Why do we still use amps?

[Revolver]

In my experience, any basement that dares to call itself a music bar or a club and accepts underground bands has at least some PA and a dude at the mixer.

That might hold true for Latvia (& most European countries), but rest assured that this isn't the case in a A LOT of other places around the world.

 

[funkymonk13]

Do you guys see no amp becoming the standard?

I feel like small/medium amp mic’d has def overtaken carrying stacks. I rarely see newer bands hauling huge amplifiers; it’s all smaller stuff that gets mic’d.
It’s more practical, a small light and powerful head with a decent lightweight cab is enough for smaller rooms/gigs that don’t have a PA. Then at bigger gigs most of the time the venues are gonna have a PA

It’s interesting because DJs and electronic acts are overtaking live music. I feel like a lot of what holds back live bands is having like 7 dudes, each with a ridiculous amount of gear. It makes it too hard travel and get places. I think a lot of the younger generation who realize this are adapting and making more streamlined/minimalist rigs that let them do their thing wherever they go.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just have a bass in a gig bag a few extra cables and strings and that’s all you gotta worry about carrying. Just show up, plug in and play. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

 

[whoismarykelly]

Some gigs FOH doesn't get your signal.

For the vast majority of players I'd say that's all gigs. I mostly play house shows and small venues where your best hope is a PA that can get the vocals loud enough to be heard over the rest of the band. Amps and cabs are absolutely necessary and honestly part of the fun for heavy music guys. If I was backing a pop artist I would be perfectly happy with in-ears and going straight to FOH while playing for thousands of people a night. But if Im riffing along to blastbeats and selling less than 500 copies of a record I'm probably sticking to a big rig

 

[Double E]

Wouldn’t it be nice to just have a bass in a gig bag a few extra cables and strings and that’s all you gotta worry about carrying. Just show up, plug in and play. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

No, because you will never be able to rely on every venue to have solid equipment to support this scenario. At least not at the low to mid level gigs that the vast majority of us are out there playing.

 

[klokker]

Our band is built around the sound of our amps, with our PA there to support not the other way around. Very few places we play in have a PA at all, or the PA that is there is crap. Rarely do we have a sound person.

I also have played at a church with a great sound system PA, its huge. There, the sound people run things, we can go direct. Amps just complicate things.

In the band, we go after the sound WE want as a band, the base line sound is what is coming out of our cabs. In a church situation we play and the sound mix is what someone else wants. In one situation then we need amps, in the other we don't at all.

 

[funkymonk13]

That might hold true for Latvia (& most European countries), but rest assured that this isn't the case in a A LOT of other places around the world.

No, because you will never be able to rely on every venue to have solid equipment to support this scenario. At least not at the low to mid level gigs that the vast majority of us are out there playing.

Genuinely curious, what type of places are you guys referring to?

Pretty much every place (that’s actually a music venue) I go to has a PA and someone at the mixer. Not sure how they would survive without one.

Edit: I also wanna point out that I’m not saying don’t carry an amp. Just that I feel like from my experience most places are equipped to handle a no amp situation in case of an emergency, even if it’s not the most ideal scenario in terms of sound. I think as technology keeps getting cheaper and better we could see this becoming more of a norm.

 

[BurningSkies]

No, because you will never be able to rely on every venue to have solid equipment to support this scenario. At least not at the low to mid level gigs that the vast majority of us are out there playing.

We've been playing from Northern New England down to the Mid-Atlantic region for a while...and even at that tier (regional touring circuit) most gigs make me want to have my own amp. For gigs where we're not headlining, it's a good bet we won't be able to integrate our IEM rig, some rooms while having PA may have clapped-out subs or just not enough FOH. At least a few places we've played didn't have enough channels on the snake/board for everything. My amp is insurance when we need it. I feel that when we're in a place to dictate the terms a little more fully, it would be possible, if we really wanted it, and again, I have a setup that will allow me no stage volume and we only run that way on occasion.

Also small to mid-sized festivals are often not fully equipped to handle us dropping our rig with splits & a fan snake on stage for IEMS for an hour set in the middle of a day of music. You'd think more places would have set of outputs ready for quick use...but only one festival did this year of all the stuff we played.

 

[higain617]

Playing without a backline looks odd to me. It’s really all over once you throw in headset mics.

