Gear Review: Fender Rumble Version 3

Convenience has become an obstacle in my 108 Days of Practice adventure.  

A great sounding practice rig, and lovely space

My main practice rig is fairly large; it consists of my main amp, a powered monitor and a Mac laptop.  As such, it remains in my practice room.  It is true, I can move it from room to room, but the setup requires a lot of space-- and frankly, I hate moving the entire rig up and down stairs. 

Boss TU-88 is a great alternative
 for silent practice

My alternative practice rig is much easier to move around, but is limited to playing though headphones.  It consists of a Boss TU-88 Micro Monitor & Tuner, laptop, and headphones.  This is a great setup for playing though headphones, though it is limited to sitting in one spot and using something to keep the light-weight Boss unit in place; stand up to stretch and the unit goes with you...

So what to do?  Use the above excuses as reasons not to practice?  Admittedly, that is exactly what I have done over the last few weeks when skipping practice. Granted, I still got in some good practice sessions, but not quite every day as the project requires... more like every other third day.  

Sweetwater to the rescue!

While taking an honest look at my practice habits last week, I logged on to my favorite on-line retailer to explore items that would address my reasons for skipping practice, thereby enabling me to practice more often.  After an hour or so, I narrowed my search to something that is easy to carry from room to room, with a built in speaker, headphone jack, and auxiliary input; and one rather important feature-- it must be under $100.  All of which pointed to a small practice amp, though most were outside my price range, or starter amps that are just too cheap to bother with.

Then there was one!

First test-run of the amp with my G&L LB-100

Two actually; Fender's third generation Rumble bass amps in 15 and 25 watts.  The Rumble 25 was only about $20 more expensive than the 15, and considering the 25 was still within my budget I placed my order.  My hope was this little practice amp would be light enough to easily move around the house, heavy enough to remain in place when I want to stand while practicing, handle input from my laptop, or iPhone, and sound good though the speaker or headphones.  Photos of the amp suggest that leaving it in our living room would also be a welcome option as it is very easy on the eyes.  Reviews on-line were overwhelmingly positive, so I had high hopes for this little Chinese made amp.  Five days later it arrived.

Sound Test

As soon as the amp arrived I grabbed my favorite bass and plugged in; mainly to make sure nothing was damaged from shipping.  At first I intended to spend a few minutes going through the controls just to make sure everything was good.  Surprised at how good this little amp sounded, I ended up spending the next two hours playing though this little box of tone.  Part of the initial getting acquainted period was fiddling with the knobs and the two switches.  

Everything I require in a practice amp

Controls are simple: volume, bass, mid, treble.  As is my starting point, I ended up leaving all at their center detent except the volume, which I set to roughly 25%.  The tone is classic Fender, and loud enough to fill our living room.  The two switches (buttons, to be precise)  are "overdrive," and "contour."  The first does what one would expect, which never really appealed to me.  "Contour" seems to scoop out the midrange; again, a feature that I could happily do without. 

Metronome, iPod, headphones, and a great sounding speaker!

Surprisingly, the Rumble's eight-inch speaker sounds much bigger than it is.  Turn the volume up to half and the house is rocking!  This would be a wonderful amp for acoustic jams-- it is very light-weight (about 20 pounds), sounds terrific and can really wail.  This is primarily a practice amp though, and as such it really shines.  The aux input allows for playing along with an iPod, or a metronome as I have been doing a lot lately.  Unlike some practice amps that have trouble reproducing songs from an iPod, this amp handles it with ease.  Add my bass to the mix, and both sounds come out wonderful-- exactly what I was looking for in a practice tool.

Sounds just as good as it looks!

Aesthetically it is a vintage, simple look that either appeals to you or not.  Personally I really like it; more importantly so does my wife, which is a real blessing!   Because she likes it, the amp is welcome to reside in our living room, making it easy for me to plug in without the bother of moving around a lot of gear.  

