Not really. It's about a sound guy recommending running the kick through the bass amp and not through the FOH. People are responding in very broad terms. Whether or not there's a sub in an FOH system carries little meaning on its own; plenty of full-range PA speakers can handle the complete range of sound as well as other systems that include a sub.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".
Most of the signal from a kick drum might not even end up coming out of the sub, depending on how the system is configured. Obviously, the kick drum at a Metallica show will sound different than most do on hip-hop records.
I understand where the bass player would feel territorial about his amp and not want the kick drum or anything else but bass run through it. That's how I would feel, in fact. But - 4 out of 5 posts on this thread imply or claim that doing this would harm your amp or your speakers.
On the face, there's nothing at all about a kick drum signal that would be more taxing to a bass amp than a bass guitar signal. Both are probably less taxing than a keyboardist with a heavy left hand, both in terms of transient and sustained signal levels and demand those make on amps and speakers.
The fact is, as long as the sound guy isn't sending you a totally irresponsible kick drum signal - which I concede would be out of your control - there's nothing inherently "bad" about this idea, other than that the bass player probably won't like it.
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