Boss Waza air bass, or whatever it’s called. They are brilliant
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Bass for apartment
- Thread starter whatlolawants
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- bass amp advice
I'll just drop this here and say that the modern "intolerance to everything and anything" is in fact pretty selective. People will not put up with hearing bass or other instruments, but will put up with by passer helicopters, airplanes, trains, ambulance vehicles with open sirens, general traffic noise, chainsaws and lumberjacking at 6 in the morning, etc. etc.
Living in the woods is a great idea for anyone seeking true silence. But then you have to deal with birds and doe's growling at 2 in the morning.
May be just me but I think that people are over sensitive lately.
The does here in our woods are pretty quiet. It's the screech owls that'll put your hair on end.
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People mostly react if they believe they have some form of control over it.
FWIW: I live in an attached house - which is a bit more isolated than a multi apartment/flat building, the wall between the two is thick concrete.
Headphones are of course the safest bet, if you don't mind using them.
For home I use the same amps I use live (350-900w depending on the load), but normally with a 112 cab, volume down, bass cut more than usual, I also have a High Pass Filter pedal & use it. The cab is decoupled from the floor via a dolly and with a concrete slab + mats. The neighbors say they do not hear me (no drummer accompaniment at home, so low volumes).
Our post covid band practice room is in a residential area & in the basement. To avoid the older house/room acting like a resonator (which it was initially), getting the bass cab isolated/decoupled from the floor helps a lot. I use 2 * 5.5 cm (~2") concrete garden tile slabs, with thick mats cut to size & attached (e.g. like used for washing machines or - much cheaper & the same material - as carpets for workbenches) and a cut some of the mat as spacers between the two slabs so there is air space in between. That sits on a dolly & a 212 on the top. We have practice on the week end, I'll try to remember to take a pic when I'm there.
This only helps with with lower frequencies transferred directly into the building structure, if the walls/ceilings/floors are thin, you can still have issues if the volume is not kept low enough and the lower frequencies dialed back (I use a similar method for an AV sub woofer). Our drummer (who lives there) has a more complex double & isolated floor under his kit. The neighbors have not complained. Right outside the house it can be heard, but not loud or obtrusive, like someone listening to a stereo at a civil volume inside. We play harder rock & some metal.
I have no idea what the mat material is called, (feels a bit like rubber), here a pic.
Headphones are of course the safest bet, if you don't mind using them.
For home I use the same amps I use live (350-900w depending on the load), but normally with a 112 cab, volume down, bass cut more than usual, I also have a High Pass Filter pedal & use it. The cab is decoupled from the floor via a dolly and with a concrete slab + mats. The neighbors say they do not hear me (no drummer accompaniment at home, so low volumes).
Our post covid band practice room is in a residential area & in the basement. To avoid the older house/room acting like a resonator (which it was initially), getting the bass cab isolated/decoupled from the floor helps a lot. I use 2 * 5.5 cm (~2") concrete garden tile slabs, with thick mats cut to size & attached (e.g. like used for washing machines or - much cheaper & the same material - as carpets for workbenches) and a cut some of the mat as spacers between the two slabs so there is air space in between. That sits on a dolly & a 212 on the top. We have practice on the week end, I'll try to remember to take a pic when I'm there.
This only helps with with lower frequencies transferred directly into the building structure, if the walls/ceilings/floors are thin, you can still have issues if the volume is not kept low enough and the lower frequencies dialed back (I use a similar method for an AV sub woofer). Our drummer (who lives there) has a more complex double & isolated floor under his kit. The neighbors have not complained. Right outside the house it can be heard, but not loud or obtrusive, like someone listening to a stereo at a civil volume inside. We play harder rock & some metal.
I have no idea what the mat material is called, (feels a bit like rubber), here a pic.
