Do you use the room's rig or take your own?

[rOB]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1366532530' post='2053484']
I would never plug my very nice amp into an unknown cab. Especially one in a rehearsal room. Can someone please explain to me wht this practice is considered acceptable.
[/quote]

Excuse my ignorance but please could you explain why that's a bad/dangerous thing to do?

[Ziphoblat]

[quote name='rOB' timestamp='1366661835' post='2055746']
Excuse my ignorance but please could you explain why that's a bad/dangerous thing to do?
[/quote]

Well for one thing the cab could have a lower impedance than your amp can handle. For instance, most amps are designed to run down to 4-ohms, if you were to plug it into a 2-ohm cabinet the result would be unhealthy.

[rOB]

[quote name='Ziphoblat' timestamp='1366667389' post='2055854']


Well for one thing the cab could have a lower impedance than your amp can handle. For instance, most amps are designed to run down to 4-ohms, if you were to plug it into a 2-ohm cabinet the result would be unhealthy.
[/quote]

Ah I see, thanks very much.

But if you were to check the can's impedance and make sure your amp could handle it you'd be ok?

Sorry if this is a stupid question.

[BigRedX]

I just don't like plugging my amp into unknown speakers.

Firstly I can't remember the last time I saw impedance information on the back of a rehearsal room cab, secondly they all still appear to use jack sockets as their method of connection. IMO that's fine for 50W guitar amps, but with bass rigs capable of outputting 500W+ I want to be using a more reliable method of connection like Speakons. Some of the jack sockets I've come across on cabs have been somewhat wobbly to put it mildly. I can only imagine what is going on inside the cab and worry about the possibility of presenting my amp with a short circuit on the output...

I've used my amp with other people's cabs twice. Both times I had to use jack leads to make the connections and I also had to turn my amp up much further than I would with either of my of cab sets. These days for rehearsals and gigs I either use my complete rig, or just bring my Bass Pod and use what ever amp and cab/combo that is provided.

[Conan]

It depends...

If I know the studio, and know that they have decent gear, and I can't be arsed loading my own into and out of cars - I might well use theirs. Getting a decent, usable sound out of unfamiliar gear is a useful skill and can actually help you (IMO) learn to utilise your own gear better.

If I have just got some new gear, then I will use mine so that I can test it out at gig volume. A gig is not the best place to do this!

If it is a new studio or one that I am unfamiliar with then I'll definitely take my own. My combination of LH500 and BFB Vintage is very transparent, so I know that i will be getting the sound of my bass (and any effects). Some of the gear used in studios can colour the sound a lot and make it hard to get a clean tone. While my earlier comment about using unfamiliar gear still stands, it depends on the situation.

£12.50 an hour makes me take full rehearsals seriously. I do whatever is required and wastes least time. But sometimes it is quite interesting to use gear other than your own!

[xgsjx]

A lot of you guys are lucky. Ampeg, Markbass & so on in the rehearsal rooms!
None of the rooms that I've used so far have anything that can handle any bass below a dropped D on a guitar.

In my previous band, we used to regularly use a room that had a Carlsberg Bass Bomber, which I used for the first couple of months & then I took my own gear,. But over a short time, the other bands abused it & after 6 months it no longer worked.
The rest of the band always took their own kit from the off.

The rooms my new band have been using have all been new to us & none of us knew what was going to be there. I was the only one to take my combo & was glad that I did.

The guitarist keeps complaining about the kit that's been in each of the rooms we've used so far. The last place he spent 1/2 an hour trying to get a decent sound (as in not buzzing). He has a 1x12 combo too that he bought not long ago. How hard can it be to chuck it in the back of the car?

[Dave Vader]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1366487756' post='2053221']
I [i]always [/i]take my own gear. Why spend God knows how much time and money getting the kit you want and then not use it? Rehearsal gear takes a right old battering in any case and is generally pants. [size=4]If you're happy to use a shonky rig at rehearsal, why did you buy decent gear?[/size]
[/quote]

I didn't, my rig is cheap and battered, but good enough because...

