product, at least stay around to answer the issues that come up from the collective knowledge and experience that you have posed the problem to!!

Otherwise we're going to think you work for the competition and discount your ramblings.
 
#49
I've got a Peavey Max 112 "practice" amp at my office. I think it has 30 watts or so and I paid $89 for it.

My expectations for this combo was to play my bass at work and practice at low volumes.

I would NEVER take this out in public because it would fart out at a very low level and sound like A$$.

So all of us need to use our "tools" for the purposes they were made for.

Trying to force a combo to do something it's not made for is a recipe for destruction.

Cheap is as cheap does.......
 
#52
mjac28 said:
Thanks for the heads up and he said he never had it past five my Mesa has never been past 9:00 on either the volume or gain so I know what he means it sucks and the reps are robots for the most part they spit out what is written down for them to say.
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.

Linear pots pretend huge amount of power but are very hard to handle in practice.

I can't turn up greater then 10:00 on my 70's SVT unless the amp farts.

The next few weeks these linear pots will be gone for ever.
I hate linear pots.
 
#53
ThisBass said:
Linear pots pretend huge amount of power but are very hard to handle in practice.

I can't turn up greater then 10:00 on my 70's SVT unless the amp farts.

The next few weeks these linear pots will be gone for ever.
I hate linear pots.
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Actually from a power handling perspective, linear pots should be safer to use, because power increase is uniform across the whole range of control, and that's what is dangerous to the speaker. It's just that the perceived volume will not sound linear; the volume will get very loud very quickly, and will not seem to change much at higher settings.

By contrast, the so-called "straight line audio taper" pots, which are really just two linear taper regions of different slopes joined together, are more dangerous in terms of power handling. At lower volumes, the resistance increases linearly at a shallow slope. But then past a crossover point, the slope changes to a much steeper one, where small control changes will increase power dramatically. To get a little bit more volume, a user may suddenly push twice the power with only a small knob twist, and the speakers may not be able to handle the power.
 
#54
Mr. Foxen said:
Fairly sure OP is too busy patting himself on the back for ruining Fender's rep on teh internets to go about learning how to operate bass equipment without breaking it.
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+1

If Fender announces tomorrow that they're liquidating all assets and closing the company, my guess is the decision to go out of business can be traced directly back to this very thread and the OP's post.

"Fender, how dare my budget-level combo amp get blown speakers when my volume is only on five and you wouldn't service my speakers for free when they are out of warranty! You shall loathe this day!"
 
#55
Drunk Heffalump said:
Just as a point of order why would any manufacturer create a combo capable of eating it's own speaker(s) Head and cabs, maybe, but I SHOULD be able to dime my combo and have it survive, not that I'd want to but in case I ever did.
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derrico1 said:
Combo's amp sections might spec so that they *couldn't* damaged the speaker no matter what the eq/gain/master settings or the instrument input level. But in that case, the amp would be so anemic that the combo would be useless for any real-world gigging.
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a-yep!

if your car had an engine such that when you stomped the gas pedal to the floor it never got over the speed limit, what kind of acceleration would it have?
 
#56
I played a Fender Rumble 150 and Rumble 350 the other day. Both had issues with clipping at even low volumes (volume knob around 1.5). Tried to EQ so that it wouldn't occur as I was looking for a combo and it was completely worthless. They don't sound very good compared to GK or Ampeg at similar wattage anyway.
 
#57
I bought a Rumble 350 2x10 a couple of months ago on the recommendation of two other players I know who have them. It's not the best amp I've ever used but it works well enough for smaller gigs. I get told to turn down sometimes so at least it's loud enough and the sound doesn't break up at higher levels. I'm happy with it so far considering how easy it is to move and how much it cost. If I ever blow the speakers I will replace them with something better.
 
#59
We have 2 of the newish Rumble line amps at church, a 150 and a 350. Both are 2 or so years old and get used for 2-4 rehearsals and 3-5 services weekly. Neither of them have (IMO) spectacular tone, or strong lows, but they get messed with by tons of people, mainly younger kids and teens and have survived.
 
#60
I have a Rumble 75, which I have played at volume 10 and tone on neutral a few times. Not only did it not blow up, but it does not distort on 10! Also, while on 10, someone has plugged and unplugged the bass cable resulting in a massive POW! Still no damage to the amp. So I wouldn't say the entire Rumble line is cheap and weak. Well maybe cheap :)
 

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