Loudness when playing at home

  • Thread starter Thread starter peterc52
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I got one of those 1 watt 50th Anniversary Marshall heads and run it through a Marshall 4x12. It has a low power switch which cuts it down to 1/10th of a watt. Even at full power it isn't anything that causes an issue with the family or neighbors. That said, I have a room in the basement floor of the house. The bedrooms are on the upper floor on the opposite side of the house. It would still be too loud for the average apartment.
 
I couldn't imagine spending money on a 50 watt or 100 watt Marshall or some expensive boutique amp, only to play at bedroom volume.

I don't like the amp to be set to stun or to deafen people, but I've always found playing at low volume to be completely unsatisfying, regardless of which amp I'm using. The real sonic magic happens only when you turn the amp up. There's something special that happens between the pickup/amp/speaker that can only be experienced by pushing some volume.

Once my family/kids came along, I didn't want to have to turn down all the time so I built myself a soundproof room in the basement. Best investment I've ever made.

Playing live is where the frustration comes into play. Someone in the band or the sound guy is always telling you to turn it down, even when you can't hear yourself to begin with. Half power mode on a 30 watt amp, running the volume at 9 o'cock and it's still too loud, apparently.
 
3 young kids here.
I’m setup in a sound dampened room in the basement , before bedtime, small gig levels.
This is how it all sounds best to me... when the speaker start to work a little.

After bedtime loud conversation level.

I only unleash the hounds when no one else is home.
 
I can crank my amp (Marshall, Fender, etc) to the max and adjust the overall loudness (anywhere from whisper quiet to ear-shattering) using tricks.

Cranked-amp tone at any volume, in other words.
 
Beandust":213ybd70 said:
Interesting q/a thread. Always wondered what may go thru other players minds on this subject. Playing loud is good for some? I remember Vivian Cambell saying he grew up practicing in a barn and was able to play at really loud volumes and he felt this helped him and he understood he was maybe meant to play loud" was how he stated it. It's a bewitching thing at times. Crank it and enjoy then get in a mix and where does all the shit you liked so much go.. so you turn up even more or you wait for your ears to adjust. I have a raised fourier and stairs up to a bigger open room so its loud anyways.. dont help but it can be ok I guess. I dont like headphones and have tried and hate it , am I missing something? it sounds uninspiring to even attempt to play thru headphones. Family home except maybe a half hour in the am and some on weekends I get to crank outside of acoustic volumes or a very small practice amp with door closed.. damn if I know what's best
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Vivian was THE man back in the day. He killed it and his tone was monstrous. At least that's the way I remember it lol
 
exo-metal":12nljtxz said:
Beandust":12nljtxz said:
Interesting q/a thread. Always wondered what may go thru other players minds on this subject. Playing loud is good for some? I remember Vivian Cambell saying he grew up practicing in a barn and was able to play at really loud volumes and he felt this helped him and he understood he was maybe meant to play loud" was how he stated it. It's a bewitching thing at times. Crank it and enjoy then get in a mix and where does all the shit you liked so much go.. so you turn up even more or you wait for your ears to adjust. I have a raised fourier and stairs up to a bigger open room so its loud anyways.. dont help but it can be ok I guess. I dont like headphones and have tried and hate it , am I missing something? it sounds uninspiring to even attempt to play thru headphones. Family home except maybe a half hour in the am and some on weekends I get to crank outside of acoustic volumes or a very small practice amp with door closed.. damn if I know what's best
Click to expand...
Vivian was THE man back in the day. He killed it and his tone was monstrous. At least that's the way I remember it lol
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That's about spot on. He had a rawness to his tone that most didnt from that era. Could be the Irish influence of Gary Moore, he was bad ass as well. Never got to see him but ViV with Dio I saw 2x until Dio decided to listen to his greedy wife. Imagine that lol
 
It’s so fun to play loud but man with tinnitus and kids it just doesn’t really happen at the house.
 