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1366552942' post='2053877']
once the guitarist and drummer get going one bass amp sounds much the same as another bass amp. Carting my own amp in would be a waste of time.
[/quote]

Being a lazy sod has served me well. Me and a guitar player I was working with at the weekend both agreed heartily that if you get the call for a gig and they say there's already an amp there you can use, it makes everything better. No lugging cabs and heads up stairs, walk in with a guitar on your back with the cables in the bag, and walk out the same. One trip, you can do it on a bus if you like.
Get home, no dragging everything from the car into the living room, then from the living room round the back to the studio, just walk through drop the bass off.
I live in the middle of nowhere BTW, there are no rehearsals or gigs that are less than a 45 minute drive from my house. Time saving is good.
If it makes a thumpy low noise I will use it. I've seen many an evening shortened by an over-precious drummer/guitar player turning up a bit late with their own gear and wasting half an hour setting it up. Would have taken less time to plug in to the piece of crap amp there, say "ooh, that's a bit pony, shame" shrug and get on with playing the bloody songs.


YMMV

[discreet]

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1366707406' post='2056111']
...YMMV...
[/quote]

It certainly may!

[51m0n]

I take my rig to rehearsal.

Intially the present band were a little non plussed, after all there is a Hartke 410 and head in the room, a rig I might add that has been defended as a pretty decent piece of kit on this forum before now, a position I would suggest is optimistic at best. Then one week I couldnt get my rig there, and used the supplied Harke stack of sh**. I wasnt the one complainign, I was stood right in front of it, could just about hear myself (and we are a three piece funk band, a with a light drummer ffs!), but the guitarist and drummer were both horrified by the change, I have been asked to always bring my rig please, because it makes an enormous difference to their enjoyment of the evenings shenanigans.

I wouldnt dream of plugging my head into an unknown rig, knowing my luck the previous player will have melted a voice coil shorting the cab out completely and I will be looking at an expensive bill for a new power amp section in my sa450. No thanks.

For me having a tone I know, and a rig I can rely on to deliver it at the required volume, is vital. Also it really does make a huge difference to me (and my band) to be able to work in rehearsal with the sounds we are going to be getting live. We dont do many gigs so we want to match the gig vibe as closely as we can when writing and rehearsing. And I spend as much time as our guitarist on selecting a sound for a part. I only run about 4 fx pedals these day, but that turns out to be a lot of combinations to think about, especially when combined with all the different sounds I can get out of my hands and pickup blends.

And I have never ever found a reheasal room with a rig that was really up to the job IME.

[achknalligewelt]

My own Ampeg BA-115 weighs a ton, lovely though it is, and I just can't be arsed to move it if I don't absolutely have to. So I endure whatever there is to use, and make the best of whatever it is that the teenage metallers in there did to it before we arrived. The place my (occasional) band rehearses generally has something usable (An Ashdown or similar), and the other project I work with is willing to shell out for a nice place with an Ampeg SVT-7 and a proper Ampeg 8x10 cab.

Do I sound like an Ampeg fanboy there?

[discreet]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1366707953' post='2056125']
...having a tone I know, and a rig I can rely on to deliver it at the required volume, is vital. Also it really does make a huge difference to me (and my band) to be able to work in rehearsal with the sounds we are going to be getting live...
[/quote]

This, plus about ...ooh I dunno... a thousand.

[shizznit]

I always take my own. I will always know how to set up the rig for the best results at a gig and the other musicians are used to the overall sound. Plus, I don't like forking out extra money to use the house rig after spending serious cash on my rig which will be much better than the house rig 9/10.

[JTUK]

Our two main rehearsal studios are well run and clean. They double as either teaching schools or recording studios.

But there is no legislation for what people do behind closed doors to amps etc etc.
The amps aren't that great anyway and the prime concern is that they take abuse..because that is what they will get
over the course of a months bookings, IME.

In the last few months, both amps have been under repair and unless anyone reports the amps as out of action or
this or that problem, who knows what you will find.

I just that type of chance out of the equation.

And for auditioning or introducing guests or just making a good first impression ( new faces around and they have a very good CV, etc etc ) sound is the most important thing.
If you blow that, it is VERY hard to recover from.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited February 18, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[EliasMooseblaster]

I think the situation is a bit different in London: most people don't have a car - or daren't drive it through the centre - so a lot of rehearsal rooms have realised they have to provide amps of at least passable quality. So I've played through some decent Trace Eliot combos in some rooms, and had to put up with some hideous Line6 amps in others. Bringing a 115 combo on public transport is something I'll grin and bear for a gig, but for a weekly (or even twice weekly) rehearsal, I'd rather spare my back.

We've been quite fortunate, however. Since our drummer started teaching in his own rehearsal room, we've been able to park our own amps in there. So nowadays I can play through my Laney at rehearsals and be content in the knowledge that if it sounds awful, that's probably the fault of the idiot holding the bass!

