Spare amp or Pre amp DI pedal

[BassAdder60]

Been looking at a second amp head as a back up or alternative flavour to my MarkBass LM4 

 

I thought more about it and decided to buy a pre amp pedal Di instead !

To me I can use it with my LM4 or as a back up to a PA in the event of amp failure 

 

Any others gone this route instead of a second amp ? 
 

I’ve got a secondhand Ampeg SCR-DI coming my way ( didn’t need the features of the newer model ) and this will give me different tones and a back up device if needed. Cost me around £100 

Edited 17 hours ago by BassAdder60

[James Nada]

I went in the middle and got a Trace Elliot Elf - can be used as very capable backup amp, but as it's got a DI and is relatively small it functions well in a direct-to-PA capacity.

[dudewheresmybass]

I normally have a pre/di in the bag just in case.

Recently it's been the Laney Digbeth 

If anything goes pear shaped, straight into PA

[casapete]

I carry the ubiquitous Behringer BD121 pedal everywhere in my leads case.

An absolute no brainer for less than £30. 😃

[BigRedX]

If you take a spare amp do you take spare cabs too?

 

In 45 years of gigging I've seen more speakers fail then I have amps.

 

I've solved the problem by ditching the backline entirely.

[BassAdder60]

44 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

If you take a spare amp do you take spare cabs too?

 

In 45 years of gigging I've seen more speakers fail then I have amps.

 

I've solved the problem by ditching the backline entirely.

Well I don’t intend to stop using my own backline and part of the fun is buying new gear 😃

It’s easy to buy an additional amp more so for a change but as a backup it’s where do you draw the line 
However Pre amp pedals seem to be all the rage these days hence my question if this is the way forward? 

Edited 2 hours ago by BassAdder60

[pete.young]

Carrying a DI/pre-amp is all very well, but unless you actually test it at a gig all you have is a theory.

[casapete]

3 minutes ago, pete.young said:

Carrying a DI/pre-amp is all very well, but unless you actually test it at a gig all you have is a theory.

Absolutely. I carry mine as a last resort really, just to see me through the gig.

I use an amp for the consistency of sound , and for the gigs I do relying on just

the PA / potentially dodgy (or non existent) monitors isn’t an option. 

[casapete]

25 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

However Pre amp pedals seem to be all the rage these days hence my question if this is the way forward? 

I get that it’s a way of changing sounds, but for me it’s all about finding an amp you really like

the sound of in the first place. Personally I don’t get buying an expensive pre when you could

get another amp for the same outlay. I think that if you have to run one as well as your amp

then you need to maybe reconsider which amp you use. 

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, casapete said:

I carry the ubiquitous Behringer BD121 pedal everywhere in my leads case.

An absolute no brainer for less than £30. 😃

Same here, great little bits of kit that will easily cover a gig if needed 

[BassAdder60]

43 minutes ago, pete.young said:

Carrying a DI/pre-amp is all very well, but unless you actually test it at a gig all you have is a theory.

It would be used with my amp ( in front of) every gig as part of tone shaping so I would know it works and in the event of amp failure it’s ready as a backup 

Edited 1 hour ago by BassAdder60

[Ed_S]

Personally, I don't wait for the amp to fail before using a preamp to the desk; I work on the basis that consistency and reliability of the DI feed to the FoH is the most important thing, so I run a pedalboard with HPF/compression/preamp on it that gives me the whole sound I want to send that way every time. With that sorted, the amp on stage is really just for me so it only has to make the pedalboard loud and perhaps EQ it a little to suit the particular stage and monitoring situation. It does mean that I can't use the preamp as part of my wider tone - it's the whole thing - but working the way I do actually means that the amp (and its built-in DI) becomes my hot-spare backup in case the preamp goes down. Even better than that, it doesn't have to be the same amp every time.. or even mine.