Get an acoustic, even your neighbors would agree it isn't loud enough
Broughton Messenger or Aguilar AG. you can get either one ~$250, my phones were $160. Hook the pre up to your Aux. device, it’s brilliant. I own the Boss Waza, and honestly cannot recommend it. It is expensive, the initial setup COULDNT be more confusing, and when you have a problem setting it up, you will NEVER be able to speak to a human being at Roland. The only advantage the Waza offers is you are free of cords. I implore you not to run a cabinet in an apartment. The fact that you even consider it bothers me. You want your vehicle vandalized? Because thats how you get your vehicle vandalized. Even in a townhouse, with an end unit, a cabinet is a no no. I ran one for a time, was extremely judicious in that i never started before 2PM, and never played past dark, got my neighbors OK, approached them AFTER a time to see if it was bothering them, and finally decided it was selfish after playing out in a friend’s detached garage, and having him tell me later in the night that the volume was too high inside the home. I had no idea.
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
As someone with a decade-plus of experience living in an apartment..... no bass amp will please a neighbor who doesn't want to hear bass. Bass travels through everything - even concrete, and especially very thin regular walls. Even my unamplified double bass played with a mute used to draw the ire of a tenant who lived below me years ago. The only solution is an amp with a headphone jack out, a dedicated purpose-built practice amp for use with headphones, OR - plug into your DAW interface (if you record at home) and play that way. Regardless.... headphones are the solution.
get yourself some neighbors that like to hear you play 
I have a Blackstar Fly 3 Bluetooth. It sounds good and runs at up to three watts. Blackstar OK'd me to use it for bass.
I lived in an apartment for a couple years recently and I had a rumble 500 combo followed by an Elf with a 2x8 cabinet. I was always able to play at a decent enough volume to have fun with no neighbor complaints (and my downstairs neighbor complained a lot about my then-GF's small terrier barking). Upstairs neighbor said they heard me from time to time but didn't have an issue with it (plus, he must have only given his kid/s greased bowling balls to play with, given the amount of random smashing overhead I heard).
BUT - I always put the amp up on a stand or end table, with a decoupling pad underneath, to reduce the contact transmission. So those are my contributions to the thread - Just elevate the amp, keep it reasonable enough in volume, an ELF amp is great, and something like an Auralex Grammapad underneath almost any amp will help.
BUT - I always put the amp up on a stand or end table, with a decoupling pad underneath, to reduce the contact transmission. So those are my contributions to the thread - Just elevate the amp, keep it reasonable enough in volume, an ELF amp is great, and something like an Auralex Grammapad underneath almost any amp will help.
Maybe, but the affordability and portability of ear shattering and bass-pounding consumer sound systems has also never been more than now.
Not to get into my life story, but a couple of years ago I left my home of over a decade to escape loud music. I now live "down by the airport" and the roar of being in a jetliner flight path is far less disruptive to sleep than the pounding bass of inconsiderate neighbors' music.
To the OP. For playing at anything approaching sleeping hours, get a nice set of headphones. An amp with phone out or a multi effect pedal or a dedicated headphone amp will all give you good tone.
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BUT - I always put the amp up on a stand or end table, with a decoupling pad underneath, to reduce the contact transmission. So those are my contributions to the thread - Just elevate the amp, keep it reasonable enough in volume, an ELF amp is great, and something like an Auralex Grammapad underneath almost any amp will help.[/QUOTE]
This. A few alluded to it, but unless you want to use headphones, the key is getting the amp off the floor.
This. A few alluded to it, but unless you want to use headphones, the key is getting the amp off the floor.
The does here in our woods are pretty quiet. It's the screech owls that'll put your hair on end.
Or the foxes :O
I mean, loud music sure... But being considerate, practicing at low volumes, you will still get sensitive neighbors trying to teach you a lesson or two.
It's not just 100% to either side, there's also the middle road.
Add to that, a passing helicopter is just that.
Someone whacking a constant stream of 16th notes for hours is a different story.
5 pages in? Again, headphones + something portable. For the price of a decent amp you can get a DI box for playing with other people, phones, cables and an interface/some other gimmick
