Anyone practicing Bass with a headphone setup?

[grado]

I'm just curious here...

Due to a lack of a decent low volume amp I usually play/practice guitar via POD XT -> Headphones. I'm sure a tube amp is better but really this setup sounds pretty good.

I've had a good bass for quite a while and in an attempt to attract me to pick it up more often I bought the Bass Amp plugin pack for the POD XT. Like I said this setup sounds pretty good with a guitar but with the bass it really stinks. The bass just has no balls what so ever.

I'm guessing that the problem is that the headphones simply can't put out sufficient bass. I've got some pretty good headphones (Grado 325) but they are open backed so that's going to kill the bass a bit.

Anyone else practicing bass via a headphone rig? If so what is your experience?

[westrock]

I always practice unplugged but when we record I play with head phones. Thank god the final products don’t sound like the head phones. It sounds a bit thin and fizzy to me but it gets the good done.

[Thor]

I have two small children so I play with headphones frequently. Is it fantastic tone - nah, but it satisfies the itch well enough.

The POD works well and I just picked up a Pandora - great as you can play along with a drum track.

Cheers,

Edward

[DSmith]

I have a small Nemesis Silver N10S bass amp that has RCA's in (besides the standard 1/4" jack for the bass) and some separate gain tone controls for those RCA inputs that let you mix your bass with the CD that you're practicing to. You can opt to hear it all through the speaker, or just through the headphone jack by turning the speaker off, and it all sounds really good. I've learned a lot of songs this way and think these combos really capture the Eden tone at a very reasonable price.

http://www.eden-electronics.com/products/silverseries/index.asp

For headphones, can't beat the standard Sony Studio Monitors IMO.

[MattK]

Have you heard of the Dragonfly stethoscope amp?
I talked to a bass player who has one of these things and swears that it's the real deal.
I'm thinking about ordering one.

http://www.truenorthmusicproductions.com/DragonflyPage_Order.html

I'm not affiliated with the company, by the way.

[sadowsky]

I have been prototyping a headphone amp for a long time. I have a final prototype finished and just trying to get it produced at a reasonable cost.
The sonic quality is fantastic! Even low B strings sound great. And it works well with almost all headphones of decent quality. I hope to have it in production by the end of the year.

Roger

[Jim S]

I have been prototyping a headphone amp for a long time. I have a final prototype finished and just trying to get it produced at a reasonable cost.
The sonic quality is fantastic! Even low B strings sound great. And it works well with almost all headphones of decent quality. I hope to have it in production by the end of the year.

Roger

That'll be the bomb! A Sadowsky headphone pre??? :RoCkIn

[jokerjkny]

I have been prototyping a headphone amp for a long time. I have a final prototype finished and just trying to get it produced at a reasonable cost.
The sonic quality is fantastic! Even low B strings sound great. And it works well with almost all headphones of decent quality. I hope to have it in production by the end of the year.

Roger

i've tried it and its great!

i've long used the headphone out on my EA iAMP350 for years, until recently, i started using the headphone out on my summit td100 DI.

but man, the new sadowsky prototype i tried was awesome! very warm and natural sounding, and yet not sterile or thin. very very cool unit. definitely getting one when they hit the shelves.