I want to go ampless live... best methods without IEA?

[markjazzbassist]

Easy. Quality DI/preAmp for the venues with good monitors and monitor engineers. A powered speaker (you can go from cheap like Alto to high end like Meyer Sound or Bergantino) that you keep in the car for crappy venues.

That covers it.

 

[walterw]

I'm playing without an amp and without IEM for years.

We put 2 Yorkville NX55P monitors in front of us

you're not playing "without an amp" at all, your amp is that powered monitor you bring yourself.

 

[DirkP]

But if you bring a powered monitor anyway, why not an easy to carry class-d bassamp with neo-dymium speaker(s)?

 

[jimfist]

But if you bring a powered monitor anyway, why not an easy to carry class-d bassamp with neo-dymium speaker(s)?

If a traditional bass amp/cab is only being used to provide stage volume and bass "feel", and it is understood that this is NOT the tone ultimately going to FOH/Stage monitors, then it certainly is a reasonable solution. Lots of decent lightweight Neo-based bass amps out there.

The problem comes when you assume, or insist that, the stage amp's tone and the tone produced at FOH are going to be identical. Making it so is not a trivial exercise, unless, of course you buy into the notion that slapping a mic in front of the speaker is the answer. ;-) Maybe this is something the OP would entertain.

 

[DonaldR]

you're not playing "without an amp" at all, your amp is that powered monitor you bring yourself.

We don't have amps on stage and no acoustic drums so we need monitors to ear ourselves. Yorkville NX55P are 12" PA powered speakers and we use them as monitors with full band sound in them, not just me! It's not my amp at all and and we bring our monitors only for consistency instead of relying on the one provided at the venue.
Last show we add a problem with one main and just turned one monitor to the crowd to finish the set. Cannot do that with a bass amp...

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Yeah, sounds kind of terrifying but usually the sound systems are awesome....I know I'll hit that gig with puny wedges, so I'd like to know how to be prepared for that.

If you want to save some money you could try wired IEMs and take a parallel 6.35mm feed off your DI since you won't be connecting that to an amp. My first ampless gig was 1994 and the engineer entirely forgot to mix me into the monitors

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Definitely agree on the stage plot, channel list, set list. Some gigs require health and safety information, and I have a list of questions about power, ingress, egress, parking for the band. Maybe a useful resource here would be a sticky providing a list of questions to ask.

A hint on stage design is using tools like sweethome3d or auto desk home styler to create models. Granted you have to create your own approximation of a drum kit but they are easier to use than some real stage design tools that are mostly grated to lighting design. It's useful to show the venue and be sure you can fit on.