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Hi folks, apologies for my flurry of posts on the same topic as I torture myself second guessing my purchase decisions while still in the return period, lol.
I got a Fender Rumble 200 combo, because as far as I could tell it was the most bang for the buck in terms of what I could get to work on bass and archtop for $500. It's pretty cool, can drive an external speaker, has a tweeter, 15" eminence.
I'm wondering though if the smarter money for guitar duty would have been on getting the rumble head by itself and adding a different cab, say the 12" or the 2x10". It looks like it would prob cost me an extra $150 to upgrade to the separate head & cab setup. I've don't know much about amps, any comments on that?
thanks!
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03-05-2017 02:28 PM
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Big head and cab fan, particularly when I was gigging more. Could put the little head in a nice padded bag on my back or over shoulder and carry the ( much lighter than a combo) cab in a hand, and if I banged it off some doorways and stuff it was no big deal, really.
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I'm torn on this one. For many years, I used the MB200 or an AI Clarus with whichever cabinet I felt was needed at the time......then, I had to add a reverb pedal of some kind. Recently switched over to combo amp (Evans AE100). Plenty of power and lightweight (28 lbs) and has built in reverb...works fine. Since then, though, I've been messing with my backup amp ('82 or '83 Peavey Solo Series Bandit 65) and have about decided to sell the Evans and fix up the Peavey as a head that I can use with the original 12" Scorpion speaker in a cabinet and/or build a 2x10 cabinet to go with it. With no more than I gig anymore, It's all the amp I need and it works great and I don't have a dime in it so I can sell the Evans for, probably, more than I paid for it and put the money towards wood and parts for more Tele builds. Still in the thinking stages on this one....the Peavey is a little heavier (43 lbs) but a lot of that is cabinet and Scorpion speaker so, if I build a lighter weight pine cabinet and use a neo speaker, I could save some of that weight and just use it as a combo amp and it's certainly loud enough and built like a battleship.
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My experience is that combos, especially closed back combos are prone to developing rattles over time. Separating them helps to avoid that. And you have greater flexibility (small cab for a small room, bigger cab for a bigger room, two cabs for a really big venue).
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It has always seemed to me that an advantage of separate head and cab is that you can put the controls where you can reach them, and put the speaker somewhere else on the stage. Most players I see have their amp and speaker within arms length, but I think there's an advantage to putting it wherever it will give your ears the best presentation of what the band sounds like to the audience. Also, may allow you to position it where other players can hear it better than if it's next to your spot.
Another advantage, of course, is that a combo may be unacceptably heavy. Two units may total more, but you can make two trips.
That said, I usually play with combo amps (and I have my controls in a pedalboard) and they work for me. I've never had any issue with rattles. I've occasionally had to reattach speaker wires because the power cord flopping around in there can loosen them.
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Thanks folks. Weight is def not an issue with the Rumble 200, it's like 34lbs.
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Have been a combo guy allways. Now I have this:
Speaker is a 1x12" Celestion V30 Vintage.. open cabinet. Head is a DV Mark micro... couldn't be happier... :-)
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I went from an early 70s Pro Reverb with two JBLs, weighs about 80 lbs that just got too heavy (it was not that I got too old, contrary to rumor. Like me, it just weighed less when I was 25 years old). I got a Polytone MB II that I never quite got the hang of. Then I got an AI Clarus head and Redstone RS-8 cab- tons of power, very compact, very light. But I guess I must be a 12" speaker guy, never cottoned onto the sound of the RS-8, and got a Raezer's Edge 12". But that cab weighs 35 lbs by itself. Yikes. I still have that setup and it sounds very good, though. Most often I use a tweed Deluxe clone that I built, which weighs well under 30 lbs and is barely bigger on stage than the RE 12" cab. Plus it is just a classic looking amp and sounds great. It's much easier to get into and out of the gig with the combo.
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Way back when I gigged, I had one head and cabs at home, the gig if it was 2 days and one at the practice studio. I could still play at home or the studio taking my head with me wherever / wherever I needed it. If a cab was stolen at a gig or the studio was robbed I always could recover, if a combo was taken I was out of business.
Somehow later in life I wound up gravitating toward combos, I guess not having to transport them or worry about theft is a big reason.
