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Does anybody else do this, while playing at home?

#81
This thread reminds me of something stupid a fellow guitar player showed me about 50 years ago. You'd stand behind your amp, rest your chin on top of the amplifier cab (I had a '65 Bassman with a Bandmaster speaker cabinet stacked sideways - perfect chin height), and hit the heaviest power chord you knew. Contact with the amp head would make your vision go wonky, like if someone shook a camera violently.

Realizing I must be scrambling my brains, I only tried it once. I'd advise anybody else not to do it, merely because it's so stupidly, self destructively, STUPID!

Tom
 
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#82
This is what I use when practising outside. Apart from the headphone output it features an input for an mp3 player or smartphone, so you can play along.
1535451038_MG_4100.jpg
 
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#83
Diminishedfilth said:
Being stuck at home with three other sheltered inhabitants, learning (and relearning) new songs can get annoying, as I’ve been told.
So I’ve resorted to play/practice in a portion of our basement that doesn’t have any outlets.
My amplification has become pressing my lower jaw against the upper horn of my 2005 fretless boat anchor Warwick.
Flashing back, I used to do the same thing when I was a teenager with my Gibson Ripper, with a crabby Girlfriend of my Dad’s living with us. I don’t blame her, I used to spike the heck out of my Gorilla practice amp.
Anyway, curious if this is an innovation of my own, and how much dain bramage I’ll suffer.
Click to expand...
My teeth are too messed up to use my jawbone as an amplifier! Haha.
 
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#84
Diminishedfilth said:
Being stuck at home with three other sheltered inhabitants, learning (and relearning) new songs can get annoying, as I’ve been told.
So I’ve resorted to play/practice in a portion of our basement that doesn’t have any outlets.
My amplification has become pressing my lower jaw against the upper horn of my 2005 fretless boat anchor Warwick.
Flashing back, I used to do the same thing when I was a teenager with my Gibson Ripper, with a crabby Girlfriend of my Dad’s living with us. I don’t blame her, I used to spike the heck out of my Gorilla practice amp.
Anyway, curious if this is an innovation of my own, and how much dain bramage I’ll suffer.
Click to expand...
LOL...I did that back in 1965 with my piece of :poop: green Japanese bass. Then I figured out that I could lean the back end of the bass against the door of the closet and use it as a sounding board. That was much less awkward than trying to use bone conduction from my chin against the body of the bass. Do you have any closet doors or armoires, free-standing wardrobes in your basement? Any of those would make it easier for you to hear what you're playing.

Of course, you could get a miniature, "AA" battery-powered, Eden Micro-tour stack to play with so you could hear yourself with or without headphones:
uk7icligfw3ck1ygixs1.jpg

Height is 12" and [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] has it for $49.99. Elsewhere I've seen it for $59.99
 
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#85
Diminishedfilth said:
My junk-drawer MacBook only works with the charger plugged in. I think the nearest unoccupied outlet down here is 220. I’m just trying to not my bother my Significant other and her Kids. With all that’s going on, I’m sure if I had to listen to a loop of murdered bass changes, my tolerance would wear thin.
Click to expand...
What amp do you have? It might also work on 240VAC.
 
#86
Diminishedfilth said:
Being stuck at home with three other sheltered inhabitants, learning (and relearning) new songs can get annoying, as I’ve been told.
So I’ve resorted to play/practice in a portion of our basement that doesn’t have any outlets.
My amplification has become pressing my lower jaw against the upper horn of my 2005 fretless boat anchor Warwick.
Flashing back, I used to do the same thing when I was a teenager with my Gibson Ripper, with a crabby Girlfriend of my Dad’s living with us. I don’t blame her, I used to spike the heck out of my Gorilla practice amp.
Anyway, curious if this is an innovation of my own, and how much dain bramage I’ll suffer.
Click to expand...
Sometimes I rest the headstock up against the couch or a wall where I'm sitting.
 
#87
tr4252 said:
This thread reminds me of something stupid a fellow guitar player showed me about 50 years ago. You'd stand behind your amp, rest your chin on top of the amplifier cab (I had a '65 Bassman with a Bandmaster speaker cabinet stacked sideways - perfect chin height), and hit the heaviest power chord you knew. Contact with the amp head would make your vision go wonky, like if someone shook a camera violently.

