Cr*p bass amps in rehearsal rooms

[Hutton]

Where I rehearse in Glasgow there is an Ampeg 8X10 cab in every room. The amp is either an Ampeg or an Ashdown. Sometimes the Ashdown head is well played and nearing the end of it's useful life but the ampeg stuff is usually ok. My favourite is an Ampeg SVT2 which has a glorious row of six big bottles in the back. The privilege of using this gear comes at a price of £28 for a three hour session.

Edited October 26, 2007 by Hutton

[Delberthot]

i reherse at a place in Bonnybridge, near me, called The Bunker. I usually play through an Ashdown 15" combo with Peavey 4x10" underneath it and am really impressed with it.

I have been taking my own gear to practices for years so it is really good to be able to just fire my bass, a strap and a cable into the boot.

£8 an hour so its not bad. No more mucking around with gear and cables - enough of that at the gigs

[Freuds_Cat]

[quote name='wulf' post='79357' date='Oct 25 2007, 09:34 PM']It can help to take a bit of tone-shaping with you. When I last went through a phase of using rehearsal rooms, I was regularly using a Sans Amp Bass Driver DI which can help a lot (and now have a Bass Pod XT, which can help even more) given a fairly average starting point.

If the problem is that the amp and speakers have been abused, then it is probably down to the other people who have used it. I didn't have many occasions when I found unusable gear and, when I did, a quick word at the desk got it swapped out. If you regularly get bad gear and the management aren't responsive to polite requests then you have to decide if they are worth the money you are investing in them.

Wulf[/quote]


Yep I agree with this. We are the owners of our practice room and rent it out to other bands. We supply a basic Pearl drum kit (quite reasonable quality) A Laney 100w Combo for guitars (ordinairy sound but works OK) a genuine Hammond B3 (too bloody heavy to shift anyway) and a 15" JBL cab with a Peavey Mark 4 head.

I cant stand the sound of Mark 4 heads personally and I've had to use quite a few over the years. My practice solution is similar to that suggested above, I bring my Ampeg Preamp to practice and just use the power amp section of the Peavey. Works a treat, its light, only takes a few seconds to setup and makes practice 100% more enjoyable.

When my gear is in a truck or un accesible for some reason I have even resorted to using a Behringer Tube Ultragain Mic100 (Very basic tube preamp)


These things are small, cheap and make a subtle but effective difference to the sound and feel of an instrument.
I think I paid Aus$50 second hand for mine from [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BEHRINGER-MIC100-MICROPHONE-PRE-AMP-PRICE-INCLUDES-VAT_W0QQitemZ130160551561QQihZ003QQcategoryZ3278QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem"]ebay[/url]. I did change out the Chinese tube with a Tung Sol though.

This is not the best way but it is a very cheap and simple way of getting a better tone when using a crap sounding amp but as Wulf says nothing except talking to the owner can solve damaged speakers. And if you are paying for it then you should expect everything to work.

Edited October 27, 2007 by Freuds_Cat

[Wil]

[quote name='Freuds_Cat' post='80016' date='Oct 27 2007, 03:12 AM']Yep I agree with this. We are the owners of our practice room and rent it out to other bands. We supply a basic Pearl drum kit (quite reasonable quality) A Laney 100w Combo for guitars (ordinairy sound but works OK) a genuine Hammond B3 (too bloody heavy to shift anyway) and a 15" JBL cab with a Peavey Mark 4 head.

I cant stand the sound of Mark 4 heads personally and I've had to use quite a few over the years. My practice solution is similar to that suggested above, I bring my Ampeg Preamp to practice and just use the power amp section of the Peavey. Works a treat, its light, only takes a few seconds to setup and makes practice 100% more enjoyable.

When my gear is in a truck or un accesible for some reason I have even resorted to using a Behringer Tube Ultragain Mic100 (Very basic tube preamp)


These things are small, cheap and make a subtle but effective difference to the sound and feel of an instrument.
I think I paid Aus$50 second hand for mine from [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BEHRINGER-MIC100-MICROPHONE-PRE-AMP-PRICE-INCLUDES-VAT_W0QQitemZ130160551561QQihZ003QQcategoryZ3278QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem"]ebay[/url]. I did change out the Chinese tube with a Tung Sol though.

This is not the best way but it is a very cheap and simple way of getting a better tone when using a crap sounding amp but as Wulf says nothing except talking to the owner can solve damaged speakers. And if you are paying for it then you should expect everything to work.[/quote]

In my experience, those Beringer preamps sound really good for recording. Nice tubey response and warmth.

