Love when you can "feel' the bass through the body. We did a gig at BB Kings nightclub in NYC in 2013 and you could feel the bass through your feet with the wood patform floor.
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Are bass amps obsolete?
- Thread starter sanwin17
- Start date
Are mops obsolete? Everytime I walk into my kitchen, the floor is sparkling clean thanks to my housekeeper. I don't know how stores even sell cleaning supplies to the public anymore. 
You sir have a sweet bass if that is in fact you and yours.. FOH must have hated you for the onstage noise.. Guessing no Cardioid subwoofer plugged into a small monitor for you in the future..
Go ampless and wear one of these so you still get to "FEEL THE BASS!!"
Obsolete? No. But, in the immediate future the average player will have to be prepared to go in one of two routes: Bring a stage amp and all that goes with that or bring a POD or SANSAMP type device and a monitor. Being prepared for either scenario is probably for the best plan of action.
I'd go on further: everyone will have a chip in the head, listening music, phoning, pay bills & computing with projected keyboard and mice; even looking movies inside your head, but this costs an extra ...
I hope so. If someone has lost vision, hearing, smell, etc. to a medical condition, it would be outstanding to have implantable technology that can fill the need.
You've led a sheltered life then. For me the worst sensation was probably being on fire. My amp also once caught fire, but that's an unrelated event.
Someone’s invented a version that sits on the ground so that you don’t have to carry it around on your back
Getting an amp tone with a mic is all very well until you turn up on stage because you can't hear yourself. Then the sound engineer needs to turn the bass down in FOH if he has time, and worry about stage bleed to FOH. And then the guitarist will turn up and then the drummer will play louder and then you have to turn up the gain on the vocalist who can't sing any louder and then the feedback comes...
In many ways I'd like guitarists to just use their amps as monitors and use an amp sim to FOH, or use a 1W amp, mic, and power amp and full range speaker.
I try to make "my sound" coming straight from the bass, so that nothing that comes after can ruin it. Amp, DI, wedge monitors, headphones, IEM... It's all good. It's all going to sound like me because I set my tone at the source.
Shame you don’t know how to eq a single channel... many amps have a clean and dirty channel - you either have to take it post or mic. If you mic and the cab is using a horn or tweeters for the highs it gets more complicated- see where I’m going. Maybe throw a channel eq on the bass channel to get it sounding right through your system instead of relying on global eq?
We mix ourself from the stage, with sound check from audience position. Then you get both worlds...
Say whatever you want about low powered amps and in ear monitors.. That drummer is smashing away at real drums and probably is the only one appreciative of having in ear monitors going... You take out you earphones on this dream quiet stage and the drummer is gonna be all you hear... Pretty sure the balance is held in his hands no matter what... Just get the best pre amp processor you can and make sure it's got plenty of outputs. Consider a stage monitor and not a bigger "bass amp" since they are essentially the same thing. Only the guitarist needs an amp and that's for rather relative tonal reasons if any..
Recently purchased a Radial Tonebone for that very purpose. Band rehearses straight to the board anyway and last couple of gigs have been that format. Jury's not in yet but it sure makes for an easy load in/set up......
The cabinets that can give you great bottom in a little cabinet are inherently not efficient. That is when you need a 1,000 Watt amplifier. You won't be louder, just won't break your back carrying a"furniture" cabinet. I would like a rig like this but half the bars I've played have very old power wiring so didn't go for the 1 KW amp.
I have tube amps and 8x10 fridges, but after nearly 40 years gigging, I'm getting tired of the heavy lifting..
I certainly still like my internal organs massaged with bass, but wish there was something that did the same but easier to carry/load in/load out/transport/store.
If the business paid better, I could afford roadies.
BTW: I'm also the guy that provides, transports, stores, sets up the PA too.
So that is also part of my equation.
My favourite gigs at BBKing were to sit at the edge of the stage in front of John Entwistle to watch, and feel the bass . . . I remember there were speakers under the stage that's make your trouser legs flap when he really hit those low notes . . .
Bass amps are not simply about convenience and/or practicality (or the lack thereof) for many of us.
I simply enjoy hearing myself through speakers. When I can, I will bring an amp. If I can get away with it, I'll bring an Ampeg SVT. The sound of that heavy beast makes me smile.
They absolutely will be less common in a decade or so. We'll probably all have wireless basses with transmitters you can't see that send a signal directly to the computer used to run sound (that is the size of a pack of gum). Every audience member will be wearing headphones (tiny earbuds) that allow them to control the volume of their live band. Take out your earbuds and all you will hear are people talking and the sound of sticks hitting electronic drums pads. Your average bar will sound like a library until you put in earbuds.
So, not yet... but it's coming.
The Markbass booth at NAMM this year pretty much had this concept up and running. For every artist performance they had a system set up to where they handed out probably 50 pairs of wireless headphones so the crowd could hear what they were doing. There were still amps and cabs on stage, but the volume was extremely low and even some of the artists wore the headphones so they could hear better or they opted for a silent stage. They figured out how to allow everyone to enjoy the show as well as combating the decibel police who walked around the show and tested to see if your booth was over the threshold. Just the ambient floor volume was at around 90-95db, and it took literally nothing to push it over 100db.
I like to feel my jeans moving as I stand in front of my amp.Bass amps are not simply about convenience and/or practicality (or the lack thereof) for many of us.
I simply enjoy hearing myself through speakers. When I can, I will bring an amp. If I can get away with it, I'll bring an Ampeg SVT. The sound of that heavy beast makes me smile.
They absolutely will be less common in a decade or so. We'll probably all have wireless basses with transmitters you can't see that send a signal directly to the computer used to run sound (that is the size of a pack of gum). Every audience member will be wearing headphones (tiny earbuds) that allow them to control the volume of their live band. Take out your earbuds and all you will hear are people talking and the sound of sticks hitting electronic drums pads. Your average bar will sound like a library until you put in earbuds.
So, not yet... but it's coming.
