Electric guitar: How loud do you usually practice?

[zachary vex]

I believe it's called a sectional. And I play my JTM 45/100 on about 7 with my Distortron at noon, and I wear Ety-plugs.

[Aedes]

i've got 3 small kids, so mostly unplugged. if i plug in it's whisper volume. i only get to crank it at practice. :-(

[Whirlwind]

When I can, Raised voices to loud!

Otherwise headphones.

[~GOD~]

usually about the volume of an acoustic. loud if i'm in a mood.

[ninjaaron]

I do unplugged most, because I'm too lazy to turn things on. Headphones and conversational/raised voices after that.

For headphones, I'm using cheap-ish ear buds at the moment, but I used to use Boss Triports. Then some kind of modeler. Had a PODxt, but I sold it. Had Yamaha MagicStomp, but it broke. Now I'm using a Digitech RP55 (which I like because it costs about as much as Bad Monkey). I either use them alone or with my pedal board. Probably a little more with my pedal board.

When I practice at conversation/raised voices levels (maybe the level of an outdoor conversation?), I use my board and an amp. Depends which amp is around. Sometimes Univalve with 1x12 Avatar cab, sometimes Classic 30. Sometimes a micro-cube (though I don't really like how it plays with my effects, so I don't usually use my board with it). I like to use my Crate PowerBlock to practice when I can. It sounds pretty decent, saves on my tubes, and it runs cool so it can probably take a lot more hours before it needs servicing.

[jorgenegeland]

When I practice by myself I normally play unplugged, I make a lot more progress when I can't "hide" behind pedals or an amp.

When I write and arrange, I normally play at regular "band volumes".

[highwayone73]

"Raised Voices" loud pretty much all the time.

I use my Express 5:50, on the 5 watt side, through a 2x12 recto cab with the gain around 1 o'clock and the master just past noon on the clean side. On the dirty channel I max the gain, boost it with a screamer (great fuzzy disortion!) and put the master around 10 o'clock. I will also run my VHT Classic 6 as a stereo amp when Im doing stuff with loops and delay.

Occasionally I practice through my pod with headphones, but usually only if I need a specific effect or its really late.

[lolque?]

Ampeg V4 at half volume through a JCM900 4x12

[fetch]

Vox AC4 on 4watt mode and about half way if it's day time and 1/4watt mode and about 20% + pedals at night time. I want to get a "can" setup soon but I need an interface first.

[juri]

How many folks use an attenuator for practice/recording?

[goodhonk]

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

[Phil O'Keefe]

Que?

[jnepo1]

Great thread!

I practice in different ways, but mostly w/ my electric unplugged. I like to hear the guitar resonate that way. I also like to practice w/ the acoustic at the beginning if I can, almost in a physical therapy kind of way to help strengthen and loosen the fingers, then go electric. When I plug into my gear, it's usually for tweaking w/ the amp and effects.

[vixo]

fender super reverb on vol. 6 and stratocaster loaded with 0.14/0.58 strings gauge: it's a lot of sound!

i use that settings with the band also.

[onewhiteduck]

Budda SD30 master and rhythm vol at around 9:00 - which is pretty loud, shouting for sure on the OD channel. For conversational levels, Fender Sidekick Reverb 20 on about 2-3, but it gets loud fast for a little SS amp.

[tele0507]

Marshall head - 4X12 cab. = you can hear me outside

[cooki3monster]

I play pretty loud

[Godsky]

Raised voices.

As my wanker neighbour's would have a coronary if i went any louder...

[Northstar]

I use either one of the following amps:

• 
  
  My GF always thinks it's too loud but she definitely doesn't need to shout!

[ninjaaron]

would have a coronary if i went any louder...

Trying to determine if this apostrophe has meaning since the poster went out of his way to put it in the post. The phenomena of online discourse are fascinating at a philological level. There are actually quite a few studies on it already. Now back to this apostrophe...

[goodhonk]

Que?

 

 

Homer: "(guitar playing) Will you knock it off? I can't hear myself think!"

(guitar stops)

Homer's brain: "I want some peanuts."

Homer: "That's better!" ...

[GreaserMatt]

Seriously though, my stuff is usually on like "2". That's loud enough for the basement, d'oh... facepalm...

[dkerwood]

I have three practice rigs, depending on what's home: My Traynor YCV40WR, my Epi Valve Junior, and running direct into a monitor wedge using my SansAmp Blonde. I like the VJ least, so I only use it when everything else is out. Sometimes I'll pull out my Epiphone Switchblade and use that, as well.

Regardless, I run almost everything at the same level. It's pretty comparable to the television, maybe a touch louder. My Traynor gets set at about 1 on the volume control. Everything else is comparable. The only time I crank it is when I'm testing settings for gig levels... even then, though, I run gigs with my amp pointed at my head and mic'd into the PA, so it still doesn't get that loud.

[DylanWilde]

Headphones. I'm replacing my vintage Traynor tube amp (Spam'd) with a Tech 21 Fender Blonde. Three reasons for this:

Sound : While the Traynor had beautiful, moving power and grit, I've been moving toward using much more clean, transparent base for my sound - the Tech 21 is much better at this.

Ease : It's much easier to setup and move a small pedal as opposed to a massive, heavy amp with a 15" speaker. Makes live sound and setup that much easier.

Practice : Can practice through headphones silently and in stereo (lovely stereo reverb makes me miss a live amp significantly less). Also means that the band can practice through headphones via the 4 outputs on my mixer, thus the drums are the only instrument being played acoustically.

[Ovid9]

I do 99% of my practicing right now on cheap acoustics. At home I mostly practice on my cheapass Kona K2 acoustic. When I get around to dragging my practice amp and stuff up to the non-a/c'd room I'm gonna practice in, well, then I'll play my electric some.

Damn its hot up there though.

*I won't be storing any guitars in that room.*