[MB1]

[quote name='wotnwhy' date='Oct 25 2007, 11:40 AM' post='79337']
i would assume it's partly because a lot of the people who use rehersal room equipment don't show a lot of respect for it. every time we go to reherse the amp there has everything turned up to 11, input volume all tone controls, graphic eq and master volume. the amp is more than loud enough at just over half volume. the sad truth is, if it's not theirs they don't care.

and most people who do care for equip bring their own.

MB1.
Everything turned up to Eleven????????
Your rehearsing in Spinal Taps rehearsal room!

[s_u_y_*]

I usually use Unit 9 in Balham. The amps in most of the rooms are okay, mostly MAG range Ashdowns and Trace Elliots. A few of them have amps that are knovking on heaven's door, and the speakers are a bit shot. But most of the bass amps there aren't too bad.

I've also frequented Livewire in Streatham. Mostly Peavey TNT range. Gets the job done I suppose.

[wulf]

For a quietish band, you can just plug into the PA in the rehearsal room. I'm not sure I would want to try this with a rock group but with a combo like the jazz group I'm rehearsing with tonight, it works fine (again, using my Bass Pod for shaping the sound).

If you are in a band that pushes the volume up, then there is always the possibility that a crap sound is not the fault of the equipment but just because there is way too much sound bouncing around in a small room

Wulf

[steve-soar]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='79312' date='Oct 25 2007, 10:53 AM']Hmm... I'd agree if I wasn't paying 13 pounds an hour.[/quote]We pay the princely sum of ..... £3 per hour, Liverpool dock front, where dockland flats go for £500,000.

[Subthumper]

Does no one have a favourite crap amp?At practice I'm currently using a very old peavey century amp head with an unknown 1x15 cab.Its a box of farts but if you get the controls just right it has a great "old" tone.Though I must agree I'd rather use my own gear,theres just not enough room to bring it in.

[wotnwhy]

i love old peaveys, there hard work but for some reason i really enjoy it with them.. :|

i'm also in love with the laney hardcore range. some of the nicest sounds i've ever had have been from these, it's a shame they don't do a preamp.

[ARGH]

[quote name='Subthumper' post='81353' date='Oct 30 2007, 05:14 PM']Does no one have a favourite crap amp?At practice I'm currently using a very old peavey century amp head with an unknown 1x15 cab.Its a box of farts but if you get the controls just right it has a great "old" tone.Though I must agree I'd rather use my own gear,theres just not enough room to bring it in.[/quote]


Rank old Peavey MK3s with half the eq knobs missing or bent...worn 100w combos with shot 15" speakers and tweeters that fizz...DISTORTOMATIC!!

[Musky]

Old HH valve sound amps - they used to be in rehearsal rooms everywhere. In fact I like the sound of all the older HH's, quite growly little amps, if generally underpowered.

[s_u_y_*]

[quote name='wulf' post='81145' date='Oct 30 2007, 09:44 AM']If you are in a band that pushes the volume up, then there is always the possibility that a crap sound is not the fault of the equipment but just because there is way too much sound bouncing around in a small room [/quote]

Yeah... it seems this fact glazes over some of the bands that play at our studio. You can tell, because the guitar amps & PA are shot to pieces by bands pushing above and beyond what they really need. Thankfully the bass amps aren't too bad.

[Freuds_Cat]

[quote name='ARGH' post='81360' date='Oct 31 2007, 02:55 AM']Rank old Peavey MK3s with half the eq knobs missing or bent...worn 100w combos with shot 15" speakers and tweeters that fizz...DISTORTOMATIC!![/quote]

Peavey Mk 3 and 4 heads are like bad 80's music, they just seem to keep coming back and they both suck.

[mike257]

Our place (Crash in Liverpool) used to have some passable gear, it all gets abused by utterly shocking bands though. They're slowly replacing their collection of Marshall valve g**tar heads with Valvestate combos, and I haven't seen the Trace or the Ashdown rigs in ages. That's why the 'peg lives in a lock up there, so I avoid the trauma of dodgy combos

[quote name='steve-soar' post='81155' date='Oct 30 2007, 10:07 AM']We pay the princely sum of ..... £3 per hour, Liverpool dock front, where dockland flats go for £500,000.[/quote]

Would that be Vulcan?? Haven't been there in ages!! Has it changed much?