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Why bother owning an amp

#61
Paulabass said:
I would have a very, very hard time with a FOH person who told me what to do. They work for me, and that one would spend some time working for nobody.
If you want to run a stage silent (electronic drums,etc) he may have a little tiny bit of a point, but running the bass back thru wedges is just taking away control from the artist.
The first page of the FOH rulebook: The artist has complete control.
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ROFL.. unless you are a "touring" band with your own sound guy.. 99% of the time, FOH does NOT work for YOU.. they work for the venue, the production company, the festival promoter, the SR company, etc. That is just simple FACT!
As a longtime FOH guy, guitar and bass player, I'll let you into a little FOH secret.. Work WITH the FOH folks and be nice, as they can EASILY make you sound like poo.. Cop an attitude and you're NOT going to help your situation.
Basically, unless YOU have your own FOH guy, YOU (the artist) have ZERO control over what goes thru the PA.
Most FOH guys I work with WANT to make you sound as good as they can. To be sure, there ARE those who couldn't care less.
YMMV
 
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#62
Blaze Barlow said:
dont know if I am reading your post accurately or not..I always have my amp on stage..and I dont want my bass in the stage monitors as my bass rig is my monitor..the group I play with only want vocals in their monitors..except for the drummer..
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I'm saying pretty much the same thing as you. Monitors rarely work well for bass in my experience. Of course my concern then is that the other band members can't hear me either.
Depending on the size of the stage, I might need a little of the guitarist from the other side of the drummer in the monitor and that's about it. I can always hear the guitar near me, I'm usually right next to the drums, and I don't really care what the singer is doing.
 
#64
Tommygun_ted said:
The singer runs her acoustic through the pa as well, both guitarists use 50 watt tube amps mic'd. It was the sound guy who said to do the bass through the pa, not the band. I'm not used to having front of house support so I have no idea how things are normally done but I love the tone out of my amp, why would they not Mic the bass too?
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That's generally how we run our sound as well, and we are a fullon rock band with 2 guitars, keys, acoustic, bass, drums. Acoustic player and me (bass) both run direct to PA, one electric mics his amp (b/c it has no DI), and the other mics his cab AND runs a direct line in, then our sound guy blends the two. I personally have no problem with it, b/c it means I don't have to haul a heavy amp/cab/whatever to every show and then back to the house... :)
 
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#67
Tommygun_ted said:
So I've been with this folk group for over a year now, and we play with a loud full 5 piece band, singer plays an acoustic guitar, full drum kit and two electric guitars. I own an ampeg V4B reissue 100 watt tube head and so far every show we have played I've been told not to use it. They run me through the PA and Mic everyone else. Is this fairly common practice? If so what's the point of even owning an amp as a bassist. Just a bit of a rant, when you drop a couple of grand on a nice amp you want to use it!
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Ted: what cab are you running your V4B through?
 
#69
zachoff said:
I have never, ever understood why FOH people think it's necessary to DI a bass when quite literally everything else is mic'd.
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I'll DI ANYTHING that allows me to do so!! :D:thumbsup:
Why? CONSISTENT signal. :hyper::bassist:
In the "old" days, the usual issue for FOH with mics occurs when the band can't control their stage volume, or you have bass/guitar that has a boost pedal in-line.
FOH is grabbing faders, or adjusting compression levels on the fly 'cus some clown reached over, turned up their master volume and just screwed up their gain levels on my console!! :eek::banghead::banghead:
With the advent of digital, that has become LESS of a problem with compression available on every input.
If there's only ONE band on stage, fine. You get sound checks, etc.
When there's 5 (or 8) bands to put on stage with 30-60 min gaps between bands at a Festival, I'm going to avoid mic's wherever possible. I'm doing line checks, working on monitor mixes (via remote tablet) then working frantically to get a 'great' mix going as soon as possible - hopefully within a couple of songs. This can be aggravated (and delayed) by FOH not knowing the bands material. Heck even when FOH is familiar with the material, one still has to figure out who's playing the leads, get the harmonies balanced, EQ everything and mix by the seat of your pants.
It's not the simple job some folks seem to believe it is.
It helps is BOTH sides of the stage are aware of the challenges that occur to make a great show!!
 
