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Rehearsal Rant

#21
Interesting. I have always bought my own rig to every rehearsal I’ve ever done, rented facilities or not.

I’ve worked in four music stores. I’ve seen what people will try to get away with on gear they don’t own. I’m not relying for one second on gear that has been unsupervised. “Let’s see if SWR amps will really do that speaker piston thing I read about on TalkBass. Oh look, they do!”

One half hour later: “hey, it’s not doing it anymore!”

One half hour and ten seconds later: “crap, don’t say anything”.
 
#22
RyanSaranich said:
I think I disagree with you here. Yes, the primary concern in rehearsal is locking/getting parts right/etc. But for real: If you're about to play a gig or a session and your rehearsal is filled with off-sounding bass tone (or any other instrument for that matter), how confident are you going to be in going into that next situation feeling like everything's going to go well? You surely can't base it on the idea of, "Well, we sounded great in rehearsal last night."
For a lot of musicians, it's pretty wise to bring your own gear into the rehearsal space. I always like to keep the mindset of, "Soundcheck like you're playing the show" and I think this might fall into that a bit.
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I could not agree more. Funny how I've never seen a guitarist or drummer lug their setups to rehearsal.
 
#23
We rented a rehearsal space for a project I was part of last year. I didn't like any of their bass combo's so I brought my Eden WT400 and plugged it into their Epifani 410 speaker...wow, it was great.

Other than that the rehearsal place was in an old hotel which had several rehearsal rooms, each with pretty good sound systems and mic's. Great air conditioners, ceiling fans and refrigerators (summer in Phoenix AZ).
 
#25
RyanSaranich said:
But for real: If you're about to play a gig or a session and your rehearsal is filled with off-sounding bass tone (or any other instrument for that matter), how confident are you going to be in going into that next situation feeling like everything's going to go well? You surely can't base it on the idea of, "Well, we sounded great in rehearsal last night."
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Ahhh.... interesting thing here with this, and maybe even something that warrants its own thread, as I'm sure there will be differing opinions.

My experience, and it happens I want to say almost 100%... When a band smokes a rehearsal or gig, the very next one will be troublesome. Or at the very least, disappointing.

Confidence is of course important, but even when playing with the most seasoned musicians I know, when things go really well the next gig the band is somewhat off their game. If playing with responsible pros, a sketchy rehearsal will almost guarantee a great gig. It puts everyone on their "A" game.

I'll add too that if someone gets comfortable with their sound in a studio, they're going to suffer when they get nowhere near their sound, at the gig - which is often the case. I'd much rather sound like crap in a studio and get wowwed on a stage, than sound great in the studio and be disappointed, live.

I'll add that if I counted on my sound to be confident, I'd be in big trouble. I need to be confident in my knowledge of the material, and my ability to play it well, no matter what. Not long ago I played a show at The Gramercy in NYC and I couldn't hear myself a single bit on stage. There was something up with my monitor, or the sound guy - but if I were depending on ANY kind of sound, I'd have been a complete mess. The gig could have been much more fun, but I'm confident nobody other than me knew what I was dealing with.
 
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#27
TNCreature said:
The OP's issue is one of MANY reasons my band rented outgrown space outfitted with our own actual gear that we use on stage.
It is the best. I could never go back to those pay per hour rehearsal horrors
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This is the best option for a committed working band, we're not there yet, this is a fairly new project. Depending on your locale you might have some reasonable options for rental space, Long Island is ridiculous for renting anything.
 
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#29
Back in the days (15 years ago) when I paid for rehearsal space the only thing you got was a basic set of PA speakers with a mic. Been rehearsing in my own spaces for a long time, so maybe they have started offering more in the way of backline since then.
 
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#30
Screen Shot 2021-06-07 at 2.50.58 PM.png
 
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#31
I don't care what the studio or rehearsal space owners have to deal with. That's their business, which they chose to be in. While it's not incumbent on them to provide my favorite amp, it definitely their responsibility to provide equipment in good working order.

And man, am I sick of backline providers giving bassists Hartke equipment that barely turns on, much less makes sound. One company in my area has the worst sounding bass amp, grumpy engineers, and expects to be respected. I'll never hire them.
 
#32
Man, there are some horror stories in here. Luckily for me, my usual rehearsal space is a semi-finished basement with all my stage gear in it- as well as a couple serviceable guitar amps, a PA, and a good drum kit. The only rentable rehearsal studio around here that I know of is in Hartford, and it's incredibly nice- the owner is a drummer and a gearhead, and furnished the two main rooms with solidly maintained and reasonably new Ampeg SVTPro and Mesa gear, plus an AC30 and a Twin.
 
#33
I don't haul stage-gear to practice if I'm paying for the use of a rental rig. My experience with the local hourly rehearsal studios taught me that I don't want to own an Aguilar Tonehammer or an Orange amp, but then the ones I've played thru have been ridden pretty hard. I'm always happy when I walk in to a studio that provides GK gear, but I don't see much of that lately. I look forward to rehearsing and would rather never sound like crap, but some comments here mention the need to be able to perform in less than ideal circumstances. Being flexible and unruffleable is a necessary and underrated ability.
 
