I played an interesting casino gig tonight. It was my first time in this room and the stage is behind the bar, but rises up on hydraulics over the bar. The rule was that amps had to be turned backward to keep excessive bleed from hitting the casino, so I opted to just go direct through my Aguilar DB900 (didn't want to deal with an amp behind me facing backward...).
The house system has a bunch of Countryman Type 85 DIs, so after the gig I asked the sound guy (who was pretty good) what he thought of the DB900 vs. Type 85 since he was used to the Type 85 in that room. He said the DB900 wasn't as harsh and required less compression on the bass. I think he really liked it more than the Countryman. Unfortunately, we were in a room where volume was limited - but he thought it would be even better in the big club where they would turn it up more.
In retrospect, I should have used my amp (Epifani UL502/UL112) and set up a little different just because the guitarist/singer was right under the sub and everything was a wash for him. He should have moved closer to my side, and I should've had the amp shoot across the stage so he could get a little more definition. In addition to the sub right over the stage, there was a car (1940's Ford) on top of us (untreated tin-can reflecting sound right back down) and a drum shield that all the sound from the monitors bounced right off.
Obviously, casino management was more about the novelty of a hydraulic stage and decorative car than the stage sound...
EDIT: I should clarify that by "interesting impression" I don't mean "unexpected". I simply mean that it was interesting to me that they didn't use as much compression on the bass with the DB900 as they would with a Countryman. Of course, it could be the player, too...
BTW - I was using an EBMM SR5.
