Fender Rumble Bass Combos - Advice Please

[Stub Mandrel]

I remember buying my Flea Jazz. I was tryinh it out along with some modern jazz basses. I couldn't get a tone I liked, the guy at the shop said you prefer a more traditional sound? He plugged me into a rumble 100 and lo! There was the sound I wanted. 

[jonno1981]

On 01/09/2025 at 15:35, cetera said:

The V3 Rumble 100 is great for practice and small gigs. For larger club gigs I'd go straight to the 800 though. It has an output power attenuation switch for low or full power, according to your performance situation, aiding with a solid tone at all levels.

Part of the reason the V3's sound so good is they took on some of the tech they acquired when Fender purchased (and sadly disposed of) the fab Genz Benz company.

I still have the rumble 200 I bought from you and really rate it. It’s not as loud as the 4x10 half stack I used to have (no suprises), but it’s a quarter the weight and sounds marvellous. If you’re not playing a big stage or with a daft metal drummer it’ll suit most folks more than adequately. 

[Dan Dare]

On 30/08/2025 at 04:52, Cornwall Steve said:

More recently I've thought about getting shot of these and replacing them with something of better quality. I'm not in the Mark Bass league I'm afraid and at pushing 70 years old and not in the best of health so little point spending hundreds of £ !

 

Rumbles are very much the standard recommendation for moderately priced bass amps. However, I wonder if one would be all that much of an improvement on what you have. It would certainly be better, but by how much?

 

Re. your comment above, I'm in a similar position, although I'm a couple of years older and, touch wood, in good health. My attitude is that if I want something nice, I'll have it if it's within budget. I can't take it with me. If I do save my pennies and end up in a care home, they'll take most of it off me to pay the fees. So treat yourself to that Markbass if you can afford it.

[Cornwall Steve]

On 04/09/2025 at 00:43, Dan Dare said:

 

Rumbles are very much the standard recommendation for moderately priced bass amps. However, I wonder if one would be all that much of an improvement on what you have. It would certainly be better, but by how much?

 

Re. your comment above, I'm in a similar position, although I'm a couple of years older and, touch wood, in good health. My attitude is that if I want something nice, I'll have it if it's within budget. I can't take it with me. If I do save my pennies and end up in a care home, they'll take most of it off me to pay the fees. So treat yourself to that Markbass if you can afford it.

Many thanks for your reply and advice.  I'm pretty much in agreement with all your observations and recommendations. I started off down the Behringer simply because they give me what I wanted at the time and I didn't know any better. That journey began a decade ago when I retired and now I've accumulated five (of different sizes). Buying gear sucks really. You buy for Pounds but end up selling for Pennies. Living down in deepest darkest Cornwall there are very few half decent music shops selling amplification worth buying at a price worth paying. Since posting, I've had a chance to actually try out a mid size Rumble. It was good but frankly I wasn't blown away. Better than my equivalent Behringers -  'Yes'' - but not enough to justify flogging them off for pennies then hammering the bank account. If I were gigging it'll be a different story. So I've invested in some decent (but not Behringer !😂) headphones instead. They've certainly upped the sound quality !

N.B. Big thank you to all members who have offered help and advice

Edited 2 hours ago by Cornwall Steve