GAS aggravated by using a backline

[Micha84]

I love my rig! It is simple, sounds just like I need it to and is very portable. What I'm trying to say is: I do not play other people's amps if I can avoid it.
And the few times I did, I wish I hadn't. Not because my stuff is the greatest and everything else is crap, I just don't feel comfortable. I don't want to fiddle with other people's settings. Ok, my bass sounds good, but how about my pedals? If it gets louder, how much can this thing handle?

I might feel differently about backlines if somebody would actually put an SVT and a fridge on stage, but usually it is the budget brand of the local music store or some obscure 3x10" cab somebody got on eBay.

 

[Solipsistik]

My takeaway: take your rig. If what they have on the stage is good, keep your rig in the truck/van/car. Take your pedals if you need them. Don't be afraid to @#$% with the EQ because for that moment in time, it's your rig.

 

[TeaTime]

I started life as a drummer. IME they have the backline thing so much worse than do bassists.

I love my GK rigs, it's just part of my tone, and it always delivers for me. I walk away from backlines knowing mine is better (for me). Except...I recently hopped into a session where they provided some big Mesa pile, and I still think about that tone. I could see owning one for sure. What I have will likely see me through the rest of my active years, but it could happen.

 

[Thumpin6string]

Never got gas from someone else's rig, but mostly from TB and online videos. I've bought and tried almost every amp out there, but I always come back to an Eden. Now I have my ultimate Eden rig. Don't want anything else.

 

[trevcda]

But I also played through some I never wanted to see again!

Oh, yeah. This. There was GK/Hartke stack that always seemed to show up as back line on stages I played in one area. Inevitably, by the time I got to it on Saturday night, one or more of the drivers was blown and half the amp did not work at a minimum. This happened so many times that wrongly or rightly it so deeply affected my opinion of both of those brands, and I've never considered them when looking for new equipment.

 

[pbass2]

I always ended up with the classic 800RB stack or SVT in backlines in the day, always preferred the GK. Lately I still get SVTs but also Tonehammer 500s seem to show up a lot. I don't want for either of those being a GK guy.
The one backline amp that DID inspire me to run out and buy the same thing was when I encountered a wee MB200 sitting on top of an Ampeg 8x10. This was still fairly early "little amp" days - blew my mind, I knew I had to have one of those, was a no-brainer.

 

[Pings Bass]

I'll plug into anything, but prefer utter simplicity and light weight. Every backline amp I've ever seen fails these criteria. (Except at a weird folk fest I played in Portland last year, where I used their tiny backline amp as a stand for my own, slightly beefier 1x12.)

 

[Nuisance]

I have found that it is almost always the venue acoustics, and not the backline.

 

[Lo-E]

Have I ever played through a backline that I wanted to take home with me?
Heck yeah.
But I also played through some I never wanted to see again!

This, 100%

I use house backline most of the time and I've experienced the latter a lot more often than I've experienced the former!
There are the occasional rigs that are really stellar but I like my own gear, too, so I don't gas too much.