Practising Electric Bass ..

[budget bassist]

I play plugged in because i like to pay along to backing tracks a fair bit in preparation for band practice etc and i find that i can't hear myself very well over the backing track if i'm not plugged in. I COULD turn the backing track down, but i don't like to because like amps, it sounds crap at a low volume.

Also it tends to show mistakes and things better.

Edited July 15, 2008 by budget bassist

[BigAlonBass]

Some of us don't have the option. Before Health and Safety cottoned on to loud noises being rather detrimental to your ears, I worked for a LOT of years without earplugs. I can't hear an unplugged Bass well enough to hear if my technique is slipping, so I plug in every time. I have a crap practise amp, (as postulated in an above post) but all it's there for is to let me hear the notes I'm playing, and HOW I'm playing them, not "Get My Sound." I leave that until I get to a Gig, and EQ for the room I'm playing on the night.

Just as an after thought. A very good friend of mine took his brand-new Bass (which shall remain nameless-I am flaming nobody) straight from a professional set-up by a Luthier to a Gig. On plugging in, we were both surprised to hear a stunningly loud crackle (poor soldering) and a rather annoying fret buzz around the 9th fret. These two noises made the Bass unplayable for that night, and he had to resort to his 'Old Faithful.' Ten seconds plugged into an amp would have saved him a lot of embarrasment, so practising plugged in seems to be a nice way of checking for any 'issues' your pride and joy might develop over its playing life.

Just my two penn'orth.

[Jase]

Good topic! Just made me realise how much I actually play/practice unamplified.....loads!!, unless I have to learn a cover or record/write some original bass parts, in which case it would be headphones.

[ashgeezer]

Like Mr Fudge, i have my practice bass stood in the corner of the room on a stand and pick it up everyday, its saves me from keep getting my main bass in and out of its case, i use it to practice scales or just plonk about on it then if it takes my fancy, plug in the amp.
its all down to personal preference really

[cheddatom]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='240239' date='Jul 15 2008, 05:40 PM']Regarding Option 1, if they're that hard to hear you're not listening hard enough. Regarding Option 2, I bet you end up with the amp gain louder than necessary and thus fail to practice using your full dynamic range.

Very few guitar shops are quiet enough to test basses acoustically, though I would insist on it, it's the only true way of knowing how good a bass is (electronics can always be replaced). I have played very few low B strings that measure up acoustically, which is why I play a 36" scale.

If I can sound like a bad mother****** acoustically then I know I'll be even badder once I'm plugged in. Likewise if a song sounds great on classical guitar or unplugged bass plus vocals then I know once it has the full power of a band behind it it will be even better. Music first, arrangement second, sound third.

Alex[/quote]

You're right, I take it all back! I was playing last night, and actually listening instead of watching TV and I could hear everything, even my tasty low B.

[TKenrick]

[quote]If I can sound like a bad mother****** acoustically then I know I'll be even badder once I'm plugged in.[/quote]

This is what I'm going for - a lot of the gigs that I do involve kit sharing or running my bass through my D.I and then through a P.A, so I'm often confronted with unfamiliar amps. My reasoning is that if I can get the sound that I want out of my bass without an amp then when it's time to plug in I can still sound like 'me' without too much tweaking. I also find that I'm much more aware of fret buzz and other faults in my playing when I'm unplugged.

Of course this issue is, like a lot of things in music, entirely subjective - I'm not suggesting this works for everyone, and of course being able to get good sounds from an amp is an extremely worthwhile investment of time. I just find that practicing unplugged has been beneficial to my playing.

[Tait]

with an amp... till my dad tells me to turn it down!

he's a member, but i'm not going to say who he is cos everyone knows that parents who make you turn down are uncool!

[aryustailm]

I play through studio monitors also. I'm haven't decided if this is good or bad, though its definitely preferable to playing unplugged. On the one hand, there is no relying on an amp to even out the tone and 'help' with consistant loudness between notes. Obviously this means paying attention to playing evenly, which is no bad thing as it improves technique and control of dynamics. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I'm over compensating for issues that simply don't exist (or are smaller issues) with bass amps. I don't own an amp, and just use whatever is available at gigs - I normally have the bass DI'd also, so the amp is more of a stage monitor than anything. Seeing as a lot of tracks have been made with bass going direct to the desk, there must be some validity to it.
I suppose I really need to get an amp.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='lwtait' post='241019' date='Jul 16 2008, 04:15 PM']with an amp... till my dad tells me to turn it down!

he's a member[/quote]
That's not a very nice thing to call your old man

... Oh - you mean he's a basschatter

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I use the tascam MP3 guitar trainer with headphones - I bought it as soon as it was available so the bass version wasn't available at the time. I'll probably upgrade to the new recording version as it takes SD cards so I'll be able to keep everything on one big card and it has both guitar & bass fx - the guitar fx on the one I have don't work on bass at all, so I don't use them.

[Kev]

my trace is actually pretty good at low volume, so i like to practice with that, but if silence is absoluty needed, i practice thru headphones via zoom b2.1u and trace elliot amp model

i hardly ever play unplugged

[phil_the_bassist]

if i'm just doing exercises then it's unplugged, but I can run my laptop and headphones thru my bass amp so I can transcribe and jam along to tunes without disturbing anyone.


I find it helps to have myself pretty loud thru my headphones, so I can pick up on any issues i may have with my finger technique at higher volumes.