Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

Agileguy_101

Agileguy_101

Master of his Domain
My band has started practicing way more lately, as we've been booked for a few shows and my drummer's friend is taking his pro level mobile recording rig to our space to help us cut an album for free. As such, I've been playing much more than usual, and I was just curious - how loud do you play at band practice?

I'm running a 50 watt Fender Bassman through a double oversized 2x12 cab with a V30 and a Cannabis Rex. I'm usually using my Tri/Ram muff for distortion (a Big Muff with a mids knob, so I can cut really well in the mix) My amp is never at less than 4.5 on the volume, usually around 5.5 or 6. Sometimes I turn it up to 9 when I don't feel like using a dirt pedal. With my humbucker strat, I get a good amount of breakup at my usual volume, and with my strat there's less breakup, but still a bit.

I guess I'm mostly curious because people say that 50W is a lot of headroom, but I find I'm using it all up. I wonder if I should step up to a Dual Showman...
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

I've jumped the channels and put the volumes on 10 before, but it's too fuzzy in the wrong way for the music I play. Both volumes on 7.5 is a killer ****ing tone though.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

Things differ from amp to amp but if I were running my 40 watt fender at 5 or 6 it would be really loud. Too loud for any gig situation unless outdoor with a poor PA.

Normal volume for me would have been about 100 dB @ 2 feet from the cab. That's measured with a dB meter. (that would be about 3 on 40-100 watt amp.)

We always practiced exactly how we would perform...save running PA mains at practice.

Depending on where you are gigging I'd suggest learning how to rock with much less volume. Bar bands that deliver the goods without splitting ears tend to get hired more often.
 
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Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

Being able to set your stage volume correctly is a skill you have to master. Who are we to tell you whether it's too loud, none of us are there? For my personal frame of reference (as I rarely play anywhere that mic's guitar cab these days), I set my amp volume to about the level of the drummer's snare, and then tweak it to the room. Just make sure you have some headroom left over to boost for solos. (I get around this by using an ABY and bringing in a 2nd amp for solos).
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

It all depends on the drummer, honestly. I used to jam out with a couple of guys in high school and the drummer played really aggressively. At the time, I had a Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk I that I had to open up all the way to cut through and my ears were ringing. In the last band I was in, I kept my old Shiva down pretty low. Heck, the band before that I had a Crate V32 Palomino that worked well in the mix... so it all depends as to what you're competing with.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

not sure what " Sate my cuiosity" means...

wear earplugs! I have custom 30dba earplugs, and stay away from the cymbals since cymbals cut through earplugs. only turn up volume if you cannot hear yourself; get good at hearing yourself in a mix with bassguitar so you dont have a volume war.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

Definitely depends on which band/ drummer I'm with.

For my originals band, boosted JCM800 on 5-6, louder than what most gigs allow haha (drummer in this one is a softer hitter)
For my Motorhead tribute band, the same rig would be 7-8 for sure. Harder hitting drummer, more powerful PA, and well...Motorhead. Once again usually too loud for most gigs as we usually get told to turn down...once not even by the bar but the place a few units down! It was shaking their tables...
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

I've only ran that loud on a couple of occasions. I mostly ran my Bassman on 4 in big rooms, and 3 in smaller ones. The way I got some chime with a bit of OD was to link the channels, going first into the normal side, and then out into an OD pedal and on into the bass side. That way I could dial in some dirt which always sounded better in the bass side to me, and still cut through at a lower volume because the normal channel stayed clean. The same trick worked for my Music Man, too.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

guitfiddle said:
I've only ran that loud on a couple of occasions. I mostly ran my Bassman on 4 in big rooms, and 3 in smaller ones. The way I got some chime with a bit of OD was to link the channels, going first into the normal side, and then out into an OD pedal and on into the bass side. That way I could dial in some dirt which always sounded better in the bass side to me, and still cut through at a lower volume because the normal channel stayed clean. The same trick worked for my Music Man, too.
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That is a mighty clever idea!
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

I used that same rig for bedroom / apartment jamming for years. Child's play.
IMG_20121215_161710.jpg

Grow up.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

A Bassman or larger Fender amp is at gigging volume at around 3 or 4 IMO. Depends on the amp and the room, of course, but my experience with the bigger Fender amps is that they are stupid loud when turned up.

I know a guy who gigs with two SF Supers turned way up. After about a year of doing that, he basically ensured that no venue within 100 miles of here will book his band.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

Empty Pockets said:
I used that same rig for bedroom / apartment jamming for years. Child's play.
IMG_20121215_161710.jpg

Grow up.
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Lol

You practiced with your Bassman cranked?

