It goes without saying that you don’t need a stage-loud rig to use for band practice…<\/p>\n
…or do you?<\/p>\n
Well, let’s list a few truths first.<\/p>\n
Truth: It is better to have too much amplification than not enough<\/strong><\/p>\n Playing through a weak rig at rehearsal is not fun at all, because everyone can hear themselves except you.<\/p>\n Truth: Your “enemy” is the drummer<\/strong><\/p>\n The guitar player and singer aren’t the problem, but rather the drummer because more often than not the acoustic drum kit is the loudest thing in the room. Some drummers play real loud, and no matter how much you tell the guy to play quieter, that will last for, oh, about 10 minutes, and then you’re right back to where you were where you can’t hear yourself again.<\/p>\n Granted, some drummers are mature about it and know not to play crazy-loud in a rehearsal space, but unfortunately there are many, many stories from bass players about drummers that just couldn’t play quieter no matter what. (And if you have a story about that, please feel free to post a comment below and tell your tale.)<\/p>\n The thing to remember here is that your rig should be louder than your drummer. Specifically, your bass rig should be able to “punch over” a kick drum no matter how hard the drummer kicks it.<\/p>\n Truth: The practice space itself dictates what you actually need to be heard<\/strong><\/p>\n Some practice spaces are great, while others are just plain awful.<\/p>\n For example, an easy “cheat” (should the room accommodate it) is to place your bass cabinet closer to the wall to use the wall’s vibration as a “helper” of sorts.<\/p>\n But then of course there are practice spaces where you’re surrounded by nothing but concrete, and that can be rough on a bass player trying to be heard because that’s an environment where you have to overpower “dead acoustics”. No wooden stage to vibrate, no wooden walls to vibrate, etc. You get the idea. <\/p>\n Love or hate metal music, that style of playing is a pretty good benchmark of what’s needed to be heard at the more extreme-loud levels.<\/p>\n Many metal bands don’t have a lot of choice when it comes to getting a rehearsal spot, so they take whatever they can get. More often than not, many metal bands will rent out a space in an old mill. And of course, the room they have will more than likely be nothing but concrete, steel and not much else.<\/p>\n Metal bass players deal with the worst sound environments you could possibly think of where it’s necessary<\/em> to have a rig that can thunder away and be heard no matter where it’s placed.<\/p>\n This is, incidentally, why many metal bass players will say, “Yeah, I need 300 watts through an 8×10 at rehearsal just to be heard”, and say that without hesitation. That guy is dealing with a drummer who plays ridiculously loud, combined with an environment where noise is “pinging” and “slapping” off the walls constantly; he needs a rig that can boom like nobody’s business.<\/p>\n Of course, this is completely opposite to what a bass player would need in, say, a blues band. Blues bands usually play a lot quieter (even with a horn section); the bass player can totally use a 25-watt tube-type amp mated to a 1×15 at rehearsal, hear everything he’s doing and mix in with the surrounding instruments with usually no problem at all.<\/p>\n You tell us: How many watts are in your practice rig for rehearsal?<\/strong><\/p>\n Be sure to mention if it’s solid-state, tube-type, etc. Also mention your cabinet configuration(s).<\/p>\n (Image credit: Sweet 16 Bass Cabinet<\/a> @ Cigar Box Nation)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It goes without saying that you don’t need a stage-loud rig to use for band practice… …or do you? Well, let’s list a few truths first. Truth: It is better to have too much amplification than not enough Playing through a weak rig at rehearsal is not fun at all, because everyone can hear themselves … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The “metal” bass player who practices in a mill is a pretty good guy to ask for advice on what’s needed to be heard<\/h3>\n