Less that thrilled with first experience going ampless

This is why people use in-ear monitors.
In-ear monitors work best if you have a stereo mix too!

 

If you have your own wedge, and you aren't sharing a mix bus with anyone then you are all set!
The important thing about in-ears is getting a good seal. Having a good seal will increase your bass response. This is why a lot of us move to molded in-ear monitors.

You can probably get a used AnySpot in-ear system for about $100. If you can control what you hear, you will be far happier than your other band members, and your ears won't ring the next day from the cymbals!

Of course, this is assuming that everything is either run direct or mic'd properly.

 

Yes you can use both IEM & wedges, as long as you have enough aux sends for your monitors. You will, almost for sure, not want to share a wegde mix with an IEM though.
Question, were there subs with this PA?

 

I have found that when you're standing behind the subs - it doesn't help as much as if you were in front of them

 

Agree on using in-ears, depending on your setup, you should be able to dial in a pleasing personal mix. Don't fret (see what I did there?) too much about your sound thru mains in a rehearsal space, lots will be different at venues. Assuming someone will be managing the sound, it will be up to them to make FOH sound good.

You'll get the best results in terms of sound improvement and stage volume if everybody is using in-ears. Mixing in-ears and traditional wedges may result in a little improvement, but just for those using in-ears. Make sure you don't pipe a wedge or FOH send to your in-ears... you want a mixbus specific to you that you can tweak personally so it sounds good in your ears.

Not knowing what mixing equipment your BL purchased, it's hard to give real specific in-ear suggs. Our band is totally ampless, we run thru Behringer x32 Rack or Core mixers that have plenty of monitor sends. We all use Behringer Powerplay P1 personal monitor amps, which are cheap, reliable, and offer stereo operation. Some folks prefer to sink a ton of bread into custom-fitted, high-end in-ears; I get pretty good results from Shure PA215s, which are about $100/set. We are able to connect to the mixer via wifi from our phones and use an app to tweak our own personal in-ear mixes.

Going back to your FOH sound, there are probably EQ settings specific to your mixer channel that will have to be tweaked, maybe significantly so since you're on brand-new equipment, to get you sounding good FOH. It is also possible that you will have to make a few changes to your signal chain... audio is funny like that... pieces of one setup may not work the same when directly inserted into another. When we play at venues that provide a house PA, I usually have to fiddle with my knobs a little to get things sounding good. And when new (or new to us) equipment is involved, I expect to spend a lot more time fiddling.

 

There is a broad range of great ampless solutions designed to both minimize your footprint on stage and allow you the best chance to contain the noise level.

Im not wired to be more subtle.

 

Ha!
Antoine Lavoisier’s law of conservation of gear! Gear cannot be created or destroyed. Gear simply transforms into other gear.

 

This is your problem. Whoever set the monitor mix set your bass woofy and low volume. This setup will NOT work for a band. You need a board with as many aux outs as you have members so each band member can set their own mix to taste.

Edit: IEM's will NOT fix this either. You need a board with enough aux outs, or at the very least an "IEM mixer" to let you set the volume between the whole band and your bass

 

You mentioned the DP-3x. Were you going out of the 1/4" output, or the XLR, and was it the same as you normally use going into your amp? I don't own one, but I seem to recall some discussion about the signal from the XLR being rather different than the signal from the 1/4" in tone and output...

Not saying that accounts for all the problems you experienced, but it is one thing to rule out....

 

I go ampless pretty often and from my experience, it helps to get the monitor person to EQ the bass before it gets back to your IEMs. If that can't happen, I'll do it myself and send the signal EQ'd from my preamp pedal.

 

You know, the Mesa Subway heads, including the awesome TT-800 can be run direct without cabs attached.

The solution is clear: more amps.

 

Absolutely. Done it many many times.

 

That is how I run my in ears,though a d800 without a cab connected,sounds great!

 

That's going to be a problem with IEMs or wedges, regarding your bass. Is this just an experiment at rehearsal by the BL or is this the way BL says it's going to be from here on? If an experiment (and it's not working for you), I don't see the issue with you maintaining an amp. Otherwise, this becomes permanently no fun for you with no individual monitor mixes.

I'm in a similar boat with one of my bands (although we use the p.a. for only vocals and BL's acoustic guitar). One send for all. Which doesn't work at all for my vocals (I'm buried within three songs as BL adjusts). My solution was to get my own monitor, run my vocal mic through that and then on to the board. I get all the vocal I need of myself now. You keeping your bass rig on stage seems like about the only solution when everyone is sharing the same minotor mix.