I'll take one or two depending on the gig. My Thumb is getting to the point where it hurts to play it for extended periods, so after a period of playing that for a bit then switching to my spare bass (RBX4-A2), I pretty much play the RBX all night and the Thumb is my spare. I have a Yamaha Attitude on order that will take the Thumbs place as main bass and the RBX will go back to backup duties.
On the subject of soundmen. I thinks they are one of those necessary evils and luck of the draw.
A lot of soundmen have a very blinkered idea of what a bass should sound like, and it's nearly always low register played fender through a DI. You throw something different at them or start playing higher register lines, tapping or pinched harmonics and they don't know what to do with it.
For example I played a large gig to 10,000 scouts and guides last week on a huge stage
I played a few middle register notes (around 5 and 7 fret over all strings) and the sound man says 'can you just play something lower register please' in not a pleasant tone. I'm sorry, but my playing style is all over the neck mate, there's more to playing bass than rooted to the E and A strings. I think he did actually tweak this once we had started playing though when he saw that I was all over the neck!
I often think all this would be instantly solved if guitar were called trebles. I mean, they know how to cope with differently voiced guitars and amp combinations. A lot of guitarists will use 3 or 4 guitars on a gig, sometimes with a couple of amps too. Why should bass be treated any differently? It's just another register of notes, we are entitled to use different voices too if the music requires it.
Some soundmen are just plain lazy to do the required work or take the blinkers off!
