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My tool landlord

#21
What I need to do is throw my exwife out of my house that pay for and live there again. Only if NY State saw it that way too. :D Thanks for the advice guys, I guess I have to do the headphone thing. I hate the sound through them though, mostly why I dont wear them.
 
#24
Bass frequencies can behave a little strangely, due to their length. In your smaller room, they can't properly develop so you barely hear them, but as they push the wall, they develop in the long hallway, or whatever next door very clearly. Also the house can resonate at some low frequencies.

I had neighbors 50 feet away that liked action movies, and I could always tell because I could hear their subwoofer clearly in my bedroom, but I don't think that the sound was really that loud - just resonant.

Try getting the amp off the floor on a cushion and see if that helps. You should also invite them in while you are playing to show how low your volume really is.

If the cushion doesn't work - headphones is the answer.
 
#25
Sounds like it's not your tool landlord but your landlord's tool son. Even his mom must think he's a tool because she's told you 'don't worry about it that's just the way he is'. I suspect he's living there rent-free as well (probably to get him out of her house).
Next time he bangs on the wall, call the landlord & complain about her tool son, and go nextdoor and tell him to piss up a rope if he doesn't like it. She will likely side with the responsible rent-paying tenant rather than the mooching whiny son. If she doesn't, there's your answer about moving. In the meantime, try putting the amp on some foam blocks to de-couple it from the floor, or go the headphone route. BTW, isn't there a headphone jack on the amp?
 
#27
Never_grew_up said:
Sounds like it's not your tool landlord but your landlord's tool son. Even his mom must think he's a tool because she's told you 'don't worry about it that's just the way he is'. I suspect he's living there rent-free as well (probably to get him out of her house).
Next time he bangs on the wall, call the landlord & complain about her tool son, and go nextdoor and tell him to piss up a rope if he doesn't like it. She will likely side with the responsible rent-paying tenant rather than the mooching whiny son. If she doesn't, there's your answer about moving. In the meantime, try putting the amp on some foam blocks to de-couple it from the floor, or go the headphone route. BTW, isn't there a headphone jack on the amp?
Click to expand...

Yeah there sure is a jack on the amp, and I am gonna go that route. He is such a tool one time the breaker popped in my apartment. I told him and 5 hours later when I came home it wasnt fixed. I knocked politely and asked why.... his answer was well how will i know which one it is. I said maybe it will be the one (s) in the off position. All but one or two will be on. I mean he is in his 30's. Another time they were doing work in the basement and turned my water off to do the work. I asked him to turn it back on.. he was in that basement for 1 hour turned every valve but the one he should have. I told him go to the valve under my sink/shower and follow it back making sure they are on and you will find it. So whatever i said ok you cant do it ill go to my girlfriends for the night but please tell your mom in the morning and have her husband come and fix it. He didnt but i did call her... so she calls me and says its fixed. Great I get home no water... he forgot to tell her and was nervous when he got home and went down and turned it back off messing with the valves.
 
#28
When I was 18 me and my parents (they still live there)lived in a very well to do suburban community (home owners association, neighbors need to approve the color you choose to paint your house, ect ect) and my drummer was having his house fumigated(our usual practice spot) so we decided to have practice in my garage. Things got started at Noon, 1 50 watt pa speaker for vocals, a 75 watt ss guitar combo amp, my 60 watt ss practice amp and a 5 piece vintage 1963 gretch kit that drummer handled with kid gloves. At 12:47 (my parents framed the report) a cop pulls up knocks on the garage door and informs us that there has been a noise complaint and the neighbors have been coming over my house for the last 2 hours complaining about the noise and we needed to turn it down, though in his opinion it wasn't that loud and he didn't hear anything till he pulled in the drive way and he actually was very nice and asked if we knew paranoid by sabbath, which we did, and asked us to play it for him. He ended up giving us a copy of the report, no fines or anything and went on his way. We wrapped it up when he left and never practiced at my house again. One week later the home owners association sent my parents a $900 dollar fine for excessive noise claiming it had been going on for a month and several neighbors had asked me personally to stop. My dad and me ended up going to a committee meeting and bringing it up showing on the report that the officer wrote he could not hear noise until he pulled up into the drive and got out of his car and after arguing with them for an hour and a half the fine got dropped but our 12 points didn't (after 20 points the neighborhood could vote on evicting you from the neighborhood), The neighbors have tried telling my parents it was nothing personal bla bla bla, but 3 other houses on the block had bands playing and practicing there on a regular basis, on the weekends you could here them from down the block and they never seemed to have any problems. My personal hypothesis is that it had less to do with noise and something to do with the fact that we were the only people on the block that were not for a lack of a better term "white" and are foreign. The last time I went to visit my parents they told me they had a neighborhood inspector come to measure my mom's sunflowers because they were to tall (6 feet) for neighborhood standards, which is one thing if they are up by the curb but they were in the backyard in the screened in patio.

