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Does anyone practice with their amp without their bass? :)

C

chadds

Mar 18, 2000
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#1
I was wondering how this is working over here on the amp/cab side. Some say the other way, no amp, is bad because you get bad technique or play too hard. What do you and your amp experience?

Intense loneliness?
Sensitivity to that slight hiss?
Increased electric bill?
Wear and tear on the on/off switch?
Do you leave it on constantly?
Does your dog fart when you're learning new tunes?
 
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#2
I actually had a co-worker tell me something a couple weeks ago that is a good fit for the thread title, kinda. But he practices without an instrument or amp!

On a weird conversational tangent we ended up discussing exercises we do while warming up before rehearsal or woodshedding. He is still really green and just got his first string instrument as a birthday gift in Nov.

As it turns out, he raided his parents attic of long-forgotten items.... And found an old-school typewriter and typing exercise books from his dad's past. This thing is the lever-type non-electric deal, manual carriage type you would have had in the house for generations.

Wow I'm totally fleecing the thrift stores for one of these gems. I always heard that typing class in HS was a good way to get in some muscle memory for at least left hand techniques, and can see the logic behind it. But I remember the one my parents had... You had to be pretty accurate with your fingertips or the levers would overlap and catch each other.

Thoughts on this?
 
#6
chadds said:
I was wondering how this is working over here on the amp/cab side. Some say the other way, no amp, is bad because you get bad technique or play too hard. What do you and your amp experience?

Intense loneliness?
Sensitivity to that slight hiss?
Increased electric bill?
Wear and tear on the on/off switch?
Do you leave it on constantly?
Does your dog fart when you're learning new tunes?
Click to expand...
Do you have a video of this?
 
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#10
Jim-Carrey-Screaming-Face-Funny-Picture.jpg
 
Last edited:
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#11
Funny, I usually walk over to the ole Fender guitar amp and turn it on when I think I might practice in a while...
so yes, my tube guitar amp is on all the time. Is that good or bad for the tubes? Don't know, don't care. But it is warmer in that corner of the room.

With the bassist response to the global corona...whatever, I don't think I've played through my Mesa gear in a month but I keep a PJB box on my desk and play with that all the time. I should probably turn on the big rig just to see the lights twinkle.
 
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#12
Funny, but I used to practice songs standing up singing the background vocals into a mic that is not plugged into anything while playing and hitting the pedals under my feet :) it's kind of tricky to do all three things at once, and the only way to get it right is to actually do it as if you're on stage I found out.
 
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#13
I practice my instruments, rather than pretend that I am playing. I don't have to have an amp turned on, but only for a short time. Much of the time I'm on headphones, because I don't have a place to go where I won't bother someone (that will change later this year).

My dog doesn't fart when I'm learning new tunes.
I leave the amp on until I'm done for the day.
Don't care about the power switch.
Hiss and Tinnitus amount to the same thing - you learn to live with it.
Electric Bill? what's that?
Loneliness is a state of mind. Everyone's alone most of the time.

Happy Monday!
 
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#14
I always practice (in a physical sense) with headphones, but sometimes when I discover a new song I want to learn and go through it a few times (through my phones), I can go over the song mentally. I can see the fingerboard in my head and can think how I'd play the run or chorus or verse.
 
#15
I sometimes play an instrument unamplified in a store for a short bit - just to get an idea if the thing is physically playable, before I plug it in. That has saved me countless hours of trying to get a guitar cord at GC's, as the vast majortiy of their stock isn't in playable condition. Net result - I go in, see one or two interesting instruments, try them for a bit, and....I'm done.

But at home, with the good basses, I always practice plugged in. I'm trying to optimize what it sounds like in performance, where....noone has ever asked me to play unamplfied. At least not yet. ;-)
 
#18
basscooker said:
I actually had a co-worker tell me something a couple weeks ago that is a good fit for the thread title, kinda. But he practices without an instrument or amp!

On a weird conversational tangent we ended up discussing exercises we do while warming up before rehearsal or woodshedding. He is still really green and just got his first string instrument as a birthday gift in Nov.

As it turns out, he raided his parents attic of long-forgotten items.... And found an old-school typewriter and typing exercise books from his dad's past. This thing is the lever-type non-electric deal, manual carriage type you would have had in the house for generations.

Wow I'm totally fleecing the thrift stores for one of these gems. I always heard that typing class in HS was a good way to get in some muscle memory for at least left hand techniques, and can see the logic behind it. But I remember the one my parents had... You had to be pretty accurate with your fingertips or the levers would overlap and catch each other.

Thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
I learned how to type on an electric typewriter and then used a manual typewriter more or less daily for years before I bought my first computer. To this day I'm an excellent typist but if the experience has helped improve my bass playing at all it's impossible to imagine how genuinely awful I would have been without it.
 

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