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I miss playing loud

JimmyM

JimmyM

Apr 11, 2005
127,260
125,183
Plymouth NC
Disclosures
Endorsing: Yamaha, Ampeg, Line 6, EMG
#1
some of you may know that i play quieter than anyone with my regular gigs doing oldies with bowzer and my regular band. i am probably the only one on the entire talkbass who can use a b-15 on a gig and still have headroom. everyone always complains if i play any louder than that.

tonight i did a sub gig for the blues brothers tribute band i used to play in at our local house of blues. i brought my micro vr/210 av and cranked the holy living dogcrap out of it. we usually stand back to give the blues brothers guys some room, but i do pop up front now and then. that was when i found out that they also had me slamming in the side fills. it's been at least 2 years since i played that loud. i really liked it.

honestly, it still wasn't that loud. we weren't playing metal. but it was a good solid volume that felt good. i don't get to do that anywhere else. tonight we're doing a gig with davy jones and they wanted an svt, so i'm bringing mine and i'll have it so quiet that i'll strain to hear it from the front of the stage. pussies.

got to say, though, that micro vr hung really well in this situation. but next time i do house of blues, i'm bringing the svt :bassist:
 
#2
Been playing an old Ampeg, all tube head (can't read the letters anymore, so I can't tell you what it is, huge head) through an 810 cab at practice at my bud's "blues shack." I tell ya, we get pretty damn loud. Yes, it feels good, but my ears are suffering. Goodness, but that 810 cab feels good. It's not mine, but I don't wanna move it anyway. I've been gigging with a Markbass CMD 121H combo. It really does a good job and is about all I wanna carry these days (gettin' old, ya know). Anyway, I have learned to enjoy playing quiet. Have mercy, I used to play regular guitar through a blackface Fender Bassman head on top of one of the old large 212 cab with two EV SROs inside. Volume knob on about 8, or so. LOL, no wonder I can't hear.
 
#4
I can sympathize there brother Jimmy. Our drummer quit about 20 years ago and we did the "unplugged" thing for about the next 12 years. It was cool, but I missed "feeling" my bass. Then about seven years ago, I did a fill in gig for a buddy who's bass player moved to Montana for a couple of years. They're an all original thing in the vein of the Sex Pistols/Ramones, that was a total gas. The guys in my band came out to see us and they got the itch to go electric again. So, they got all Marshalled up again and we got a drummer and have been rocking since. I couldn't be happier. We aren't playing at punk volumes, but we're at a real solid classic rock level, which is awesome.

Here's to the thump, may you feel it again soon, and may you feel it with great regularity...
 
#5
Our band plays a lot of Blues Brothers material. (I just love having a horn section!)

There are some great tunes for just wailin' away....Soul Man, Hey Bartender, Messin' with the Kid, Respect, Gimme Some Lovin', Sweet Home Chicago.

Just as jazz has its "standards", these have become blues standards in their own right.

One night we were playing a benefit and had the Worcester High School Jazz Band as our "opening act". They were awesome. Since we both play Theme from Peter Gunn, we used that as a schtick for "handing off" between the sets (only we kept their killin' sax player for the solo portion.) A fun night...
 
#6
JimmyM I didn't know you did a gig with Bowzer, that's pretty cool! I still get to play loud, it's part of the band. Honestly my stage level is that bad, just enough to keep up with the drums and get a little feedback. When we run into a new sound man I always get flak for my Hiwatt rig but once were through sound check they get it. YouTube - Dudevision 2011: Summertime Blues - Johnny Smoke
 
#7
Yeah, my main gig has been on in-ear monitors for over a year now. And honestly, they are great, and I would never go back to wedges unless I had to, but it means that sometimes our stage volume (and sometimes just our volume, period) is honestly kinda wimpy. It's nice that my ears don't ring after gigs. OTOH, it's nice to really get to crank to where you really feel it, and those times are few and far in between. That's why I bought the 810 and giant tube amp in the first place dang it!
 
#8
godofthunder59 said:
JimmyM I didn't know you did a gig with Bowzer, that's pretty cool! I still get to play loud, it's part of the band. Honestly my stage level is that bad, just enough to keep up with the drums and get a little feedback. When we run into a new sound man I always get flak for my Hiwatt rig but once were through sound check they get it. YouTube - Dudevision 2011: Summertime Blues - Johnny Smoke
Click to expand...
man, i hate soundmen who give you flack the second you walk in with a nice rig. do they not realize they have volume controls?
 
#10
JimmyM said:
man, i hate soundmen who give you flack the second you walk in with a nice rig. do they not realize they have volume controls?
Click to expand...
I think a lot of people don't realize there's a volume control on those things.. :D

I like bringing the full stack on small gigs, with the 2nd cab on top of the first, nearly at ear level, I can hear my self better a lower volume than if I brought just one cab and left it on the floor. Plus my knees end up ringing at the end of the night if I just bring the one cab... :D

Randy
 
#11
JimmyM said:
some of you may know that i play quieter than anyone with my regular gigs doing oldies with bowzer and my regular band. i am probably the only one on the entire talkbass who can use a b-15 on a gig and still have headroom. everyone always complains if i play any louder than that.

tonight i did a sub gig for the blues brothers tribute band i used to play in at our local house of blues. i brought my micro vr/210 av and cranked the holy living dogcrap out of it. we usually stand back to give the blues brothers guys some room, but i do pop up front now and then. that was when i found out that they also had me slamming in the side fills. it's been at least 2 years since i played that loud. i really liked it.

honestly, it still wasn't that loud. we weren't playing metal. but it was a good solid volume that felt good. i don't get to do that anywhere else. tonight we're doing a gig with davy jones and they wanted an svt, so i'm bringing mine and i'll have it so quiet that i'll strain to hear it from the front of the stage. pussies.

got to say, though, that micro vr hung really well in this situation. but next time i do house of blues, i'm bringing the svt :bassist:
Click to expand...