edit: moral of the story...it could be worse
 
#29
I once had a toolbag guy that lived next door to me that would watch crappy Anime movies at 4 in the morning with his little audio system turned up. The low end was just drove me nuts! I asked him amny times to please be respectful. He brushed me off a few times then told me to "deal with it bro". So I did I got my SVT pro 3 and 4x10 set up right next to the wall. Pluged in my Bongo and "delt with it bro" took about 45 seconds before he was pounding on the wall. So I turned it up to about 12 o clock and played a little more. He came over a little mad and asked what my problem was. I told him don't bring a stick to a knife fight....bro. Needless to say he was a little bit more repectful of those around him. I think I won. Bassist 1 Toolbag 0
 
#30
metlman72 said:
Yeah there sure is a jack on the amp, and I am gonna go that route. He is such a tool one time the breaker popped in my apartment. I told him and 5 hours later when I came home it wasnt fixed. I knocked politely and asked why.... his answer was well how will i know which one it is. I said maybe it will be the one (s) in the off position. All but one or two will be on. I mean he is in his 30's. Another time they were doing work in the basement and turned my water off to do the work. I asked him to turn it back on.. he was in that basement for 1 hour turned every valve but the one he should have. I told him go to the valve under my sink/shower and follow it back making sure they are on and you will find it. So whatever i said ok you cant do it ill go to my girlfriends for the night but please tell your mom in the morning and have her husband come and fix it. He didnt but i did call her... so she calls me and says its fixed. Great I get home no water... he forgot to tell her and was nervous when he got home and went down and turned it back off messing with the valves.
Click to expand...

You are right. He is a moron. You should not be able to act as "Landlord's Agent" without a precursory knowledge of electricity and piping. It is not rocket science.
 
#31
robbotbass said:
I once had a toolbag guy that lived next door to me that would watch crappy Anime movies at 4 in the morning with his little audio system turned up. The low end was just drove me nuts! I asked him amny times to please be respectful. He brushed me off a few times then told me to "deal with it bro". So I did I got my SVT pro 3 and 4x10 set up right next to the wall. Pluged in my Bongo and "delt with it bro" took about 45 seconds before he was pounding on the wall. So I turned it up to about 12 o clock and played a little more. He came over a little mad and asked what my problem was. I told him don't bring a stick to a knife fight....bro. Needless to say he was a little bit more repectful of those around him. I think I won. Bassist 1 Toolbag 0
Click to expand...
Lol, flawless victory!
 
#32
Have you considered elevating your amp off of the floor? Anything from a few milk crates to an actual amp stand would help reduce the bass vibrations that WILL run throughout the structure of the building.

Also, I've gotten into the habit of practicing 75% of the time without even using an amp. Just jamming along acoustically on my electric basses, getting really intimate with different attacks and playing approaches. Then I plug in and work out these new approaches through my rig.

Would either of these be a viable option for your circumstance?
 
#33
My neighbors used to have sex at 3am in the apartment above me. I could tell because they liked to slam the bed against the floor while making noises.

When I tried to test a guitar through my amp to make sure it was working, they pounded on my floor and called the management. Management left a note saying I need to stop playing amplified music in the apartment.

I loudly explained (with customers in the apartment viewing area) that my neighbors ******* was waking me up at 3 in the morning and to make sure that they told them to stop slamming the bed against the floor. There was a bright yellow warning note on their door when I got back to my apartment.

Awesome.
 
#34
TheBear said:
Have you considered elevating your amp off of the floor? Anything from a few milk crates to an actual amp stand would help reduce the bass vibrations that WILL run throughout the structure of the building.

Also, I've gotten into the habit of practicing 75% of the time without even using an amp. Just jamming along acoustically on my electric basses, getting really intimate with different attacks and playing approaches. Then I plug in and work out these new approaches through my rig.

Would either of these be a viable option for your circumstance?
Click to expand...
Maybe its just me, but after playing almost only acoustically for awhile, I picked up alot of really bad habits that I'm still working out today, like dynamic control and a few other things.
 
