No backline tonight, wish me luck

[JohnFitzgerald]

The covers band is playing in a pretty tiny pub tonight and it was apparent that we really need to have things under tight control to avoid an escalating volume firestorm.

Had a rehearsal during the week where we brought along the proposed setup.
Roland TD12 drums complete with rubber cymbals, my Spector right into a PA channel, two guitars DI'd from two tiny little practice amps to give a DI output. No real volume from these.
Logic PA with subs and mid tops and 2.5KW available power.
Pair of Behringer 12" powered monitors.



We'll see how it goes, but the other night it sounded as smooth and controlled as I've ever heard it.
Hope that's echoed tonight.

[BassPimp66]

You'll be fine! Who needs a bass amp?

[JohnFitzgerald]

Nobody needs a bass amp.
Do I want to be without one ?

No chance, that's why I've just bought another cab for a proper old fashioned stack. See freshly amended sig for details.

Sometimes what you should do and what you actually do are two different things
Besides which, I have a couple of festivals next year. Not doing those without a proper amp behind me, no matter how good the FOH is.

[Doddy]

I've done a ton of gigs without an amp.I just use either my Line 6 Pod or my Sadowsky
Preamp straight into the desk. The only thing you have to be careful of is monitors.
Whenever I've gone amp-less (and the rest of the band) we've all been using in-ear
monitors,so it's been great.

[Protium]

I did one gig using just a Sansamp DI, never again

[JTUK]

or.... some places are just too small....

[JohnFitzgerald]

Well, from my own persepctive, it went well.
When you have the desk next to you, you're not going to have a bad sound.

I have to say that the Spector through a couple of 1.2KW crown amps and some [url="http://www.logic-system.co.uk/"]http://www.logic-system.co.uk/[/url] pa cabs has never sounded quite so mighty.

Plenty of clarity, voice and endless depth. I was utterly surrounded by my sound. I had a little back through the monitors too whcih helped too, no doubt.

This gives me a problem.

How do I square my amp wants / amp needs ?

Don't get me wrong, I'll never not have an amp, there will be times when I won't have that PA to rely on, but it' certainly clear now that with that much firepower in the FOH, you can gig pretty much anywhere with no amp.

Incidentally, I used no sansamp or similar. This was bass right into a line input of a Mackie CFX12 with the input clipped and the eq dead flat.