I've got the best amp in the world! (but I never get to play it)

[xilddx]

I've gone even lighter over the last month. I have a soft case with my POD X3L, cables and small stuff in, and a headless Hohner B2ADB boat paddle in a soft case which looks like I'm carrying a shot gun. The whole rig's as light as a feather but sounds as big as an earthquake if needs be.

[waynepunkdude]

My rig is the lightest of all, I just need to run a lead from my house to the venue, they'll hear it.

[xilddx]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1275913' date='Jun 20 2011, 02:13 PM']My rig is the lightest of all, I just need to run a lead from my house to the venue, they'll hear it.[/quote]

[amnesia]

[quote name='Thurbs' post='1275772' date='Jun 20 2011, 12:11 PM']There is a part of me which thinks big rigs are about ego and stage presence.[/quote]

Mine most certainly is.

For me the weight is a price I am willing to pay (for now) just to see the look on peoples faces when it gets stacked 6 ft high!

[gjones]

[quote name='amnesia' post='1275922' date='Jun 20 2011, 02:18 PM']Mine most certainly is.

For me the weight is a price I am willing to pay (for now) just to see the look on peoples faces when it gets stacked 6 ft high! [/quote]

Have you seen the link I put on my post, at the start of this thread, to the youtube vid showing the Ampeg 32X10 cab. Ampeg provide a free artic and 15 roadies with every cabinet...............oh and a cherry picker so you can reach your amp perched on the top.

[dc2009]

[quote name='silddx' post='1275635' date='Jun 20 2011, 10:31 AM']Sansamp and monitors?[/quote]

This is what I wanted to do last night, but the sound guy told me the monitors were crap, so insisted I use the inhouse backline rig as my own monitor, my sound on stage was absolutely diabolical, how the monitors could have been worse than the amp I do not know. I still had my sansamp DI'd to the crowd, so the PA sound was OK.

[JTUK]

[quote name='dc2009' post='1275932' date='Jun 20 2011, 02:28 PM']This is what I wanted to do last night, but the sound guy told me the monitors were crap, so insisted I use the inhouse backline rig as my own monitor, my sound on stage was absolutely diabolical, how the monitors could have been worse than the amp I do not know. I still had my sansamp DI'd to the crowd, so the PA sound was OK.[/quote]

Knowing ..or hoping that the FOH is good is still abit hit and miss though.

I run a rig so I know what I WILL sound like onstage and anything less like crappy monitoring can deflate the gig..which is not a good position to be in, IMO
hence I avoid it.

[Ross]

I can't use my amp at all at the moment, back home, elderly neighbours, thin walls.
Can't wait to get back to uni, I can practise through something.

[chris_b]

[quote name='gjones' post='1275898' date='Jun 20 2011, 02:04 PM'].... I notice you're playing with Robin Bibi's band. Will you be at the Harvest Time Festival in Ireland with the band in Sept? If you are I'll come say hello. My lot are playing there as well....[/quote]
I think there are 4 of us playing bass with Robin these days. He's asked me to do the Ireland trip a couple of times but I haven't been able to go. He hasn't asked yet, but say Hi when you're there, you never know, it might be me this year.

[dc2009]

[quote name='JTUK' post='1275937' date='Jun 20 2011, 02:38 PM']Knowing ..or hoping that the FOH is good is still abit hit and miss though.

I run a rig so I know what I WILL sound like onstage and anything less like crappy monitoring can deflate the gig..which is not a good position to be in, IMO
hence I avoid it.[/quote]

Well I guess the point I was making is that you can't always rely on just bass and a samsamp if the in house monitoring system (be it an actual monitor or a backline rig) is rubbish. Unless you bring your own monitors/have expensive in ear ones, which is a bit much for most of our playing levels!
This thread has suddenly made me question my need for my rig. I took my trace head to my first gig with the current band, but have neglected to take it since, preferring to sansamp, and my huge marshall cab has always been far too heavy to take to gigs, though perhaps if our drummer gets his van soon, this will change?

[JTUK]

[quote name='chris_b' post='1275944' date='Jun 20 2011, 02:46 PM']I think there are 4 of us playing bass with Robin these days. He's asked me to do the Ireland trip a couple of times but I haven't been able to go. He hasn't asked yet, but say Hi when you're there, you never know, it might be me this year.[/quote]

I hope you get to go, Chris..as long as they look after you with Guiness and stuff..!!

[Pete Academy]

My rig is compact and light. We never play without a PA, so I'm at the mercy of our sound engineer, who I have to trust. My rig is there as a monitor for me and the guys on stage. The better it sounds to me, the better I play. It would be pointless having bigger gear.

[stingrayPete1977]

Lightweight head and a selection of cabs consisting of as many as your house can fit in/spouse will allow is FTW

[ThomBassmonkey]

silddx, do you gig a lot and [b]know[/b] that there's going to be a good PA at every venue (i.e. you take your own or don't play venues that don't have a good PA)?

