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Do you practice plugged in?

How do you practice the majority of the time?

  • Plugged into an amp/cab almost always

  • Headphone amp

  • Even mix of amp and unamped

  • Unamplified

  • I plug carrots into my bass, baby. Look at me goooooooo!

Results are only viewable after voting.
#42
Greetings from the North,

I've got a choice of 3 ways of playing my basses. Sometimes I feel like hearing just the acoustic sound of the bass itself. Or I can choose to go amplified according to how big I wanna sound. Or... I can keep the rumble to myself and use my PJB Bighead headphone amp.

Rezdog
 
#43
Usually acoustic honestly, but i can also easily plugin to my Apollo Twin and use the Ampeg sim or the 610 preamp. Sounds amazing and doesn't require opening the DAW or having a big amp around. Same with guitar but I do have some pedals on my desk for guitar.
 
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#44
I feel that electric bass is meant to be played with some kind of amplification. Headphone amp with an "aux in" is very convenient way to practice. You hear very clear what you do, can put metronome, drum machine, backing track... You can add effects.
You don't disturb anyone, you can practice (depending your headphones) almost everywhere. The way of practicing is very much the same always.
 
#47
For me, it really depends on a few variables. If I'm just running scales or finger exercises, no need to plug into anything. And then depending on the time of day and who is in which room in my house, I'll either plug into my little practice amp or possibly use my ipad interface through headphones if I can't make too much noise in our tiny place, or if I need to play along with a recording. The Pocket GK app is great for practice because you can slow things down while maintaining pitch! Though the iJam interface is pretty noisy.
 
#49
Almost always with my full rig, or just the head and one cab. I like to practice with all the appropriate pedal stomps when I run a set at home. Very occasionally I'll run my pedalboard through my guitar amp if my whole bass rig is over at the rehearsal spot.
 
#51
What I do depends on what I’m trying to achieve in the practice session. And on where I am. At home I’m usually plugged into a small amp unless I’m going to do a couple hours of scales and exercises. In that case I have mercy on the rest of the world and use the cans. When I’m working on songs I’ll plug in. I put on phones when I’m trying to decipher something that’s challenging to pick out or would get tedious to others. IOW I care about my practice AND I care about the people around me. When traveling, on short trips I’m usually unplugged but on a long trip it’s bass, iPad, iRig Pro and phones. For transcribing (which my cohorts and I include as practice) you can’t beat a good set of phones.
 
#54
I practice at home learning material almost exclusively through headphones, either through a bass trainer or the mixer I use with DAW. When I rehearse with most bands at my rehearsal studio, I plug into a small PA that is just loud enough to play with an unplugged acoustic guitar. Drums are electronic and sometimes an electric guitar guitar with a POD/Eleven type device gets plugged in when needed. Always quiet enough so that vocals are heard, unamplified.
 
#57
Kind of a mixture of both. My practice rig is my live rig, which technically is unamplified and involves IEM's. I monitor through a Rolls headphone amp that is on my pedal board and it sees the direct out from my preamp. So no matter if I'm at home or playing live I hear the exact same thing. The Rolls also has a monitor input and I will run my phone or iPad through it for practice, and the wired house monitor feed for live. I also use an Eich Bassboard, which is where I would technically be amplified, but it isn't necessary in either practice or live except that it completely adds back in the feel aspect while remaining relatively quiet (wouldn't be good for a second floor apartment).
 
#58
Plugged in always. Rumble 500 head with Vintage button off, bass off, low mid off, and contour on. Playing at a level just loud enough that it’s audible when practicing with my rehearsal playlist on Spotify through my phone. Never have disturbed anyone in the house... even late night when the rest of the fam is in bed.
 
#59
Amp>mixer>headphones.

I plug into my GK MB150S amp and send its signal, post effects, to an old Alesis 12ch mixer (its preamps are crap, but the GK controls the bass sound jes' fine).

I also send audio from my laptop to the mixer (I use YouTube a lot), and any other sound source I might want to play along with.

I mostly use the headphones (nice ones), but can divert the mix to good external PA amp & speakers in case company comes over. :-)
 
#60
Being as I've lived in a condo for the past few years, the headphone out in the Darkglass AOU has been a godsend. The fact that you can sample the IR responses while wearing headphones is awesome, as you can get a pretty good idea for what your live tone out of the DI will sound like.
 

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