Kick drum through my bass amp?

[Slevage]

Get a used powered sub.
One will do.

 

[gitfiddl]

Do not let that "sound guy" touch anything. That is one of the stupidest suggestions I have ever heard. If the PA speakers are of a good quality they should handle the bdrum just fine. I don't have a sub and we have been doing that for years without a problem. Speakers are Mackie 450s.

There is always a jump between a 'vocals only' reinforcement system and a 'entire band' system, and that does NOT have an intermediate step where you mic the kick thru the bass amp. Never has, never will. Either this guy needs to wrap his head around that and do the upgrades (and yes, you go from a 'trunk of a big car' size to a 'van-sized' system, just the way it is), or you're gonna need a different guy.

I've run vocals, keyboards (one direct, one a mic'd Leslie), and a touch of bass, mic'd guitar amps, kick, snare, and overheads at smaller outdoor gigs through nothing more than a pair of 15" PA cabs on sticks. Was it head-banging loud? No. Was it clean, clear, balanced and loud enough? Yes. Was everybody happy? Yes.

 

[gitfiddl]

There's always this. You can find a used Peavey TNT or some other sort of combo amp for about $100. Buy one and use it for the kick.

 

[saabfender]

I’m really surprised at all the fear and loathing. I’ve done this before and like doing it. It’s mostly for me and not hugely loud.

It’s not a convincing work-around for an insufficient PA but on rock gigs, l like to have a little kick drum in my amp.

 

[BooDoggie]

The few inches off the floor that casters create won't cause a decoupling issue. You have to go a couple of feet in the air before you lose any measurable audio output.

Kinda like the church that I did a sound consult for... They had subs mounted in small nooks above the doors leading into the back of the church, and they wondered why it sounded bad...

 

[MDBass]

I’m really surprised at all the fear and loathing. I’ve done this before and like doing it. It’s mostly for me and not hugely loud.

It’s not a convincing work-around for an insufficient PA but on rock gigs, l like to have a little kick drum in my amp.

Having some kick in your monitor (which is how your amp is functioning in the above case) is totally normal and quite functional.

Using your bass amp as a powered PA sub is not

 

[MDBass]

There's always this. You can find a used Peavey TNT or some other sort of combo amp for about $100. Buy one and use it for the kick.

As far as "square peg/round hole" solutions go, this is the best one so far.

 

[BooDoggie]

Come on now. You know back in the day, we all did crazy things. I had no bass amp when I bought my first bass in the 10th grade. My dad got all kinds of pissed when I ran my bass through the phono inputs of his 'The Fisher 400" receiver...

Yep... We used my home stereo amp and speakers as a PA once with adaptors to change from 1/4 TS to RCA for the mics that we borrowed from the guitar players mother's church group... And I'm talking ZZ Top, Stevie Ray type rock...

 

[BooDoggie]

Why not give it a try, perhaps in the next rehearsal.

Doing a "dumb thing" more than once and getting away with it does not automatically promote it to "not a dumb thing"...

 

[Medicine Man]

Buy or rent a powered sub. Or hire a sound company if the gig is important.

 

[Stewie]

Did that along time ago. It worked well, but I had a two channel amp and was using a Cerwin Vega 18" folded horn with a 12 inch tweeter for a cab

 

[DirtDog]

Interestingly, this has been talked about before at TB - in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010...you get the idea.

I’d say the overwhelming majority of responses have been: “bad idea”.

But the best idea coming out of all of these posts is: “get the drummer to buy a kick drum amp”

 

[bobyoung53]

If you want a splitting headaches within one set try it.

 

[Mark Andrew]

As far as "square peg/round hole" solutions go, this is the best one so far.

Indeed I think we've all done it first band useless pa and want to hear the click of the kick. I used an old H/H 100w for years on vocal and kick duty. It was twin channel. Sounded crappy but sometimes you just use what's available......

 

[leonard]

I've done it years ago on a low volume situation. Didn't sound very good. Bass cabs are meant for bass guitar, not bass drum. Bass drum sounds better through the PA. Like almost any PA.

 

[Tom Howland]

No F**KING Way. Never.

 

[Tom Howland]

No F**KING Way. Never.

 

[Tom Howland]

No Frigging Way. Never.

 

[Altitude]

Nothing "certain" about it...but subs are designed to handle 40Hz transient spikes at loud volumes and most bass cabs are not.

But not all FOH systems have subs.

 

[MDBass]

But not all FOH systems have subs.

Every FOH system where you can feel the bass sure does.

This is a thread about using a bass amp instead of a PA sub at the suggestion of the "sound guy".