Noise Complaint

[rbonner]

OK so I have an issue with one of the used cabs I bought, when the thing starts getting turned up a few of the speakers fart out really bad. I'm going to have to pull it apart and see if the originals are in there or if somebody swapped out a bunch of GUITAR speakers on me.

At about 1/2 throttle its fine.

So I swap to another cab and get a comparison to that unit.

Between swapping cables somebody is bangin on my front door. Of course I'm in my usual attire (tee shirt and briefs) and need to find some pants to answer the door, who'd be banging at 7PM in the dark?

Well turns out some dick who says he lives three blocks from my house was bitching. I'm thinking I just have one amp and cab running here, what the hell is wrong with you? Maybe he likes to sit outside in single digits and listen to traffic noise 10 miles away or something.

Then he says he's called the cops twice before but I quit playing before they get around, but now he has my address....

Then accuses me of playing in the middle of the night, I say I dont play in the middle of the night, well for him its midnight. OH well thats when I wake up around here, what do you expect?

We call Midnight - Noon in our house.

OK so this guy was a real As***** So what About the people who dont live three blocks away? Ah, I bet he isnt three blocks away...

So what do the rest of you guys do? This is going to start really sucking if this guy starts calling the fuzz everytime I fire up... I'll have to play at midnight (noon) he must have a job. His old lady is prolly some housewife who will have 911 on the speed dial ready to Bitch about waking up babys and stuff...

Thats why I had kids 18 years ago, whats you problem pal...

I only play when nobody else is in the house as I cant tolerate the compalints about falling stuff.

Does this mean the studio I was going to build needs to be sound proof... Well quite possibly now... How thick are those walls going to need to be? Not happy will start answering door with guns in the meantime.

BOB OUT

[In Absentia]

Originally Posted by rbonner

OK so I have an issue with one of the used cabs I bought, when the thing starts getting turned up a few of the speakers fart out really bad. I'm going to have to pull it apart and see if the originals are in there or if somebody swapped out a bunch of GUITAR speakers on me.

At about 1/2 throttle its fine.

So I swap to another cab and get a comparison to that unit.

Between swapping cables somebody is bangin on my front door. Of course I'm in my usual attire (tee shirt and briefs) and need to find some pants to answer the door, who'd be banging at 7PM in the dark?

Well turns out some dick who says he lives three blocks from my house was bitching. I'm thinking I just have one amp and cab running here, what the hell is wrong with you? Maybe he likes to sit outside in single digits and listen to traffic noise 10 miles away or something.

Then he says he's called the cops twice before but I quit playing before they get around, but now he has my address....

Then accuses me of playing in the middle of the night, I say I dont play in the middle of the night, well for him its midnight. OH well thats when I wake up around here, what do you expect?

We call Midnight - Noon in our house.

OK so this guy was a real As***** So what About the people who dont live three blocks away? Ah, I bet he isnt three blocks away...

So what do the rest of you guys do? This is going to start really sucking if this guy starts calling the fuzz everytime I fire up... I'll have to play at midnight (noon) he must have a job. His old lady is prolly some housewife who will have 911 on the speed dial ready to Bitch about waking up babys and stuff...

Thats why I had kids 18 years ago, whats you problem pal...

I only play when nobody else is in the house as I cant tolerate the compalints about falling stuff.

Does this mean the studio I was going to build needs to be sound proof... Well quite possibly now... How thick are those walls going to need to be? Not happy will start answering door with guns in the meantime.

BOB OUT

I'd like to help, but I'm having a bit of a problem understanding what you are saying other than that someone says you are too loud.

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by rbonner

Yeah some goof three blocks away he says i'm too loud... I was just playing with one amp and cab. Sure it was cranked but not the whole rig... I'm really frustrated now, this was my tension release... BOB

hate to tell ya son but there are other people out there besides you, and your attitude doesnt show much concern for them......who died and made you king

[Steve]

So, is this the SVT4 pro with one 8x10 cranked up halfway?

Geez, how loud could that have been?

[Deacon_Blues]

I tell you something. My neighbors can hear me when even when I play an unamplified classical guitar. A while ago I bought a 10 watt Ibanez bass combo for practicing purposes, and I can't even push that halfway without thinking I might be too loud for my neighbors. They're cool about my playing and they play a lot themselves, but still I don't like to disturb anyone if I can avoid it.

At home, enough practicing volume is when the sound coming out of your amp is about twice louder than the acoustic sound of your bass. You don't need more.

[alapantera]

If you enjoy practicing at loud volumes, I'd suggest getting a nice pair of headphones.

[rbonner]

Thanks a lot for the advice Guys.

[MadMan118]

Theres nothing exactly "subtle" about an ampeg stack. Try using a smaller combo.

[Araillac]

Guess I got it pretty good out here lol. I can get a whole band in my house and we can play loud, I mean the drummer will just be pounding away and not one of my neighbors will hear us cause they're too far. Not 3 blocks away too far but far enough not to hear us.

[rbonner]

Yeah you betchya... I will get right on selling off my 6 - 810 cabs and 2 -215 cabs and all the amplifiers. Will just downsize maybe jump right on that headphone thing.

I wish my post hadn't gotten bumped off the amps forum. I tried to DELETE the post when it got bumped but it wouldn't let me.

Yes Steve, exactly the house wasn't even buzzing. He was waiting to hear me again and waddle around and find me.

Araillac, I thought I had it all working here too. That's why I'm in South Dakota, while this is the big city 175K its still spread out pretty good.

