I've got a little local show tonight and decided to go ampless using my Boss GT-10B and my SX Jazz. I've got it all set up and ready to go. I'll report again later on tonight.
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Ampless Gig Report
- Thread starter Rooster009
- Start date
We had a great show. The Boss GT-10b and SX Jazz sounded great. It was super easy to dial in my tones with the EZ Tone feature. I think I have 4 really good tones setup but mainly stuck to the natural tone that I have saved. The other three are the attacky, Detroit and Neo soul models from the EZ Tone feature.
Yes straight to the PA using the XLR sub out. It was just my bass, the singer and his acoustic guitar. The only speakers used where the mains and we set them behind us on stage and used them as mains/monitors. You can see them in the pic on my original post. It worked surprisingly well and we had no feedback.
Wish you luck and looking forward to hearing about it.
Many a years ago i chose to do an ampless show as well.
Showed up with my bass and a sansamp bass driver.
I misses the sound of my gear on stage but overall it went very well.
Many a years ago i chose to do an ampless show as well.
Showed up with my bass and a sansamp bass driver.
I misses the sound of my gear on stage but overall it went very well.
I haven't used an amp onstage in almost a year now. I hated it at first and the learning curve was big, but once I got it figured out it was like "Eureka!" this is great!
It was seriously nice to dial in my tone just by turning two knobs last night. Took all of about 2 songs and I had it perfect. The load in and load out was the easiest that I've ever had also. Don't get me wrong I have some amazing gear, but this is the way to go on small shows. Maybe even on larger shows if a competent PA is available.
It was seriously nice to dial in my tone just by turning two knobs last night. Took all of about 2 songs and I had it perfect. The load in and load out was the easiest that I've ever had also. Don't get me wrong I have some amazing gear, but this is the way to go on small shows. Maybe even on larger shows if a competent PA is available.
I've been doing a lot of open mic/acoustic set stuff lately with my guitarist/singer buddy. Just bring my bass and run a line to the board. I don't like forfeiting control of my tone to the sound guy, and miss my board, but the load in/out is to die for. Good for you going ampless. For lighter stuff it's the bees knees.
great!
I used to do this when playing for an acoustic ragtime & blues band.
we ran 3 vocals, guitar, upright bass, mandolin through a small PA with just a couple of small mains, and it worked great for what we were doing.
I used to do this when playing for an acoustic ragtime & blues band.
we ran 3 vocals, guitar, upright bass, mandolin through a small PA with just a couple of small mains, and it worked great for what we were doing.
I've gone ampless before and loved it but I fell into a really good paying gig that required me to look the part. So it's been a while and last night was just awesome to be able to do it again.
I have done it before but prefer having an amp on stage just so I have my bass monitor on stage. most venues don't have very good sound guys so letting them have full control of my sound isn't appealing to me...
I really like to go ampless. The C&W gig where I go direct and we monitor thru iems is a breeze. The band totally bought in but several of the players (steel and fiddle) missed the feel of a bass amp on stage so the sound guy runs my signal back thru a small powered sub the best of both worlds.
I've always ran my GT-10B into an amp with the XLR out just for recording. Will have to give the ampless thing a try. Congrats on a great gig with an easy load out.
I'm ampless for a year now with IES. On big stages, you absolutely need a good soundman (we've got ours) or a monitor tech. On one project (a Supertramp Tribute) i'm using a DHA VT2 standard EQ - my Valenti PJ5 with flats sounds great. I cannot recommand enough David Hall stuff. Its tube preamps just sound awesome. Another project (Peter Gabriel Tribute) needs lots of effects and instruments so I use a Basswitch as DI - pedal looper - switcher - and again, no need of an amp on stage (I've got a Brimstone XD-1 as a preamp that gives me all the grit I need)!
I did my first ampless gig this week and really loved it. We have been using IEM's for many years, so I rarely hear anything from my amp anyway. We recently upgraded our mixer so we can all use individual Behringer Powerplay P16-M mixers. The mixer gives you 16 channels that you can tweak to give you a personal mix into your headset. I ran my effects chain into a DI straight to the board, and it sounded great. The sound guy loved it and I got lots of compliments on how good it sounded in the FOH mix. And for a bonus, no heavy amp and cabs to load in or out. 
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