Smash Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Having to do quiet practices with an acoustic guitar, took along my standard bass with a mini boss recorder and headphones but that's no good as guitarist didn't know what I was playing. There is no power in the room so I am looking at either an cheap acoustic bass or a very small battery powered amp, but.... worried incase the acoustic bass would be drowned out and also the only battery amp I can see is the new Roland Cube RX but its not out until April/May. What do you reckon would be the best option? PS. sorry if this is in the wrong forum, thought it was more to do with monitoring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mottlefeeder Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 [quote name='Smash' post='148508' date='Feb 28 2008, 05:05 PM']Having to do quiet practices with an acoustic guitar, took along my standard bass with a mini boss recorder and headphones but that's no good as guitarist didn't know what I was playing. There is no power in the room so I am looking at either an cheap acoustic bass or a very small battery powered amp, but.... worried incase the acoustic bass would be drowned out and also the only battery amp I can see is the new Roland Cube RX but its not out until April/May. What do you reckon would be the best option? PS. sorry if this is in the wrong forum, thought it was more to do with monitoring[/quote] I have used both my Hartke kickback 10, and my Hartke HA 300 (but not at the same time!) with a 12 volt caravan battery and a 12 to 240 volt convertor. The only problem I had was a slight buzz, which disappears when you touch the strings, or turn the treble down. It's not a safety problem, it's the harmonics from the invertor. An invertor is about £20, and a 12 volt burglar-alarm battery should be about £10 to £15, so you could use your existing amp for £35-ish in extra parts if you felt comfortable putting it together. That's a fairly comon set-up for buskers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smash Posted February 28, 2008 Author Share Posted February 28, 2008 Cheers Mottlefeeder, but I really need to travel light as I can as I walk to this place which is about 1.5 miles and even a 10kg amp with bass can be hard work, well for weedy me that is. Does anybody play acoustic bass here with acoustic guitars? any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidbass Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 [quote name='Smash' post='148623' date='Feb 28 2008, 09:13 PM']Does anybody play acoustic bass here with acoustic guitars? any ideas?[/quote] I have done in the past. The one thing about acoustic bass versus acoustic guitar is that they'll never be heard at equal volume unamplified - the bass will always appear quieter. I'm not sure if this is because most actually are, but maybe because the tone of acoustic guitars is more piercing/discernable to the ear of the listener than the bass. Of course every guitar/bass is different - see if you can get a decent volume level when played unplugged in an ensemble setting before investing in anything bigger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGit Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 You'd need an acoustic bass the size of a double bass to be heard with two enthusiastically played acoustic guitars ... There are loads of buskers' amps around though .. not specifically bass amps but why not rehearse somewhere else or buy a looooooong extension lead, and a gear trolley, and find somewhere to plug in? [url="http://www.dv247.com/invt/43572/"]HiWatt 15 watts £130[/url] [url="http://www.twenga.co.uk/offer/83842013.html"]Crate Taxi £130[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 Best option - lightweight practice amp and a long extension lead... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 I've got a Pignose Hog 30 watt job - around the £100 mark from Thomann in Germany. Does the job okay, lasts about 6 hours between charges. Not really light , but manageable. Most acoustic basses have n't a cat in hells chance of being heard over acoustic guitars in my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mottlefeeder Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 [quote name='Smash' post='148623' date='Feb 28 2008, 09:13 PM']Cheers Mottlefeeder, but I really need to travel light as I can as I walk to this place which is about 1.5 miles and even a 10kg amp with bass can be hard work, well for weedy me that is. Does anybody play acoustic bass here with acoustic guitars? any ideas?[/quote] The message seems to be that whatever route you go down, it is not going to be light emough to carry 1.5 miles. Time to look outside the box? How about a lightweight porter's trolley. We use them to load in/load out, but there is nothing stopping you taking one further afield. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.gif.9ad672bb8b84505709f76b39c8c256ec.gif)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.