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#71
micguy said:
First page in my handbook: If you work with the Sound Person, he/she will be more likely to make you and your band sound good. Never do anything to piss of a sound person. Yes, the good ones will make you sound good even if you're a jerk, but it's never helpful to be combative - even with a good FOH person, you're wasting time if you're arguing. For the gigs I do, everyone (production folks and performers included) is there to create something together; arguing with the sound person means it's your last time playing there. You'll find that to be true in most circumstances.
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How come the sound guy feels free to piss us off but we are never to piss him off? I get really irritated with that kind of attitude. Nobody should be pissing anybody off. But I damn sure am not going to take orders from a sound guy who would have the nerve to piss me off when I show up with one of the world's finest amps ever made and tell me I couldn't use it. I'd laugh in his face and just continue setting up.
 
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#73
zachoff said:
Fine, but why doesn't consistent signal matter with guitar, vocals, and drums? It's just really damn frustrating as a bass player to always have to fight to get a mic.
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It does.. and if the guitar player has an XLR DI connection, I'll go there before I put a mic on it.
Some drums have triggers, but most acoustic drums are mic'd because there really isn't a better way - at this point.
I'm not going to mic a keys amp if it has XLR outs.. I'll take them.
For me, putting a mic on something (ion today's world) is my LAST choice - UNLESS I have plenty of time to set up and sound check the band.
 
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#75
I generally play humbler venues with sound engineers who’ve never met or heard us before, and where we often either have no sound check at all, or a very rushed line check. In these situations, the risk of me not being able to hear myself properly through the monitors (whether wedges or IEMs) is VERY high.

If I bring an amp, it gives me some level of confidence that I’ll be able to hear myself despite a poor/rushed/nonexistent monitor mix. It can help even if I have to turn down a lot to accommodate the rest of the band using IEMs.
 
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#77
My experience is that they usually want the drummer to shar a wedge with the bassist, in which case all you hear are cymbals and snare after the first set.

Or you never quite get enough bass through the monitor, and when you do everything else becomes muddy.

The subs are usually so from where I am as a bassist and lack the articulation I need to play in a nuanced manner.

The band usually likes the definition of the amp on stage too, but I have never played loud enough on stage to vercome 2000+ Watts this of subwoofer.
 
#78
JimmyM said:
How come the sound guy feels free to piss us off but we are never to piss him off? I get really irritated with that kind of attitude. Nobody should be pissing anybody off. But I damn sure am not going to take orders from a sound guy who would have the nerve to piss me off when I show up with one of the world's finest amps ever made and tell me I couldn't use it. I'd laugh in his face and just continue setting up.
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I wish I could like this more than once. I’m so sick of hearing how on one hand sound guys are so professional, but on the other hand piss them off and they will sabotage the mix. Which is it??

If I’m playing with multiple bands, I take what I can get. Otherwise if they are running sound for my band, they work for the band regardless of who is paying them. The club hired my band. Unless we want the sound man to do something that is offensive to the audience it will drive people out of the club, he/she should mix the band the way the BAND wants to sound.
 
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#79
I'm with @TheLowDown33, for the last 10 years my sound is coming from preamp and effects so I don't really need an amp onstage anymore. My Eleven Rack is giving me a great SVT sound (with effects) out of XLR and DI to FOH. I use an 12" powered speaker with a 12" sub at home and like it better than having an amp. So I use whatever provided 12" powered speaker for monitor and that's it. I can bring the 12" sub if ever needed. I'm also looking for an Ampeg SCR DI that will fit in the gig bag, so much fun to pack everything in 10mins after the show and drink a beer watching the guitarist pack its equipment :D

But OP use whatever feels right for you and work with sound guy to make sure your stage level cooperate well with FOH sound.
 
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