Ok, I am a relative noob to the live sound (compared to some of the greybeards here, at least), but I have been to plenty of shows and I have played in a few live situations.

One question always vexes me, and while I could have asked someone, I wanted to hear the TB Nation opinion.

As I understand it, in a good live sound setup you are running into a board which puts out to your PA speakers. You want the audience to hear these speakers to give them a balanced sound. You have your floor monitors so the band can hear themselves. Your personal amp is obviously very important for shaping your sound, along with your pedals/whatnot.

That only leaves one aspect of a bass player's live rig: the cab. If you want your audience to hear the PA speakers and you want the band to hear the monitors, does it really matter what cab you bring to the show? Do you need 4 10s and a 15, or 8 10s? Is this just over-compensation for lack of manhood (or womanhood)? I know you can mic your cab rather than run direct in to the board, but even then, one mic can't capture sound from 5 or 8 woofers, can it?

What's the deal with huge rigs? What's the angle I'm missing?

It depends on the gig. A lot of bars clubs can't properly reproduce your bass in the FOH mix. Outdoor gigs... well... you always need more power there. In a lot of bigger places, the amps themselves are often used as monitors.

There's been threads on this. Really... cabs are both incredibly valuable and incredibly worthless at the exact same time. Some places they're essential, others you can get away with your bass and a DI box.

I'm in the you never need more than a 410 camp. It's plenty big for a room without PA support, and if you have PA support, you can just add more bass to the monitors. Never understood the monster rig thing.

Others will disagree. Different strokes..

Ideal world...

We're on a world tour with great PA, perfect monitors, and great sound guys' to run it... My bass tech plugs my bass into a DI, I walk on stage and it's awesome!

Real world...

I'm playing Dave's bar downtown. PA is barely enough for vocals, monitors non-existant. The sound guy is an old friend of Dave's - at least he's been at the bar chatting to Dave all afternoon, and the two of them are now pretty drunk. My rig is the one bit of the system that just might get me through the evening with at least one person hearing me (even if it's only me).

Ian

I basically consider my Cab to be a stage monitor, one that doesn't leave me at the mercy of the sound guy's monitor mix.

Once or twice I've had to gig w/out going to the PA/house which made having my own Cab crucial.

I'm with the cab-as-personal-monitor camp. Your meat's gonna come out of the PA at any venue with PA. The backline isn't intended for the audience's ears particularly, although having a bit of umph with the amp may be handy to compensate for a cacky PA. The floor monitors are out of your control - you onstage amp/cab aren't. I also find it handy for bass-feedback-sustain to be able to stand facing it when I want to be really loud...!