Home practice combo amps?

[naxos10]

That's the one MartinB. I used to take mine to practice nights with a loud drummer and 2 guitarists and it always held it's own.

[Ricky 4000]

On 10/04/2019 at 10:24, Rikki_Sixx said:

I did wonder about inputs with these. I have to admit I don't fully understand how they work, and YouTube didn't help! Would I need a pre-amp / DI? £39 sounds too good to be true, and if I had to have a £200 pre-amp then it would rule them out really.

Nope, it is true, as I said above - channel #1 has a decent mic' pre built in* (adjustable via a dial, with upto +40db of boost IIRC). That's why #1 is ideal for plugging even a low-output passive bass straight in to the mixer.

*I was/am also confused by stuff... until recently I didn't know that a mic pre is indeed the same thing as an instrument pre.

A DI box** is slightly different as I understand it - but you wouldn't need one of those either. 👍

** I'd only want to have a DI box to use as a splitter for recording... Here's a Beringer one for £16. https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_di20_di_box.htm?sid=8f1e42ac8833b0cb009cccd448b32ee6

It depends what you want to do mate, but I've been playing along with stuff, and then recording bass tracks, all evening, with just a bass, laptop, mixer, and headphones.

If you don't want to record yourself on the computer, I suppose you could achieve the same thing with bass, computer, practice amp (one with an Aux in, and Phones out), and headphones (or not).

🙂

Edited April 11, 2019 by Ricky 4000

[Cato]

I thought it was Basschat law that someone mentions the Zoom B1on in these situations.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoom-B1on-Bass-Effects-Pedal/dp/B00JLEHMG6

It's a perfect headphone only practice amp and so much more.

[Twanger]

I have a focusrite interface for recording, and I find I use it more and more just for practising. I have a pair of powered speakers that I run it through when I'm not headphoning it. It's easier to use than a mixer.

[Rikki_Sixx]

18 hours ago, ped said:

[...] even if I like the sound I don't like playing them loudly for fear of annoying people, rattling everything in the room or someone hearing me!

This sounds like me! If someone's going to hear me I'd rather they hear after I nail a song, not while I'm repeatedly messing it up!

What do you use @ped?

[Nicko]

Personally I use an old Line 6 15 watter like this GAK.

Discontinued but I've seen them on ebay for £10 or 20.  Its not fantsastic sound quality but for practice who cares.  Headphone socket has never been used on mine, but I suspect it wont be speaker emulated.  I don't bother much with the modelling functions but there are a number of tonal options available if you really want to sound like something in particular.

 

[ped]

2 hours ago, Rikki_Sixx said:

This sounds like me! If someone's going to hear me I'd rather they hear after I nail a song, not while I'm repeatedly messing it up!

What do you use @ped?

I play most of the time at home in my office so I have over the years built a nice little setup in here.

Bass goes into a Roland VB99 and GR20, then to my headphones. Output of VB99 goes to a TC BH800 which powers a TecAmp BassBoard which gives me the rumble and feel of being in front of a massive rig without producing much noise at all. The Roland is also connected by USB to my computer so the computer sees it as an audio interface and all the music I play on it comes through my headphones and bass board too. 

At the time the VB99 was an indulgence but it does everything, any effect I want, even virtual pickups. I can't say enough about it and I still find new things to do with it; I've probably only explored about 50% of it's capability. More often than not, with non Roland pickup equipped basses, I use it as above as a really excellent quality preamp/effects unit.

I dare say something like a Helix is a similar idea, without the polyphonic and multi string functions which can only be accessed with a Roland pickup. 

I love having everything in one box, getting to know it and how to get what you want from it. Plus the form factor means it sits nicely next to my desk and it's at eye level for fiddling 'on the fly'

With a four month old baby at home I like knowing I can put my cans on, switch on my system and be in bass nirvana within seconds. Wife is also happy with me being out of the way :)

[Stub Mandrel]

I bought a Blackstar Fly for quiet guitar practice and its usable with a bass, so I imagine the bass-specific version is very good.

My 'proper' bass practice amp is an Orange Crush 25, which has a 'pad' button that keeps things sane. Actually had a (very civilised) jam last week and I left it on the pad and barely went over 1/4 on the volume, I reckon you could do an 'unplugged' gig with it or even a small pub. Downside is no DI ou,. Advantage is that any and all basses sound fantastic through it, disadvantage is that it seems to impose the 'orange' sound so if you are 'Mr Trace Elliot' it may not be your cup of tea.

[Dazed]

Over the past 10 years I’ve used an SWR Redhead ( overkill 😂) left over from my gigging days years ago.

Then a small Ashdown, not a fan but it was very cheap and my reintroduction to bass after 10 years away.

At some point I had amp GAS and although not gigging fancied something that could be gigged if the need arose and I went for a Markbass CMD 121. A brilliant little combo and very happy with it. Not long after I needed to travel more and wanted a tiny combo I could take with me. I’ve never really settled on using headphones when playing so despite investing in some decent cans I rarely use them . 

After some research I came across PJB and I’ve been happily using a Phil Jones DoubleFour for several years now. No issues whatsoever. It’s basically the sound of whatever you plug into it. Clean and transparent. As small as you like, so very portable. 

I was without an amp at some point and found myself buying a tiny all valve RAT modified guitar combo 10 or 20 Watts max. I replaced the 8” speaker with something bass friendly and although it isn’t perfect it does me ok for home noodling.  

A) it was cheap (ish) should’ve done my homework but bought randomly on a whim. 

B) can’t get anywhere near it in size or price with something bass oriented. 

C) Valve tone is TOTALLY different and I’m kinda sold on it, luckily I don’t need a bigger giggable rig. 

 

Im thinking of getting one of the tiny Roland combos as I may need another little amp I can leave somewhere and use when I need. 

[ovialexm1]

SWR LA15 great combo for practice and small gigs.

[Soledad]

1 hour ago, Bass4me said:

SWR LA15 great combo for practice and small gigs.

I've heard very good things about the SWR Workingmans 10. There's a 12 as well but the 10 seems more highly rated. Don't come up often - I think I saw a 12 on here a little while ago.

[lozkerr]

The Eden EC8 might be worth considering. It's got quite a punch for a 20 watt amp, and the low end sounds nice and full. There aren't many bells and whistles on it - aux in, cans out, plus controls for gain, tone and enhance is yer lot - but it does the job very well. It wipes the floor with the Fly 3, IMHO.

[Stub Mandrel]

Me showing my age again.

Back in the 80s/90s pub gigs meant backline for all the instruments and a vocal PA and maybe miked up snare and bass drum on the rare occasions we played a small club.

I get the feeling that many bands now use smaller backline and have much more go through the PA (helped no doubt by mics and PA getting ridiculously cheap?) It appears the line between big practice amp and small stage amp is blurring away, with about 30W being seen as enough for guitar and 50W combo for bass for less rowdy musical styles?