How lould should the bass be....

[EpiSGpl8r]

How loud should the bass be compared to the guitars and vocals and stuff. Like when playing all together. i like to hear the bass but when we practice i never do. What would be a good sized amp to keep up with us. i have a fender princeton 65 and my other guitar player has a fender deluxe 112. thanks alot

 

[Spike Vincent]

Twice as loud as the guitars. This is due to the human ear perceiving a lower sound as quieter,but you try explaining that to a guitarist.

 

[mrbigputts]

your bass should be "felt" more than heard I think. Spike is right....just try explaining that to a guitarist.....we just dont under stand this. Dont put your guitarist next to the bass cab and turn down the bass a little in his monitor and he will be just fine.

 

[TexRoadkill]

I think the actual bass tone is more important the volume level. A mushy tone wont cut through no matter how loud it is.

4x10 cabs seem to be a good way to get a more defined bass tone that really cuts through a live set. Everytime I hear a killer bass tone in clubs it is coming through a 4x10. The Hartke cabs used to be really popular but I'm not sure what the cool ones are right now.

Ampeg and SWR are pretty nice. The GK bass amps are pretty cool also.

 

[KingstonRock]

I find that, oddly enough, when my bass is audible to me when standing infront of the cabinet with the full band playing, it is too loud. The guitar players in the band are always complaining that its not loud enough, but after the lead player boosts the volume for me, : ) I hear from the crowd later that it was too loud.

Eric

 

[Scooter B]

"How loud should the bass be?"

That depends on if he/she is any good and adding or detracting from the music!

Actually from my experiences in playing/practicing live if the guitar player is using a 100 watt tube amp I needed 300- 400 watts to hear my bass! The ohms (ie effeciency) comes into play along with speaker proximety.

Being close to the cab I hear and feel the punch (attack) better right next to it but when you do the math for 40-60Hz the wave lengths for the low E string or God forbid B string it ends up you have to be several feet away to hear one full cycle. Add to that the percieved increase in loudness with increased reinforcement of multiple waves and constructive or destructive reflections and it is very common to just be audible to yourself on stage but MUCH too loud for the audience.

There is a very good reason most touring bands with a good system let the sound man control the sound from the audience and let the bad figure out how to balance the "stage mix."

 

[Spike Vincent]

Same here,I use a 400w stack and I'm still not loud enough.Mind you,my band were clocked at 139 db in a rehersal room once.

 

[Bass Master "K"]

your getting good advice here. General rule of thumb is you need twice the wattage of your guitar players, so shoot for 3 to 4 times as much to give you more headroom.

My guitar player uses a 100 watt amp....I have a 350 watt Hartke. I rarely have to turn it past 4. Also, speakers can make some difference. When I just use my 4x10" it's pretty loud and has a nice punch, but when I add my 1x18" / 2x10" into the mix, it is definately a more powerful sound and feel in the bass.