Appeasing the Neighbors

NTL · #1 03-01-2010, 06:49 PM

I live in an apartment and the people below me have been giving me the old wall bang lately when I'm practicing (strangely they didn't seem to mind the first 5 months I lived here). I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions to help keep the walls standing. I have my amp (fender rumble 100 combo) as low as it can go yet they still seem to be annoyed.

I was thinking it might help to put one of those egg crate things around/behind my amp. Think this will be of any use?

I've tried practicing through the headphone output on the amp, but I can never get that to sound decent. Maybe there is some way to get a better sound through my headphones which I haven't tried?

electracoyote · #2 03-01-2010, 06:52 PM

Bass frequencies are amazingly resonant and dispursive. Sometimes what you hear in your room is much less of a rumble than what the person in the next room will hear.

I encourage you to go back to the phones. Maybe a headphone preamp of some kind with a simple parametric bass/treble configuration. But please don't torment your neighbors.

Kipaste · #3 03-01-2010, 06:56 PM

The egg crates will achieve nothing. Stopping bass frequencies with a little bit of tough paper is simply not going to happen.

Go to the headphones. If you can't stand the sound, play acoustically or get some speaker simulating preamp thingy.

smogg · #4 03-01-2010, 06:57 PM

Headphones are the way to go.
Tone does not determine if you are playing your scales or a musical passage correctly.
On that note, you'll never get good tone from Walmart headphones you need studio grade if tone during personal practice is that important to you.

Jim Campbell · #5 03-01-2010, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NTL

I live in an apartment and the people below me have been giving me the old wall bang lately when I'm practicing (strangely they didn't seem to mind the first 5 months I lived here). I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions to help keep the walls standing. I have my amp (fender rumble 100 combo) as low as it can go yet they still seem to be annoyed.

I was thinking it might help to put one of those egg crate things around/behind my amp. Think this will be of any use?

I've tried practicing through the headphone output on the amp, but I can never get that to sound decent. Maybe there is some way to get a better sound through my headphones which I haven't tried?

is it on the floor.....try setting it on a chair

**jmattbassplaya** · #6 03-01-2010, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by electracoyote

Bass frequencies are amazingly resonant and dispursive. Sometimes what you hear in your room is much less of a rumble than what the person in the next room will hear...

It`s true. My roommate was playing music last night that didn`t seem loud at all in the room, but when I walked out into our foyer to go to the bathroom the music was suddenly "bumpin" and bass heavy.

ugly_bassplayer · #7 03-01-2010, 07:03 PM

Headphones dude.

Stumpy · #8 03-01-2010, 07:04 PM

headphones man. I use the Sony 7506's because they reproduce the sound very well.

NTL · #9 03-01-2010, 07:05 PM

Well in that case I'm glad they put up with it for as long as they did.

I guess that leads to some other questions. Would my boss DR-5 provide a better quality sound than my amp phone-out? If so, is it possible to fix the headphone output on it? I bought it pretty cheap knowing it had some problems, but if it is easy to fix (I'm assuming its not) maybe its worth doing.

dmusic148 · #10 03-01-2010, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Campbell

is it on the floor.....try setting it on a chair

or on a bed. But headphones are best. These work well enough:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navig...RWXYB&ZYXSEM=0

kcole4001 · #11 03-01-2010, 07:08 PM

Gotta be 'phones, get good ones.

Sound, especially bass, will travel way too easily to the downstairs apartment.
It's not too bad the other way 'round, but if you keep it up they're gonna hate you.

NTL · #12 03-01-2010, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcole4001

Gotta be 'phones, get good ones.

Sound, especially bass, will travel way too easily to the downstairs apartment.
It's not too bad the other way 'round, but if you keep it up they're gonna hate you.

I've got a pair of sennheiser HD 212 pro's which have great bass when listening to music, but for some reason they don't sound good through my amp. Any other headphone suggestions?

stflbn · #13 03-01-2010, 07:22 PM

Maybe it's the headphone out on your amp.

What's the amp?

NTL · #14 03-01-2010, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stflbn

Maybe it's the headphone out on your amp.

What's the amp?

Fender rumble 100. It wouldn't be the metal adapter, would it?

hdracer · #15 03-01-2010, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stumpy

headphones man. I use the Sony 7506's because they reproduce the sound very well.

+1 best bass sounding headphones I tested. Love mine

MIJ-VI · #16 03-02-2010, 06:35 AM

I've used these since last September. They're fine for bass practice.

audio-technica ATH-M20 'phones ($50 CND)

Add a touch of stereo room reverb for some ambiance.

The Alesis NanoVerb is a good all-round affordable reverb/multi-effects unit (in a pinch it can serve as a pre-amp to drive a stereo power amp too).

If you get one be sure to heed the manual's instructions on how to set up the input gain on this unit to get a noise-free (to my ears) S/N ratio.

Floyd Eye · #17 03-02-2010, 06:46 AM

Less expensive than a good set of cans and they sound fine.

http://www.amazon.com/Vox-AmPlug-Bas.../dp/B001GH4H3W

bassy7 · #18 03-02-2010, 07:08 AM

I've found that most headphones are good enough to be enjoyable when listening to a full band mix, CD, album....

However, when we monitor our bass only through them we typically want to hear our bass much more (high volume) than we do when listening to a mix. Most headphones just cant handle this, and without the other instruments to mask the shortcomings of the headphones in the bass frequencies we really start to notice.

I use a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 phones, started using them about 6 weeks ago and they sound fantastic. When I don't want to be bothered with them- I practice on my crappy Oscar Schmidt acoustic bass. It sounds like crap- but I can still practice just as well.

whitespike · #19 03-02-2010, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcole4001

Gotta be 'phones, get good ones.

Sound, especially bass, will travel way too easily to the downstairs apartment.
It's not too bad the other way 'round, but if you keep it up they're gonna hate you.

+1. Get good phones. I use phones all the time. I have Audio-Technica ATH-M40fs Studiophones. SOunds great to me.

Or move into a house.

stflbn · #20 03-02-2010, 07:14 AM

I own my own home, and I still practice with headphones on 99% of the time. Just because I feel it's considerate to my wife. Let alone neighbors.