[51m0n]

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1366714365' post='2056248']
I think the situation is a bit different in London: most people don't have a car - or daren't drive it through the centre - so a lot of rehearsal rooms have realised they have to provide amps of at least passable quality. So I've played through some decent Trace Eliot combos in some rooms, and had to put up with some hideous Line6 amps in others. Bringing a 115 combo on public transport is something I'll grin and bear for a gig, but for a weekly (or even twice weekly) rehearsal, I'd rather spare my back.

We've been quite fortunate, however. Since our drummer started teaching in his own rehearsal room, we've been able to park our own amps in there. So nowadays I can play through my Laney at rehearsals and be content in the knowledge that if it sounds awful, that's probably the fault of the idiot holding the bass!
[/quote]

Interesting - I'd be inclined to look down the BF midget route (or similar) or a public transport type rehearsal, and a micro head I guess.

Only if I absolutely had to though

[richardjmorgan]

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1366714365' post='2056248']
I think the situation is a bit different in London: most people don't have a car - or daren't drive it through the centre - so a lot of rehearsal rooms have realised they have to provide amps of at least passable quality.
[/quote]
Was just about to say something along these lines. My experience of London rehearsal rooms has ranged from the dreadful (Line 6 combos you have to pay an additional fee to rent), via the unsuitable (that Fender Twin sounds very nice but probably isn't going to do the job for high gain metal) to the surprisingly good (Markbass stuff at the place we currently use).

However, I mostly use my own gear as we tend to store all our stuff at the rehearsal rooms. Partly because that means it isn't taking up space in our tiny London flats, partly because that means it's all in one place if we need to take it to gig. And it has the added advantage of meaning we actually get to use the gear we've spent money on with a view to it doing a specific job, and we have time with the gear to fiddle about and tweak how things sound, both individually and in relation to how the rest of the band sounds.

[Dave Vader]

[quote name='richardjmorgan' timestamp='1366730075' post='2056520']
(that Fender Twin sounds very nice but probably isn't going to do the job for high gain metal)
[/quote]

Wasn't a Red Knob "evil" twin then?

[barkin]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1366703142' post='2056044']
It depends...

If I know the studio, and know that they have decent gear, and I can't be arsed loading my own into and out of cars - I might well use theirs. Getting a decent, usable sound out of unfamiliar gear is a useful skill and can actually help you (IMO) learn to utilise your own gear better.

If I have just got some new gear, then I will use mine so that I can test it out at gig volume. A gig is not the best place to do this!

If it is a new studio or one that I am unfamiliar with then I'll definitely take my own. My combination of LH500 and BFB Vintage is very transparent, so I know that i will be getting the sound of my bass (and any effects). Some of the gear used in studios can colour the sound a lot and make it hard to get a clean tone. While my earlier comment about using unfamiliar gear still stands, it depends on the situation.

£12.50 an hour makes me take full rehearsals seriously. I do whatever is required and wastes least time. But sometimes it is quite interesting to use gear other than your own!
[/quote]

This is it, for me.

[rOB]

Just to add tonight's experience to the mix.

Arrived at the rehearsal studio with my head, into the room and the rig was terrible so played through the PA instead. Worked a treat.

[4 Strings]

For me there's a minimum point beyond which I would insist on my own. If its half ok I'd be ok too, I quite like playing through different gear. But finding that minimum can be tricky. At a showcase there was a Behringer 115 combo, sounded like it should be ok, but absolutely wasn't. On a gig, a Peavey keyboard combo was provided and viewed with suspicion but actually sounded great.

I'm also in a Christian band and sometimes we play in churches who are proud to let us know they have a drum kit and amps, we don't need to bring our own gear to complicate things. Having been bitten a couple of times we now insist on using our own. Got one of these next week, a couple of other bands who will all share whatever is there, and us being difficult.

[Conan]

[quote name='rOB' timestamp='1366751115' post='2056965']
Arrived at the rehearsal studio with my head, [/quote]

Are there times when you forget your head?

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvXxijurOdw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvXxijurOdw[/url]

[neepheid]

As long as everyone can hear me, I couldn't care less what I use. In fully kitted out rooms, I use what's there. If we're practicing out the road (rehearsal space in the middle of nowhere), I take my wee RedSub combo, which despite all the yada yada about the laws of physics is more than capable enough for the job of being heard.

I'm not looking down my nose at people who want to use their own gear, I fully understand and can appreciate their arguments (familiarity of sound/operation, getting money's worth out of it etc.) but I'm basically lazy (I mean efficient!) and I CBA to lug about at stuff I don't need to lug about at.