williamayerst

That's good advice, thank you - just a small question though: how can I find myself in a band if I don't even have an amp to audition with? You do make a good point though

Thanks for the link - I'm not speaking specifically about gigging though - I've not got that far. At home I'm happy to go into a DI into my audio interface, and at a gig I'm happy to go into the PA - but I'm unclear about the realities of that middle ground where I'm finding a band, practising, etc. and whether an amp/cab is mandatory there.

I've been thinking of getting back into things, after a few years of going down the solo guitarist route. I never made it to playing with other humans as a bassist, but practising at home was almost always with headphones, and when I played guitar with a group it was always in a rehearsal studio. Ontop of this, every venue I saw my buddies play at had their cabs Mic'ed up anyway. I'm really wondering if I need to get one of those 200w-ish Amps at all - or whether it's going to be a complete waste. It appears that the only question is whether a band practise space has an amplifier, or not. I'd love to get some opinions on this! Thanks,