Headphone Distortion

[Alex H]

Hey there,

I play a Music Man signature bass, with an Ampeg 210 amp. The tone of my bass from the cabinet speaker is beautiful. When I plug in headphones to the amp it makes my bass sound awful. Its kind of a distorted twangy sound especially on the lower strings E & A. I have tried 3 different brands of headphones, thinking maybe if I upgrade to better quality phones it might fix this. It doesn’t. Any advice? Thanks!

 

[JW56789]

I'd check the impedance of the phones you're using, and check the Owner's Manual to your amp and see if it lists and output wattage and impedance for the headphone jack.

If it's a hot output (say a 1/2 watt or 1 watt and it's set for higher impedance headphones, say 100 to 600 ohm), if you plug in typical WalMart headphones meant for personal devices ( around 15 or 20 ohms) it could be an overload you're hearing. A lot of times, a 1/4" headphone jack instead of the 1/8" mini-TRS jack may indicate they were thinking of higher impedance, pro headphones . . . . but not always.

And just like home speakers vs. pro speaker bins, it's a far different thing listening to recorded material vs. live instruments straight off the amp, which is where buying pro headphones may be required: That it's more prominent on the E and A (the lowest frequencies) may be the clue here.