Who plugs straight in? What do you use?

[Calaverasgrande]

Anyway, purity of tone when using electric instruments through amplification is an impossibility. Add the amplification, goodbye purity.

unless the purity of tone you are after is the tone of the amplification itself.
Insert Ampeg, Mesa or GK logo here.


There is a certain thing I can get my Mesa to do as far as dynamics that It doesn't do with pedals in between the bass and the amp.
Even most passive DI's screw it up. So I usually try and put the DI if there is one on the slave output or effect send. Or just ask for a mic.

 

[the dude]

'65 Precision => '69 SVT => Heritage 810

 

[rickwebb]

Fender E-Series MIJ Jazz Bass Specials--> Line6 Wireless--> Boss TU3 Tuner--> DI then Ampeg amps/ Preamps.

 

[Gremson]

Been without effects for a few months now. It's extremely satisfying for me. Especially coming from playing lead guitar, and working an effects company. I feel free!
I don't even use a tuner in line. Got me one of those Snark clip on tuners. Works great for me!

 

[chewy teeth]

I can't resist saying that I take a mere 5 minutes to haul my gear from the trailer, set up, tune, and walk away to relax. Our guit-fiddlers take forever to set up their pedal boards and guitar trees. I get great satisfaction from this.

 

[spiritbass]

I've done a complete rig shake-up since my previous post. Old-school head pushing a cutting-edge cab:

I have also added an Fdeck HPF, so this may disqualify me as one who "plugs straight in"...

 

[Humbled]

I plug a (usually) L-2500 or a Stingray or a Precision into a Boss or Planet Waves tuner which feeds a Countryman Type 85 or a Radial JDI. It goes to the splitter or FOH just like that. My amp serves as a personal monitor, and it's usually a small Markbass pointed straight at my head, and serves to augment what I'm really listening to, which is most often the sidefills when playing live. I used in-ears for a while, but decided I like the sidefills+wee-little amp method better.

 

[chewy teeth]

Dear spiritbass, I have gear envy.

 

[popgadget]

PBass Lyte deluxe, fretless with EMG PJ and BQS system.
Shuttle 9.0, Streamliner 900 or Demeter HPB-1/ Crown XTI-2002
Various fEARful or FEARLESS cabs
No pedals or effects, all of the amps or preamp have good sounding balanced DI out forFOH.

 

[spiritbass]

Dear spiritbass, I have gear envy.

I'm sorry, that wasn't my intention.

If you get a chance to hear or play through one of Mike's MVW cabs, do it.

 

[Itzayana]

Lakland 44-02, GK800MB or GK500MB, various Avatar cabs depending on venue (B-153, B-210, B-410)

 

[DJ Bebop]

Some sort of bass(mostly BB75), BX1500, some sort of speaker cab(most of the time GS112)

 

[middy]

Precision->PF-500->810e

Tuner out to a Boss TU-3. DI out to house

The PF-500 has a compressor built in. If it didn't, I would have to add one inline as I switch between fingers and pick in a few of our songs.

I run it mostly flat as the 810 naturally has the eq curve I always try to dial in through other cabs.

 

[Flabass]

Bass (G&L L2000, G&L SB2, Fender Precision or other)
Korg Pitchblack Tuner
Ampeg SVT3 Pro
Ampeg SVTHLF 4x10

That's it. I have a compressor, octave pedal, but never use them anymore.

 

[recreate.me]

I have started to plug straight in more and more lately. I found the tone from my pedals just wasn't doing it for me. They would sound great at home, but when i got to practice and turned up i just preferred the tone in the mix of my rig.

RW Precision > Mesa Walkabout > 2x TC Electronic 2x12s - Punchy as ****

 

[lweastdad]

See signature...

 

[edpal]

Bass =>cable => Ampeg Svt7 => cab. I use effects, they are strictly through the effects loop and I don't buy amps without an effects loop where the effects can be dialed in as a percentage of the total signal. Tuner out to korg tuner. Only effects pedal I take with me is a Zoom B2.1u with a remote footswitch. I like that pedal as you can(I have) use it as a DI in a pinch through the XLR DI out. And it goes straight to tuner mode when not in "Effects on" mode.
I would go with the clip on tuner but most seem shaky on a low B - shame.

 

[edpal]

I found the tone from my pedals just wasn't doing it for me. They would sound great at home, but when i got to practice and turned up i just preferred the tone in the mix of my rig.

Don't ya just hate when that happens?! One of the differences between practicing by yourself and rehearsal with a group. By myself I'm the world's best bass player

 

[recreate.me]

Yeah man, everything changes when you can turn up. But i think in this case it wasn't the pedal sounding worse, but that my heads and cabs just sounded better lol

I have a Traynor YBA200 as well, and that can get really dirty if you distort it, so that replaces my OD pedal when I am in that mood, it just does such a better job. But the Walkabout just doesn't OD well i find, it gets some dirt, but never enough without sounding bad... So i try my pedals, and then turn it up and end up preferring its punchy-ness to cut through rather then the OD pretty much every time lol

 

[FretNoMore]

I have started to plug straight in more and more lately. I found the tone from my pedals just wasn't doing it for me. They would sound great at home, but when i got to practice and turned up i just preferred the tone in the mix of my rig.

RW Precision > Mesa Walkabout > 2x TC Electronic 2x12s - Punchy as ****

Well, you can't have the same settings in those two scenarios, you have to dial things in for the volume and the environment (i.e the full band mix), so maybe you gave up too soon on your pedals?