 

[Double E]

Genuinely curious, what type of places are you guys referring to?

Pretty much every place (that’s actually a music venue) I go to has a PA and someone at the mixer. Not sure how they would survive without one.

Many places do have PA but whether the staff or equipment is good enough to provide a pleasant ampless experience is what I question. I don’t want to have a crappy experience, I play for my own pleasure as much as the audience.

 

[Double E]

Someone please link me to some live footage of a regional or lower tier band having fun jamming ampless on stage.

 

[dkelley]

my basses are really quiet without an amp.

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But seriously folks... for me, the sound of my bass through stage monitors often isn't what I want. I want my instrument to sound LOUDER than the rest of the band, just like everyone does for their own instrument.

When you play your axe, it is louder if you have an amp by you... if it's an acoustic instrument, it's louder because it's next to you.

The disconnect when your axe is sitting perfectly in the mix while performing can be frustrating.

Also, I need to hear myself louder than the other instruments to make sure I catch my own playing side effects, tone side effects, tuning, etc, before it's so bad that it comes through in the general mix heard by everyone else.

Also... most stage monitor mixes aren't unique for the bassist - you can't generally ask for your own custom mix in your monitor. If you could, on those rare cases I've been able to, a bass amp became less important.

BUT, I still prefer an amp - I can move my head to hear more me, less me, how it fits in the mix etc, without asking anyone else, as required. It's just a way to get much more flexibility when performing.

 

[funkymonk13]

Many places do have PA but whether the staff or equipment is good enough to provide a pleasant ampless experience is what I question. I don’t want to have a crappy experience, I play for my own pleasure as much as the audience.

Ahh I see. Yea 100% agree with that. Still I feel like since more people are into audio production now due to easier/cheaper access to equipment sound guys are a lot more capable and efficient at coming up with great solutions. Even the divey/grimy places in NYC have great sound systems and great sound dudes, they wouldn’t last otherwise. Obviously big metro areas are gonna be a bit ahead when it comes to that but I do think it’s getting better everywhere.

 

[dave_bass5]

Because we like them

Id also go so far as to say a lot of people dont just follow the latest trends.

 

[BurningSkies]

Many places do have PA but whether the staff or equipment is good enough to provide a pleasant ampless experience is what I question. I don’t want to have a crappy experience, I play for my own pleasure as much as the audience.

Or worse, you show up with your IEMs and get a monitor feed from the board and the less-than-stellar engineer at club rando blasts out your ears when you're trying to soundcheck and dial it in because you couldn't set up your own IEM mixer.

 

[fishdreams]

Retooling at the moment towards a Quilter Interbass + Acoustic Image Doubleshot. That takes care of almost all the places I play locally featuring low-loudness music that don't require PA to begin with, to which I can bring my own gear weighing a whopping 16lbs in total that fits in a tom tom soft case.

Anywhere that has loud music or is bigger, typically has its own PAs and/or backlines. Happy to just bring my Arkham Zephyr preamp with its amazing direct out, and skip the backline altogether.

 

[Lowbrow]

... because they give you somewhere to put your beer.

 

[woodyng2]

I've seen a bunch of interesting bass rigs from touring artists - mostly in the rock / metal scene where the guys usually send some sort a direct signal to the front of house and use amps on stage.

My question is - why do so many guys spend the money on 800+ watt amps and 8x10" cabs plus go trough the effort of transporting it to gigs, when no one except the bass player actually cares. How many bands do you know that actually mic up their cabs and don't just go trough the DI of the amp in the end?

Here's a recent example, where the guy is sending 2 direct signals to the PA. Why not use the same setup + an IR loader to send the signal directly.


P.s. I don't use an amp, and my band uses an in-ear monitoring system.

I’ve used a 112 Markbass combo for years, recently went simultaneously wireless/ampless using a Tech 21 VT DI box directly into the PA. I’m liking it so far, with just a slight bit of bass coming through the vocal monitor for reinforcement. I would also love to try the IEM route at some point.

 

[woodyng2]

#7 In-ears can never ever flap your pants legs

Well, it could, but you’d be dead!

 

[DJ Bebop]

Because I don't have PA support at home

 

[Valveman]

when no one except the bass player actually cares.

Because I'm the bass player and I care.