Two things here:

I have been struggling with hearing issues since I had some robbed from me in Iraq. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to play loud, but just can't do it anymore. My hearing is at risk. I have invested in a good set of plugs and IEM (at JimmyM's suggestion a while back) and couldn't be happier.

Playing loud is joy. You feel it. It's FUN.

Second thing: Playing in a BB cover band is, without a doubt, the coolest gig I can think of.
 
#12
I hear you, Jimmy.

Normally we play small bars and I have my Mesa M9 barely turned on through my 410. But we also do some outdoor gigs where I get to crank up my rig and those are almost always my favorite gigs. I just love the way my rig sounds when it's turned up a little, but it's usually too much for the small clubs we play.
 
#13
GreggBummer said:
I have invested in a good set of plugs and IEM (at JimmyM's suggestion a while back) and couldn't be happier.

Playing loud is joy. You feel it. It's FUN.
Click to expand...
Same boat, just got IEMs and LOVE them. I can hear everything clearer, no ringing ears at the end of the night. The problem is I love the sound of my amp, spent years perfecting it, and now I'm blocking it out with IEMs.. :bawl:

Sooner or later might be selling the big rig though, did one gig with no amp, just a preamp. It was a nightmare, no bass in the stage monitors and didn't have IEMs yet (until I put some together with Altoids box based headphone amp on the break). But once I jury-rigged IEMs for bass, it was marvelous.

It is a LOT of fun bringing in a mic stand, a bass, and a preamp instead of lugging a whole stack around. I can definitely get used to that.

Randy
 
#14
steveksux said:
The problem is I love the sound of my amp, spent years perfecting it, and now I'm blocking it out with IEMs.. :bawl:
Randy
Click to expand...

Yep, that's me. I have a rig that cost me thousands of dollars and many long hours of painstaking research, but ultimately I'm stoked about... but all I hear through my ears is a Whirlwind DI... next task is to get either a Countryman or a Heil PR40.

Kinda makes me wish I had allocated some funds to go towards a REDDI. Guess I'll have to start saving again...
 
#16
Jimmy,we're both of the same era or close.I have become the biggest volume Nazi you'll come across.Let the p.a. do the work is my credo.Do you miss this scenario? Back in the 70's toting a nice p.a. around was just not in the budget for most bands in the area.If you had 500 watts and 2 Peavey SP1's you were da sh*t! The really good guys would only mic the vocals and kick then balance the guitar and bass to that.Man,I always loved the sound and feeling of that rawness! I see bands in clubs today and it's all razor sharp precision with too much sub.Sometimes I miss the old gigs....
 
#18
ZachM said:
Yep, that's me. I have a rig that cost me thousands of dollars and many long hours of painstaking research, but ultimately I'm stoked about... but all I hear through my ears is a Whirlwind DI... next task is to get either a Countryman or a Heil PR40.

Kinda makes me wish I had allocated some funds to go towards a REDDI. Guess I'll have to start saving again...
Click to expand...
the good news for me is most of my tone comes from my preamp, Eden Nav, the power amp is essentially flat,colorless, and my EA VL-210s are pretty flat cabs too, so I'm getting most of my "tone" in the IEMs. My earbuds have very nice bass response.

I get a lot of compliments from band members on my tone, so its not a total waste I suppose if they're the only ones hearing it. That's part of my appeal, along with my pro attitude, my stunning talent, and my world-class humility....

Randy
 
#19
It's funny, I miss playing loud too, but in the other direction. I just want to play loud, I'm getting sick of playing SO loud that it even seems loud with earplugs. There's a volume where you're moving plenty of air and everything sounds great, but my band is playing way past that. I wear plugs but ... they don't, so now they're deaf and I know we'll always be playing that loud. *sigh*

It's not just the volume of air, but also the shape of the vibrations and the tone all at once. Obviously what I need is a great microphone and some in-ears. But until endorsement deals start falling out of the sky, I guess it's "occlusion tone" for me. :D
 
#20
I tried earplugs, worked fairly well. Problem was the etymotic universals aren't so flat, knock out enough highs its tough to hear if you're in the right key, let alone in tune. Also hard to hear vocals, other instruments.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my ears not ringing at the end of the night, but otherwise weren't optimal. I could have gone and gotten custom earplugs, they're supposed to be flatter. But now you're getting close to IEM money.

What finally sold me was I found some Nady's on sale for $212. Figured that's cheap enough to try. While waiting for those to come in the mail, I ended up making my own IEMs from a battery powered headphone amp in an Altoids box, using my mp3 earbuds, connected to my preamp. I was at a club with no room for amps, and the soundman wasn't putting enough bass in the monitors to hear myself. Great for bass, no vocals through them, but got enough bleed from the monitors, plenty of vocals there. And the buds did a good job of isolation, better than the etymotics, actually, I was stunned when I popped them out and heard how loud the crowd was in that place.

Then the Nady's never came, come to find out the only ones they had in stock were on the bands that became illegal due to DTV. Then found the AT M2's on sale for $443, compared to $599 on MF, GC, Sam Ash, etc, and figured better snatch them up.

I didn't want to risk more money on the PSM200 or M2 originally because I was thinking I'd have to buy expensive earbuds to do bass well. Once I did my homemade setup and verified my mp3 buds worked fine fr bass, no need to spend an extra $200 on earbuds, I didn't mind so much forking over the extra $240 for the M2's over the Nady's in that case, knowing I could get by on the existing earbuds.. Since M2 is better unit, better features, worked out great all around.

Randy
 

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