Question About Low Volume/Home Setup

[agedhorse]

The term practice amp is not necessarily defined by its rated power. For example the Walter Woods MI-100 is a small, lower powered pro touring amp.

 

[Clark Westfield]

Question:

Does running a 1200 watt amp into large cabinets at very low volumes hurt anything?

I have the knob right before it fades out and I can keep the peace in the house.

 

[MCF]

Question:

Does running a 1200 watt amp into large cabinets at very low volumes hurt anything?

I have the knob right before it fades out and I can keep the peace in the house.

No. But there should be at least one volume knob on your bass. Get to know it.

 

[agedhorse]

Question:

Does running a 1200 watt amp into large cabinets at very low volumes hurt anything?

I have the knob right before it fades out and I can keep the peace in the house.

No, not in the slightest.

 

[byacey]

I wouldn’t consider a 500 watt amp to be low power. There are dozens of practice amps that are under 100 watts. For gigging, I would say you want 300 or higher. I suppose you could consider anything under that to be a practice amp, but I’ve played gigs with less than 300 and had plenty to work with. It depends on the particular amp. I had a Peavey bass amp that was 210 watts. It was very loud.

I would suggest even a 50W amp with a decent speaker should be more than sufficient for practicing at home. If you need more power than that, you're probably not really practicing.