If you don't have your own transport, I can understand the need to be as lightweight as possible, I'd panic before every gig though. You didn't even mention IEMs in your list of things you take to a gig, that says you're relying TOTALLY on the PA including for monitoring. That'd be sonic suicide for most people.

If it does work for you, that's great. There's NO way it'd work for 99% of gigging amateur musicians though, venues simply don't put enough money into their PA and bands put their money into their own gear instead of a PA because most venues at least have one for vocals and changing entire PAs between sets is far from practical.

It comes down to this for me: What can YOU do to make ensure that YOU can play that gig. As a bassist, I can take my own amp. That way, my bass won't be the problem. I usually take 2 basses, 2 cabs and ideally 2 heads (only one atm but I'm planning on getting another ASAP), enough cables and spares. I like to think I'm covered for any eventuality, including if the PA isn't substantial enough to support bass at gig volumes.

[risingson]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1276461' date='Jun 20 2011, 10:17 PM']It comes down to this for me: What can YOU do to make ensure that YOU can play that gig. As a bassist, I can take my own amp. That way, my bass won't be the problem. I usually take 2 basses, 2 cabs and ideally 2 heads (only one atm but I'm planning on getting another ASAP), enough cables and spares. I like to think I'm covered for any eventuality, including if the PA isn't substantial enough to support bass at gig volumes.[/quote]

Agreed, totally, I subscribe to this mentality.

[xilddx]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1276461' date='Jun 20 2011, 10:17 PM']silddx, do you gig a lot and [b]know[/b] that there's going to be a good PA at every venue (i.e. you take your own or don't play venues that don't have a good PA)?

If you don't have your own transport, I can understand the need to be as lightweight as possible, I'd panic before every gig though. You didn't even mention IEMs in your list of things you take to a gig, that says you're relying TOTALLY on the PA including for monitoring. That'd be sonic suicide for most people.

If it does work for you, that's great. There's NO way it'd work for 99% of gigging amateur musicians though, venues simply don't put enough money into their PA and bands put their money into their own gear instead of a PA because most venues at least have one for vocals and changing entire PAs between sets is far from practical.

It comes down to this for me: What can YOU do to make ensure that YOU can play that gig. As a bassist, I can take my own amp. That way, my bass won't be the problem. I usually take 2 basses, 2 cabs and ideally 2 heads (only one atm but I'm planning on getting another ASAP), enough cables and spares. I like to think I'm covered for any eventuality, including if the PA isn't substantial enough to support bass at gig volumes.[/quote]

OK interesting, I think you're being way too paranoid

I may be lucky in that I play most of my small gigs in London, maybe PAs are rare in the regions I've been caught out once where a very small venue had only one monitor so I had to rely on knowing the songs, playing with the acoustic drums and vocal for timing, and only getting an echoey impression of what I was playing - I still played well and had a good time. All other times we've had at least enough monitoring so that I could hear myself fairly clearly. TBH I'm actually feeling the songs and performing, so the trouser flap thing isn't something I need in order to enjoy a gig. I get it once in a while when we get loud monitoring, it's nice, I get it in rehearsals too. On stage I like a controlled sound space and even shithouse monitors make that easier than having amps around. I grew up playing guitar to the hifi, My live rig is kind of similar to that, I still get a massive kick out of a good gig.

What the audience gets is the most important thing, I don't trip out on tone when I'm playing live, it's not really important and I know my POD tones are good enough. Giving an energised show is what the audience wants, I get that energy from the music and the band and the audience, not my bass tone or some trouser flapping business.

Plus, my back is in good shape and I can drive an MX-5 instead of some vile Peugeot hatchback or summat

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='silddx' post='1276521' date='Jun 20 2011, 11:22 PM']I may be lucky in that I play most of my small gigs in London, maybe PAs are rare in the regions [/quote]

Yiiip... That's about right. It also sounds like your gigs are fairly consistent. That's not the case for many.

One night I could be playing folk in an arts centre with no PA... The next I could be playing the back room of a pub with a blues band and no PA.. The next, I could be playing Earl's Court with a PA.

Variety is the spice of life... Best to be prepared, though.

[waynepunkdude]

For me I enjoy amps as much as basses, there is something really fun about getting something extremely powerful and shaking the neighbourhood, especially ones with cool buttons like 'global attack' that's a cool button.

[Stag]

My rig is waaaay too much for the few gigs i do these days... But i love the tone i get so much ill be buggered if i change it for any other reason than not physically being able to get it to the venue.