#36
frankenjazz said:
When I was 18 me and my parents (they still live there)lived in a very well to do suburban community (home owners association, neighbors need to approve the color you choose to paint your house, ect ect) and my drummer was having his house fumigated(our usual practice spot) so we decided to have practice in my garage. Things got started at Noon, 1 50 watt pa speaker for vocals, a 75 watt ss guitar combo amp, my 60 watt ss practice amp and a 5 piece vintage 1963 gretch kit that drummer handled with kid gloves. At 12:47 (my parents framed the report) a cop pulls up knocks on the garage door and informs us that there has been a noise complaint and the neighbors have been coming over my house for the last 2 hours complaining about the noise and we needed to turn it down, though in his opinion it wasn't that loud and he didn't hear anything till he pulled in the drive way and he actually was very nice and asked if we knew paranoid by sabbath, which we did, and asked us to play it for him. He ended up giving us a copy of the report, no fines or anything and went on his way. We wrapped it up when he left and never practiced at my house again. One week later the home owners association sent my parents a $900 dollar fine for excessive noise claiming it had been going on for a month and several neighbors had asked me personally to stop. My dad and me ended up going to a committee meeting and bringing it up showing on the report that the officer wrote he could not hear noise until he pulled up into the drive and got out of his car and after arguing with them for an hour and a half the fine got dropped but our 12 points didn't (after 20 points the neighborhood could vote on evicting you from the neighborhood), The neighbors have tried telling my parents it was nothing personal bla bla bla, but 3 other houses on the block had bands playing and practicing there on a regular basis, on the weekends you could here them from down the block and they never seemed to have any problems. My personal hypothesis is that it had less to do with noise and something to do with the fact that we were the only people on the block that were not for a lack of a better term "white" and are foreign. The last time I went to visit my parents they told me they had a neighborhood inspector come to measure my mom's sunflowers because they were to tall (6 feet) for neighborhood standards, which is one thing if they are up by the curb but they were in the backyard in the screened in patio.

edit: moral of the story...it could be worse
Click to expand...

I feel sorry for anyone who got me evicted out of my house for crap like that. Certain people in the neighborhood would start having "accidents".
:D
 
#37
QUOTE: "All music is good, except the music next door!"

Loud music is an invasion of personal space. It is really no better than a loud barking dog. If you can't practice without annoying someone you need to move to where you can.

Move out into the country and turn it up to 11 or get some earphones.
 
#38
Liam Wald said:
QUOTE: "All music is good, except the music next door!"

Loud music is an invasion of personal space. It is really no better than a loud barking dog. If you can't practice without annoying someone you need to move to where you can.

Move out into the country and turn it up to 11 or get some earphones.
Click to expand...

If the TV is louder (and there are no complaints about that) I dont see how the bass could be a problem. Yeah I know the acoustics... but my TV has a slamming sub that is on the floor to. So why not complain about that. Bottom line the dude doesnt like me because I embaressed him in front of his mom (the landlord)more than once. Not my fault though it was his own stupidity that did that.

Any how doesnt matter as I invested in a nice pair of headphones yesterday after work. Oh yeah and were I live there is no country to be found.....if there was I would be there.
 
#39
you should have went right over there and knocked on his door to ask why he is banging on the wall, or kept playing. there must be some type of ordinance or time slot where you are not disturbing the peace. if not, fight fire with fire, bang on the wall when you hear a peep from his apartment. or, start a formal complaint so you dont have to pay rent till the court case.
 
#40
Your neighbor is definitely being a tool.

I've only ever lived in apartments in Chicago, so I have a lot of experience with close by neighbors. My rule is to always be respectful. Never play after 10 pm, never play before 10 am, and if I'm going to crank it, try to do it in the afternoon or early evening, when it will be least obnoxious. I've never had a noise complaint, and I currently live next to really old people who don't like my style of music. If you are reasonable, then the person complaining is the jerk.

On the other hand, I have had a neighbor evicted because they weren't respectful of their neighbors. A downstairs neighbor rented the basement of a three story apartment building for band rehearsal. Not cool of my landlord to do this, but I would take the loud music (and it was worse because they were not a good band), until 10, then would complain. They wouldn't stop playing, and eventually just stopped ignoring me and my other neighbor, and we got them kicked out.

The OP didn't mention what times he was playing, but seems to me he was probably playing during reasonable hours. If you live in an apartment, your neighbors will be able to hear your loud noises and you will be able to hear theirs. Make sure that you are reasonable, and then you can make them be reasonable, like the dude earlier who opened up his full stack to teach his neighbor how to be reasonable.
 

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