Are practice amps becoming obsolete?

[shirojiro]

I can’t leave my gigging amps out and setup. We don’t have a lot of free space, and I like having features like headphone out, line in, drum beats/metronome etc.

Between drum machines, small mixers, interfaces, computers, etc it’s all doable, but it’s fussy for me.

I really do like plugging into a small amp just playing. I use the same Roland Micro bass cube that a few others have mentioned.

When the overly compressed sound of the Roland bugs me, I use an older tilt back Bassman 25. That little amp sounds amazing.

 

[M-Mittlesteadt]

Nah, I use what used to be my gigging rig when at home now and take what in the past would have been a practice rig (110 combo w/100 watts) to open mics and jams these days. Frankly, I care more about how my bass sounds in my living room than anywhere else at this point. I've never enjoyed playing through headphones at all and already spend way way too much time on computers, so no thanks.

I also love the tone I get out of my small gigging amp so much that I prefer to really hear it sing while practicing in my living room. Far more than using headphones. Headphones just sound rather "studio-like sterile". It just so happens that my Rumble 100 is only a tad bigger than our home theater subwoofer is, so my wife allows it in there.

But there are a lot of times when I must use headphones simply because of what is going on at home and others need me to practice silently.

And with my new 6 string bass (tuned EADGBE) it's opened a whole 'nother level of creativity, so I actually spend more of my time writing and playing different chordal voicings/phrasing than just plain "learning new material". So actually the enjoyable tone through my cab is important in that, along with my new bass, is inspiring more creativity. Even old songs are fresh again playing them differently. And my amp's tone has a lot to do with that.

 

[Passinwind]

I also love the tone I get out of my small gigging amp so much that I prefer to really hear it sing while practicing in my living room. Far more than using headphones. Headphones just sound rather "studio-like sterile". It just so happens that my Rumble 100 is only a tad bigger than our home theater subwoofer is, so my wife allows it in there.

But there are a lot of times when I must use headphones simply because of what is going on at home and others need me to practice silently.

And with my new 6 string bass (tuned EADGBE) it's opened a whole 'nother level of creativity, so I actually spend more of my time writing and playing different chordal voicings/phrasing than just plain "learning new material". So actually the enjoyable tone through my cab is important in that, along with my new bass, is inspiring more creativity. Even old songs are fresh again playing them differently. And my amp's tone has a lot to do with that.

I ported to acoustic guitar this year for practicing at home. Doesn't bug my wife at all and it's much easier for me to work on vocals with guitar than fretless bass. But I do plug in a bass occasionally for pedal testing and just to keep my chops up, and my AudioKinesis 112 and DIY 500 watt rack amp fit the bill well and have an Aux In if I want to do playalongs, which I very rarely do on bass these days. Acoustic guitar and my iPad's internal speaker are perfect for playing along to learn new tunes, no cans needed and charts readily available on the pad. I can stream the pad to my home stereo if needed too.

 

[M-Mittlesteadt]

I ported to acoustic guitar this year for practicing at home. Doesn't bug my wife at all and it's much easier for me to work on vocals with guitar than fretless bass. But I do plug in a bass occasionally for pedal testing and just to keep my chops up, and my AudioKinesis 112 and DIY 500 watt rack amp fit the bill well and have an Aux In if I want to do playalongs, which I very rarely do on bass these days. Acoustic guitar and my iPad's internal speaker are perfect for playing along to learn new tunes, no cans needed and charts readily available on the pad. I can stream the pad to my home stereo if needed too.

In my hiatus from gigs and bass playing, I spent a lot of that time in my studio/office. So I've been playing a lot more on the guitar and piano/synth in my studio, occasionally playing some bass.

But I decided I really need to come out and get some sunlight, meet up with others and do some light gigging, so I decided to combine my guitar and bass playing, thus the reason I picked up a 6 string bass (strung up EADGBE). And with that, it's nice to be upstairs in my living room instead of my man-cave.

So my 6 stringer is hanging on the wall in the living room and my new Rumble 100 sits on the floor next to my comfy recliner. Best of all worlds.

 

[VS]

I haven’t had a bass “practice amp” in almost 20 years. For quiet practice I have a Digitech BR350 effects pedal and a good set of ear buds, or I rig up my Eden 210 cab powered with a Mesa WD-800. It sounds great at low volumes.

I do have a small Orange 10 watt practice/ studio amp for guitar work.

It honestly doesn't get a lot of use as I too am either running through my headphones or my main Genzler rig at low volume. I do like having it handy for when someone else wants to play bass with me.

 

[erayser]

I sold my practice amp like 3 weeks ago. All the churches I'm booked and scheduled at every weekend the last decade... are all ampless playing with IEM's... so I just bought digital mixer to use at home like most of the churches I play at. Most use a scheduling app called Planning Center Online, which is tied to a multitracks account. This account lets download the setlist into the multitracks iOS app called playback... which I can interface my iPad with my digital mixer that separates all the instrument stems into separate channel faders on my mixer.

I was rehearsing with our guitarist yesterday, and he just plugged in pedalboard to my mixer, and I muted the lead guitar and bass stems, and we practiced with pro musicians from the actual recording digitally with IEM's. The added bonus in practicing with IEM's with my digital mixer... is I can route my bass and drums separate into my bassboard on the floor... which really gives you the immersion of feeling of my bass in sync with the kick... like playing on a loud stage... but in silence at lower volume. I let our guitar player rehearse on the bassboard yesterday... and the smile on his face made practice fun. I don't get that same sub-bass "feel" with a practice amp... and if I could... I know how family would "feel" in the house if I did.... haha

 

[dbsfgyd1]

It honestly doesn't get a lot of use as I too am either running through my headphones or my main Genzler rig at low volume. I do like having it handy for when someone else wants to play bass with me.

Since I moved to Illinois, I don’t have anybody here to work with. Playing here consist of mostly recording (remote), or 3-4 band jams a year. My band (very remote) of 50 years is about to implode do to very difficult material and nobody wants to rehearse for the 6 gigs a year that can afford a 12 piece band…..sad way for a 50 year association to end.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Bass> interface> Mac> headphones.

 

[fdeck]

I wouldn't say obsolete, but practice amps face strong competition from "some old amp" of which there are a lot. And as high quality amps keep getting smaller and lighter, they also infringe on the practice amp space.

I keep my old GK MicroBass combo next to my desk for just checking things out. It was originally my gig amp.