Realizing I must be scrambling my brains, I only tried it once. I'd advise anybody else not to do it, merely because it's so stupidly, self destructively, STUPID!
Click to expand...


At this point of stay-at-home, though, I could probably be convinced to pay money to watch other people do this to themselves...
 
#88
I have done it, but I think it is a bad habit because when you play live you will always be amplified and your amplifier will amplify things that you don't want just as well as those that you do want. If you practice un-amplified then you are not practicing and evaluating your muting technique which means you could be letting strings ring unintentionally, or you could be adding unwanted noise with your plucking technique and you won't hear any of that if you are not practicing amplified.
 
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#89
someone needs headphones/earbuds ... either way ..! most tiny practice amps have a headphone jack and a music input ...

my folks listened to me practice simple crap for many years when i started piano at age 6 ..(1963 - so no electric pianos )

take your time ... learn it right the first time ... never practice mistakes ..!! you Can practice your simple finger exercises unplugged ... they are important also ..
 
#90
I'm squarely in the "I play amplified, so I practice amplified" camp. Mostly because muting matters and I can't hear it nearly as well unplugged/unamplified. That little Vox lets me hear my dynamics and muting just fine.

I certainly respect those who can keep technique dialed in unamplified. I'll work on licks once in a while when I'm not plugged in, but when practicing seriously, I need the amp to amplify my mistakes, which is the best way for me to eliminate them.
 
#92
I recall reading an interview with Matt Freeman, he said that practicing unplugged was what really helped him develop better dynamics by allowing you to hear when you’re hitting the string too soft or too hard without any electrical compression. It’s just what you and your instrument sound like, no more and no less.

When I play my bass unplugged, the whole thing vibrates quite nicely so I don’t need to put my jaw on it, I can feel it well enough just sitting down normally. At my slightly advanced age, good posture is more important.
 
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#93
Every time this thread comes up, it is remarkable to me how many of you who seem to hear yourself better with an amp. For me...I hear myself differently through an amp, but by far hear more of what I am doing without one (especially using some flavor of the sympathetic resonance trick noted by the OP). It's also amazing how insistent so many of you are on the amp thing. Given the number of us who do it and have been doing it for years, the "its objectively better" argument holds little water with me. I don't need more tech to hear the thing in my hands, especially in a quiet room.
 
#94
Anymore,I've been plugging into the personal amp only with the fretless with flats....The rest all have rounds and sound fine and deep unplugged.More so on the less dense bodies like basswood,rather than Ash,which is loud enough as well.

Alot of the time I play with ear buds hanging over my earlobes,close enough to hear the tracks,and I can still hear my bass in a very nice mix.
 
#95
Diminishedfilth said:
Being stuck at home with three other sheltered inhabitants, learning (and relearning) new songs can get annoying, as I’ve been told.
So I’ve resorted to play/practice in a portion of our basement that doesn’t have any outlets.
My amplification has become pressing my lower jaw against the upper horn of my 2005 fretless boat anchor Warwick.
Flashing back, I used to do the same thing when I was a teenager with my Gibson Ripper, with a crabby Girlfriend of my Dad’s living with us. I don’t blame her, I used to spike the heck out of my Gorilla practice amp.
Anyway, curious if this is an innovation of my own, and how much dain bramage I’ll suffer.
Click to expand...
I have a 5 watt amp so I can play very low( my wife love this.)
 
#99
Diminishedfilth said:
Being stuck at home with three other sheltered inhabitants, learning (and relearning) new songs can get annoying, as I’ve been told.
So I’ve resorted to play/practice in a portion of our basement that doesn’t have any outlets.
My amplification has become pressing my lower jaw against the upper horn of my 2005 fretless boat anchor Warwick.
Flashing back, I used to do the same thing when I was a teenager with my Gibson Ripper, with a crabby Girlfriend of my Dad’s living with us. I don’t blame her, I used to spike the heck out of my Gorilla practice amp.
Anyway, curious if this is an innovation of my own, and how much dain bramage I’ll suffer.
Click to expand...
Take a stuff cardboard box shut and rest the butt of the bass on the corner while you play. Or butt the headstock up against it.

Using the drywall works well too if you have that in the basement. Concrete also works but might sound different lol.
 

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