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 yesterday at 16:43 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 10 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 9 hours 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.

[bertbass]

We don't have a PA bass capable so spare amp it is.

[JPJ]

I have a foot in both camps. I have an amp on stage which is largely redundant as the PA is supplied from my rather excellent Jad Freer Capo preamp and we’re all using in-ears. The amp is really only helping the PA out, but at a recent gig, my amp died and with this setup no one noticed. The plan for next year is to upgrade the PA and ditch the backline altogether. 

[BassAdder60]

This seems to be the future with big set ups, no backline at all ! 

[BigRedX]

46 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

This seems to be the future with big set ups, no backline at all ! 

 

My band are hardly a big set up. The typical venue size we play is around 100 capacity. 

 

Since we ditched backline completely last year our sound on stage and FoH has been more consistent and better.

[BassAdder60]

8 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

My band are hardly a big set up. The typical venue size we play is around 100 capacity. 

 

Since we ditched backline completely last year our sound on stage and FoH has been more consistent and better.

So I assume you don’t gig in pubs or small venues where a full PA rig would be unnecessary in these cases ? 
We would mostly be playing in pubs and clubs without stages so the old ways still work for us. 
PA is purely for vocals and a little bit of guitar and kick drum 
 

Edited 4 hours ago by BassAdder60

[BigRedX]

We've played quite a few places that have what looks like a vocal-only PA and it's always been fine. We're just a bit quieter than we would be normally. Also even it's a vocal only PA there's still at least one foldback wedge, and the one time there was no foldback we simply angled one of the main PA speakers towards us

 

It probably helps that we don't have a drummer as this (and any additional synth parts) are supplied by the computer 

[BassAdder60]

2 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

We've played quite a few places that have what looks like a vocal-only PA and it's always been fine. We're just a bit quieter than we would be normally. Also even it's a vocal only PA there's still at least one foldback wedge, and the one time there was no foldback we simply angled one of the main PA speakers towards us

 

It probably helps that we don't have a drummer as this (and any additional synth parts) are supplied by the computer 

Yep our baseline volume is our drummer !  Everything is balanced to him and he isn’t light handed !  

[JPJ]

2 hours ago, BassAdder60 said:

This seems to be the future with big set ups, no backline at all ! 

But now I am thinking about it, the Jad Freer Capo has become my single point of failure in this setup - perhaps I need a second spare preamp pedal just in case 🤔