Problem with feedback in rehearsal room
 

Hi there.

I play bass guitar in an amateur band, where our rehearsal room is a double side-by-side container (part of a bigger arrangement of several rehearsal rooms). In other words, it's a bit cramped in there. And our music is hard rock and prog rock, so it tends to get a bit loud (the drummer's really the one setting the volume).

But when I'm having my bass amp (an older Carlsbro 1x15" cabinet + amp) loud enough, I'm having real problems with feedback in quieter parts of the songs or in between songs. It's really getting annoying.

My bass is a Sandberg 5-string bass with active pickups.

I've tried using a noise gate, and it killed the feedback. But I also felt that it killed the dynamics in my playing. Long notes were cut early, and the sound felt a bit "muffled".

Any advice on how to deal with this? I've searched a bit, but found mostly references to acoustic feedback problems, with hollow-body basses and standup basses.

Thanks for any help!

Put some absortion material in the walls and try to move your bass from the room's corner.
You can also get a feedback destroyer, like the Behringer PRO FBQ2496.

Could be because of somehow faulty microphonic pickups.

Umm!
 

Is there a worse place to play than in a large untreated flexible steel box?.
Yes if there are other boxes of the same volume welded to the other boxes. Standing wave generation heaven is that lad.
after having attempted to build a good sounding studio in a dutch canal barge and failed I feel your pain.
And I had the advantage of water damping half the top sides.
The only thing you can do is reduce your distortion to the minimum
and cut heavily with a parametric EQ at the frequency the whole place rings like a temple bell at.:bassist:

Thanks for your answers!

Moving away from the room's corner is not an option, unfortunately, since it's such a small room. Unless I'm able to sit on top of the cymbal like a parrot while playing bass guitar. I'll give it a whirl and get back to you... :-D

I'm a tad unsure about the insulation on the walls. I do *think* that they're not insulated, but I can't remember. It's definitely not an option to insulate the walls though, since these tin can rehearsal rooms are put up by the community officials (government), and I'm willing to bet my head that they're not going to cover it.

How is feedback destroyers compared with noise gates?

Also, I'm wondering about buying the noise gate I was trying out earlier. I did feel that I lost very much of the dynamic in the sound, but I was told this could be due to both bad settings and incorrect placement in the pedal chain (I'm using a volume pedal along with an EBS overdrive and a TC Electronics chorus). Are noise gates at all a good solution to feedback problems?

The strange thing is that if I turn my body just 20-30 degrees either way, the feedback goes down. </i_digress>

Rehearsal being rehearsal, MAKE your drummer dampen his drums down so you don't have to rehearse at some stupid volume. It's about learning music, not pursuing the ultimate rock sound. Save that for the gig.

The sort of noise gate that might work well in your circumstance is the boss ns2 but then if you reduce your distortion just a bit more you might get full control without.
The feedback suppressor EQ will work but it usually is less useful than just having a decent EQ that you control.
Suggest to the local authority that the rehearsal facility should restart as a local hydroponics workshop and the profits thereof should be used to provide a free voucher system for rehearsals at a professional commercial rehearsal facility like mine. You Know it makes sense.:bassist:

If your bass cab is in the corner, that will stimulate the strongest response.
Move your cab up higher if you cannot change location.
This will engage various Allison effects which might alleviate your feedback problem.

As noted above, wall insulation will do a whole lot.
Hang a rug off opposing walls with an inch air space behind it.
Make sure a dead surface faces every live surface (opposing walls).

Carpet the floor.