Since its arrival last week, I have played the heck out of the Rumble.  Will this little wonder of an amp encourage me to practice more often? We will have to wait and see.  In the meantime...

...stay tuned & in tune!

Gear Review: Carvin Guitars "Ultimate Soft Case"

Those of you who know me, already know that I really don't care for the old hardshell cases.  Soft-cases are far and away my preference.  As a result, I've owned several versions that are on the market today.  

While I've yet to find the "perfect one," I do have a few favorites: the Reunion Blues Continental, and the iGig G525.

Kiesel/Carvin have had their own model on the market for several years; known as the Ultimate Soft Case.  Now that I have a few months of real-world use on mine, I thought I'd share my thoughts here.

L: RB Continental. R: Carvin USC

To begin with, I really like the Carvin soft case.  Possibly the most notable characteristic of the Ultimate Soft Case (USC) is the relative slim size of the soft case.  Especially compared to the RB Continental.

Next, the second most notable feature of the case is the large "Carvin" label on the front.  The company is predominately Kiesel now, and on 19 September Jeff Kiesel will no longer refer to it as "Kiesel Guitars, Carvin Guitars."  So why the big Carvin logo on the case of a Kiesel bass?  Perhaps this will change as old Carvin stock is phased out for new, Kiesel branded items.  

Padded handles are similar between the two, with the Carvin (as it's branded) being significantly smaller than the RB, though far better than most soft-cases which are simply nylon straps.  

Please keep in mind that this is not intended to be a comparison of the two-- I am only using the RB as a point of reference as most bassists are familiar with the RB-- with no intention of declaring one better than the other...

Something that I'm not especially fond of is the limited end-pin protective padding at the bottom of the case.  Kiesel's large, standard endpins-- and more so the Dunlop strap locks-- really work their way into the padding after a month or so.  Granted, they have added a rectangular rubber foot to the outer portion of the cases bottom... which is better than nothing, but not as good as it could be.


I've chosen to deal with this by changing the standard Kiesel end-pin with a smaller, more strap-friendly G&L version that I had in my parts box.  Must say however, kudos to Kiesel for improving the quality of the screw used to secure their end-pin.  In days past it was a very small, flimsy little thing; now it's a screw slightly larger than that which accompanies the Dunlop strap locks, or G&L.

 Something that left me scratching my head is the placement of the nylon patch found on the lower interior, intended to protect the case from sharp portions of the instruments bridge.  It comes nowhere near the bridge.  Looking photos posted by others reveals the same thing-- it's useless for just about every instrument intended to fit this case.  To overcome this, I rest a polishing cloth over the bridge.  Doing so not only protects the case, but reminds me to wipe the bass down before stowing it. 

Protection for the headstock is excellent!  Not only is the neck supported by a pillow that also keeps the neck positioned properly, but there is an extra section of thick padding at the top, should the top of the case impact something when carried by its handle; something I've done on several occasions when my hands are full trying to squeeze past people congregating near a doorway.


Finally, the shoulder straps on the back can be secured nicely by tightening up the ends as well as a chest strap.  This makes the straps less likely to snag on something when loading/unloading, or when walking through crowded areas such as a subway station, or after a church service.

Overall, it's a great case.  Not perfect, but again I have yet to find that one.  Is it better than the G&G hard case?  Well, that's a matter of preference, but I believe it is far superior in most situations.  

That's not to say the G&G is a bad case-- it's among the best available for those who like hard cases.  Kiesel has updated them slightly as well; the old style raised metal logo historically fixed to the face of the case has been replaced by a Kiesel Guitars badge underneath the handle.  A classy touch.

The Ultimate Soft Case is going to be my choice for all future Kiesel builds, however that big, bold "Carvin" logo would keep me from buying one for a non-Kiesel basses.  That may be overly OCD of me, which is okay-- I've got several other soft cases to protect those basses.

For my review of the Vanquish bass that came with this case, check out the post, "Kiesel Guitars Vanquish V49K."

Stay tuned & in tune!