Practice Amp or Bass Trainer ?

[Dazzlovski]

Hi you lot !

I have a 'need' for some smaller amplification to use upstairs at home between gigs, rather than lugging the 'big-guns' up the stairs every week, knocking chips out of the wall and stairs, doing my back in etc etc, and wondered if you chaps had any suggestions ?
I was thinking along the lines of a good combo obviously, but .....

In terms of of home-rehearsal, how do the Tascam Bass-trainers fare for this purpose ? Is this a possible solution?
I seem to be continually learning band material or other stuff to challenge my playing (of which there's loads) and wondered if this was a reasonable substitute?
Tascam appear to have a new Mp3 type trainer which looks very good and compact.

I've always had a complete disregard for parents and neighbours etc when I plug and play at home, (nice eh?) but one of the above may make me 'environmentally friendly'....... well at least while I'm playing the bass at home !

Open to ideas on either !

Ta

[bassbloke]

Korg Pandora and a decent set of headphones. You can pick up a second hand one quite cheap on ebay. I never use my amp at home- no point. I hook my laptopor MP3 up to the Pandora for jamming along to songs.

[steve]

I've had a Tascam mp3 bass trainer for a few weeks now, and I've found it a very useful piece of kit. If I had to choose between the tascam or a practice amp of similar value (on the assumption that I had a rehearsal/gigging rig already) I'd go for the tascam every time.

[niceguyhomer]

I wouldn't be without my BT - I play along to stuff for an hour every morning before I go to work with the headphones on and then again at night through my stereo fairly loud without headphones - it's as good as any practice amp and invaluable for learning stuff.

[peted]

I have both a Tascam bass trainer and a little Line 6 110 Studio. I use the Tascam for working out basslines for my covers band, and the little combo for general noodling and technique practice and workouts. I'd actually recommend having both if possible. If you're playing along to songs then the Bass Trainer can't be beat.

[Phaedrus]

I have the Tascam CD bass trainer - it's great and I use it a lot, but would like the mp3 player instead.

€200 is more than I have free right now but if I was in the market, that's what I'd be going for.


Mark

[Dazzlovski]

Thanks Chaps,
Its seems that everyone I have spoken to since my original post agrees with you guys. The BT appears to be an ideal tool for home rehearsal.

I have a 'wheezy' little combo at home which needs be introduced to the wheelie-bin at sometime in the future ,as it does no justice to the tone of my bass ,and depresses me as I try to squeeze something half-decent out of the damn thing.
So, until I have a little more dosh to play with, its the Bass Trainer for me, as it seems to tick all the boxes for rehearsing without having a speaker, amp and PC in the room at the same time.

All that remains is to pick the right unit. Tascam or Pandora?, CD or Mp3 ?


Thanks for the assistance chaps !

[steve]

[quote name='Dazzlovski' post='99243' date='Dec 4 2007, 10:16 PM']All that remains is to pick the right unit. Tascam or Pandora?, CD or Mp3 ? [/quote]

tascam, mp3

[tauzero]

[quote name='Dazzlovski' post='99243' date='Dec 4 2007, 10:16 PM']All that remains is to pick the right unit. Tascam or Pandora?, CD or Mp3 ? [/quote]
Digitech BP-200, Aiwa combined CD/MP3 player (as long as you've got a CD burner to burn MP3s to CD)

[peted]

If you're going to go with a bass trainer (good choice) make sure that you factor in a good pair of closed headphones too. They make a world of difference.

[Dazzlovski]

[quote name='peted' post='101775' date='Dec 9 2007, 04:26 PM']If you're going to go with a bass trainer (good choice) make sure that you factor in a good pair of closed headphones too. They make a world of difference.[/quote]

I think I've dropped enough MP3/Tascam "hints" at home that the long suffering other-half should be discussing its impending delivery with Santa !
Funny you should mention the headphone thing, I was xmas shopping today (!) and tried on some Bose cans and they were the biz. I've always used the in-ear phones to maximize the bass output into my noggin' but these were impressive and I could imagine being able to wear them for long periods of time.
The in-ear headphones tend to get a little uncomfortable after a while.

Peted....out of interest,when you say "closed headphones", do you mean noise-cancelling or in-ear ?



Thanks again chaps!

(I can see me being particularly anti-social on Xmas day, headphones on, bass plugged in......... sound good !)

Edited December 9, 2007 by Dazzlovski

[Sean]

[quote name='Dazzlovski' post='101872' date='Dec 9 2007, 07:57 PM']Peted....out of interest,when you say "closed headphones", do you mean noise-cancelling or in-ear ?[/quote]


Check these out - superb for the money and very comfortable. I wear mine for hours every day.