Haven't really played in a few weeks unfortunately but when I do lately it's using a Neural DSP plugin. Would love to grab a FM3 for easy jamming and recording. I also enjoy using a tube amp into my Captor when I'm not too lazy to do the extra 1-2 steps to do that. Haha. NYC apartment dweller so can't really crank here. My folks live in the burbs so that's a possibility when visiting but not usually.
 
I keep my main rig (Mesa Mark IV + recto cab) over at my folks place and get to play it at 2 or 3 on the master and 2 on the output level for 20 minutes (once a month) before my parents run down stair and tell me to get lost, lol. I really need to get another band going.

At my apartment I play my little Katana 50 combo at speaking volumes, sometimes a little louder. Most of my playing is unplugged cause I don't like to irritate the neighbors too much.
 
fek said:
After 10:00 pm I can crank it up.

When I don't have to work the next day, I go to my music room (spare bedroom about 12X15) that has a small PA, and fire up one of two 100 watt tube heads or one 50 watt tube head. Two Marshall 4x12's pick from. Greenies or V30's.

Been looking into putting up some type of sound absorbing panels or blankets just to see if cutting down some bouncing frequencies improves the sound at all. The ceiling is probably just over 10' high.
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It won't help much beyond just cutting down on reflections and balancing the room some. (I think you know that by the sounds of it) Everything travels through duct work and bass up the walls. I am planning to build an eventual 75% sound proof decouple room or at the very least, an amp/cab vault which will be a decoupled room also using moving blankets to tent around my 4 x 12 and 2x12. Will probably just find the sweet spot and then leave a 421 and 57 up and listen through monitors and preamp. A satisfying way to play I believe.
 
mine are in my shop/studio I have to be under 100db at night, and generally I play/practice under that, but I play about that volume most of the time.
 
I used to play around 105-117 dbs for a cpl hours every weekend. Sometimes I would play like that every other day. Ever since I got the cali neural suite, I play that a lot more, so I can share clips and not piss off the wife all the time or turn my kids into handtalkers.
 
While in the man cave, the 4x12 cabs are at least pushing some air,its important to feel it,at least for me..If I have to practice upstairs with family,its either thru a g-dec,roland or just unplugged electric.
 
I did about two hours today at full tilt, first with a 1959SLP and then with a '79 2203. I wear cheapo 3M foam earplugs. I know they shave some high end off and it sounds just right to me that way. I like to think that in a gig situation the soundman compensates for that shrill, ice pickiness. With the cheapo foam earplugs it sounds just fine to me. I always see the audiologist when I walk into Sam's Club and kind of want to get fitted for some pro earplugs. But that's gonna cost about what a few hundred pairs of the 3M plugs run me.
 
18% hearing loss in my left ear. One too many times getting crazy at home with a 100 watt Marshall and a full stack where I would regularly hit 128db for 30+ minutes at a time. Sucks but I like to think it would be worse if it hadn't happened the way it did and I would have the problem in both ears instead of just the one. Funny thing is I remember the time that caused it and it was down tuned playing that did it. Probably just a coincidence.
 
It depends on my mood. If I want to play loud I can and do. I play loud often and most times use ear plugs. It also depends on how much time I have to play and jack around with stuff. Those days when I have more time to spend for some reason are louder playing days for me. You switch amps, cabs, guitars, a different pedal and you tweak sounds and eventually land on what you want and play yourself deaf...lol. If I know I am sticking with one amp and guitar and won't be switching around anything I tend to play no louder than medium volume. If I am really practicing or working on something new creatively I typically play at low volume. If it is working on new ideas with other people it is almost always at high volume.

I have no idea why these things are this way but I spent some time thinking about various scenarios and this is what i came up with. I have pretty large room and have plenty of room to move about and spread out.
 
I love my Orange Brent Hinds Terror for low-volume, the bedroom/headroom switch gets it down to .5/1 watt depending on plate voltage from the Half/Full switch. Since it's cathode biased, it gets that cranked tone at about any volume. That with a single Mesa V30 gets my tail wagging at low volumes. 1 watt will get over 80db though! This is for my little 9x11 studio room.

My den is where I crank up my bigger amps with 4x12's. Even My Zinky 2x12 needs 8-10' to be heard right. Big cabs need distance to develop.
 
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