Fender Rumble 4x10 stacked with 2x10

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frank0stein2000

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Apr 8, 2011
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#1
Hello. I have searched for this topic but haven't found any answers. Maybe you all can help me out.
I have a Rumble 500 head with a 4x10 speaker cabinet (the stack, not the combo). I have continuously read that it is not a good idea to combine the 4x10 with a 1x15. What about combining the 4x10 with 2x10? I believe the head can handle it, but will it be worth it to put these together? I'm looking for more power, but another 4x10 may be too much. What do you all think?
 
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#3
frank0stein2000 said:
Hello. I have searched for this topic but haven't found any answers. Maybe you all can help me out.
I have a Rumble 500 head with a 4x10 speaker cabinet (the stack, not the combo). I have continuously read that it is not a good idea to combine the 4x10 with a 1x15. What about combining the 4x10 with 2x10? I believe the head can handle it, but will it be worth it to put these together? I'm looking for more power, but another 4x10 may be too much. What do you all think?
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Oh it's been done, and plenty of times too! Before Fender came out with the Rumble 210 cabinet, several Fender Rumble Club members opted for a Rumble 500 combo and Rumble 410 cabinet instead of the Rumble 115 with good results. I keep seeing a lot of photos of other bass players using other brands 210+410 configuration, so it is certainly not unheard of. There are those that will have conniption fits over the uneven watt distribution per speaker. In actual use it appears the speakers themselves don't really care.
 
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#5
frank0stein2000 said:
Hello. I have searched for this topic but haven't found any answers. Maybe you all can help me out.
I have a Rumble 500 head with a 4x10 speaker cabinet (the stack, not the combo). I have continuously read that it is not a good idea to combine the 4x10 with a 1x15. What about combining the 4x10 with 2x10? I believe the head can handle it, but will it be worth it to put these together? I'm looking for more power, but another 4x10 may be too much. What do you all think?
Click to expand...

I'm assuming both cabs are 8 ohm? I'd find it hard to imagine that 250 watts into a decent 210 can cause any problems at all. The 410 could take more but a 610 could work well, as it did for me. I used to add my Berg AE210 to my Epifani UL410 on really loud gigs. They were run with a Thunderfunk 550. Great sound more volume than I knew what to do with and no danger to the gear.

Are we talking about adding a Rumble 210 V3 to the Rumble 410? Fender rates this 210 at 700 watts ** so, even making allowances for an exuberant marketing dept, half of a 500 watt amp wouldn't cause any damage at all.
And it's a good modular approach which will make 3 great rigs.



PS ** Ooops, eyesight problems. . . . Rumble 210 350 watts (700 watts program)
 
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#6
You're basically carrying around extra weight for no reason. Unless the 2x10 is 8 ohms and the 4x10 is 4 ohms (or 16 and 8) and your head can handle 2.67 ohms, you basically turn the 4x10 into the volume of a 2x10 but twice as big, because wattage-wise you can still only put twice what the 2x10 can handle into the whole system. In other words, if your 2x10 is rated at 250w, and both cabs are 8 ohms (meaning they get the same amount of power), you can only put a max of 500w into the system. So if your 4x10 is rated at 500w by itself, you haven't really gained anything except whatever increase in power you get from dropping the impedance (which is only ever going to be a max of an additional 3db). So you get the same benefit but with less weight and without the funkiness of some drivers getting half the power as others by just going to a 4 ohm 4x10 (or a more powerful amp).

But if you have say a 500w amp (at 4 ohms) and a 500w cab (at 8 ohms), honestly, that's pretty much right in the golden zone where things are well matched and you don't have to worry too much about damaging anything unless you use a lot of crazy EQ (ie boosting the lows) or lots of distortion. If you wanted a modular setup, a single 4x10 for medium gigs, and 2 stout enough 2x10s for bigger gigs (and a single for small gigs) would give you just that little bit of amp headroom on those bigger gigs. It won't be much, but then you are ready for a range of situations (and for instance you could leave the 4x10 at practice, a 2x10 at home, and one in the car and just take the head where you need to, etc...).

But if you just want more volume, you either need to go with a 4 ohm head, or just get a whole new higher powered 4x10 plus head rig.
 
