100w - loud enough for band practices?

[Flie]

Well yeah theres this new band who might want me to play abss but my amp was far too quiet when they tried me today so yeah would it be loud enough to go against a guitar tube amp and a double pedalling drummer built like a brick. Btw we don't have a PA so don't suggest DI. Also which is the best cheap earplugs i can buy? cheers lads.

[edgebass5]

First-off, watts don't equal volume. You've told us nothing about the rest of your amp, so just indicating the watts is essentially meaningless.

Secondly, what is everyone else playing. All you've indicated is that there are tubes in your guitar players amp and your drummer has a double kick pedal, and is apparently rather muscular :lol:

Third.... Don't buy cheap ear plugs. Invest some money in your ears safety and in 10 years you'll truly thank yourself. My ear plugs are in the over $200 category and it was quite possibly the best purchase I've ever made for my musical career.

[Flie]

First, i have an ashdown after eight and I want a 5 15 so how is it?

Second, Its a peavey summat or other and the drummer has mapex and sabian stuff.

Yeah tbh I cba when I could just get the same ons as they have because they seem to be fine with them.

[edgebass5]

I'm assuming since you're talking about lots of double pedal its some form of hard rock/metal. I imagine you could be heard with an Ashdown 5 15, but to do so you're going to have to put a lot of mids into your signal. If you do any sort of an EQ scoop you'll likely disappear from the mix entirely.

I definitely wouldn't use it on a gig where you had no PA support.

EDIT: If tbh stands for "to be honest" what does cba stand for? I've never gotten the whole internet acronyms thing... Just figured out FWIW and ITT last week :lol:

[Misanthropic]

I found that even a small price difference made a big difference in sound concerning ear plugs.

Bought a pair that have this shape for about $10-15:
http://www.paddle-people.com/2/prod_sammel/99592_earplug-smiley.jpg

Much better than these, the cheapest you can get:
http://www.balticincoming.ee/tooted/muu/earplug.jpg

No doubt, $200 plugs would be better, but I'm just saying.

[edgebass5]

I found that even a small price difference made a big difference in sound concerning ear plugs.

No doubt, $200 plugs would be better, but I'm just saying.

Absolutely. Buy the best ear plugs you can afford. The cheapest ones not only sound horrible, they don't offer as much protection as you would think. A good set of ear plugs will sound better, protect better, and will actually be reuseable to some degree and may even save you money over the cheapest of the cheap... Mine certainly don't :( The custom ear molds, plugs and first set of cartridges was somewhere in the ballpark of $270 for the set. After that I have to buy new filter cartridges each year at about $40 an ear! :amaze:

[Flie]

Well the good ones in that picture shown r what I'm looking for because that was what the band uses, I will probably not be doing any non PA support gigs so it might be loud enough.

[Akira]

Edge, what kind of plugs do you have?

[Sammy_L_D]

I'm going to invest some moulded earplugs sometime...I really need to get around to doing it.

[edgebass5]

Edge, what kind of plugs do you have?

I can't remember the brand name right off-hand... I've got a pamphlet that came with them at home. I went into an "Ear, hearing and balance clinic" had molds of my ears made (a rather disturbing process if I do say so myself) and they used those molds to get me some musician-specific ear plugs. Very little frequency loss (although there still is some loss) but a large drop in overall volume. You can use different types of filters to reduce more or less noise as you need.

[Akira]

Ah, they are the kinds that actually fit your ears. That is cool.

[Jimbobntnr]

EDIT: If tbh stands for "to be honest" what does cba stand for? I've never gotten the whole internet acronyms thing... Just figured out FWIW and ITT last week :lol:

can't be arsed.

we really need to know if it's going to be tubewatts or solid state watts, and what size speakers. Right edge?

[sinister]

First-off, watts don't equal volume. You've told us nothing about the rest of your amp, so just indicating the watts is essentially meaningless.



But really, typically, honestly, generally more watts is going to be louder...As a rule of thumb.

I'd say it probably would be.

You guys make me miss my ear plugs, they really do make so much difference even for a quiet-ish band practice. Now i'm used to shoving toilet paper in my ears.

