I auditioned, in my home, all five Fender Rumble combos listed in the title. I needed two amps -- the first, for home practice and maybe some stage or church playing, needs to sound great at all volume levels. The second, travel amp is for jamming with my acoustic friends. This one needs decent sound out of the smallest possible box, and good full tone at low volume, because acoustic musicians (including me) look with suspicion on amplifiers. I settled on the 100 and the 25, but if I could afford only one amp, it would be the 40. Here's the rundown:

200 "“ Jaw-dropping sound and volume, but WAY too much amp for home use. It's "only" 140 watts to the speaker, but even at low power it was rattling my brain cage. The huge 15" speaker sounds mushy at lowest, "household" volume, and this is not the case with the other amps. I'm guessing that this is a great stage amp for a medium/large venue, but it's not for your house.

100 "“ Awesome sound, still much more amp than I need in my home, but I get a beautiful tone out of it, and it sounds great at low volume. Has the same controls as the 200 and the 40: gain, adjustable overdrive, and four tone controls (bass, low-mid, high-mid, and treble). Three filter buttons "“ I like "bright" and "vintage" together. "Contour" is a muffled tone that I don't care for, and I don't use the overdrive much (although I bought the foot switch, just for fun). This amp's a keeper.

40 "“ Awesome full sound. At low and medium volume, it's indistinguishable from the 100, and I could easily have settled on this for my primary amp. The controls are the same as the 100 and 200.

25 "“ Great sound out of a small box, but definitely a step down from the 40. No gain control, three tone controls (bass/mid/treble) instead of four, and the only filters are contour and a non-adjustable overdrive, neither of which I like. But I get a nice warm sound with the tone controls, and (very importantly) the low-B on my 5-string sounds fine. This little amp can really rumble! I'm keeping this one, for my acoustic jams.

15 "“ Just not good enough, and it's the only disappointment in the lineup. The tone is small and thin, it cracks and pops at higher volume, and it can't handle the low-B string at all. If you need a really tiny box, and only play at very low volume, this would be OK, but spend the extra twenty bucks and get the 25.

Two stars for the Rumble 15. All the others get five stars, and every one of them is a great amp at a great price. The 200 may be the exception to this "“ it's $150 more than the 100, but it only delivers 40 more watts to the speaker. That speaker, however, is a 15-inch, compared to the 12-inch on the 100, so maybe it's worth it to you. The bang-for-the-buck award definitely goes to the 25 "“ great sound for a hundred bucks and a small box!

I'm a very happy camper with the 100 and the 25. For practice, jamming, and small venues, though, you really don't need more than the 40.

A word of advice: only buy an amp, or any instrument, if you can try it out and return it. I would have been stuck with the 200, except for my music store's excellent return policy. I tried five amps and returned three, and my only cost was $18 to ship the Rumble 15 back to Amazon.

I'm reviewing the 25 watt version -- it is a good little amp. You're definitely not going to be gigging with this amp but for $99 you shouldn't expect to. The distortion switch is pretty useless. overall though if you're looking for a good practice amp - and by practice amp I mean when you are practicing alone. I have the master all the way up and the other one on 6 to get a passable level of volume -- but it does distort so really I can complain.

I have gigged with this amp for close to a year now (about 30+ shows) and this little guy is amazing in the tone to weight department. For years I played through an Ampeg HLF4x10 cabinet with a Yorkville Bassmaster head 400watt (the tone of this can re-arrange your guts) and I loved it...for the tone, but the rig is beastly heavy and big.

I was initially interested in the Rumble 500 with the two 10" speakers (because I like the punchiness of 10 inch speakers) but when I went to the music store then only had the Rumble 100 watts. I tried it out and played through the amp for close to an hour (I play G&L L-2000 USA). The amp sounded great...just awesome tone, beefy bottom, and lots of adjustments in the EQ's. And it only weighs 22 lbs.! So my wife got me one for Christmas (but gave it to me sooner because we had shows and why wait?) I play in a four piece (now five) rock cover band and this things gets plenty loud. 90% of our indoor venues are bars, restaurants or social clubs (American Legions, Eagles, etc.) and this amp is more than enough. I have used it for numerous out door gigs as well and with the DI out to the PA, the amp is fine. I have never had the gain past 25% and the main past 50% for any gig. In fact, I can set the upper limit of the main to about 45% and then control my volume with the volume pot on the bass itself. You can switch to a distorted channel...I'd say that is fairly descent, better than many pedals I have tried, but I rarely use it (except for Smoke on the Water...but not always...more of a personal choice).

