Noise levels and neighbours

[MWH]

I live in a small two bed bungalow, detached. I live on my own, very detached !
I practise to tracks off youtube played through a 100 watt bass amp into a 2x12 marshall guitar cab, my bass is running through two 15" cabs powered by a 300 watt Head, no one calls, not one witter despite the folk at the bus stop all looking at my place simultaneously , hah !
Neighbour says I have to stick to Gary moore stuff cos she enjoys his guitar riffs, sorry, I don't own headphones, can't think why, there'll be a reason, smirk.

[Staggering on]

I am so lucky.I live in a very rural part of Ontario in Canada almost 5 hours north of Toronto.My nearest neighbours are over a quarter mile away and we live in an area of dense forest so sound does not travel very far.I can play my basses,guitar and banjo at any volume I please at any time of the day or night and no one will hear anything.I have also had wonderful late night/early morning binges of playing CDs or my old vinyl records at crazy loud volumes.Sometimes a loud party outside in the summer can be heard faintly but that is rare-I guess I live in a musician's dream location.On my visits to Canadian towns and cities and on the occasions when I have been in England I often wonder how people manage to play instruments in such crowded places and count my lucky stars that I found this place to live.
I spent about half of my 70(gasp)years living in cities but the last 37 years out here in the country have been the best.On top of that it is cheap!
Visitors welcome any time.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Staggering on

[highwayman]

Vox Bass amPlug for less than £35: brilliant piece of kit; it's all I use these days (as a learner), teamed with a pair of Sennheisers. My amp sits in the wardrobe until it's called on one day.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vox-AP2-BS-amPlug-Headphone-Amplifiers/dp/B00NAUKJTY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483298027&sr=8-1&keywords=vox+amplug+2+bass

It could only be improved by making it USB rechargeable over its current AAA batteries.

[thebigyin]

I practice through a small 30w combo on about number 1....i don't see the point in having it any louder never received a complaint about noise ect and the walls are very thin you can hear the neighbours both sides easily so they can probably hear me. But keep it low because at the end of the day your not impressing anyone. Respect

[ped]

With my new toy (Tecamp Pleasure Board) and headphones, I can achieve the perfect mix in my headphones and feel like I'm standing in front of (or more specifically 'on') a huge bass rig. Nobody else can hear it unless they're in the same room in which case, after playing with my headphones off, it sounds like a muffled boxy speaker at very low volume.

I don't need to do this because of noise levels as my neighbour is the other side and basically deaf, but I much prefer the feel and control I have using this setup, and like Mingsta says above, I enjoy playing more when I know I'm not disturbing anyone. Also with an amplifier everything in my office rattles at different frequencies which drives me dotty.

[bassjim]

I hate knowing I can be heard when practising. I have a small 10 watt practice amp that sits on a table next to my Sonus on a shelf for playing along to youtube ect. If you turn it up louder than the sound of the kettle boiling it farts out which in turn helps to stop any over enthusiastic volume. Its also in my kitchen which is the furthest point away from any party walls and other rooms in the house. I can happily play any time of daylight hours and well into the evening with no fear of disturbing anyone in the house or next door.
Nothing worse than knowing you are irritating anyone whilst trying to perfect that tune. Some tunes for a covers band can take me all day to really get em nailed to a gig ready standard so it can be hard on others to hear the same old thing going round and round...

Its hard for anyone to pluck up the courage to knock on a door and say " look........the bass playing.....ect" as it can come across as being the hitler next door so I think the ask them first if they can hear it policy is best and even if they say "yes but its no bother" accept that it probably is.

[mentalextra]

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1437135845' post='2823890']
............... My one neighbour then uses a petrol driven blower thing for his cuttings, what a racket that produces.
........
[/quote]

A lady up the road to my house uses an electric leaf blower, spends literally hours blowing leaves and rubbish out of her front garden on a weekly basis. I think she's given up work to concentrate her efforts on this job. But the noise is so awful it could be used to torture people in South American prisons!

[Monkey Steve]

at my last flat I once got a builder with a huge hangover who was doing up the flat below banging on my door to complain about the noise coming from my 5.1 sub at a reasonable modest volume (I think it was a super hero film with a load of explosions) - bass hurts!

Never really feel the need to play through an amp when practicing at home - I'll typically only use them when checking out new gear. And always at a reasonable hour (or if i know the neighbours are away). My acoustic guitar is probably more of a noise issue than my bass playing (and possibly my acoustic bass is the worst offender)

That said, I moved a year ago from a flat to a terraced house and the neighbour that moved in a month later to the side that shares a wall with my front room came round to apologise in advance if his guitar playing was likely to disturb me - I should bang in the wall if it's a problem and he promises not to do it too often in the evening! No problem mate - you help yourself. I very occasionally hear him, and he must occasionally hear me, but we seem to get by on a live and let live basis.

[Mornats]

I live in a converted Victorian terrace house and the guy above me is a drummer. He practices hand drums and I can hear them fairly clearly but I don't mind at all. He's really good at playing, doesn't play them long or at excessive volumes and plays them at very reasonable hours. When he moved in we had a chat and I said I played bass and mixed music at home and said to let me know if it ever disturbed him. He was really cool and said just go ahead and do what I want. Still, I be as reasonable as possible and tend to mix on speakers when I think they're out. It makes the world of difference when you have understanding neighbours. It's nice knowing that either one of us will mention any excess noise to the other and we'd both be happy to sort it out.

Also, it's hard to find a good drummer these days and I have one right near me now! I must be the only person I know who was pleased to find out that a drummer had moved in above him!

[WalMan]

A looooong time ago I played in a prog instrumental band that rehearsed at least two nights a week in the drummers ground floor flat with the full PA (for the keys I think it must have been) kit and backline. Never did work out how we got away with it

[itsmedunc]

Try playing the bass line to Coronation St, Emmerdale, Eastenders and all the rest of that botox and they probably will never notice.

[radiophonic]

My last set of neighbours used to do drunken sing-alongs to Wish You Were Here and She's Not There (Santana version) interspersed with hardcore techno until 6 am, at least three nights a week. The council (their landlord) would do nothing. My neighbour before that, threatened to murder me and my wife and was convicted for 'making threats to kill' after attempting to smash our front door in. I never even plugged the bass in at either address. I have no neighbours any more and I can play as loud as I like, which I do. However, my band rehearses in the terraced house living room of our singer and guitarist (couple). No one has ever complained.