• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

How Many Hands do You Use to Adjust Settings on Your Amp?

#23
Right hand. Also, I hate invisible lettering such as silver on black, that seems to be the current fashion with things like home audio gear. Make it so a guy with bad eyesight can see what the settings are, in the dark.

Often, a stage gets pretty crowded and it might be hard for a blind person to get back to where their amp is. It might end up behind the drummer, under the piano, etc. I wonder if a detachable control surface, with wireless digital link to the combo amp, would be a possible solution.
 
#25
Generally I use my right hand and steady the neck of the bass with my left. I would be forced to assume that a blind bassist would do the same. Unless of course that bassist was left handed, then they'd do it backwards...

One time I did use two hands, one to correct the setting a guitard player muffed up and the other hand was holding a mic stand to clobber the guitard player if he came back towards my amp....

And I agree, blind folks aren't stupid but it would be decent to have controls that are more simplistic and easier to read at a distance on many amps...
 
#26
I very often reach around to the back of my rack and plug cables in by feel, with just one hand. I have the plug end of the cable palmed, held with two or three of my fingers, with the other two or three probing around for the jack. That's what I'd do if I was blind, too.

Braille would be more useful than some specialized lefty-righty knob placement.
 
#28
like most in the thread, right hand. I use backline a lot and would say often the knobs and setting are difficult to read. then there's GK that puts their knob treb, mid, bass instead of bass, mid, treb like most everyone else which throws me if not paying attention. I'd prefer a nob not round and would think that would be helpful to a blind person as well.
 
#29
What you could also consider, since this is a bass combo, is the location of the input jack.

A front mounted face plate might seem like a no brainer to someone with sight, but for someone without, it could be a problem, unless its like those old fliptop Ampegs. Consider putting in a recessed jack plate on its own on, say, the left side of the top of the amp. The amp controls would then be in another recessed area on the top by the front.

Definitely consider notched pots as well.
 
#34
First of all, thanks to everyone replied, with the exception of the "wasted thread space" guy.

bongomania said:
Braille would be more useful than some specialized lefty-righty knob placement.
Click to expand...
kranahan said:
are you going to put braille on the amp.. telling the blind person what is what?
Click to expand...

From my other thread on EQing:
After talking to some blind people in a local universal access advocacy organization, we found that somewhere between 15-20 percent of blind people can read braille. This is mostly due to the low quality of blind education in public schools but regardless, throwing some braille on a product continues to exclude the majority of the user's were trying to make products available for.

EDIT: I should say, adding braille would not really exclude users, but focusing on braille alone as a design solution would not solve the given problems for a very large range portion of the currently excluded user group.

JimmyM said:
Blind people aren't stupid. They just can't see. What they need more than anything is braille printing for all the effects loops and speaker jacks in the back so they don't have to count jacks and possibly be wrong.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, did I imply that blind people are stupid? If you've ever approached a product that you had trouble figuring out how to use, or get the most out of one of the product's functions, and I guarantee that you and everyone else on this forum has, it's believed in the design community that there is something wrong with that product. Boiling people's interactions with products down to their most basic intuitions and habits often does make the users seem dull-witted, but its in the interest of improving everyone's experience with that product.
 
#35
I'm sure Jimmy M didn't mean to imply that you meant to imply that blind people are stupid. Only someone really stupid would do something like that- and I'm not trying to imply anything... but the guy's just not a mean-spirited type. It was said perhaps a little dryly, but was not a jab. I'm sure of it.

But really, I dig the recessed panels idea. Controls you can learn, but you have to get to them. Tactile or logistical 'give aways' are pretty cool, and they probably don't have to be anything very exaggerated. Given some limitations, folks learn to get around pretty well.
 
#36
Bassslayer69 said:
God....this is the stupidest waste of thread space ever!

How about a thread about

when you play bass, do you listen with one ear or two?
Click to expand...

Now this on the other hand seems a genuinely stupid comment, in light of the subject. Would you have said this if you were in the actual presence of people?

I'd venture to guess no. But hey. God still loves you anyway. :)
 
#37
JimmyM said:
Blind people aren't stupid. They just can't see. What they need more than anything is braille printing for all the effects loops and speaker jacks in the back so they don't have to count jacks and possibly be wrong.
Click to expand...

Good point.

I might also suggest tone pots that have center detents, maybe simple 1 or 2 letter abbreviations for the front controls and a detailed but easy to understand audio CD pretty much like reading the manual including how to hook everything up, patch in and out, ranges of all the knobs like boost/cut, low and high limits of any frequency sweeps etc.

Edit: Pretty much design the whole thing so you can use it with your eyes shut.
 
#39
slap_happy said:
throwing some braille on a product continues to exclude the majority of the user's were trying to make products available for.
EDIT: I should say, adding braille would not really exclude users, but focusing on braille alone as a design solution would not solve the given problems for a very large range portion of the currently excluded user group.
Click to expand...

Can you describe some of your ideas of what would work?
 
#40
I'll post my presentation boards when I finish them up. It'll all be explained much more easily with digital renderings, etc. Most of the solutions have to do with pointers/recesses in the knobs, condensing the functions of a regular amp into a fewer number of controls, using controls that are easier for blind people to use (sliders vs. knobs), eliminating features that aren't completely necessary. All the input jacks will have a conical recess to help guide the tip of the cable into the hole. The amp is intended for home/practice use, so I could afford to take some liberties as far as form goes, and tailor some features to a more low budget user (1/8" AUX in for iPods rather than two split channel phono plugs, etc.)

Didn't mean to sound pretentious about the braille thing. I would have suggested the exact same thing two weeks ago until I found about the percentages of braille users.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back