Getting great tone while practicing casually at home

[brushfirewolf]

Wow thanks for all the responses. I actually do have one of those little Vox headphone amps which I love but the sound quality isn't the best and the fact that it runs on AA batteries feels a bit limiting. I should have mentioned I also have a relatively new Rumble 25 and an old 25w Ampeg.

I like the idea of investing in a decent head and just plugging headphones into that for practice. I want to invest in a good rig at some point anyway. Heard great things about the Mesa boogie. I'm going to consider that. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

[brushfirewolf]

I dig my Ampeg but the Rumble leaves a bit to be desired. Maybe opting for a bigger one would have been more satisfying.

 

[shoulderpet]

I dig my Ampeg but the Rumble leaves a bit to be desired. Maybe opting for a bigger one would have been more satisfying.

I have a Rumble 500 and it's a great amp but it needs a decent amount of volume to sound good, at low volumes it is kind of meh sounding , maybe the 100w model may be better for low volume practice.

 

[And I]

M I took the latter approach: purchased a Fender Rumble 40, replaced the stock driver with a Eminence S2010 and retuned the cab.

How do you retune a cab? Like... alter the port or inner dimensions?

 

[shoulderpet]

Wow thanks for all the responses. I actually do have one of those little Vox headphone amps which I love but the sound quality isn't the best and the fact that it runs on AA batteries feels a bit limiting.

yes my Amplug (I assume that is what you are referring to) sounds a bit poo also, lots of midbass and mids but a steep roll off of everything above the high mid frequencies

 

[Omega Monkey]

I can't imagine being limited to only practice with headphones. Lately I usually just practice through my ShuttleMax 9.2 and pair of Uber Quads. I live in an apartment but haven't had any complaints yet, the key is to keep the volume mostly reasonable most of the time, and not go too late.

Anyway, for your purposes, the Genz Benz shuttle series is awesome. They have "combos" which are really just a head and cab, but the cab has a bracket to attach the head. You could go for one of those, or just get a separate head and cab. I prefer the latter because the one thing they screwed up with these is the combo cabs don't just have the regular jack plate like their otherwise identical counterparts, they have a little cable popping out of the top to connect to the head.

I'm moving and I'll probably be going back to mostly using my Shuttle 210T cab for home practice, which sounds great and is pretty compact and light. I just throw my ShuttleMax on top, which is total overkill, but I just know not to overdo it with that cab. You could get by with a much more modest head like the regular Shuttle 3 or 6. There are also single 10 and 12 cabs and even an 8, but those don't pop up too often, and I personally think they're kind of too small aside from certain applications. I like the 210T and it's really about the same size as say some of the bigger Ampeg combos of recently. And the heads are relatively small too (about 3x13x13 or so). There are also any number of other small and light heads that are inexpensive that might work for you.

Really just depends on your budget and what you're looking for. But for great sound for practicing in a modest size and a modest budget, it's hard to beat the Genz Benz Shuttle stuff overall.

 

[brushfirewolf]

Budget really isn’t a big issue but again- this is just for home practice. I might just end up sticking with the iPad and apoggee jam and get a nice set of computer speakers.

Anyone have one of these and notice how much more pronounced tapping and ghost notes are while playing through it? I can’t tell if it’s my amp or my technique, or maybe it’s just the way the sound is being processed through the iPad? I’m kinda clueless when it comes to digital audio.

 

[AstroSonic]

How do you retune a cab? Like... alter the port or inner dimensions?

The cab is tuned with the port tubes. In this case the cab and driver were modeled and the stock tubes were replaced with longer tubes in order to tune lower. Different lengths (and tuning frequencies) were tried. The result was a compromise between bass depth, richness and articulation. I can imagine many players making a different choice on the compromises involved. I encourage people to audition different tunings so they can pick what they like the most.

 

[And I]

The cab is tuned with the port tubes. In this case the cab and driver were modeled and the stock tubes were replaced with longer tubes in order to tune lower. Different lengths (and tuning frequencies) were tried. The result was a compromise between bass depth, richness and articulation. I can imagine many players making a different choice on the compromises involved. I encourage people to audition different tunings so they can pick what they like the most.

Ok so only cabs that have port tubes can be re-tuned in this way? Otherwise we're talking about altering inner dimensions and such which is more or less a non-starter?

 

[AstroSonic]

Ok so only cabs that have port tubes can be re-tuned in this way? Otherwise we're talking about altering inner dimensions and such which is more or less a non-starter?

Non-ported (sealed) cabinets can be 'tuned' without changing the cab volume in a limited way. Sealed cabs can be made smaller by gluing 'bricks' of closed cell foam inside the cab. The 'effective' internal volume can be made somewhat larger by adding acoustic damping material. A 'stuffed' cab can have an effective volume 10 - 20% larger than an empty cab depending on the material used. This comes with a loss of efficiency around the system resonance due to sound being turned into heat. This can be just what is needed if there is insufficient damping (driver underdamped-high Qts, or cab too small). Aperiodic loading (damped port) can be more effective than stuffing.

 

[Fenflex]

Some month ago the headphones output of the pedal I used to practise at home died so I looked at a small combo instead. In the same time, I wanted this combo to be gig worthy while not taking too much space at home (wife).

After some search I ordered a TC Electronic BG250 208. It's cheap, lightweight, 175W @ 8 ohms (2 built it 8" speakers) and it has a cab output to go 250W with an additionnal speaker. The sound out of the box with flat EQ is quite dry, the EQ is really nice to warm it up if needed.

Big bonus IMO is you can load effects for free in it with an app to try them out and a lot actually sound very good (especially compressors and compressors + drive). Since you're into tapping, you should really like this amp with a compressor effect loaded in.

I used this amp the day after I got it for an open air gig (I was in the PA of course) and it delivered like a champ. If you can, give it a try, I'm sure you won't regret it !

 

[plav1959]

I practice through this while playing along to music piped in from an iPad through a stereo receiver with Bluetooth. Only 80 watts between the two of them, but there’s no substitute for a little bit of volume!

 

[Blankandson]

Wow thanks for all the responses. .

I like the idea of investing in a decent head and just plugging headphones into that for practice. I want to invest in a good rig at some point anyway. Thanks for the recommendations.

The new Gallien-Krueger Legacy heads all have AUX in and headphone out. Lots of tone options and you can always add one or two (or three) cabs in the future.

And FWIW. When practicing at home using my computer speakers/small bass speaker by Logitech I have the volume at 15. When using my Sony Studio Headphones I get the same volume level at 7. When I practice using my IEM buds i get the same volume at 3 and a better (cleaner) overall sound. My control software is Waves MAXXAudioPro. YMMV