[Soulfly666]

Well yeah theres this new band who might want me to play abss but my amp was far too quiet when they tried me today so yeah would it be loud enough to go against a guitar tube amp and a double pedalling drummer built like a brick. Btw we don't have a PA so don't suggest DI. Also which is the best cheap earplugs i can buy? cheers lads.

It really depends on your set up. If you have a 100W 10" speaker and a 15" speaker of the same quality, the 15" is going to be louder because there's more speaker surface.

As for earplugs, there's usually a noise reduction rating on the back of the packs they come in. Usually the higher the better, but what sucks about cheap ear plugs that have high db noise ratings is that although they do reduce the amount of noise, they block out only a certain frequency range, so you're still getting a high volume of the other frequencies that aren't being filtered, but cheap ear plugs are better than no ear plugs.

[Flie]

Well I want to get a ashdown 5 15 which is 15". Would that be loud enough? Any websites where I can get earplugs from england?

[edgebass5]

we really need to know if it's going to be tubewatts or solid state watts, and what size speakers. Right edge?

A watt is a watt. It makes no difference if its coming from a transistor or a tube. Tubes have a soft clip curvature associated with them so you can push them farther into clipping before it become un-musical. Based on that people think that a watt from a tube into a speaker cabinet is louder than a watt from a transistor into the same speaker cabinet.

As for speaker size, read Bill Fitzmaurice's post in this thread: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=338843&highlight=size
That says it way better than I could.

But really, typically, honestly, generally more watts is going to be louder...As a rule of thumb.

If all things other than the power amp involved are equal than yes, more watts will be louder. That being said, comparing two rigs with different, but similar components will not yield a definitive answer to whether or not more watts will equal more volume. Also realize that volume increase by way of increasing wattage is not linear. It requires a wattage increase of roughly 10 times to equate to roughly double the volume. Furthermore, based on the xmax and xlim specs of your cabinet, more watts could equal less volume if you exceed the xlim of your cabinet... Exceed xlim for too long and you'll have no volume out of your cabinet :p

It really depends on your set up. If you have a 100W 10" speaker and a 15" speaker of the same quality, the 15" is going to be louder because there's more speaker surface.

Again, Bill Fitzmaurice says it perfectly in this thread:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=338843&highlight=size

Well I want to get a ashdown 5 15 which is 15". Would that be loud enough?

See post #4 in this thread

[80sfollowerBass666]

Well I want to get a ashdown 5 15 which is 15". Would that be loud enough? Any websites where I can get earplugs from england?

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/71979

i bought these a few days ago and they are very good. come with 3 differant filters for whatever volume your going to play at. and you get one free earplug.

i do notice quite a bit of high end frequency loss. which you notice wen you take your earplugs back out.

[edgebass5]

i do notice quite a bit of high end frequency loss. which you notice wen you take your earplugs back out.

This even happens with the uber-expensive custom molded ones that I have (referenced several times in this thread). The high frequency loss with mine is minimal, but its still there. My plugs are about as expensive/high quality as you can find and they still suffer from a slight form of this problem. I only mention this because a lot of high end ear plugs (even mine) advertise that you will hear exactly like you do without them, only quieter... Or that there's no frequency loss.... blah blah blah.... Its not true. If you impede your ear canal you WILL lose frequencies, typically in the high-end of the sonic spectrum. Its just that the more you spend, the less you lose :lol:

[FireItUp]

100 watts may be cutting it short, i have an ampeg 100wt(eh it gets the job done decently) combo and its loud enough. But i remember on one particular song where i really need to be heard, i raised the volume and my amp started clipping. Oh and i agree with edgebass, keep the mids high. Mine are at 3 o clock, and whenever i try to scoop them i just dissapear in the mix.

Oh and damn i gotta get earplugs too, you guys are making me nervous...i havent been using them nor do i have a pair.

[Flie]

Yeah earplugs are important I finally realised after playing with a band who like volume, I have just been told that the next time we practice they are gonna borrow someone elses big amp so it is not as urgent as I thought but I still need some.

[Flie]

Yeah earplugs are important I finally realised after playing with a band who like volume, I have just been told that the next time we practice they are gonna borrow someone elses big amp so it is not as urgent as I thought but I still need some.