Please help with my musical gear overload

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Background: I am playing drums and guitar (not at the same time) in a band that is currently gigging three or four times a month. I have complained before (in the ILE

The Mad Puffin, Thursday, 3 March 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

OMG HE'S BEEN SHOT!

Jimmy Mod Has Returned With Spices And Silks (ModJ), Thursday, 3 March 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

Bad tag, sorry. Here's what I meant to say:

Background: I am playing drums and guitar (not at the same time) in a band that is currently gigging three or four times a month. I have complained before (in the ILE Gig Bags thread) about the amount of stuff I have to carry. I am the major gear-owner and -lover in the band, but I've been fairly successful at getting the other folk in the band to help lug. Still it is too much.

Now. The drum kit cannot get smaller or lighter unless it becomes electronic, which is not gonna happen. I need own personal guitars and I like my amp (a trusty Princeton).

Therefore, the main target in my effort to reduce Gear Overload is a 100-watt Fender bass amp, which I am currently bringing it to gigs because our bassist does not have a gig-capable amp (she just started playing and has a crappy practice amp). Lately I'm thinking we should just start running the bass direct into the PA (using a SansAmp or similar).

Here's the wrinkle: for living-room practices, the bass amp also serves as a PA (I take my mixer's outs and put them into the amp's CD-in jacks). So if I get rid of the bass amp, I would need to get something that will amplify vocals, keyboard, and bass in a small-room setting.

Here are the options I see:

1. Bass DI plus a small portable PA (Fender Passport or similar).

2. Bass DI plus a powered monitor or small powered PA speaker (I've already got a perfectly good mixer, so a powered speaker may make more sense for me than a self-contained mini-PA system).

3. A smaller but still authoritative bass amp (say 60 watts) preferably with both a line out for gigs and a CD-line in for practices.

4. Some other thing that I'm not thinking of.

5. Seppuku.

I'd love the fancy Bose speaker system that purports to replace monitors, PAs, and backline--but I'm constitutionally incapable of dropping more than about $300 at a time on musical equipment.

What do y'all think I should do?

The Mad Puffin, Thursday, 3 March 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

Bad tag, sorry. Here's what I meant to say:

Background: I am playing drums and guitar (not at the same time) in a band that is currently gigging three or four times a month. I have complained before (in the ILE Gig Bags thread) about the amount of stuff I have to carry. I am the major gear-owner and -lover in the band, but I've been fairly successful at getting the other folk in the band to help lug. Still it is too much.

Now. The drum kit cannot get smaller or lighter unless it becomes electronic, which is not gonna happen. I need own personal guitars and I like my amp (a trusty Princeton).

Therefore, the main target in my effort to reduce Gear Overload is a 100-watt Fender bass amp, which I am currently bringing it to gigs because our bassist does not have a gig-capable amp (she just started playing and has a crappy practice amp). Lately I'm thinking we should just start running the bass direct into the PA (using a SansAmp or similar).

Here's the wrinkle: for living-room practices, the bass amp also serves as a PA (I take my mixer's outs and put them into the amp's CD-in jacks). So if I get rid of the bass amp, I would need to get something that will amplify vocals, keyboard, and bass in a small-room setting.

Here are the options I see:

1. Bass DI plus a small portable PA (Fender Passport or similar).

2. Bass DI plus a powered monitor or small powered PA speaker (I've already got a perfectly good mixer, so a powered speaker may make more sense for me than a self-contained mini-PA system).

3. A smaller but still authoritative bass amp (say 60 watts) preferably with both a line out for gigs and a CD-line in for practices.

4. Some other thing that I'm not thinking of.

5. Seppuku.

I'd love the fancy Bose speaker system that purports to replace monitors, PAs, and backline--but I'm constitutionally incapable of dropping more than about $300 at a time on musical equipment.

What do y'all think I should do? "Give everything away and take up the piccolo" is not really an option.

The Mad Puffin, Thursday, 3 March 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

LOOP SAMPLER!

The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Thursday, 3 March 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

Lock thread (as a loop!)

Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 3 March 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

hisham bharoocha's new band is him playing drums and guitar (at the same time).

gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 3 March 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

You could try:

http://www.arbitergroup.com/flats/

The samples sound quite good.

mzui (mzui), Thursday, 3 March 2005 23:39 (twenty years ago)


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