Going ampless

[Jack]

4 hours ago, joel406 said:

Never happens.

 

4 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Has happened.

 

[Chienmortbb]

I have to be honest, I am happy either way but in my current band, a combination of dinosaurs ( some of my band members), band politics and insufficient PA capability means that IEM route is road closed for now. I am the new boy (sic) so don’t  want to rock the boat as it is by and large a happy band.

 

The band is not that quiet but I have never had ringing in my ears after rehearsal of gigs and I am happy with my backline. In saying that I would prefer better monitoring and where we play that is only possible with IEMs. However the singer likes to use his PA, rather than mine and only wants vocals through it. It has no aux buses so no of even a basic IEM mix.

 

I on the other hand, I have a digital mixer with 6 aux buses plus a selection of tops and subs. These are only used on outdoor gigs.

 

The case for going to a silent stage (ampless is such a misnomer) is very strong, but I would argue, needs a competent sound tech driving FoH. Otherwise the FoH sound is as much a crap shoot as a traditional band setting with backline and vocals only PA. However being able to really hear my backing vocals could be a game changer, it might encourage me or persuade me to stop singing altogether.😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BassmanPaul]

11 hours ago, xgsjx said:

I don’t get what you mean?

If you mean the main FoH PA, then it really depends, just like it would if you only used backline. 
But if it’s a decent main PA, then I would certainly hope so. 

 

If your mains are only meant for vocals then putting a bass through them would not be healthy for them.

 

[xgsjx]

2 hours ago, BassmanPaul said:

 

If your mains are only meant for vocals then putting a bass through them would not be healthy for them.

 

Yes, that makes sense. Though it depends on the quality of the vocal PA. If it’s decent, then it might even do a better job. 

[lemmywinks]

It depends on what sound you're after really, there's many ways to present your bass to the PA. What sound are you going for at the moment? Any pedals in the chain?

 

Aside from modelling and multiFX there's quite a few dedicated bass preamps on the market now so maybe finding a store that stocks them and demoing a few would be beneficial. I'd be looking at the following - Ampeg SCR, Palmer Pocket Bass, Laney Digbeth, Eden WTDI, GK Plex (assuming issues with early units have been sorted), EBS Microbass, PJB PE, Two Notes ReVolt, Nux MLD, Genzler Magellan.

 

I just need a bit of eq, mute switch, compression and a tuner so use a Fishman Pro Platinum as a single do-it-all box. I wish more bass preamp/DI pedals included a tuner tbh.

[warwickhunt]

10 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

It depends on what sound you're after really, there's many ways to present your bass to the PA. What sound are you going for at the moment? Any pedals in the chain?

 

Aside from modelling and multiFX there's quite a few dedicated bass preamps on the market now so maybe finding a store that stocks them and demoing a few would be beneficial. I'd be looking at the following - Ampeg SCR, Palmer Pocket Bass, Laney Digbeth, Eden WTDI, GK Plex (assuming issues with early units have been sorted), EBS Microbass, PJB PE, Two Notes ReVolt, Nux MLD, Genzler Magellan.

 

I just need a bit of eq, mute switch, compression and a tuner so use a Fishman Pro Platinum as a single do-it-all box. I wish more bass preamp/DI pedals included a tuner tbh.

 

Ditto.  I went through multiple pedals that have sims or IRs before settling on the good old Sansamp for drive and I kept the Fishman Plat Pro to use with bass and acoustic; it was the most transparent and useful of them all.

[lemmywinks]

11 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

Ditto.  I went through multiple pedals that have sims or IRs before settling on the good old Sansamp for drive and I kept the Fishman Plat Pro to use with bass and acoustic; it was the most transparent and useful of them all.

 

One of the neat aspects of the Fishman is that if you also play acoustic guitar/bass then you also have a great sounding live rig for those as well. I lent mine (along with my QSC K10.2) to a mate when he had an acoustic gig, accidentally just had an amazing acoustic rig lying around the house!

 

I liked mine so much I bought the smaller Stage version for home use with my SInsonido and little Ibanez Parlour bass.

[warwickhunt]

2 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

One of the neat aspects of the Fishman is that if you also play acoustic guitar/bass then you also have a great sounding live rig for those as well. I lent mine (along with my QSC K10.2) to a mate when he had an acoustic gig, accidentally just had an amazing acoustic rig lying around the house!

 

I liked mine so much I bought the smaller Stage version for home use with my SInsonido and little Ibanez Parlour bass.

 

Yep I play in a duo where I play acoustic guitar and a flick of the bass/guitar switch and the EQ centres are altered to suit; straight into the PA for the guitar and it sounds great.  

[BassmanPaul]

21 hours ago, xgsjx said:

Yes, that makes sense. Though it depends on the quality of the vocal PA. If it’s decent, then it might even do a better job. 

Well good luck with that then.

 

[gafbass02]

Going ampless has been the best move I’ve made in 30+ years of gigging. I have a simple and cheap set up that works perfectly well. The only downside is if the drummer clips a mic (rare) it’s a bit uncomfortable, but not a huge problem. But I’m lucky in that we have two engineers of our own, one of whom goes to every gig. I use the iPad app to control my monitor mix on stage, and our QSC PA with sub can handle the bass effortlessly. 
I put my IEM signal through a zoom ms60b for a bit of amp sim, and keep a simple preamp and eq pedal in the side chain in case I use my frfr cabs instead of IEMs (the odd festival perhaps). Job done. 
I connect via a custom made cable which carries guitar and headphone signals in one. 

[Billleivers]

Not exactly amp-less, but I've simplified my set up recently. Having an active bass, a Sansamp in my pedal board train and an amp head, I felt as though my signal was drowning in different eq's!

I now use an EBS Microbass preamp, outputting to a Phil Jones Bass PB300 250 watt powered cab. Nice clean sound, enough whooph, with pa support and great di.