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Emergency backup rig question

NickFromNY

NickFromNY

Nov 2, 2010
1,903
2,244
Long Island, NY
#1
Im new to gigging on bass. Ive been a giging drummer for 15 years an i never leave the house without extra sticks and bass and snare heads incase one breaks during the show. I use quality equipment and take care of it and its served me well.

Now i am starting to gig on bass. My rig consists of 2 basses (a lakland 55-01 and an american jazz bass), a genz benz streamliner 900 head and 2 bag end cabs. I want to have something on hand just in case in run into a problem with the amp and have to rig somethong together through the pa. I was thinking about picking up either a behringer bass di or bass v-amp just as an emergency backup. Do i even need this? Can i just bring a di box (which i have) and go direct? Id like it to sounf halfway descent. Am I overthinking this? What is "break glass in case of emergency" plan?
 
#2
I'm a big proponent of having backups for everything. God didn't create amps, therefor they are not perfect (although some come close). Go used, go cheap. It's just in case. Provided you always have PA support, a simple DI can be your backup, provided the PA has built in redundance as well and you can work your way through a gig on crap monitor wedge sound should you need to.
 
#4
I never used to have a backup, for years. Then in 2007 I bought an Eden WTX-260 micro head for backup and rehearsals and small gigs. Now I've used it twice in just the past two years, to finish gigs after two different amps croaked mid-gig. But before that I'd *never* had an amp fail me on a gig. (I did have a lot of amps that were too small for the gig, but that's another story.) Go figure, I'm not sure what to make of that after reading it back over. Nevertheless I recommend a backup of some sort. Before I got the Eden I used a Sansamp as a backup, and hoped to hang with just the monitors.
 
#6
I NEVER went to a gig without a back up head, bass and cables, fuses, etc. With the size and cost of a good used, used class D amp, I see no reason to ever not have a back up head these days. The DI option is OK, providing you have the PA support to handle it.
 
#7
I take a backup head when I gig. I also have a small DI in my backpack.
I would rather not depend on the PA unless absolutely necessary. Especially when the PA support is poor.

You can get a small, dependable head for peace of mind.
 
#9
I wouldn't consider anyone a professional that didn't have a backup plan should something not go according to the first plan. It's the putting all your eggs in one basket thing. Even if it isn't your particular equipment that's at fault, that doesn't matter when you're standing there looking like a dufus in front of people who want to hear music and there is none.
 
#10
You can bring a sans amp VT or BDDI and go direct but you will not hear yourself much and eat/kill the pa power....I always take a second amp.

Actually last saturday my brand new Ampeg pf500 crapped out but luckily i had a cheapo used backup. GK backline 600. And just bought an Eden WTX 264 on sunday i was so pissed off. Probably the 8th time 36 years of gigging. but 8X too many...
 
#11
Setting up for sound check one night and thought I had a blown cab. It was my GBE600. Apparently the effects loop gets crusty if you don't use it, lol (thanks to Jeff Genzler..(I'm still amazed he sometimes answers the phone when you call)...for giving me a fix). I had an MBII in the car "just in case" and it was a life saver. It happens.
 
#12
I've never brought a backup amp to any of my gigs over the last 17 years and luckily never had any problems. I played quite a bit too up to 3 nights a week for 6 years and 2 nights a week for 4 more. My Eden WT-400 was very reliable but I did keep tabs on it when my input jack started to scratch a little and replaced it immediatly. Without a mute switch on the head I always removed the patch cord from the jack out 1/2" inbetween sets to keep the bass from feeding back.

With the advent of affordable micro heads I feel compelled to bring a GK MB200 as a back up just in case. It would work in a pinch as it has a ballanced XLR out for the P.A. and provide 200 watts as a monitor through my cab incase the p.a. monitors won't cut it with a full bass signal going through them. The weight is what's nice about the GK. I also have a Ampeg PF350 which is a much better sounding more powerful amp for similar cost but weighs about 8lbs opposed to the GK's 2lbs. I'm just too lazy to haul the Ampeg around just in case of a failure of my main amp when I've had so much luck in the past with not needing a backup.
 
#15
40++ years ago I had a SS Fender Bassman, let me down 4 times in 18 months. Carried a back up for 10 years after dumping it. Last 30 or so brought one very occasionally. Have not needed one since the Fender SS. G-K MB series are light, powerful and small if you feel you need the comfort zone? :)
 
#16
will33 said:
Famous, (or infamous) last words. Kinda like "hey ya'll, watch this".
Click to expand...

Actually it is, "here, hold my beer and watch this..."

Typically I'll have one head and one cab at a gig. In case of emergency I have a Paradriver that has DI output (though I usually go out of the head) and in the back of the car I always have a second head and a QSC K10. Murphy comes along on most any gig.
 
#18
i almost always bring a backup head, whichever is my smallest and lightest one at any given time. in 40 years of playing, i've only had one amp go down on a gig, and it was my one day old, brand new Eden WT550-B, but it was only because one of the internal wires was in contact with a the fan's blade and wouldn't run the fan correctly, so it thermalled an ran at about 10% power. i switched to the backup between songs.
 

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