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Having both choices I always use a combo for playing out. Less to carry, less to set up and tear down, sounds just as good. I don't think there's an inherent advantage to either approach, so I opt for convenience.
I've been rehearsing and gigging with my current AI Corus+ for eight years and have never had rattles with it or any of my AI combos. As for flexibility, one can always add an extension cabinet to a combo for better coverage or more volume, or just use a larger combo:
Originally Posted by Stringswinger
My Corus+ plus Ten2 EX cabinet weighs 43 pounds, just a bit more than my RE Twin-8-Tower-ER by itself.
Danny W.
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Does head + cab encourage gear acquisition? As in, does it lower he bar: "it's only a 2x10" cab and I don't have one" ... "Finally, the Quilter head I was waiting for" ...
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If any combo is going to be rattle/buzz free, it would be an Acoustic Image combo. Those guys make very precision stuff. Originally Posted by Danny W.
I have had many buzzes/rattles develop over the years with Polytones and even Fender open back combos.
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I've never owned a head/cab setup. The idea is really appealing. You could have a few different size cabinets to suit the size / type of gig. Some amps are just too heavy as a combo - for example the Roland Jazz Chorus I used to have; in hindsight it would have been good to have it turned into a head/cab. A friend of mine has an old Vox AC-30 that was converted in to a head/cab at some stage (a long time ago) - I can completely see why; just the head is extremely heavy.
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I'm out and about with my gear 3-4 times a week, year round. I really like the convenience of lugging and setting up a combo...less gear the better IMO.
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For jazz or blues I'd go with a good combo, 20-30w.
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Me too, but that's not because they're combos, but because of the nameplate. In the early '80's I bought a new Fender Showman 15" (solid state). It rattled so badly right out of the box that I was going to return it, but instead I removed the chassis and grill cloth and went through it completely, adding padding, spacers and RTV until it was buzz-free. The Bandmaster 2-12" cabinet I bought new in '68 needed a bunch of work to be playable, too Originally Posted by Stringswinger
Around the same time I bought a PTone Baby Brute and the day after it arrived I took it to a rehearsal with my small group. It was DOA when I got there, although it had been working when I got it. I found that the extension speaker jack wires were stripped back about an inch and the bare wires were touching each other. After fixing that, it made a very loud buzz whenever I played anywhere on the sixth string. I removed the foam grill cover and found a metal speaker guard that was touching the speaker cone. I used a screwdriver to remove the staples that held it on and took it out. It worked much better after that, so I never reinstalled the guard.
In the early '90's I wanted to get a Mesa Boogie MKIV. I tried the combo, but with an EV-12L it weighed around 90 pounds and felt like it was nailed to the floor. I ordered a small-chassis MKIV head with matching open-back and Thiele cabinets, each with an EV-12L. Total weight was 135 pounds, but each piece was a manageable 45 pounds. Now I wouldn't consider even one of those boxes as a reasonable weight Originally Posted by entresz
Danny W.
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Skip - Let me know if you decide to see the Evans 150. I've been keeling an eye out.
Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
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Remind me to stop posting while sleeping.
Originally Posted by AKA
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AKA, stop posting while sleeping. This is your reminder.
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It's useful to have both a combo, a head and at least one cab eventually. So you don't need to torture yourself too badly: You'll probably add whatever you don't get now sometime later down the road.
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A little more versitality is possible with a head and cab.
Either part alone is lighter to lug than a combo, too, but
you have to lug twice.
If you have an amp with an EF86 channel or use other
slightly microphonic tubes, the head and cab works out
much better than the combo, too.
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My Corus combo sounds better than the Coda + RS-10 I used to use, and is easier to set up and carry. I used it a couple of days ago on a gig where it had previously cut out on me for the entire gig, because of a bad AC cable.
As I set up, the bass player asked me if the amp was okay. I told him it better be, or I'd kill myself this time. I was a little worried that the same thing might happen again, but it was fine this time. It's combos for me; from my Twin to my JazzKat to my Cube to my PV to my Corus, they can cover any gig.
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It doesn't matter.
What does matter is the colour.
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Of course, sometimes that clashes with the bride's colour scheme:
Last edited by Hammertone; 03-11-2017 at 11:57 PM.
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And sometimes the colour matters less than the sound, especially when playing Ellington:
Last edited by Hammertone; 03-12-2017 at 12:03 AM.
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