Edited June 20, 2011 by Stag

[ThomBassmonkey]

[quote name='silddx' post='1276521' date='Jun 20 2011, 11:22 PM']OK interesting, I think you're being way too paranoid

I may be lucky in that I play most of my small gigs in London, maybe PAs are rare in the regions [/quote]

PAs aren't rare, decent PAs are. Quite a few of the gigs we do only have vocal PAs, they struggle with the low frequencies and fuzz about if you put any more than just vocals through them (especially bass and kick drum). My band plays all over the place from large dedicated venues to festivals to small pubs. Our drummer is very loud, so if I were relying on a PA to compete with him, it'd have to consistently be up to a standard.

I'd say roughly 50% of our gigs I wouldn't like to chance not having an amp for. There's maybe 10% that I'm sure wouldn't handle my bass as well as everything else at gigging volume.

Having an amp on stage doesn't mean that the sound out front's going to be bad. Turn the amp down a bit (they do all have volume controls, even though you wouldn't think it from some people ) and it'll still give you the advantage of a dedicated bass monitor on stage but shouldn't interfere with the sound out front and the sound man will still have as much control.

While I understand the need to keep things compact (especially on public transport and I'm a recent convert to neodynium and class D heads myself), I always prefer having my own monitor that I can set up how I like (before sound check, obviously) and I have control over.

While I like the silent stage concept (everything through modelling soft/hardware, electric drums or in a sound booth and using IEMs, no monitoring at all on stage), I don't think it'd ever work for me, I like to feel the music as well as hear it.

[peteb]

I think that I must move in completely different musical circles to some people here!

I have never gone to a gig on public transport and can’t imagine getting away with turning up at a show without a rig. I certainly wouldn’t trust most pub’s PAs to be responsible for 100% of my out front sound and to be honest, it is usually much better in small venues to have most of your sound come from your backline and let the PA take care of the vocals, drums & keys, etc (especially for rock bands with reasonably loud drummers)!

Even if you are lucky enough to find yourself working on a stage in a big room with a good PA and a half decent sound engineer, it doesn’t hurt to have a backline to give him an idea of what the band should sound like and therefore a reference of what you want him to reproduce out front….!

[Sonic_Groove]

[quote name='peteb' post='1276555' date='Jun 21 2011, 12:15 AM']I think that I must move in completely different musical circles to some people here!

I have never gone to a gig on public transport and can’t imagine getting away with turning up at a show without a rig. I certainly wouldn’t trust most pub’s PAs to be responsible for 100% of my out front sound and to be honest, it is usually much better in small venues to have most of your sound come from your backline and let the PA take care of the vocals, drums & keys, etc (especially for rock bands with reasonably loud drummers)!

Even if you are lucky enough to find yourself working on a stage in a big room with a good PA and a half decent sound engineer, it doesn’t hurt to have a backline to give him an idea of what the band should sound like and therefore a reference of what you want him to reproduce out front….![/quote]

You are not alone Pete

BTW {thread drift} where did you get that Jimi Hendrix strap??!

Brendan

[Kiwi]

I can't think of anything that will replace my Shuttle 6.0. Its got everything needed for gigging and nothing extra. For stereo with the MIDI bass set up I wouldn't mind another but they seem to have fairly high resale values from what I can see. So I've made do with a Peavey DPC power amp until I make some neo wedge shaped cabs with a slot for a shuttle in each.

[4000]

[quote name='peteb' post='1276555' date='Jun 21 2011, 12:15 AM']I think that I must move in completely different musical circles to some people here!

I have never gone to a gig on public transport and can’t imagine getting away with turning up at a show without a rig. I certainly wouldn’t trust most pub’s PAs to be responsible for 100% of my out front sound and to be honest, it is usually much better in small venues to have most of your sound come from your backline and let the PA take care of the vocals, drums & keys, etc (especially for rock bands with reasonably loud drummers)!

Even if you are lucky enough to find yourself working on a stage in a big room with a good PA and a half decent sound engineer, it doesn’t hurt to have a backline to give him an idea of what the band should sound like and therefore a reference of what you want him to reproduce out front….![/quote]

+1. I'd love to turn up at a gig with just a POD or something but at the many of the local gigs I've done over the years it's vocal PA only, sometimes with no monitors at all. When I played in London a lot (many years ago) it was a large PA for everything...

[Beer of the Bass]

[quote name='silddx' post='1275882' date='Jun 20 2011, 01:50 PM']A question for those who get to gigs on public transport and have to take an amp and cab of some sort.

How do you do it? Use a trolley of some sort?[/quote]


I drive, but don't own a car at the moment. If the gig pays enough to cover it, and we need to move a lot of gear, I'll use a rental or city car club car. For public transport gigs, I have an EA Wizzy 10 cab and AI Clarus head which fit in to a cajon bag with a shoulder strap. I find I mostly use my larger amp in pubs and small venues where we're using our own vocal PA, otherwise I'll use the small rig (or house amp where applicable) and DI through an OLC Flipster preamp. I like using my bigger setup where I can, but realistically, it doesn't sound better than DI-ing into a good PA through the Flipster.