Joining a band , what amp etc?

[SH73]

8 minutes ago, SubsonicSimpleton said:

Will you be playing original music, and gigging on the circuit that caters to original bands, or will you be playing covers?

Where will you rehearse, in a commercial rehearsal facility or will you be rehearsing in an environment where you have to provide everything yourselves?

Where will you be storing your gear?

Where are the venues you are most likely to end up playing, and are they easily accessible by vehicle for loading?

If for instance you are playing all original material in a big city, you might not need an amp at all and putting your money to a high quality DI solution that gives the sound you want and can be fed into the efx return on practice room/shared backline or direct to the PA on larger gigs might be a better solution than an amp.

Your questions are light years ahead. But the plan is originals and rehearse in a studio. As for the gigs, it's far far away.

[drTStingray]

44 minutes ago, SH73 said:

Your questions are light years ahead. But the plan is originals and rehearse in a studio. As for the gigs, it's far far away.

In which case - in my experience - if you want to hear yourself against any level of crunchy low end from guitars, left hand on keyboards, and heaven forbid, some types of drummers, you'll need 300 watts worth of amp and speaker, so you can have a clean sound with plenty of headroom if volume is a problem - remember most set ups require 2 X 8 ohm speaker cabs to get the full output - so think around 70% with one cabinet. 

You may also find a studio which provides back line and PA - in which case just a practice level small combo for home use would be required - I very rarely play amplified at home - most personal practice is done acoustically (that said, and as you no doubt know, a decent proportion of bass playing is about stopping the bass making noises you don't want - ie muting technique - it would be best to be amplified really to cover this angle). 

[SubsonicSimpleton]

1 hour ago, SH73 said:

Your questions are light years ahead. But the plan is originals and rehearse in a studio. As for the gigs, it's far far away.

My advice would be to wait and see how rehearsals go before buying anything in terms of amplification - if you can manage with the provided backline(that you'll be paying for anyway in the room hire price) then be thankful for the energy saved by only having to bring your bass in a gigbag.

You always have the option to take the effects send on your rumble amp and connect it to the effects return on the rehearsal facility amp and use it as a slave.

[SH73]

1 minute ago, SubsonicSimpleton said:

My advice would be to wait and see how rehearsals go before buying anything in terms of amplification - if you can manage with the provided backline(that you'll be paying for anyway in the room hire price) then be thankful for the energy saved by only having to bring your bass in a gigbag.

You always have the option to take the effects send on your rumble amp and connect it to the effects return on the rehearsal facility amp and use it as a slave.

Agree, I'm in no rush spending money, but pre emptively wanted some advice on amp wattage. I've been to a few pub gigs and often cannot distinguish the difference between bass played in bands as all I hear is booming sound. Some with a bigger pedal board than guitar players and no difference in sound tone. 

[Crawford13]

1 hour ago, drTStingray said:

that said, and as you no doubt know, a decent proportion of bass playing is about stopping the bass making noises you don't want - ie muting technique - it would be best to be amplified really to cover this angle).

Never a truer word spoken! 

[Cuzzie]

1 hour ago, SH73 said:

Agree, I'm in no rush spending money, but pre emptively wanted some advice on amp wattage. I've been to a few pub gigs and often cannot distinguish the difference between bass played in bands as all I hear is booming sound. Some with a bigger pedal board than guitar players and no difference in sound tone. 

Doesn’t matter what equipment or wattage etc those guys will be using, they need to learn EQ and balance 

[SubsonicSimpleton]

On the originals circuit you might not have the luxury of bringing your own amp on smaller shows unless you are providing the backline, on larger shows the soundguy will DI you and want to keep stage volume down. Reality for origininals bands starting out is short support slots or slots on multiple band lineups, in both situations you are unlikely to have the luxury of lengthy soundchecks, and stage space is likely to be at a premium - the most important thing is to rock out and put on a good show regardless, the easier you make life for the engineer and organisers the better.

Bands where the bass is indistinct can have multiple reasons including room acoustics, poor EQ/FX choices on the part of the bassist, poor EQ/FX choices on the part of the other band members, poor arrangement of instrumental parts/voicings - the poor sound choice issue is often rooted in people being used to hearing their instrument in isolation when practising at home and then being unwilling to alter "their sound" to fit better within the overall sonic mix of the band.

edit: @Cuzziebeat me to it

Edited September 7, 2019 by SubsonicSimpleton

[dmccombe7]

I use my Mesa amp with a 8ohm cab so in effect only getting approx 300W max. I'm running it around mid-point on both Gain and Master with my active bass just back a touch from full on volume. 

That's in a Glam Rock band when using a vocal PA only. To be honest that's the same volume even when thru the PA as it matches drum volume.

Not sure if that's an accurate way of calculating but its reasonably approx at 150W  or thereabouts.

With modern lightweight amps and cabs i prefer a minimum of 500W altho that alows a fair amount of spare volume if required.

Dave

[MrDaveTheBass]

On 07/09/2019 at 19:28, SubsonicSimpleton said:

On the originals circuit you might not have the luxury of bringing your own amp on smaller shows unless you are providing the backline, on larger shows the soundguy will DI you and want to keep stage volume down.

The vast majority of 'originals' gigs I've done have been on shared stages through the venue's backline and PA. I learned the hard way though that it's a good idea to have a small rig or combo in the back of your car for personal monitoring when the house rig is broken or unavailable.

[Cuzzie]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BassPlayersMarketUK/permalink/2675671302444481?sale_post_id=2675671302444481&sfns=mo

 

if you did want.../

[jacko]

for a different take on things, I'll soon be putting my Mesa Boogie titan v12 up in the for sale section.  Couple it with 4 ohms worth of speakers and you'll have 1200 watts of heft - more than enough to subdue even the most exuberent guitarists . 

[SH73]

Well I'm not joining a band. Looked promising but the guitarist stopped the project.  At least I know what to get if things happen in future.

[LewisK1975]

9 hours ago, SH73 said:

Well I'm not joining a band. Looked promising but the guitarist stopped the project.  At least I know what to get if things happen in future.

Ah that's a shame - for future reference most rehearsal spaces will have amps/cabs you can rent along with the room, usually pretty cheaply too.  Saves spending out on gear in the initial stages of bands..

Also as someone said earlier, rehearsal should be done at relatively low volume anyway.

My band practice in one of our living rooms. Practice amps, electronic drum kit, No vocal amplification.  Works just fine.