Small combo enough for gigging...

[Muzz]

I've parped on a bit about this in a few other threads, but I've been looking for a small light combo for trio gigs, which will sit somewhere between the IEM and big rig gigs, both of which are great in their own way, but I'm doing a lot of small pub/bar gigs in which the simplicity of a combo with the smallest version of our PA is a winner.

I'd been using a Rumble 100, which in size and weight is perfect, but I was conscious of it getting farty and squishy when things (read: the drummer gets carried away) got a bit giddy towards the end of the last set. I was clearly pushing it a bit hard.

I tried quite a few replacements (including some powered FRFR ones) but nothing under £500 was very convincing. So after a good trawl of TB I lashed out £60 or so on an Eminence Beta 12, got the screwdriver out and replaced the stock driver with it. I got to use it in anger at a rehearsal yesterday, and blimey charlie, that's the best £60 I've spent on music gear since I discovered Elixirs. It sounds bigger and louder (there's a 6db sensitivity jump to the Beta, so it should do) and it'll hang with a drummer now. It's a couple of pounds heavier, but still under 25lbs.

TL:DR - Eminence Beta 12 into a Rumble 100: sometimes a replacement speaker just works... 😀

Edited February 2, 2020 by Muzz

[Lozz196]

I do like Eminence speakers, I had Beta 10s put into my Ashdown RM210s to increase the power handling and the sound, just wow!

[casapete]

Will bear this in mind if my Rumble 100 needs a bit more umph - thanks for posting.

[merello]

Seeing his thread, the small rig for jazz and the ampless thread gets me thinking. I’m looking for a  small rig to replace my cracking but backbreaking Hartke 100w. Every time I think about it, I delay and wonder about going ampless but...I don’t always have a PA system. So, forgive my ignorance, would a SansAmp do it? (Flyrig?)

[Al Krow]

@Muzz great tip, thanks.

Do you know what speakers / drivers they're using in the Rumble 200 and 500 series and whether your suggestion would also be relevant to them?

[G-Dog]

5 hours ago, Al Krow said:

@Muzz great tip, thanks.

Do you know what speakers / drivers they're using in the Rumble 200 and 500 series and whether your suggestion would also be relevant to them?

Though the speaker in the Rumble 200 combo never sees more than 140W continuous, it has the same 300W continuous rated Eminence 15" speaker as the Rumble 115 cab.  And the speakers in the Rumble 500 combo never see more than 350W continuous, though it has the exact same 10" Eminence speakers that come in the Rumble Stage 800 combo running up to 400W continuous. So, there's really not as much to be gained upgrading them, as the 100.

The 200 & 500 combos also already come with acoustic fiberfill installed on at least half the walls inside, giving a nicely rounded tone, while the 100 usually has none, which sounds boxy to some. 

Those are the reasons that the Rumble 100 combo is more often modified than the 200 or 500, as experienced in the nearly 1200 member Fender Rumble Club. 

HTH

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by G-Dog
Grammar & punctuation

[Muzz]

Mr Dog has beaten me to it (and in far more detail): one of the collateral facts I picked up in my searches was that the more expensive Rumbles (200 and up) have a different league of Eminence speaker than the smaller ones, which are built down to a budget and use bottom-end (SWIDT?) Chinese-made Eminences.

The 100s and smaller, though, are very much improved by replacing the speaker with a 'proper' Eminence.

[Happy Jack]

20 hours ago, merello said:

Seeing his thread, the small rig for jazz and the ampless thread gets me thinking. I’m looking for a  small rig to replace my cracking but backbreaking Hartke 100w. Every time I think about it, I delay and wonder about going ampless but...I don’t always have a PA system. So, forgive my ignorance, would a SansAmp do it? (Flyrig?)

A Sansamp is an excellent preamp but obviously has no power amp or speaker. If you can't be sure that there will be a PA or similar for you to plug through, then a Sansamp on its own will occasionally prove to be completely useless!

Ampless is fine if you always play big venues with their own PA and monitoring, or if your band has its own great PA and monitoring. Going ampless means, crudely, throwing the burden of amplifying you onto someone or something else ... and that someone or something else had better be there when you need it. 

[merello]

Cheers HJ! I’ve only ever did small venues and always thought of the Sans Amp thing as an effects board....will defo be going lightweight combo or small head n cab.