Fender Rumble 800 Combo

I had the chance to test out this amp a while back during a live gig.

Being your own roadie is a pleasure with this amp, as it weighs next to nothing.

Personally, I think it sounds excellent. I was so impressed after the gig that I ended up buying one myself, and I’m still very happy with it.

My gear before making the purchase was 2x15 and 4x10 cabs. Those have been sold

It sounds great, has plenty of headroom, and all at a reasonable price.

I primarily play 5-string, and I don’t find that it struggles with the B-string—though I’m not exactly trying to squeeze every last watt out of the amp when I play.

My son bought the Rumble 800 as he needed an amp that he can use at home for practice and home studio recording, at his music course rehearsals, for small gigs as main sound, and backline / monitor for bigger gigs with a house P.A.

The 800 combo has exactly the features we wanted. We use it with a HX Stomp pedal so the Fender Stage 800 just adds complexity and duplicates the modelling features, whereas this 800 combo does one job very well. This Rumble 800 "just" works as a normal amp, we can share it with other bassists and they just plug in and play.

At home he sometimes uses headphones. He often uses a HX Stomp pedal and can plug it into the Fender 800 Input or into the Effects Return depending what he is trying to achieve at the time. He records and composes on his laptop so the DI from the Fender 800 is great for home studio as well as for Front of House PA at gigs.

And this thing is lighter and louder than all the alternatives we looked at.

Using the Stomp pedal into the effects return allows him to model other amps and just use this Fender Rumble 800 combo as a big power amplifier. But on other gigs he can leave the pedal at home and just plug the bass into the amp input. So he now has a very versatile rig that is portable enough and powerful enough for any situation... if you need something louder there is probably a big PA in the venue... or you can stack this thing on a Fender 2x10 cab and really shake the place.

One negative I have seen mentioned is that this thing has an internal fan, and some people say it is noisy. We have not noticed that as a problem at all. The fan slows down when the amp is under light load and is barely audible. And when the amp is cranked up the internal fan is the last thing on your mind :-D

Ich suchte eine Ersatz für meinen Hartke HD75, der im Proberaum völlig unterging. Zur Wahl standen für mich der HD500 mit 500W, oder der Fender Rumble 500 mit 350W, als ich bei meinen Recherchen auf den Rumble 800 stieß. Was macht den Unterschied? Der Rumble 800 bringt - für wenig Geld mehr - ein paar coole Features mit. Das Wichtigste: Ich kann die 400W Leistung die der Combo ohne zusätzliches Cabinet leistet, per Schalter auf 100W reduzieren, was ihn super flexibel einsetzbar macht! Dazu hat der 800 einen zusätzlichen Schalter am line out, um die Klangregelung zu umgehen, der bei den kleineren Rumble Modellen nicht vorhanden ist, also eine kleine Weiterentwicklung gegenüber z.B. dem Rumble 500.
Über Sound und Schleppfaktor muss ich nicht viel sagen, da trennen Welten den Rumble 800 von meinem guten alten Hartke HD75…