Fender Rumble 40 vs 100 for home practice

[JakobT]

I’ve owned both, and I, too, sold the 100. Don’t get me wrong, the 100 is a great amp, but there is not that much between them in terms of loudness, and the 40 made more sense to me, being more compact and living-room friendly. The 100 does have an effects loop, but I found I didn’t use it that much, so I went with the 40 and never regretted it.

 

[MrMoT]

Rumble 100 has a 12" speaker and a 40 has a 10". There is a difference in how they sound. I am not a fan of 12" speakers, for me it's 15" or 10".... But that's just my personal preference.... I think Rumble 40 is enough for house.

 

[Wesley R]

The day before an important to me jam my wife bought me a 100. It performed well, I had to turn down, and a 40 probably would have been strained to function in that setting. Currently the 100 is in the living room on a stand for in house practice.

 

[pappabass]

If you have space, go with the 100. I bought a rumble 25 for practice. It is perfect for that only. I wish I bought the 40. I do have larger amps.
A amp can never be too big. (Within reason)

 

[bherman]

I may be the contrarian here; if I were buying an amp for practice only, I’d go as small as possible. If I wanted it to do double duty (occasionally used for gigs) I’d go bigger.

 

[Plucky The Bassist]

I'd get the 100...for not much more you'll get more clean headroom and it's a great boom for the buck. Enjoy it!!

 

[darwin-bass]

I have owned both and like others, sold the 100 in favor of the 40. The 100 has a baked-in sound that is full & boxy at the same time. At first it sounds great but after a while I got tired of the color it washed over everything. It made all my basses sound the same and wasn't as good at highlighting differences in playing style.

The 40 had a smoother response. Less coloration. More transparent and therefore much better for home practice & improvement.

I played both at church both as stage monitor and as stand-alone amp in a small setting. As a stage monitor both were more than loud enough though our stage is pretty quiet. As a stand-alone amp the colored sound of the 100 was a problem and the 40 was better.

I ended up selling the 40 in favor of a GK 115 combo amp.

Today, I've moved on to an Elf 2x8 cab with a Genzler amp and it is far better than either of the rumbles or the GK.

 

[40Hz]

You get enough useable additional features for the $100 difference in price that I’d be inclined to go for the bigger amp if I could swing it.

FWIW I’ve found that when it to Fender products you can get the best value for your money if you avoid the lowest priced and highest priced items in the product line.

 

[stonetone7]

If it’s strictly for practice get the 40.

But if you’re going to play with a band as well you’ll be happier having a much stronger amp with the oomph to keep up, rather than trying to make the 100 compete with drums. You’ll have to run it flat out, and still lack headroom.

In my experience you’re gonna want 300+ watts for a full band. It’s more money up front but you’ll avoid having to pay for two rigs, which I promise you’ll ultimately end up doing if you try to make a single 100 cover all your bases.

 

[DuluthDank]

The two best amps in that series are the 40 and 500. The 40 for practice and 500 for gigging/rehearsal at loud volumes. Get the 40 since you're looking at home practice. If you want to gig with loud stage volume down the line, then get the 500 if you want.

 

[Plastalmonus]

I'll jump back in here and say that in my experience the 100 is not (at least not at a level I found perceptible) louder or possessed of more headroom than the 40. This could possibly be down to the efficiency of the speaker or the amp being Class A/B in the 40 and Class D in the 100.

The 100, in my opinion, could not hold it's own with a drummer however I will concede that the Line Out makes it better suited for small gigs with PA support.

If the OP really just wants it for home use I cannot recommend the 40 enough. The 100, in my opinion, does not rate.

 

[west al]

In the next couple of days, I'm doing the 100 for home playing myself.

I acquired my Rumble 100 today.

 

[avvie]

the 40 has a punchier and clearer sound than the 100. the volume does not matter between the 10 "and the 12" of the speakers. The 40 body is better suited to its 10 ".

The 40 is solid state; is the 100 SS also or a ClassD? I think there's a built-in compression circuit for the class Ds. .. dunno

 

[Plastalmonus]

The 40 is solid state; is the 100 SS also or a ClassD? I think there's a built-in compression circuit for the class Ds. .. dunno

They are all solid state however the 15, 25, and 40 are Class A/B whereas the 100, 200, and 500 are Class D.

I am not aware of any built in compression circuit for any of the models.

 

[Balog]

The block diagram shows a "Delta-Comp Limiter." https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10002/237030_bamp_manual_all_revA.pdf

Edit to add: the Vintage filter is shown as a dynamic compressor and LPF.

I didn't know the smaller ones were a different architecture on the amp. Do you have a link to somewhere that shows that? Fender's site isn't super helpful.

 

[Plastalmonus]

The block diagram shows a "Delta-Comp Limiter." https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10002/237030_bamp_manual_all_revA.pdf

Edit to add: the Vintage filter is shown as a dynamic compressor and LPF.

I didn't know the smaller ones were a different architecture on the amp. Do you have a link to somewhere that shows that? Fender's site isn't super helpful.

Ahh yeah ok the Delta Comp Limiter I knew about however I was thinking more along the lines of a variable compression circuit.

I believe that is standard for all Rumble models including the previous gen.

Possibly @Linnin has more details regarding the amplifier topology.

 

[Dino Boreanaz]

Here are links to the schematics for the 100 and the 40. Note that while the preamp drawings cover the 40-500W models, the power amp drawings are different for the 100W versus the 25/40W.

http://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10002/Rumble 100 V3 Schematics-Diagrams.pdf

http://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10002/Rumble 40 V3 Schematics-Diagrams.pdf

 

[avvie]

The block diagram shows a "Delta-Comp Limiter." https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10002/237030_bamp_manual_all_revA.pdf

Edit to add: the Vintage filter is shown as a dynamic compressor and LPF.

I didn't know the smaller ones were a different architecture on the amp. Do you have a link to somewhere that shows that? Fender's site isn't super helpful.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of. Thanks

 

[SwitchGear]

I use my Rumble 500 combo in my home studio (bedroom) for practice. Compact unit works great at home and on the gig. Also own a Rumble 100 which is at rehearsal place. A 40 watt bass amp is trash, imo

 

[eastcoasteddie]

I was looking for the [best-sounding] smallest amp for home use, and A/B’ed the 25 and 40. I wound up getting the 40 for the 4-band eq and the fact that it has a 10” speaker (over an 8).
I have made some mods to the amp by getting the recommended Eminence Neo replacement speaker and added some longer port tubes (also as recommended in the Rumble club thread).
I can’t set the volume higher than 9 O’clock without all the dishes vibrating in the cabinets. It can get dang loud with plenty of bass response (maybe not as much in stock form).
But remember, I got the 40 for its size (and it’s already kind of big...). If you can keep a 100 without an issue, I’d get that. Plus you probably won’t have to mod it...I believe it already has an Eminence speaker in it. I would have preferred the 12”, as my main rig is a BX500 with dual 1x12’s...
I would probably only use the 40 at an acoustic gig, if I ever had one. Otherwise the 500 would go. Then again, I didn’t get the 40 for gigs.