I’ve just bought a brand new Fender Rumble 40 to start to learn bass. However when I tried to plug in, it just briefly got a red light then went off. I could not manage it to work since then.
I’ve bought it from Amazon USA, and my power outlet is UK. I tried to change the cable with an UK one but still there is no power on my amp.
Should I initiate a refund or is it easy to fix? I have no experience with amps at all, and to my luck that was my first amp.
The amp requires 100-120v which is what US power outlets produce. If the standard power outlet in the UK produces 220-230v then at best you may only have blown an internal fuse which will need replacing more than likely by either a dealer with a qualified amp tech or a Fender Authorized Service Shop.
At worst you may have fried vital components in the amp and potentially done some significant damage. Any electronic device that runs on 100-120v AC is not gonna appreciate twice that amount of voltage. This is something you should’ve been made aware of before ordering a US version of that amp.
How you want to handle this is up to you but it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to repair it yourself because even the fuse would be internal and would require getting inside the amp to replace it. It will need to be looked at by a tech to determine whether that all that happened or if more damage was done and it may not be worth repairing.
Sorry to hear of your problem but welcome to the site. In the future you might come on and ask us about things you have little to no experience with. We’re more than glad to help whenever we can in whatever way we can.
I had a Fender Rumble 40 give up on me after about six months of use. I plugged my bass in, the amp made an awful crunching noise, then just made soft popping noises after that. I could not find any evidence of a fuse, internal or not. However, a couple of calls to their phone support line got me a new amp as a warranty claim. (The first call went nowhere, the second one was much more effective.) The old amp is still sitting in my garage waiting for me to drag it to electronics recycling.
Your mileage may vary, but I’d give their support line a call.
The v3 Rumbles do NOT support multiple voltages. They’re either 120 or 230. That’s the reason I sold my Rumbles (40 and 200) when I moved to France from the U.S. I bought a Studio 40 after I arrived.
As we used to say in the product engineering group: All electronic devices are made of smoke. They work great until the smoke gets out.
I don’t wanna hijack the convo too much, since this seems to be a voltage issue.
But while I love my Fender Rumble 40, I bought the 15 Rumble watt and that thing junked out within 4 months… either way Fender is easy to work with at least imo.
Thanks for your responses, I really appreciate that.
First of all I will contact with Amazon to get a troubleshooting, perhaps I would be able to get a refund or replacement. If cannot get a replacement, I will try to find a tech to get it repaired.
Its been kinda overwhelming situation for me. I was eager to start learning bass.
We currently have 2, one that I bought brand new in a store and the other used for 1/3 of the price. Both work perfectly and I really cannot find anything negative to say about them, except that it’s really a basement amp, I wouldn’t use it for a gig.
Unfortunately I had no idea when I was ordering. I have bought a few electronics from US before and they are working completely fine, so I thought a converter would be enough to make it work.
I checked it’s Amazon page as well but there is no statement for its voltage as far as I can see.
If it came with a US plug it was probably a 120V model. Was it from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com. If the former then you would have grounds for complaint if the latter then probably not.
Look at the socket where the power plugs in. It will likely say the acceptable voltage range there.
Hopefully you’ve only blown a fuse. Hard to say without opening it up. You could try reaching out to Fender to obtain some documentation/schematics if so inclined.
