There was a Trio (sax, double bass and drums) playing in the bar of the rehearsal rooms I use, the double bass came through quite clear (unamplified).
I nearly did a gig about 2 years ago, we turned up and there wasn't enough room on the stage for all the amps that had been bought along. The combo that the bass was to go through was an old Vox keyboard amp 30watts. My bass (active Cort) just sounded distorted no matter what I did. Anyhow the gig was cancelled after we had all set up