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Headphones Playing Quietly.

Do you practise with Headphones

  • No:- why bother

    Votes: 9 7.2%

  • Yes:- In my amp

    Votes: 40 32.0%

  • I have an amPlug, amPhone or other headphone amp

    Votes: 74 59.2%

  • The louder the better headphones are no good.

    Votes: 2 1.6%
  • Total voters
    125
#43
I have an Amplug but I don't use it so much anymore. I was never really happy with the way it's built. On my Ric you have to be careful when playing through the AmPlug sitting down, and on my front-jack basses it's always bumping against the control knobs, and in all cases I always feel like the cheap plastic thing is going to snap off at the jack if I bump it.
That said, it does work and work well, plus it's got that input jack for play-along practice.

A few weeks back I bought an Ampeg Micro CL which has a great feature: an input jack with a dedicated volume control. It sounds great through headphones and since I do most of my practice in one room sitting in front of this amp it's now my main headphone practice machine.
 
#44
I use headphones frequently when I'm at a coffee shop or at work. The phones that I use are Audio Technica ATH-M70x, very flat, fast and highly accurate. I use a Vox AmPlug2 for bass and it is adequate, although noisy and a little weak. At home at night I run an XLR cable out of one of my DI outputs, my amp head doesn't have a headphone output, into a small microphone amp and then monitor with my phones, this setup is great. In the near future I'm going to get a small combo amp, like a Rumble 100, and keep it permanently stationed in my office at work. I really much prefer to hear the bass through an amp and speaker than through headphones, but sometimes the headphones are the only option.
 
#45
Headphone jack from a Boss GT10B. If learning a song, I use ear buds for the music with headphones over them. I can develop patches for the Boss using headphones, and I use the direct out from the pedalboard when playing out, not out the back of an amp. It sounds better that way.
 
#49
Big Hoss said:
My Rumble 500 combo does exactly that, Rumbles the house even at very low settings, so I have been using the headphone out jack on the amp. HOWEVER I am giving serious consideration to an Amplug so that I am not tethered to my music room / office to practice...
Click to expand...
Go for it I Love my amPlug2 Bass since I got that they have released the amPhones so worth considering. either that or a generic branded one found on ebay.
 
#50
dgrizzly said:
  1. Sennheiser HD 280 Pro (affordable studio headphones - I dig 'em)
  2. No, but my amp does have a "headphone out" jack
  3. I have not. I am happy with my setup (see below), otherwise, I would consider one as long as it had an AUX-in. Extra points for a metronome.
  4. I live in an apartment building with neighbors on all sides. For practice, I use the bassics in my little home studio. It goes something like this:
Bass > Interface > Laptop.

I prefer this because of a few reasons:
  • Bass signal, song I'm learning and / or metronome all in my headphones with separate levels for each, nice and easy
  • Song I'm working on can be from anywhere.. YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, local file, etc
  • If I'm working on scales or something, I can throw in a quick keyboard backtrack and drum loop
  • If I get inspired during practice, I can record the idea immediately
Click to expand...
the amPlug2 and amPhones Bass versions have a metronome click track as one of the drum patterns.
 
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#51
Spectrum said:
I have an Amplug but I don't use it so much anymore. I was never really happy with the way it's built. On my Ric you have to be careful when playing through the AmPlug sitting down, and on my front-jack basses it's always bumping against the control knobs, and in all cases I always feel like the cheap plastic thing is going to snap off at the jack if I bump it.
That said, it does work and work well, plus it's got that input jack for play-along practice.

A few weeks back I bought an Ampeg Micro CL which has a great feature: an input jack with a dedicated volume control. It sounds great through headphones and since I do most of my practice in one room sitting in front of this amp it's now my main headphone practice machine.
Click to expand...
Just to let you know that with the new amPlug2 bass version the jack rotates no longer is it stuck at right angles. this is great for different bass guitars as you can adjust the amPlug to suit your bass.
 
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#52
physics said:
I use headphones frequently when I'm at a coffee shop or at work. The phones that I use are Audio Technica ATH-M70x, very flat, fast and highly accurate. I use a Vox AmPlug2 for bass and it is adequate, although noisy and a little weak. At home at night I run an XLR cable out of one of my DI outputs, my amp head doesn't have a headphone output, into a small microphone amp and then monitor with my phones, this setup is great. In the near future I'm going to get a small combo amp, like a Rumble 100, and keep it permanently stationed in my office at work. I really much prefer to hear the bass through an amp and speaker than through headphones, but sometimes the headphones are the only option.
Click to expand...
When you are ready to get your new combo amp have you checked out the latest Roland Cube XL Bass series. I have the 20XL a great amp for practice. though the 60XL and 120XL have a few extra options. in my opinion they are worth it. if I needed a stage amp I would consider the Cube 120XL, great for small venue, and on-stage at bigger gigs with a built in DI to front of house. Price, quality and features I have not seen better value.
 
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#54
mickeyj4j said:
When you are ready to get your new combo amp have you checked out the latest Roland Cube XL Bass series. I have the 20XL a great amp for practice. though the 60XL and 120XL have a few extra options. in my opinion they are worth it. if I needed a stage amp I would consider the Cube 120XL, great for small venue, and on-stage at bigger gigs with a built in DI to front of house. Price, quality and features I have not seen better value.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation on that; I'll check it out.
 
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#55
Now that I live in a house by myself I'll jam all night on my little 15w Fender Rumble with no phones.. When I used to live in apartments/duplex I'd always wear headphones to play guitar. I have a few methods of doing so.. I have a zoom r16 that I can use as a makeshift headphone amp or even run into my little studio monitors.. but generally I just used the out on my amp. Looking at the amplug I'm thinking I'm going to have to pick one up.. so I can take a bass with me and jam out wherever I go when i feel like it without disturbing others..
 
#56
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#58
I use a Zoom B3 with a cheap pair of Sony headphones. The B3 has a metronome and a few simple drum beats that I can play along with. It also has a looper and a USB audio interface, so I can plug it to my computer if I need to play along with a song or some instructional video (the computer also powers the B3)
 
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#59
I use Shure 440 headphones into Ampeg PF-500 with laptop plugged into Ampeg. I have all kinds of lists on YouTube of songs to learn, songs learned, bass lessons, my bands set lists, etc and practice this way 3-4 times a week from 2-3 hours each time. It sure beats the old days of slowing down a 45 to 33 or a 33LP to 16 and finding that same groove to drop the needle on. (for those more mature musicians who may know what I am talking about).
 
#60
I use my ATH M70x with the Rolls PM351 or my Lexicon FW810s soundcard. I also use my Avalon U5 DI to headphone amp my bass wich gives the best result but no Aux input.

The Rolls PM351 as a lack of bass and lot of noise, very useful but lack of sound quality.
 

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