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

[ardgedee]

How about a mixing board with nothing plugged in?

 

[staurosjohn]

I live in a condo- (limited) space & not being able to ‘make much noise’ has me playing, quite a bit, w/o an amp. I ho have a nice headphone setup, etc.- but just easy enough to pull-a-bass of a wall hanger & play I want to avoid *this* from happening again... was during a gig after not have played (at all) for awhile... learnt my lesson (dang Roto SS 66’s)

 

[HardNHeavy]

i played air guitar for many yrs.. never going back

 

[Plain Old Barry]

"Does anyone practice with their amp without their bass? "

Actually, I do... I spend time using editing software on my modeling amps and programmable effects devices to build potential sounds. I'll fine tune them later with an instrument, but it's easier to build a bunch of potentially useful sounds without an instrument on my shoulder or lap.

 

[quickfix]

I live in a condo- (limited) space & not being able to ‘make much noise’ has me playing, quite a bit, w/o an amp. I ho have a nice headphone setup, etc.- but just easy enough to pull-a-bass of a wall hanger & play I want to avoid *this* from happening again... was during a gig after not have played (at all) for awhile... learnt my lesson (dang Roto SS 66’s)

View attachment 4160474

Wow! Now THAT'S hardcore!
Or...did you sneeze during a nose bleed?

 

[DrThumpenstein]

Does anyone practice with their amp without their bass?
This title has me confused. How would you practice WITH your amp and WITHOUT your bass?

I plug my LP into my Mesa rig (WD800 into SW 115). It sounds rich, full, and meaty!

 

[swink]

All the time, I even have a made a training program:

Tuesday: adjusting-settings-training => blindfolded, left-handed, right-handed and backwards.
Friday: up-and-down-the-stairs-training => single and both handed.
Saturday: shouting-instructions-at-roadies-training.
Monday: removing-beer-stains-and-funky-smell-from-the-weekend-training.

 

[Gsnorgathon]

Never practiced without my bass, but did record some improv using just my effects+amp. I called that piece Sixty Hurts. (Get it? Get it?)

 

[bitzie]

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?

As an added bonus/incentive to be perfect, if you're totally off with your fingers, they get jammed between the keys like some kind of leg hold trap.

 

[jthisdell]

How about a mixing board with nothing plugged in?
]

That's called rehearsal, it is different than practicing.

 

[BarfanyShart]

Sometimes I play music through the aux in, if I want the music to rumble the house. I used to wake myself up like that in high school. The bass doesn't even need to be plugged in.

 

[chadds]

Do you have a video of this?

Go over to the play unplugged thread. It might become the next contested concept. LOL

 

[staurosjohn]

Wow! Now THAT'S hardcore!
Or...did you sneeze during a nose bleed?

Hehe... welp- *this* happened at the beginning of a set- so, ya know, the shew must go on... by the time the set was over... well...

 

[MikePlaysBass]

I can’t say that I have. FOMO alert.....

Maybe tonight I’ll try practicing with just my instrument cable and no bass or amp.

Seriously, though, I do practice visualizing the fingerboard in my head and the patterns I’m trying to get down. There are some studies where athletes performed as well or better using visualization than the same time spent practicing. Patterns are learned in the frontal cortex, so a combination of different approaches can all help.

 

[west al]

I just set my amp across the room, and whistle a happy tune! No Bass!

 

[CallMeAl]

Actually yes, nearly every day! Bass amp, no bass:

 

[Michedelic]

Sounds like trickle down from this...

 

[gumtown]

My dog does fart sometimes when I practice.

 

[micguy]

In college, my dorm room would get chilly at night. But I had a tube amp that I'd turn on - kept things a bit warmer. A couple hundred watts of heat is, while not a lot, something.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I do it all the time.

First I get the note positions on paper. I then visualize the fretboard and strings while going through a song, all done in my head. I can play much better in my mind and get any amp sound that I want. It helps me to learn songs.