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How to play bass in a condo? Please help!

scottm

scottm

Supporting Member
Aug 13, 2005
3,224
6,325
Virginia
#1
Hello Talkbass fam,
I am getting old and going into simi-retirement. I am selling my home and moving into a condo in a gated community. The place is great for me and my wife, it is dream land for old people. I have a pond that the back of the condo is over, and then views of the James River out front.
The only bad thing is I will have up and downstairs neighbors! The place is built pretty solid, and we do not have anyone on the sides of us. The upstairs neighbor is only over a small portion of us, and not where my bass equipment will be... but bass does travel!
Over the last few years I have been playing through mostly these setups...
IMG_4468.jpg


I am guessing this is no longer going to work for me, since even on extreme low volume these suckers can be heard downstairs in the well built home I have been currently living in.

I am looking for suggesting on what I can do to be polite to my new neighbors, and as well as being able to play at all times of day/night guilt free.

I have seen the new little 110 Aguilar cabs, so I plan on buying a few of those regardless if they are the best option. There are a few other cabs like that I might get as well since I am retiring without endless yardwork of my normal summers, and plan on playing even more bass.

Has anyone else gone through this?
Was small combo amps the answer? I really want to maintain the tone of what I have now, so money is not an issue.

Just to note, my son play's bass as well. We also have two Martin acoustics that we play often, so that does help.

Thanks in advance...
-ScottM
 
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#7
We also downsized and had pretty much the same issue. I now use a single 10" Bag End and a Quilter BB800. Small footprint and it sounds great. The Quilter has a headphone jack and I use that often. All the large cabinets are in the storage unit in the building and I have very easy access. I'm still doing shows so it worked out well for me.
Good luck in your new home.
 
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#8
My last act used a jamhub (green room model) Guitarist , keyboardist/ guitarist, Drummer (using electronic drums for rehearsal, acoustic live) My bass and all our vocals went through this little mixer. Everyone wore headphones. I used my PJB Bass buddy as my pre and it worked great. Only noise made was the sound of the guitars strumming and drum pad hits, and of course singing.
 
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#9
ClusterFlux said:
Headphone amp: Boss Waza Air Bass.

Another option is to get a small combo (e.g. 1x12), and put it on an amp stand. Low volume, plus staying off the floor, should let you hear it at lower volumes, and reduce vibrations going downstairs.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion, I have not heard of those headphones.
I will be trying the amp stand idea.

My son does have one of the new Boss 2x5 combos, but I am not a fan of that. He might use it though.

Redbrangus said:
There isn't any miraculous speaker cab or rig that will resolve this issue, and any sort of 'soundproofing' is wildly impractical in this situation.
Click to expand...
That is what I am worried about. I also thought of sound proofing since I'll have plenty of time, but bass is hard to sound proof against for sure.

- ScottM
 
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#10
scottm said:
I have this on my radar, any suggestions on brands/models?

While this is an option... I would like to watch TV while I play bass.... hey, I am slowing down in life so I deserve a little future laziness. Plus, I am not sure if I want to wear headphones all of the time.

Thanks!

-ScottM
Click to expand...
I keep an ABG on a stand in the living room for just this purpose.
 
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#12
scottm said:
I have this on my radar, any suggestions on brands/models?

While this is an option... I would like to watch TV while I play bass.... hey, I am slowing down in life so I deserve a little future laziness. Plus, I am not sure if I want to wear headphones all of the time.

Thanks!

-ScottM
Click to expand...
I second the Boss Waza Air Bass. It's everything you could possibly need to jam silently.
Boss Waza-Air Bass Guitar Wireless Headphone Amp

Also, download Moises to your phone. You can strip the bass (or any other instrument) out of a song. I'll remove the bass from a song and use my Waza headphones to jam along with it, or wrote new bass parts. It's a lot of fun and good practice.
 
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#13
For practicing at home, I use a small 8-channel mixer and headphones. I guess I'm not too picky because I use an inexpensive set of Presonus headphones or my IEMs to practice with. I have the mixer's outputss connected to my studio speakers, but I don't use them often when practicing.

I also have inputs for a vocal mic (still learning songs with vocals), a pair of computer playback channels, and a pair of TV input channels. I seldom use the TV inputs, but they are there just in case.
 
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#14
Condos have Double thickness "party" walls. Some are better than others but you may find that during reasonable hours of the day, The neighbors won't care too much.

I was forced to live in a Condo when I moved back to NJ and searched for houses. I played every day and my neighbors were cool with it. I asked them all to please knock on my door loudly if I was ever disturbing them. No-one ever complained....
 
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#15
King V said:
I second the Boss Waza Air Bass. It's everything you could possibly need to jam silently.
Boss Waza-Air Bass Guitar Wireless Headphone Amp

Also, download Moises to your phone. You can strip the bass (or any other instrument) out of a song. I'll remove the bass from a song and use my Waza headphones to jam along with it, or wrote new bass parts. It's a lot of fun and good practice.
Click to expand...
I just started looking into these Waza headphones and they do look pretty cool.

Has anyone played through a Kemper into their computer? Not sure if some high-end computer speakers might fix this issue a little better.

-ScottM
 
#16
FunkHead said:
Condos have Double thickness "party" walls. Some are better than others but you may find that during reasonable hours of the day, The neighbors won't care too much.

I was forced to live in a Condo when I moved back to NJ and searched for houses. I played every day and my neighbors were cool with it. I asked them all to please knock on my door loudly if I was ever disturbing them. No-one ever complained....
Click to expand...
I am wondering the same. This place is a little older when things were actually built to last. It was on the high-end of the market, so I have not heard any noises while visiting it yet.

-ScottM
 
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#17
scottm said:
I have this on my radar, any suggestions on brands/models?

While this is an option... I would like to watch TV while I play bass.... hey, I am slowing down in life so I deserve a little future laziness. Plus, I am not sure if I want to wear headphones all of the time.

Thanks!

-ScottM
Click to expand...
Use any preamp of your choice [mine is the Ampeg SCR-DI or SGT-DI] and use earbuds that will allow you to hear both your bass, the TV, and the wife [if necessary:D].
 
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#19
2saddleslab said:
Use any preamp of your choice [mine is the Ampeg SCR-DI or SGT-DI] and use earbuds that will allow you to hear both your bass, the TV, and the wife [if necessary:D].
Click to expand...
I have never used earbuds before. Are you talking like the Apple Earbuds?
My son has a pair of those so I'll have to give them a try.
Will they handle bass?

I like the idea of building a killer stack of pedals and just bass heads and running them through some kind of setup I could toggle through with headphones or computer speakers.

-ScottM
 
#20
I am in the same situation and use Helix Native and studio monitors. Works much better with bass than guitar since our acoustic noise is much lower. The monitor volume can be relatively low and still bury the bass' acoustic noise. But if you want house rattling volume... headphones ;)
 
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