Damn

Also, is that Sunn bass cab (the one with the casters) as big as the bassman cab? As long as I've had it, it still blows my mind how huge the Bassman cab is for just 2 12's.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

everdrone said:
not sure what " Sate my cuiosity" means...
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Sate=satisfy

SlyFoxx said:
Depending on where you are gigging I'd suggest learning how to rock with much less volume. Bar bands that deliver the goods without splitting ears tend to get hired more often.
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Normally I'd agree with you, but you don't play doom metal quietly. Example - Matt Pike of High on Fire played a 500 max club in SF last month with two Soldano SLO's, each running through 2 4x12's, both cranked and hit with a fuzz.
 
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Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

Agileguy_101 said:
Lol

You practiced with your Bassman cranked?

Damn

Also, is that Sunn bass cab (the one with the casters) as big as the bassman cab? As long as I've had it, it still blows my mind how huge the Bassman cab is for just 2 12's.
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Nah, I was just teasing... you could maaaybe run that thing at 2 for "bedroom" hahah...

It's actually a Sunn Beta Lead 412 but I'm glad you assumed I was using a bass cab :smokin: it is a few inches shorter than the Bassman cab.
 
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Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

You're playing doom metal out of a tweed Bassman?

I just did a gig where we were unmiked and used my Bassman. I had the volume at about 3.2 and that could be heard very well through the venue. It also balanced well with the unmiked drum kit - and we have a pretty hard hitting drummer. It sounded great to everyone out in the crowd. However, our singer was complaining that we were all too loud (singers hate playing with loud stage volume). Here's a video from that show (I'm playing the Tele):

Tele > Lovepedal Les Lius > Bassman LTD


As for practice volume, I play way lower with the band in the basement. If I turn up my Bassman it's ear splitting loud on 5 or 6. Like, painfully loud. I just hope you're using ear protection, my friend.
 
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Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

No, I'm using a 68 Bassman. Completely different amp, even without taking into account the monstrosity that is the 40"x30" 2x12 cab.

Empty Pockets said:
Nah, I was just teasing... you could maaaybe run that thing at 2 for "bedroom" hahah...

It's actually a Sunn Beta Lead 412 but I'm glad you assumed I was using a bass cab :smokin: it is a few inches shorter than the Bassman cab.
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Yeah, when I used to keep my Bassman at home I never played louder than 2 when other people are home. Now it resides at rehearsal space.

I figured it was a guitar cab because it looks like it's got spaces for tweeters.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

rockandrollrods said:
It really depends on the venues you're playing. I played an outdoor show to a couple hundred people with a Mesa Single Rec through a Marshall 4x12. I told the teenager running the board (seriously, he was about 15) to not mic my amp. I was using it as my monitor since those weren't provided. He did, and I ended up overloading his channel and blowing a fuse (According to him. I'm not an electrical guy). So apart from technical problems, a half stack worked great for me there. But every indoor show I've ever played, a half stack was overkill. It was always too loud for stage volume, and I could never get that sweet tone when a half stack inside. I tried Mesa, Marshall, Vox, and I finally found the balance with a Fender or Carvin 50 through a 2x12. I could get the tone I liked at a level that didn't make the sound guys cut me out of the mix as retaliation.
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Hahahaha I remember that incident. That kid was a dork.

I've run into a few situations where I was running a similar setup (2x12 or 4x12) and the sound guy kept getting mad at me because I was too loud and I was only on 3-4. After his 3th complaint I couldn't really get any lower without my tone turning to fizz, so I told him to mic the vocals and the drums and let the amps do their own work, and he looked at me like he'd never ever considered that option before. I convinced him to do it and guess what? We sounded great.

Agile... FWIW I think for your situations you're right about where you'd need to be. Most of the time what I would do is use a good attenuator (I had a Dr Z Air brake) and I was able to get a good cranked tone and rarely got complaints from sound men. I actually used to get compliments from a particular guy because he told me my tone was pretty smooth and controlled compared to most people he had to mix. I've experimented using a plastic shield on my amp but my drummer doesn't like it when I do (he says it wrecks my sound from his POV), so I may go back to using an attenuator for venues.

As far as 50W maybe not being enough headroom - try a 100W amp for a practice or two and then go back to the 50W setup and see what you like better.
 
Re: Sate my cuiosity - do I play too loud for you?

I do not gig, but i do jam with some friends in a big airplane hanger on a farm every now and again.

When we do get together, my 1966 AB165 Bassman is on "6.5".
I run my amp through an old 1970's Marshall 4X12 cab that has been modified (according to the owner) to a 4ohm cab.

Is it too loud ?
I don't know, because ther are no one that get pissed off when we do play.
Closest people to us is over 2km's away.
 
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