electric guitar gigging direct to PA...

Anybody have any particularly effective methods to share?

As a relatively rookie live player, my current solution is 'always bring my little amp' for those times where the sound crew is like 'SURRPRISE- take this DI, share a monitor with the drummer and sound anorexic today...'

thinking about picking up a SansAmp Blonde, or one of their other products- perhaps an ebay pod the way to go.

thoughts?

any place doing stuff like that isn't allowing a band to sound the way they sound... Dont play there.

can't imagine not taking my amp to a gig tbqh but DI electric through a PA sounds like the assiest of ass at the best of times. a small amp miked up can sound totally fine, but might be worth getting hold of a louder amp if mic channels are at a premium.

I had to do this at an open mic night once. I played and sang "Loose" by the Stooges with clean guitar running through a PA. If I had stopped to think about it, I would have shat myself with horror, but I think I got away with it by playing it cool and low key. All the other people were folkies and sensitive emo types, and I stuck out like a rotting thumb

As a sound guy I just want to say that this is a terrible idea pretty much 100% of the time

agree with all but i keep hearing things like 'weezer toured using pods and no amps', which made me think there might be a way for donk like me. then again, anybody doing that probably has in-ear monitors and great sound guys in support...

-also the gig will go on in the dj/drummer/mc format, which means me & the bass player stay home. sucks, but better than showing up for a delightful set of ass-phonics.

-also they are weezer ffs

A better example: Justin Broadrick used PODs running thru expensive compressors (Joe Meek, Avalon) to get a lot of the Jesu tones

Yeah, but Broadrick also runs a laptop too.. His tones are super thick, giant and sooooo fucking processed, but thats what makes the tones and those songs sound like those songs...
Playing a club and trying to get a guitar to sound like a good ol regular guitar with a DI sucks ass..

upon further review, the rave SansAmp reviews are all pretty much for either guys who play direct in church band situations or for direct recording. too bad, it would be convenient if you could throw an 'amp in a pedal' in the bag and be on your way...

Then get a friend w/ a laptop. I have a Line6 mini pod but it sucks live IMO. Its good for overdubbing in the studio. More expensive ones would help, maybe, Ive never seen it up close at a gig.

There are pros like Robert Fripp that pull this kind of thing off, but I think it would be a nightmare trying to play in a rock band running the amps direct, unless it was always your sound guy and PA.

I think it would work if you were a guitarist that was doing thing with some kind of electronic music setup with people that are mixing laptops, as you would control the mixing board and probably turning over a master stereo mix to whoever is running the PA.

For a bit with my band we tried using some things to control volume like one of those Roland electronic drum kits etc. God it sucked - it just killed the energy.

"...but I think it would be a nightmare trying to play in a rock band running the amps direct, unless it was always your sound guy and PA."

-yup. anybody doing it successfully has waaaaay more reliable sound support than this:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/2351812520031328137LPGnXZ