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#7
frank0stein2000 said:
I'm looking for more power, but another 4x10 may be too much.
Click to expand...
sell the 4x10 (the rumble 4x10 is kind of heavy for some reason anyway) and get two of the 2x10 cabs!

they're way lighter and the two together will give you a 4Ω load so the amp gets all 500 watts and stacking them tallways puts the top cab up where you can actually hear it.

it's no contest.
 
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#10
@frank0stein2000 doesn't say if his 410 is: a Rumble; a V2 4 ohm Rumble (heavy MDF construction), or a V3 8 ohm Rumble (lightweight plywood).
He also doesn't say if the intended 210 is an 8 ohm V3 Rumble 210 or not. The Rumble 210 (V3 only) has the exact same Eminence drivers in the very same configuration as the Rumble 500 combo, and is therefore a perfect match. The 500 puts out 350 clean continuous watts at 8 ohms and a full 500 watts at 4 ohms. It is easily the match of any 800 - 1,000 watt head if they are rated in duty cycle, burst power or peak power methods.
The Rumble 210 is $350 and the 410 is $400, so cost shouldn't be the deciding factor. The Rumble 500 combo + Rumble 210 cabinet is an exceedingly popular rig followed by the Rumble 500 head and a pair of Rumble 210 cabinets. The cabinet coupling effect is amazingly powerful with this configuration and many use the second cab for this very reason even if the additional volume isn't required. The tone and total sound quality is just that good. The OP would enjoy similar results with a V3 410+210 rig.
 
#11
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm not tech savvy, so here are the specs just for good measure. All pieces are the Fender Rumble v3 version:

500 head: 500w @ 4ohm, 350w @ 8ohms

4x10 speaker: 1000w(program)/500w(continuous), 8ohms

2x10 speaker: 700w(program)/350w(continuous), 8ohms
 
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#14
frank0stein2000 said:
4x10 speaker: 1000w(program)/500w(continuous), 8ohms

2x10 speaker: 700w(program)/350w(continuous), 8ohms
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Linnin said:
OK! They will all work together flawlessly.
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Well, they’ll work, and not hurt anything, but it’s unbalanced. The 2x10 gets twice as much power per speaker as the 4x10, so the little box will be rocking while the big one is kind of coasting along.
 
#15
frank0stein2000 said:
What about combining the 4x10 with 2x10? I believe the head can handle it, but will it be worth it to put these together?
Click to expand...

To make a viable 6x10 the 2x10 needs to have twice the impedance of the 4x10 for even power distribution. If they are the same impedance the 2x10 will be reaching it’s limits while the 4x10 hasn’t even got to cruising speed. It could be that the 4x10 would be louder by itself.
 
#16
walterw said:
Well, they’ll work, and not hurt anything, but it’s unbalanced. The 2x10 gets twice as much power per speaker as the 4x10, so the little box will be rocking while the big one is kind of coasting along.
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Hurrah Free Will and Freedom of Choice! And Flea and Victor Wooten are still playing 410's over 115's too. I've seen several well known bass players using a 210 over a 410, and I am tempted to say Marcus Miller, but I can't be sure.

There is a female bass player in my area that plays a MarkBass 410 rig and she recently added a matching MarkBass 210 on top. I listened closely to see if I could actually hear the 210 as being louder or in some respect 'working harder', but I couldn't. So I got closer, and it sounded just like any 610 cabinet. She was happy to see me and we talked during break. She said she is well aware of the wattage mismatch between the cabinets but didn't want a 115 or another 410. She is happy with her choice and said she could hear herself better and had more power and better dispersion too. "If it sounds good, it is good."
 
#17
But, in this case, the 210 isn't working twice as hard. . . . the 410 is actually working half as hard.

250 watts into a 350 watt 210 shouldn't/won't be a problem. It doesn't matter what the other cab is, the 210 is safe. All you can say is the 410 will be working at less than it's optimum but it is still moving enough air to be a benefit to the rig as a whole.
 
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#19
Linnin said:
Hurrah Free Will and Freedom of Choice! And Flea and Victor Wooten are still playing 410's over 115's too. I've seen several well known bass players using a 210 over a 410, and I am tempted to say Marcus Miller, but I can't be sure.
Click to expand...

When you have the endorsement deals these folk have and you blow something, like as not it’ll be replaced promptly and at no charge. Add to that the fact that you do not know what is actually connected and what is not.
 
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