I wasn't even running all the stuff just one cab. I had bought a pair of the 810's off eBay and will never do that again. The darn thing is farting out at about half power... Looks like maybe 4 of the 8 speakers have been over cooked by the previous owner. Was just trying to figure out which speakers were the problem when the guy started banging on the door.

When I moved in here 10 years ago I went to the fence and shouted over... This guy was a serious NON-NEIGHBOR type maybe 5 years younger than me and it pained him to even say hi. I couldn't get him to even walk up to the fence so I didnt have to shout across the yard. I'm a social kind of guy, just wanted to introduce myself. He lives behind my neighbor's house and its almost 300 feet to his house. Plus now I have a 6 foot solid privacy fence sourounding the yard. I sort of recognized him and his attitude as he didnt wait at the door until I answered, he just wanted my address to call the cops and was shouting from the sidewalk as he walked away. It took me thinking about it for a while since we never communicated after that ten years ago deal. When he said three blocks I knew he was BSing me. Maybe If I had all the doors and windows open and the whole rig running.

Apparently I got him all worked up a week ago when I hooked up 6 of the cabs for the first time and rattled the place a bit for 10 minutes at midnight. Probably should have never moved off my farm. That was my mistake I guess.

Was talking to one of my buds today when we ran into each other at the grocery store, I discussed a two year old HUGE bar that is out of business here due to the crunch, it was a monster disco, big room. Seats over a thousand. Maybe renting that place would work out and cycling bands through there as practice space might work. Its in an industrial area on top of it all. Maybe that can regrow into a live venue... I could use a little side business to my web hosting business.

I wanted to get this rig completed first and then wheel in the rest of the act. We're putting the band back together.... Actually a 70's hard rock act with amp walls and the whole deal a big show. Been working on my details for about 6 months.

I was going to build a big studio in the backyard here as the house is getting shook apart when I am goofing around. But I'm thinking if this guy across the way is going to be a problem, I would probably have to build it with 1' thick walls and stuff. That sure would drive up the price. Wonder how many mega bucks they want for the bar?

Back when I was a kid we used to have the whole basement in my parents house, never had a noise complaint there. My bud suggested I move the rig back into the basement, yeah if I had a loading dock maybe. I was sort of hoping to get some positive ideas on what sort of practice space others were using for their bands. As we get this all completed its just going to get bigger and louder. We're also building a 4 head 16 cab Marshall EL34 100/100 setup for my 18 YO so he'll be able to be in the group.

BOB

[MadMan118]

that idea about the old bar sounds like a great plan. If I wasn't all the way in California id gladly lend a hand

[Stumbo]

Two words: ear plugs.

Why do you have to practice so loud?

Maybe build the studio underground.

Probably renting the bar is a good idea.

[WookieeForLife]

Heh here in the back woods of PA there are no noise problems unless my neighbor three miles away hears me.

[JansenW]

From my experience "loud" is subjective. I would recommend taking some sound level measurements at several places. Once you have a dB measurement then you can begin to address the issue.

[rbonner]

One of my other engineering buddies started emailing about studio construction. If we dont rent a place, filled concrete with a studio interior would probably be the thing to do in the neighborhood.

Practice loud? Don't need to. Test loud, yes. This isnt about 2 hour practice seesions. This has been about 10 minute test sessions. When this guy was banging on my door it was an equipment test session. I bought two cabs off eBay and was trying to figure out why a few speakers on each cab were toasted. I was taking 4 speaker 1/2 throttle tests trying to figure it all out. Thump thump hum, Thump thump...

All this guy was interested in was getting the cops on my ass for having fun for ten minutes or less a week earlier.. Yawn, nothing will probably become of it in the long run, but you never know. I'm sure he will be dialing 911 when he feels like it. We'll see how tired the cops get of this thing. Basically if this guy hears ANYTHING, he's going to be dialing... He can kiss my butt.

Anyway, I swapped speakers one cab to another, will have to do some replacing it looks like. Dont ever buy a cab without totally smoking it out... Dont ever buy sight unseen on ebay, if they are selling it, its for a reason!

I'm going to have to buy 16 speakers most likely. In the long run I will probably have to replace these cabs with new. One is beautiful, one beat up. Its a shame the nice one is the worst speaker wise. BOB

BOB

[Eric Moesle]

Six cabinets at midnight and I would have been the one pounding on your door . . . and I'm a bass player . . .

[rbonner]

bring your bass along.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by Jim Campbell

hate to tell ya son but there are other people out there besides you, and your attitude doesnt show much concern for them......who died and made you king

I'm with you, dude, but "son"? He says he had kids 18 years ago.

[Kelly Lee]

Originally Posted by Eric Moesle

Six cabinets at midnight and I would have been the one pounding on your door . . . and I'm a bass player . . .

Same here and it wouldn't be to play bass.

Originally Posted by rbonner

Yawn, nothing will probably become of it in the long run, but you never know. I'm sure he will be dialing 911 when he feels like it. We'll see how tired the cops get of this thing. Basically if this guy hears ANYTHING, he's going to be dialing... He can kiss my butt.

Actually, the cops probably won't get tired of it. Speaking from experience, two of my buds got "disturbibf the peace" tickets and had to appear at court over this very same type of issue except it was during the daytime. They had to pay fines and and one even got a years probation!

Just show some respect for your fellow neighbors and turn down at night or don't play at all. It really is that simple.

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

I'm with you, dude, but "son"? He says he had kids 18 years ago.

sadly im starting to sound like my granddaddy....