Why are venue house bass amps always such utter sh#te?

[Paddy Morris]

I was pressured into playing through yet another utterly rubbish venue bass amp last night.  It was one of those gigs where loads of bands had been on, and all the other bass players had (probably reluctantly) all used the same knackered, low end Ashdown rig.  No offense to Ashdown users, they make some great kit, but this thing was an old, underpowered, thin thing.  It seemed to have a compressor button that didn't actually switch the compressor off, and seemed to pull off the trick of being simultaneously too loud but also inaudible.

 

The FoH guy had pre-rigged it with his DI box, and it was a small stage.  I felt like it would have made me look like a real dick to insist on using my own amp, which I could have got on and off the stage in less thsn 30 seconds.  But can you imagine a situation where a guitarist would allow himself to be coerced into using some knackered old amp that happend to be on stage?  There's no way on earth.

 

Also, if for logistical reasons of getting bands on and off quickly, you want everyone to use the same bass amp, well why not buy something so lovely and so flexible that no one could possibly mind using it.  But house bass amps universally seem to be sourced from skips outside the local Cash Converters.

Edited 8 hours ago by Paddy Morris

[Lozz196]

I agree, for some reason us bassists - and drummers to a certain extent - seem to end up with the “can’t you just use that and make life easy” situations.
 

In times like these a Sansamp or equivalent is our friend, might not be a great onstage sound through whatever pony rig we end up with but at least out front get a decent one.

[Dan Dare]

If venues provided high quality stuff, it would either be trashed or nicked. Sad but true.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

It's simple, whoever bought the rig wasn't a bass player. 😒

[la bam]

Think of it a different way.... 

 

The sound guy has had several bands worth of playing beforehand to get the bass and drum kit mixed really well out front. So you should have had a great sound. If you used you're rig he'd be starting from scratch again. 

 

I do agree though, always underpowered and inaudible for some reason.... 

[Beedster]

44 minutes ago, la bam said:

Think of it a different way.... 

 

The sound guy has had several bands worth of playing beforehand to get the bass and drum kit mixed really well out front. So you should have had a great sound. If you used you're rig he'd be starting from scratch again. 

 

This ^

[Skybone]

2 hours ago, la bam said:

Think of it a different way.... 

 

The sound guy has had several bands worth of playing beforehand to get the bass and drum kit mixed really well out front. So you should have had a great sound. If you used you're rig he'd be starting from scratch again. 

 

I do agree though, always underpowered and inaudible for some reason.... 

 

Because the sound out front is more than likely from the DI anyway, the amp is just there to give the band some bass on stage.

[Paddy Morris]

Well yes, but if it sounds shite to the players on stage, then it makes them play worse.

[Wolverinebass]

It's because bass isn't valued. I now refuse to play a venue if I'm not able to use something that isn't a piece of crap. I've almost come to blows with a few sound engineers for them trying to screw with me. If anyone says "pre-eq DI only" I immediately harden my accent to "full on Taggart" and generally something said in that voice does tend to get a bit more co-operation.

 

Most live engineers are underpaid and as a result, don't give a toss. The ones who won't do what you ask when it's totally reasonable or do the exact opposite are the ones who I have massive problems with.

[Lozz196]

For me it is completely about not valuing the bass, as per the above.
 

In my last band The Spacewasters I generally used whatever was there, and because my sound in the band was quite generic it was always ok. But in my previous band Knock Off to not use my own sound would have ruined the overall sound of the band. To have people insisting that’s the way it has to be, well no, not when I’m playing it isn’t.

 

I get it when it’s quick changeovers etc, but to me have less bands on, with better soundchecks & changeovers, and give the audiences what the bands want them to hear.
 

In the past I’ve had sound people tell me they’ll get me a good sound and I’ve told them to not bother as I already have one. 
 

Edit - I should add to this that in my experience on many multi band bills sound engineers seem to dislike either very bassy sounds or very distorted/driven sounds, as my usual sound is neither maybe that’s why I’ve never really had too much trouble with them using my sound.

Edited 2 hours ago by Lozz196