Does anybody else do this, while playing at home?

[Ric5]

I got a $20 headphone amp and a $20 set of headphones this will work good for playing at home

 

[MrLenny1]

I've done the chin on the horn many times but get a
stiff neck after a while. I recommend some headphones
and a headphone amp. Good Luck.

 

[MichelD]

My wife bought me my first bass when we were living in a one-room cabin with no electricity. I would hold it against the wall and we could hear the bass from the reverberation through the whole cabin.

 

[Snarf]

Yeah, if I'm having a tough night hearing the intonation on my upright on a loud gig, I'll press my ear to the pegbox to make sure I'm playing in tune.

 

[2ndBassGuitar]

If you really want to hear your parts and play along buy a Big Head Pro. You get what you pay for. I have been using mine for hours today. Holds a 6 hour charge.

 

[Spectre Gunner]

It'll work, but your neck will hate you for it after a while.

Have you considered an Amplug? It's just as quiet, and much less likely to give you chronic headaches.

Try one of these. Inexpensive, sounds ok. Has an AUX in so you can play with another source through headphones.

View attachment 3794564
I have one so I can hang out with Mrs. Thumpenstein while practicing, and sparing her the same sort of clamfest you are trying to keep to yourself.

Get yourself one of these and a pair of headphones or earbuds. $40 and who doesn’t have headphones or earbuds laying around. Problem solved.

 

[DrThumpenstein]

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.

See, this is the thing: what works for one player doesn't always work best for another. We might be working on different things. Learning a groove makes no difference to me, I can do that ampless, but I'm usually working on getting gig-worthy, and I personally can hear dynamics amplified, and thereby easier to hear, with electronic amplification. Plus, some players have a much more aggressive attack than others; they are gonna be heard better unamplified than someone with a softer attack. I'm mostly a "let the amp do the work" kinda guy myself, so there might be any number of reasons we differ in opinion. Different strokes and all. I wouldn't say either way is inherently better.

Most nights, it's more trouble to unplug and strain to hear subtleties than to just turn on and dig in. Plus, I love the way my amp sounds, so not only is it more efficient for what I need to work on, it makes me happy. But I'm lucky, Thumpenstein Manor is sufficiently roomy that I can play at reasonable levels without disturbing Mrs Thumpenstein.

Now tonight was a lovely evening, and I was able to sit outside with her and play through the little Vox, while enjoying a nice sunset and glass of wine. All is not lost, damn pandemic!

I have nothing but respect for the OP's consideration for his housemates. And when I re-read his post, he really wasn't asking for suggestions. He wanted to know if others did the old bone-conducting trick, and many have.

He also wanted to know if it might cause brain damage. As a sports medicine doctor who has treated brain injuries for many years, I can say that the brain tolerates low-level sonic energy extremely well. Just don't fall asleep while you're resting your head on that bass and you'll be just fine!

 

[lermgalieu]

If you really want to hear your parts and play along buy a Big Head Pro. You get what you pay for. I have been using mine for hours today. Holds a 6 hour charge.

View attachment 3795832 View attachment 3795833

I have the regular bighead and it’s fantastic. I still play without it unless playing along with something. Just my way.

 

[TrueNorthMatt]

I guess it's already been said, but I use the jaw trick when warming up before gigs (usually in bars, where a quiet room for artists rarely exists).

Also: did I just call myself an artist?

 

[36hz]

acoustic amplification..

put the butt end of your bass against a wall...
...put your ear against the wall....

...sounding board

 

[rylie]

you can privately play anywhere with this
(driveway, parking lot, front porch, garage, lake dock, barn or field)

Vox amPlug 2 Bass Headphone Guitar Amp

with batteries it works everywhere

 

[Jon McBass]

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.

I don’t have rime to read all 110 posts. Maybe someone else has tried what I used to do many years ago As a kid with a cheap bass and no amplification: I plugged my over-ear headphones into the 1/4” jack. It was louder than without, actually sounded pretty good to me. Anybody else do that?

 

[kodiakblair]

I used to practice, with the headstock of my bass pressed against the drywall...

Same here,wardrobe door was another favourite.

 

[BAG]

Nope...... not for me.
Two months ago we bought the home we've been renting for the last year. We seem to have a knack of buying homes at the wrong time..... but while the value of this place will probably drop for the next couple of years the fact that it has a detached studio has made it worth every cent over the past month. I've spent a LOT of time in there recently.

It's not a full box-in-a-box recording studio but is quite well insulated and double glazed. I can play and listen at reasonable volumes and there is very little sound outside. Most nights when the family goes to bed I spend a couple of hours jamming and listening to songs on YouTube, spotify etc. The other night I popped outside to gauge the sound outside and could barely hear it.

 

[zontar]

I just play unplugged or with headphones & an amp.
(I used to have a headphone map--great for guitar--not so much for bass)

 

[retslock]

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.

You’re not alone. I also used to do it.

 

[Diminishedfilth]

Thanks for the suggestions. Definitely going to look into a good headphone amp, and headphones. I actually considered it, but years ago, I had an iRig that I’d use with my iPhone 4, kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I actually liked what you could do with it, the free app and all. Was just a bit awkward and clunky. Poor phone looked like it was in the ICU with all the wires plugged into it. Not to mention the 1/4 cable kept dragging it off the desk.
In the meantime, I dug out my old 75 watt Ibanez bass combo. It’s been sitting in my Dad’s basement for years. It has an RCA audio line-in and a 1/4 headphone jack. Grabbed our Christmas lights extension cord and everybody’s happy. Had to make my own y-adapter for the RCA line-in, though, and I had to do some serious junk-drawer diving to find a 1/4 headphone adapter.
Thanks again and hope you all had a great start to your week.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

I always do this when looking at basses that I'm considering purchasing. Play normally without any amp to see how the bass plays (neck feel, how the body contours feel, etc.). If I like this, then I put my chin on the bass to hear how it resonates. If I'm still happy, then I plug it in.

Why? Electronics are easy to replace if you don't like them. other things are not so easy. The worst thing is to fall in love with the sound of a bass only to find out that it is unpleasant to play.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

What amp do you have? It might also work on 240VAC.

You can also get a power convertor to use with 220 to 240 if your mac is built for 110. I got one when we went to visit my son and his family in Australia a couple of years ago.

Speaking of laptop 'puters, many of the ones with that big power block already do the conversion and you just need the appropriate plug adapter. I have an Alienwar 17" R4 laptopand all I had to do was use an adapter (not a convertor) to plug it into the wall down there. It actually converts any AC current into DC to supply clean smooth power to the 'puter. Check with Mac before presuming that's how yours works though. Plugging electronics in with just an adapter and not a convertor is a good way to fry the electronics if it's not built for that.

 

[xnewyorka]

You can also get a power convertor to use with 220 to 240 if your mac is built for 110. I got one when we went to visit my son and his family in Australia a couple of years ago.

Speaking of laptop 'puters, many of the ones with that big power block already do the conversion and you just need the appropriate plug adapter. I have an Alienwar 17" R4 laptopand all I had to do was use an adapter (not a convertor) to plug it into the wall down there. It actually converts any AC current into DC to supply clean smooth power to the 'puter. Check with Mac before presuming that's how yours works though. Plugging electronics in with just an adapter and not a convertor is a good way to fry the electronics if it's not built for that.

I have never seen a laptop power supply that *didn't* work on both 120VAC and 240VAC. Just have to look at the small print right on the power supply itself, it should specify the voltage requirements.