Headphone practice on a budget

ThePrettyDamned

Hiya, so after much advice, the musicman will not be sold. I'll play it instead!

I don't own a bass amp, nor do I have room for one. So if I had very little cash to spend on something that works for headphones practice, what would you recommend? I know the b3 is great, but in thinking less than half that budget.

Don't mind going used at all. I like flea, and will also learn alter bridge and such.

ThePrettyDamned

Moved to correct section...

guitarfishbay

If you're not playing loud and have a fairly powerful amp and set of speakers you could just put the bass through your guitar amp.  Stick to low house volumes and you won't have trouble with most moderately powerful guitar amps and speakers.  Hard to give exact specs (I imagine @ICBM will be more help there).

If you need to play through headphones on a budget and have an interface and DAW I'd look at the software route.  Check out whatever free stuff comes with your DAW and if you're not happy with it then you can start looking at paid alternatives.  I like Ampeg SVX for most sounds and Studio Devil Bass Pro for the more aggressive rock/metal stuff.  But mostly when I practice bass at home I just stick it through my Roadster.

ICBM

If you're not playing loud, any guitar amp will be fine. The only real danger is to the speakers, so if you're not pushing them hard there's no risk - if you don't hear distortion you're not pushing them hard.

A second hand B3 would still be the way to go though, I think - probably well under £100 and it would give you something you can use out of the house, a looper for practicing, a (very) basic drum machine, a whole load of extra wacky guitar effects as well (not the amp simulators, they don't sound good for guitar) and a recording interface if you don't have one...

Bidley

All good suggestions so far, I'd also suggest an older Zoom B2, which should be fairly cheap. I think you can even still use that as an audio interface too.

ThePrettyDamned

Awesome, cheers all. I do have a pod studio ux2, but my laptop gave up the ghost, and the volume control is a bit buggered! That might do nicely for now downstairs though.

Was thinking headphones because I'd be worried slap bass would destroy my speaker - it's a Sheffield, but it's about 15 years old or more. I also like some fuzz on a bass for muse esque riffs... Maybe not a good idea? I really don't know.

I'll fire up the pod in the meantime though.

ChrisMusic

ThePrettyDamned said:   Was thinking headphones because I'd be worried slap bass would destroy my speaker - it's a Sheffield, but it's about 15 years old or more. I also like some fuzz on a bass for muse esque riffs... Maybe not a good idea? I really don't know. 

You are right TPD, there is a huge transient on slap.  That will test your speaker suspension to breaking point very easily.  Maybe put a limiter or compressor on for safety, if not for tone as well.

Fuzz and distortion carry a lot of energy, and you won't be able to tell whether it's from the pedal / amp or the speaker moving on to the afterlife, so tread carefully with that.

Headphones can be easily destroyed too.

Not trying to put you off, just pointing out a couple of pitfalls to avoid.

Kebabkid

I got one of those Vox amphones Twin headphones for my birthday and was surprised at how well it works on bass as well. It has an aux input for your iPod etc and you can have some fx if you so wish, but I turn them off and it's a stellar bass tone. You don't even need a lead, unless you hook up to an aux source and even then it's only a mini-jack to mini-jack. Battery life (2 X AAs) is very good. If you switch it off, they work as decent, regular headphones.

Chappells on Bond St, now Yamaha Music, were knocking these out for nearly half price.

I've just bought a Zoom B3 and first impressions are that it's a great unit, plus as ICBM says, you have the basic rhythms and looper to play around with, but the core bass models are great, let alone all the fx.

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

Was thinking headphones because I'd be worried slap bass would destroy my speaker - it's a Sheffield, but it's about 15 years old or more. I also like some fuzz on a bass for muse esque riffs... Maybe not a good idea? I really don't know.

No, you'll be fine at house volume unless you're being really silly. Just listen for speaker distortion with your normal clean sound, then play anything fuzzy at the same volume or less. "Quite loud" in the house is probably only a few watts really - it's amazing how non-linear the power to volume scale is.

I've used guitar amps for bass for years - even for small gigs sometimes - and never blown anything.

ThePrettyDamned

Awesome, thanks guys.  I'll stay away from slap for now then (sorry Flea!).  I also need to set the bass up for D standard tuning.  I might, one day, sell it and build a 5 string, which would be infinitely more suitable (rather than BEADG, I'd tune up a semitone for drop c 5 string ).  

ThePrettyDamned

Cheers @ICBM.  I'll see how it goes.  If my speaker blows, woops! I don't play loud in the house though.