Do yourself a favor..Don't practice bass without an amp!

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Jaco practiced without an amp constantly and it didn't seem to hurt his progress.

[dave120]

Originally Posted by clink

Jaco practiced without an amp constantly and it didn't seem to hurt his progress.

Well I think that my comments in this thread apply more to new players than seasoned ones...I still consider myself a beginner compared to most of you here. Once you get pretty decent technique down it's a lot easier to play without an amp without it screwing you up as much. In my case I would have caught these problems MUCH sooner if I was playing with an amp by myself sometimes all these months instead of only with the band when I didn't notice them. It's taken me about a week to correct almost all the sloppiness I noticed playing solo with an amp now. I can already tell I play better without an amp as well.

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

I didn't understand where you were coming from at first. The longer I play this thing, the closer I am to realizing how far I am away from playing it the way I want to. Progress is slow, my friend. Yes, I think practicing with an amp is helpful in the development of technique in terms knowing how to get the kind of sound you want. I think that for developing hand strength and motor skills there is no substitute for just grabbing your bass and running through scales, arpeggios or whatever, wherever you are. I'll practice for hours in front of the TV for instance. A decent bass can be heard well enough without an amp. If being unplugged frees me to practice more, I think it's a good thing.

[d8g3jdh]

Originally Posted by clink

Jaco practiced without an amp constantly and it didn't seem to hurt his progress.

Jaco didnt need frets.

Jaco only needed 4 strings.

Jaco only needed a jazz.

Hell, Jaco couldve played air bass better than most of us can play real bass. Saying that he didnt need this or that is kinda pointless, he only needed his ears and his brain

[Ray-man]

Originally Posted by Grug

Jaco didnt need frets.

Jaco only needed 4 strings.

Jaco only needed a jazz.

Hell, Jaco couldve played air bass better than most of us can play real bass. Saying that he didnt need this or that is kinda pointless, he only needed his ears and his brain

Well, I guess that kinda ends any and all future instances re: use of Jaco's name in an argument. Maybe we can put out a broadcast message to all of TB-land...

[anonymous278347457]

Originally Posted by velvetkevorkian

or maybe you just don't hear the mistakes? i used to think i could do really tight 3 finger plucking in time with a black metal blastbeat, and it sounded fine with the band. but if i was to do it solo, anyone could hear it was all over the place. just a thought...

hmm maybe your right.........I havent been playing that long so im not fully sure

[Scot]

Yeah, I think there's something to that. Using an amp will reveal a lot of the things that you wouldn't necessarily hear without an amp like excess string noise, clicks and extraneous noise from strings ringing that shouldn't be. Otherwise, I think it's really good to work on making the instrument sound good acoustically since that's where it all begins. John Patitucci is also an advocate of playing acoustically and comments that a lot of guys/gals rely too much on the amp and electronics to get their sound. Of course, you could probably also hand JP some thick rubber bands and a yardstick and he would make them sound like a million bucks.

[whitedk57]

Originally Posted by dave120

I'm off at school and I don't have an amp here, mainly because my amps are too big to have here and it would annoy the neighbors.

Even a big amp can be turned down to levels low enough so as not to bother the neighbors.

[wulf]

Originally Posted by whitedk57

Even a big amp can be turned down to levels low enough so as not to bother the neighbors.

That's kind of true but the larger the amp, the smaller the adjustable range at an acceptable volume. Also, you're operating well below the 'sweet spot' of where the amp gives it's best performance - like owning a sports car and only pootling along at twenty miles per hour all the time. Just like there are good arguments for owning a small car if a lot of your driving is low-speed hopping around in town, there's a lot to be said for having a low volume practise set up... including the free version (no amp in the case of bass playing - walking a bit more in the case of getting around town ).

Wulf

[alexclaber]

Originally Posted by wulf

That's kind of true but the larger the amp, the smaller the adjustable range at an acceptable volume. Also, you're operating well below the 'sweet spot' of where the amp gives it's best performance...

My 'practice' amp is 900W. As long as your gain and volume controls are decent (don't have massive leaps etc) then even a huge rig will work as a practice amp (and sound a damn sight better than the majority of gutless practice combos).

Alex

[lawrens]

at first when i began playing bass, i didn't have any amp, band or teacher....completly autodidact

so i "invent" my own technic, playing really hard to ear something
now, i play on ampeg and my playing is very hard in attack, and i'm satisfying with the sound and tone i obtain

[whitedk57]

Originally Posted by alexclaber

My 'practice' amp is 900W. As long as your gain and volume controls are decent (don't have massive leaps etc) then even a huge rig will work as a practice amp (and sound a damn sight better than the majority of gutless practice combos).

Alex

I concur.

I have a gutless 10W bass amp, and it sounds sickly compared to my big rig. So, I just practice with the big rig.

[OysterBoy]

Interesting. I've only been playign bass for 7 months; I don't even have an amp. I uise my computers subwoofer (about 8 watts of power), which works well enough for now. Even with just 8 watts of power, the difference is monoumental between no amplification and some. So mya dvice, to anyone who doesn't have a small enough amp, or canta fford one, is to use a subwoofer. Just buy a phono-to-headphone style cord (Radioshack / The Source has them, but they tend to die after a month of play, as have 2 of mine), and you should be set. The tone is kind of muddy / unclear, but heck, it works.

[Minger]

I play a lot unplugged - maybe a bad idea, but I guess I got used to it. I mean, I can easily sacrifice volume for speed when I need to, so its all good...I think.

[Kronos]

If you have a multiprocessor pedal, most of those have a headphone jack output so that you won't have to worry about bothering the neighbors....and you can practice as loud as you can stand!

[Brad Maestas]

I think it's important to know how to generate good resonance from your instrument no matter what it's plugged into. Practicing sans amp can certainly help you in this regard, though. Sometimes I just don't have the luxury of having an amp or headphones to play through. Sometimes it's a luxury enough just having my own instrument to play. Other times, I just go with it. Even if I have an amp and I can play it as loud as I want I still sometimes practice without an amp just for the heck of it.

When I do have some type of amplification, I like to practice by turning the amp way up and playing lightly. It helps my control and dynamics immeasurably. This is especially effective for identifying string handling noise and the efficiency of your muting techniques, among other things. After embracing all these possibilities, I feel like the difference between the way I play at home and the way I play on stage has blurred. It used to be that I'd practice all this sensible, intricate stuff at home and when I played out, all my control and sensitivity went out the window. As it is with much of life, balance is the key!