Are bass amps obsolete?

[Chickenwheels]

brings to mind the time I left my amp and cab in my car under false assunption the #1 crew in town had monitors worth listening to. Then my RBI "had no signal" so I was DI. Then the monitors spewed garbage. Oh well, at least we weren't getting paid.

I’ve done this, too.
We’d all love to not have to take gear to gigs but it’s a wild gamble at best, even with a top notch production.

 

[chadds]

brings to mind the time I left my amp and cab in my car under false assunption the #1 crew in town had monitors worth listening to. Then my RBI "had no signal" so I was DI. Then the monitors spewed garbage. Oh well, at least we weren't getting paid.

I thought you’d say, “at least we were getting paid.”

 

[Lasse Vuorsola]

Here's some Ennio Morricone with my ampless setup. Hope you like it!

 

[Willy-D]

Well, between my damaged ears, clueless FOH guys and crappy stage monitors, I am not a fan of un-amped DI. Fond recollection of plugging into DI box with my fretless Jazz (where there had been a house-amp the week prior), only to have them wrestle with the monitors 15 minutes and give up. I spent the set trying to play in tune off of what I could hear from the tiny mains, wanting to vomit because my tone (if you could call it that) was akin to a goose with his Nuts in a vice during migration season

 

[Bredian]

Well, between my damaged ears, clueless FOH guys and crappy stage monitors, I am not a fan of un-amped DI. Fond recollection of plugging into DI box with my fretless Jazz (where there had been a house-amp the week prior), only to have them wrestle with the monitors 15 minutes and give up. I spent the set trying to play in tune off of what I could hear from the tiny mains, wanting to vomit because my tone (if you could call it that) was akin to a goose with his Nuts in a vice during migration season

This is more often the norm.

I run thru my PA quality rig so I can let the sound guy hear how its supposed to sound instead of the mush he's offering.

A buddy (primarily a guitar player) runs both his guitar and bass DI. Saw his guitar band and he was using a monitor turned forward for guitar FOH while inears for monitoring. That's the same as a rig. With his bass band, it all came out mush as it was all blended with the rest of the band.

 

[chadds]

I’m back checking in.
Nope, still not obsolete.

 

[Pocket Man]

If you can’t feel the bass coming across the stage what’s the point. Might as well sit at home and play through an amp. This in my opinion is the joy of playing live. Unless you are only doing the performance for show, which is what unfortunately satisfies many bass players as verified by some responses to this thread.