Fender rumble head with EV TL box

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Fluffyboy

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May 24, 2018
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#1
Hello all. First-timer here. My beloved Peavey Mark IV head officially died yesterday after 35 years of punishment and cannot be revived. I'm just a casual player with a couple of bands and I don't have a lot to spend to replace it, so I was looking at the Fender Rumble heads. I play through a single early-’80s EV TL box with a 15-inch speaker. My question - is a Rumble 200 sufficient or should I go to the 500? Thanks for any advice you can give.
 
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#2
Fluffyboy said:
Hello all. First-timer here. My beloved Peavey Mark IV head officially died yesterday after 35 years of punishment and cannot be revived. I'm just a casual player with a couple of bands and I don't have a lot to spend to replace it, so I was looking at the Fender Rumble heads. I play through a single early-’80s EV TL box with a 15-inch speaker. My question - is a Rumble 200 sufficient or should I go to the 500? Thanks for any advice you can give.
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I have a Rumble 500 that I’ve used with my Orange 1x15 cab, which is based on a TL606, a bunch of times with great results. I didn’t see you mention what driver you have in your cab, but I currently have a Kappalite 3015 in mine that definitely can handle all 350 watts the Rumble 500 puts out at 8 ohms. Assuming your cab also is 8 ohms, I would get the 500 for the extra headroom as I believe the 200 only does 140 watts at 8 ohms.
 
#3
Fluffyboy said:
Hello all. First-timer here. My beloved Peavey Mark IV head officially died yesterday after 35 years of punishment and cannot be revived. I'm just a casual player with a couple of bands and I don't have a lot to spend to replace it, so I was looking at the Fender Rumble heads. I play through a single early-’80s EV TL box with a 15-inch speaker. My question - is a Rumble 200 sufficient or should I go to the 500? Thanks for any advice you can give.
Click to expand...
Welcome to TalkBass @Fluffyboy. Good first post/question. Yes, absolutely! Your old Peavey is rated at 130 watts at 8 ohms and 225 watts a 4 ohms. The Fender Rumble 200 is very conservatively rated at 140 watts at 8 ohms and 200 watts at 4 ohms. I believe I know exactly what EV speaker cabinet you are talking about, and they were very good for 1980. Yes, the Fender Rumble 200 head will very easily replace your old dead Peavey. It will actually be louder and sound better. Do yourself a huge favor and also entertain the Fender Rumble 200 1x15 combo as a total replacement for your rig. I love my Fender Rumble 200 combo and think the new Eminence 15 in the Rumble sounds better than your old EV. It's real easy to audition a Rumble 200 combo (if you haven't already) and up to you to see if you agree. Memorial Day sales are coming soon so have fun and enjoy your new Fender Rumble! :cool: Rumble On! :cool:
 
#4
For bass gtr, I wouldn't recommend more than about 200 watts ("RMS") with either the EVM S2 or ProLine unless you are very careful. That makes the Rumble 500 a bit of a risk. I think the Rumble 200 is a safer and more realistic match.
 
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#5
Thanks for the advice everyone. I just spoke to a guitarist/producer friend - the bass player in his band uses a Rumble 500 through a 15 inch cab. He says that it's perfectly fine to pair the two and in fact says that the Rumble 200 doesn't have enough grunt for playing live. He recommends getting the 500. Thoughts?
 
#6
My thought is that he is making a recommendation without knowing what driver you have in your cabinet... which you haven told us yet.

IF it's a stock EV cabinet, it should have an EVM-15L, which I posted my opinion of. I have a LOT of experience with that driver (and what happens when it's overpowered)
 
#7
Thanks for the follow-up, agedhorse. I don't have the cab with me right now to check the driver but yes, it is a standard EV box from the early ’80s and I've never had it modified.
 
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