There is an effects loop, but that is not controlled by a foot switch (only switching the between the main channel and the dirty channel is controlled by a foot switch), and that is the only major knock on this amp. But for price, the tone (fantastic) and the weight (the box feels like it is empty!) this amp is tough to beat. At the store, I tried Ampegs small combo that are comparable (and I love my Ampeg cabinet) but this Fender Rumble sounded markedly better to me. It is not just the tone, but the amp really responds to how you play the bass. The guitar players in the band are jealous at how little this thing weighs. And it hardly takes up any room in the van when we load out for shows. You can gig with this amp, no problem. I should add that our band really endeavors to keep our stage levels reasonable...a lot of venues and crowds these days just don't go for the wall of noise anymore. But if you play in a band where your guitars run full or half stacks, this amp can still hang if you also direct out to the PA and use the amp itself to monitor. I really care about my tone, and my Ampeg/Yorkville rig destroys...I played that rig for years....but 9/10 times it is overkill, and who knows if the audience truly appreciates it anyway...? the Fender Rumble 100 sounds great...it is super light and small, but packs a solid punch. I also have a Peavy 75 watt combo (my first amp) 12" speaker...also sounds really good, but weighs almost three times as much, and no where near as loud. I can't recommend this amp enough.

If you are looking for your fist amp, or you're looking for you next amp and are tired of dealing with a monster rig, this is what you ought to purchase. As I have gone on in years playing shows...the saying 'less is more' holds true.

A side note: This amp did stop working near the end of our last set at a party...we were outside, but the amp was in shade...the power just cut out...and would not power back up, at all. (I plugged my bass into the board and when finished the show). Fender has a 5 year warranty and the place my wife bought it has a two year warranty on top of that...I sent it back ($22 my cost) and i was sent a brand new amp (Fender does not repair these amps, they only replace from what I was told). Anyway, the replacement came back FedEx in two days and this little amp is back in business and 4 months later (another dozen or so shows and a lost of rehearsals) it is still going strong. ...there is a part of me that still wonders if I would like the 500 watt with the two 10" speakers even more...but I am very satisfied with the little guy. (I added a photo of a gig we did at a wine festival so you can see I have used it outdoors...the amp is on the right side of the drums, and it looks very nice with the silver speaker cover...our band is WonderChunk...wonderchunk-dot-com) Thanks for reading. Hopefully this helps you!!

I bought a bass guitar last fall and was looking for a decently priced amp to learn with. I'm very glad I picked this one. It sounds great with my Peavey bass, and the controls make it easy to adjust the sound. The volume is plenty good for practicing plus some. I've joined a band now, and during our practices I stand beside a full drum set. I can always hear myself very well with this amp at just half of it's volume capacity. It's a powerful little speaker that will make your bass sound great.

It's definitely designed to highlight the low tones. I've had my bass plugged up to other systems, and I always come back to this amp because it gives great tone and volume. I'd say it's a perfect starting amp that's good for almost any use a beginner could have.

This probably won't apply to many people, but I'll include it anyway. I've had a small issue when I attempt to use this amp as a monitor speaker. I can run my guitar into a mixer, but when I run the monitor feed from the bass back to this amp, there's always a distinct buzzing sound that's introduced that I can't get rid of. Probably due to my lack of knowledge about sound equipment, but it's just a note that you should probably plan to use it as a standalone amp. I've solved the problem by using a microphone to collect the signal from the speaker, which actually works very well with this amp.

For some reason Amazon lumped ALL the reviews for EACH DIFFERENT Fender Rumble Combo into ONE review thread ???????
Amazon review editors, there are 5 completely different Fender Rumble Bass Combos ranging from a 15watt combo all the way up to a 500watt combo, they ALL have different speaker sizes and ALL have different wattages and ALL are EACH made for a specific use.
Amazon, you have made this review of the Fender Rumble Combo Amps very confused to say the very very least !!!
On with my review of the Rumble,, I own the Fender Rumble 200 with the 15" speaker and I also own the Fender Rumble 500 with the 2x10 speakers, both my Rumbles are great have performed flawlessly in small to even semi large venues (clubs and bars) so I can personally highly recommend either one, but my Rumble 500 is definitely more powerful than my Rumble 200,, if you want the most volume and punch possible go with the Rumble 500.
I came on here looking for reviews of the Rumble 100 with the 12" speaker, but since Amazon somehow decided all 5 different bass combo's are just "one" bass combo trying to find a review of the specific model of Rumble combo I was wanting to find a review for is a bit problematic at best.
Cheers
Davyo