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What is the point, really?

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Dan Kahanamoku

Apr 17, 2008
189
2
Killwaukee
#1
What is the point of having a huge bass rig? Every show I've ever played I get a line to the PA. I guess there have been a few outdoor shows over the years but my 150W combo has never had a problem. I don't recall ever even turning the volume up past 7 or 8.

Are some bands just this loud?
 
#5
it's got zip to do with being loud. it's got everything to do with sounding good. bass = big. i could do pretty much everything i do with my micro vr and 210av, or even my b-15 with one cab, but i just got a second 210av for the micro vr and i have an extension cab for my b-15 because bass = big. and when i really want to sound big, i trot out my svt and 810. but i play at volumes most of you would laugh at and call me a puss.
 
#8
This is what I was going to add, as well...a friend of mine called me a year or so back and asked me to sit in with his band. He tells me not to worry about an amp as there would be a "great" PA....and, from the size of the venue, you would think that would be the case. Nope. It was a middle of the road PA setup without monitors. We all stumbled through it, but the consenus was that the whole thing sucked. I do not rely on PA support any longer....
 
#9
I'm in a weekend bar band. The places we play don't have any PA. And the band I'm in doesn't have a PA that can handle bass. So I bring my Berg NV215 powered by a PLX 1602 and a Demeter 201s pre.
 
#10
Or how about when I show up for a benefit gig at a local college or God forbid, a high school and the PA in the gymnasium is 12's on poles out front and no monitors. I carry an extra small PA for gigs like that to use for monitors but I've had to 'carry the room' with my rig the bulk of those times.
 
#11
Dan Kahanamoku said:
What is the point of having a huge bass rig? Every show I've ever played I get a line to the PA. I guess there have been a few outdoor shows over the years but my 150W combo has never had a problem. I don't recall ever even turning the volume up past 7 or 8.

Are some bands just this loud?
Click to expand...

Let me preface this by saying that I am a big fan of ampless gigs. I do one or two gigs without an amp every week. I just show up with either a SABDDI into the PA or a fishman pro plat bass EQ on an upright gig. With that said....

Last night I played a gig with a moderately loud alt folk/country rock outfit. Showed up with my thunderfunk, epi ul410 , fishman and my double bass. The PA was... there. It was probably more than adequate for the average act, but this particular act had 7 people on stage including a couple multi-instrumentalists. The PA was strained already, and the two electric guitarists were told to turn up and handle FOH from their amps. Still, the only other thing in the subs would've been the kick drum so I ran a line out to the PA. Unfortunately there was a terrible buzz. OK, no biggie. I hit the ground lift switch. Buzz was better but still there and very audible. Tried the DI on both the head and the fishman and used the ground lift on both. Buzzed at every setting (hooray for big ass neon lights). I wound up having to turn up my rig and handle front of house. I really had to work the fishman to avoid feed back all night. Wasn't ideal, but it got me through the night. Now I could've just turned off my amp, but that would have left me on stage unable to hear myself over the philharmonic we had set up on stage. A small combo wouldn't have done much good in this situation.

That being said, I find smaller amps to generally be preferable to larger rigs in most situations.
 
#12
Plenty of reasons. Tone being at the top of the list. Also as others have already said, you can never trust a venue or a sound guy completely when it comes to the PA. This holds true for everything when it comes to playing live.

I don't trust sound guys unless they play in my band.
 
#15
I do not buy the "tone" argument. In my opinion, the whole "Tone" thing with bass is so completely overblown... Ah, don't get me started!

But as far as rig size, I have had large rigs, tiny rigs and everything in between.

What I have found is having a flexible rig is what works for me: For many years, I kept my head, a 4x10 and a 2x10 around so I could cover small, medium and large gigs - and I used every combination... Recently, I've found the call for so few gigs to really require the full 6x10 setup that I got a 2nd 2x10 and am selling my 4x10.

And I get a great sound out any combination I've put together. It's true that I spend good $$ to get really good gear - that really helps (A cheap 8x10 is still going to sound like crap; A good 2x10 will sound better. Period.)
 
#17
Tone debates aside, for me and the music scene I'm in there is something to be said about the appearance of a large bass rig on stage vs a combo amp.

Would I bring my 2x15 or an 810 to a cover band gig at a small intimate blues bar? Probably not. But I also wouldn't expect to be taken seriously if I showed up to a headlining gig at a packed metal bar with a 50W 1x12 combo next to two raging stacks of Mesa Rectifiers, even with all the PA support in the world. It just wouldn't look right.

Also, A lot of places I play don't like to run bass through the stage monitors either, so stage volume from my rig is all I get most of the time anyway.
 

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