Double Bass Acoustic Image, the gig saver

[brianrost]

I've often praised AI for their response to player's needs in a way that other amp makers never seem to do. Here's a great example, using AI amps for PA.

I have a gig tonight where the pianist in the band is providing the PA. He emailed the band yesterday asking if anyone had a mixer (none did) because he couldn't find the power supply for his Mackie mixer. I tossed my Coda and a handful of cables in the car and drove over to his house to see what we could cobble together (it's a bass guitar gig so I'll be using my Walter Woods anyway).

The Coda has combo jacks so both channels can accept mikes. The gig will have only two mikes used for vocals. The pianist's power amp has both XLR and 1/4" inputs. I ran an XLR cable from the DI out to the power amp, set the DI out to post EQ, added some reverb (which I have never used before), set the master volume off, set the channel level to 12:00 and slowly dialed up the signal level on the power amp. With the power amp also at 12:00 there was plenty of volume with another 15dB on tap at the power amp if needed.

Since it's a bass guitar gig, I won't need to use the Coda as a bass amp. However, I have used it in the past as the bass amp and part of the PA. On a gig with only one vocal mike in use, I plugged the mike into channel 2, ran a 1/4" cable from the effect send to a powered speaker and set the Coda's channel 2 switch to off.

Much respect to Rick Jones!

 

[longfinger]

I often use the 2 channel AI Coda as a 4 channel PA in my home for rehearsals. The Effects Return on each channel have inputs and level controls that are independent of the main input. It's a 4 channel head.

I got a Fishman Loudbox Artist recently, and while it also has 4 inputs, when I plug something into the Effects Return, the main input for that channel gets cut off. Boo.

The way the AI heads are, are incredibly practical.

 

[james condino]

I've used my two channel AI Focus head to cover someone else who blew up their amp or cab on a gig so many times that I don't think I would ever buy another single channel head, or not take it on a gig at least as a backup. With the AI, you get two separate channels and then you have an effects loop send / return with a separate level that can be used as two additional channels. That plus the 2 ohm capability is just as useful; plus the xlr inputs. When needed, I can grab any combination of backline cabs and know it will work great. I've gotten so used to the extra capability that I somehow feel selfish thinking about bringing a single channel amp....

Last week I REALLY wanted to bring my Thunderfunk for the sweet voice, but I needed an additional XLR for a mic I was trying out....so I grabbed the AI and it worked great, as always.