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Post subject: Rumble 150 Head - Stupid Question
Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:53 pm
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Forgive my ignorance, but I was wondering; If I had a Rumble 150 head, could I run that into something like a SWR Power 750 power amp?
I have the 150 combo and love it but wish I had more power. It would be great to have that running into 4x10 and 1x15 cabs.


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Post subject: Re: Rumble 150 Head - Stupid Question
Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 12:29 pm
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YES with one caveat. You need speakers connected to BOTH the Rumble and SWR power amps.

While this means adding an additional cab, it doesn't have to be much of a cab. About any smallish 4 OHM bass cab will handle the 150 watts of that Rumble, perhaps put a 2x10 tilted in front of you for a monitor or put it firing toward the drummer so he can hear you better. (I've done both those things at one time or another.) Or of course just put it behind you with the cabs fed by the SWR.

Yes you can use a PA monitor style cab with the Rumble, but will probably want to change out the speaker in it to a bass speaker. I'd use the bigger/better speakers for the SWR.

Be sure to power BOTH units from one power conditioner or at least from the same power strip to avoid ground loop hum.

Here is how to connect them. The SWR is a bit unusual in that it has an XLR INPUT but does NOT have an XLR OUTPUT. The Rumble has an XLR out. To connect the two amps just use a short microphone cable of good quality to connect the RUMBLE XLR output (more typically used for PA Feeds or Recording Feeds) to the XLR input on the SWR POWER 750.

REPEATING, be sure to have speakers connected to both amps.

Ideally use a single 4 OHM cab on the Rumble (4 OHM MINIMUM is spec'ed on it) and a 4 OHM cab or stack array yielding a 4 OHM load for the SWR. Using 4 OHM loads on both power amps should get about all the rig has to give...900 watts! I know that the SWR POWER 750 is spec'ed to have a MINIMUM 2.6 ohm load but 4 OHMS is typically the lowest you can go using stock cabs without going below 2.6 OHMS, so if you use one 4 OHM cab or two 8 OHM cabs for a 4 OHM load with both amps you'll be about where you need to be load-wise on each. The SWR POWER 750 does 750 watts and the RUMBLE does 150 watts when both are fed in their own 4 OHM loads.

If you need a PA feed you would have to use the SLAVE phone jack on the SWR. I'd suggest acquiring a direct box and add it between the SWR and the PA snake box for the PA feed.

Actually having a rig like this is a REALLY good idea. When playing indoors in a smaller venue you might only need the Rumble rig and can feed the PA with the Rumble XLR out. When playing outdoors or in a huge room you can add the SWR and additional cabs.

My personal rule is NEVER GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP FOR CRUCIAL GEAR. That means having more than one instrument, power amp and cab. At the least I always have something I can feed direct to the PA should there be a failure in the amp/speakers. Having a two power amp rig like this means if there is a problem with one amp, you still have the other as a backup.

Since the RUMBLE is doing the PREAMP work in this rig, if it is the Rumble that fails you would need some sort of backup preamp to feed the SWR phone jack input. Anything like a Tech 21 NYC Bass Driver, Line 6 Bass Pod or even a $40 Behringer BDI-21 would serve that purpose and I'd always have at least one with me. Any of these pedals would get you through the gig and nobody but you would even know that there had been a problem.


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Post subject: Re: Rumble 150 Head - Stupid Question
Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 12:54 pm
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Wow! Very informative. Thanks BrotherDave.
I never considered putting a cab on the Rumble. I guess I assumed the power amp was the load.
Thanks again.


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Post subject: Re: Rumble 150 Head - Stupid Question
Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 11:35 pm
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You should not plug the speaker output of the Rumble into anything but an adequate speaker cab that is 4 ohms or higher.

That SWR Power 750 is a heck of a power amp by the way. It is very heavy duty.


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