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#35
Jonathan C said:
How many of my fellow bass players pay to rehearse at studios? I've yet to go to one here on Long Island that has a bass rig I can tolerate using. A new band I joined about 3 months ago picked a rehearsal space conveniently 10 minutes from my home. Happily with my P bass special in hand I enter the room we're to practice in, then in horror I spied the bass rig! It was a SVT 350, upon closer inspection all the graphic eq sliders were busted off and it was sitting on top of 2 4x10 cabs, a Seismic audio and old Ampeg 410 HE. I plugged in and brought up the gain, it sounded like crap, and very little deep bass which if nothing else should have been present. Upon further inspection the Ampeg cab was unplugged, maybe by accident I thought? Plugged it in and plucked the open A string and all I heard was BUZZZZZZZZZZZ! I unplugged it and went ahead with just the top Seismic cab. Next week I brought my Mesa WD-800 and Revsound RS-210. A different room, but another SVT 350 with another Ampeg 4x10 under a Carvin 2x10. For grins I plugged into it and turned up to 1/3 gain. It sounded passable as I noodled for a few minutes, then suddenly it turned to a weird fuzz. Turned it down (it wasn't loud at all to begin with) and the fuzz didn't diminish. Turned it off and back on and it sounded normal. Hooked up my rig and went ahead with rehearsal non the less.
I get that running a rehearsal studio is not exactly a goldmine, but there is much more effort into providing guitarists amps that are usable (Marshall, Fender, etc.) Last week we went to another studio. Foolishly I left my rig at home, as I walked into a Hartke LH-1000 sitting on top of a Hartke 8x10 "VX" cab. Every single note buzzed like all of the joints in the cab were broken, and that amp? Bass, mid, treble, and a bright switch only?? I could not get an acceptable tone out of it. Today we're heading to that studio again, I'm bringing the Mesa head with my new Subway 2x12 which has only been used in my apartment, going to stretch it's legs!
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I went to a music school where the administration discovered that every piano had a busted middle C. Turns out one student was a weightlifter and a Billy Joel fan, and he'd busted them all. All it takes is one.
 
#36
Since I've been carrying around my "tone in a box" (a SansAmp RBI or any Zoom pedal mostly dialed to thick&crunchy) I've cared less and less about amps, even my own. I mostly gig a couple old Peavey TNT-150 (either one or both) with my Zoom MS-60B as "preamp". My stack (SansAmp RBI+trusty old Hartke 3500+old heavy Peavey 410TVX+115BXBW) hasn't left my studio since 2016, is there for the occasional rehearsal. Just any clean loud rig with enough lowend authority (not necessarily sub low, just thick enough) will do. I use whatever amp's tone shaping to adapt to the room/needs, that's it.

Now, last time I went thru' an SVT 350 + 410HE (at a medium size disco, subbing for a friend's metal core band, his amp) I was DELIGHTED at how my Zoom tone into it sounded, just right with FLAT EQ, as plug&play as it gets. Might be my TNTs (or also TKOs I own), I dial them flat too when tweaking tone in my SansAmp or multiFX, and as they're 15"s in small boxes the kind of tight punchy lowend (poor response really, yet has the authority) is real similar to what I get from sealed Ampegs using any amp. I play mostly 5ers and my tone is in no way thin, I love how Ampeg sealed boxes handle it, has the kind of weight I like.

Too bad they didn't have that Ampeg amp in working condition. It's more than loud and low enough for a rehearsal space. Still, I recommend everyone the same: try setting up a means of having your tone in a portable device such as a preamp or multiFX. At least saves part of the hassle, and success rate is high whenever you find a properly functioning amp (should statistically be most of the times, despite your recent frequent negative experiences). Also don't be shy by asking your situation to be troubleshot, you're paying for a rehearsal studio with functioning gear, aren't you?
 
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#38
Joe Nerve said:
When a band smokes a rehearsal or gig, the very next one will be troublesome. Or at the very least, disappointing.
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Yes, it's true! I have always said the same thing. An average rehearsal is always best.

While I like great sound as much as the rest, I also agree that being able to deal with less than ideal sound and still get through the gig is a must have skill.
 
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#39
I also agree that if you're paying for a fully equipped rehearsal studio, they should be providing half decent functioning equipment. I want to walk in with my bass and setup quickly. I don't want to be dealing with a gig's worth of equipment.

The place I frequent has had the same Hartke HA3500 amp heads with Hartle XL 4.5 4x10 cabs for the last 20 years. They sound fine and get the job done. Many have had loose or missing knobs and judging by the EQ curves I find on them (I mostly play them flat) and by the volume of some of the neighbouring rooms, you can tell they've taken and continue to take a beating.
 

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