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 17:09 (twenty years ago)
bass sounds fine thru DI, so sell the bass amp and get a (used) powered monintor, like samson or something. or get a keyboard amp, which can take anything.
― The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Thursday, 3 March 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)
Just to offer a counterpoint to the bass DI issue, I've had massive troubles with it--soundguys mysteriously not turning up the volume high enough to be audible despite repeated requests, having to keep output volume low anyway due to worries about pops, etc.
On the other hand, most places either have a cab in-house or you can borrow from one of the other bands on the bill, so you could maybe just run the sansamp directly into that.
Why do you have to get rid-rid of the amp? Why not just keep it in the living room and not bring it to gigs?
― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 3 March 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)
Make the bassist keep the amp at her house and she can bring it to gigs and rehersals herself.OTM, telling your bassist to DI into the PA is going to make her feel like shit, and a 60W amp isn't going to save a huge amount of space, although it may save your back!
― Ben Dot (1977), Friday, 4 March 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)