[url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/dt-231/8775"]http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/dt-231/8775[/url]

[peted]

I'm talking about the big cans that cover you're ears. I've got a pair of Sennheiser eH350s that I think are perfect. I can hear every little nuance off the CDs in my Tascam. I don't have anything like perfect pitch, but these make it a lot easier to work out what's going on.

[url="http://www.sennheiser.co.uk/uk/icm.nsf/root/products_sennheiser_headphones_evo_500095"]http://www.sennheiser.co.uk/uk/icm.nsf/roo...ones_evo_500095[/url]

I got mine from my local Sound Control.

[sk8]

i got an old tascam second hand and a practice amp. Best of both worlds

[Rumble]

My vote is definitely for the BT. Had mine for 2 or 3 years now and still wouldn't be without it. Can play to my hearts content without annoying the good lady or waking the littl'n.

[7string]

I'm fortunate enough to have both as well...

I've got the Tascam BT Mk II and it's a great little unit. There is a line in where I can plug the iPod in and jam to that. I've only used the CD training part of it once and I managed to get it to slow a section down of a track so I could learn it. I haven't tried to do the same with an iPod track..

My practice amp is an old Trace Elliot Boxer 15 complete with the funny carpet covering.....

[Dazzlovski]

Chaps,
Thanks for the advice.
As much as I am looking forward to using the BT, I can honestly say that I can't foresee it being a 100% substitute for a practice amp at home. I envisage hitting the 'Bay for xmas rejects in the new year for a quality single speaker practice amp 'just in case'....

as you say...."Best of Both Worlds"
and you can never have enough speakers and wood in the house .....Am I right ?

Daz

(anything on offer?...... need to put an add in the WANTED section methinks)

[Telebass]

Tascam CDBT1mkII is what I use. Would like to get the mp3 version. I also use a good set of closed back phones, Sennheiser HD212pro to be exact.

Edited December 13, 2007 by Telebass

[GremlinAndy]

I can also vouch for the Tascam BT Mkii
It's the most empowering purchase you can imagine, because
A: It's small and portable,
B: Sounds great
C: Inaudible to neighbors,
D: has effects built in. (not recording quality but good enough for the purpose)
E: I'm sure there's an "E" but I ran out of steam.

I love mine and wouldn't like to be without it.

I think the MP3 one would be handier, but wasn't available when I bought mine. So I would suggest the MP3 one.

Nuff said.


Andy

[TimmyC]

Does the Pandora PX4D have a 1/4" jack output? On their site it says "Output: line/headphone dual-purpose output (stereo phone jack)" but doesn't specify the size?

[GreeneKing]

A quick review of the MP-BT1 the MP3 player version of the Tascam CD-BT1. Basically its very good. MP3 player itself is great with more oomph than my Creative Zen.

Size wise it's tiny and quite weighty. I believe it's a 1Gb device that should hold around 240 songs.




The controls are more intuitive/menu driven than the CD version and the bass sounds much better (much less 'mickey mouse'). Basically plug in the bass and set up the input volume. Play the track and adjust bass/track differential rocker and output rocker.

I haven't used many effects yet but so far its all positives.

The battery is an internal rechargeable Li-on and no power unit is suppled (one is available) but the beast charges via the PC and USB cable.

It's built to industrial strength with a thick metal case and the screen is monocolour but easy to read. Buttons feel good, a very important thing you know.



Very pleased to put it mildly.

Peter

[Mottlefeeder]

[quote name='TimmyC' post='105486' date='Dec 17 2007, 06:53 PM']Does the Pandora PX4D have a 1/4" jack output? On their site it says "Output: line/headphone dual-purpose output (stereo phone jack)" but doesn't specify the size?[/quote]
The casing and front panel markings are the same as the previous versions, so I am pretty sure you will find it has a mono 1/4 instrument jack, a stereo 1/4 inch headphone/output jack, and a CD/MP3 player 3.5mm jack.

The PX4B is bass specific, and includes a drum machine which allows you to chain drum patterns together.

The earlier Bass and guitar PX4_, had the bass player losing out. For example, the drum kit dropped a lot of drum machine sequencing, and added a 'rule-based bass-part generator'. Having said that, I am using the bass generator on Band-in-a-Box to give me ideas for lines to play, so that function may still be useful to you.

The new PX4D model appears to put back in some of what they took out before, however, without a pdf manual, I am not sure how versatile those functions are.

Edited December 19, 2007 by Mottlefeeder