Bass Through PA ??????

[5thumbs]

Our current bass player is double-booked for a gig and as a result we are asking our old bass player to stand in. Despite quitting playing live he still has his guitar (Ricky bass) but no amp as he sold his stack.

Question - anyone have experience of putting bass through the PA (perhaps with something like a POD as preamp)?

At present we only put the voices and acoustic guitar through there - not guitars and drums. The speakers are 15" EVs so good quality but I wondered if the bass would drown the vocals . If we can do it this way it would save us having to buy/hire an amp for the odd gig....

Any views?

[tenstrings]

Our current bass player is double-booked for a gig and as a result we are asking our old bass player to stand in. Despite quitting playing live he still has his guitar (Ricky bass) but no amp as he sold his stack.

Question - anyone have experience of putting bass through the PA (perhaps with something like a POD as preamp)?

At present we only put the voices and acoustic guitar through there - not guitars and drums. The speakers are 15" EVs so good quality but I wondered if the bass would drown the vocals . If we can do it this way it would save us having to buy/hire an amp for the odd gig....

Any views?

I've played a 5-string through a PA before via a DI and EQ'd it using the bass's built in active circuitry. The success or otherwise of playing through PA is really down to the engineer.

If at all in doubt, see if you can get a dedicated PA speaker for the bass. Most club-size PAs have four channels for routing.

J

[suityou316]

http://www.dv247.com/invt/26905/

Should be all you need to DI into the PA

[funkyfraz]

Yep, Most half decent gigs the bass gets DI'd into the pa anyway, And as long as you have decent monitors then stage sound wont be an issue. As long as he isn't precious about his tone then theres fuck all to worry about - as long as the sound man is ok at his job.

[5thumbs]

As far as having a decent sound man goes - well that'll be us then...!

Like many gigging pub bands we don't have an offstage sound bloke. We basically have a 1kw pa with limited stuff going through it. From what everyone has said though there doesn't appear to be any technical reason why it wont work and as long as we do our normal sound check pre-gig we ought to be able to get a half decent sound.

Someone mentioned monitors which may be an issue come to think of it as we only have (4) Wharfdale EVP12 which are 12 inch speakers and therefore may not handle the on stage sound for bass very well

Hmmmm.......

[tenstrings]

As far as having a decent sound man goes - well that'll be us then...!

Like many gigging pub bands we don't have an offstage sound bloke. We basically have a 1kw pa with limited stuff going through it. From what everyone has said though there doesn't appear to be any technical reason why it wont work and as long as we do our normal sound check pre-gig we ought to be able to get a half decent sound.

Someone mentioned monitors which may be an issue come to think of it as we only have (4) Wharfdale EVP12 which are 12 inch speakers and therefore may not handle the on stage sound for bass very well

Hmmmm.......

If you need bass monitoring, put the monitor closer to chest/neck height for better audibility. Watch the levels though!

J

[reverend]

Sansamp bass drivers DI'd into the PA can sound immense.

[manicguitarist2]

Our current bass player is double-booked for a gig and as a result we are asking our old bass player to stand in. Despite quitting playing live he still has his guitar (Ricky bass) but no amp as he sold his stack.

Question - anyone have experience of putting bass through the PA (perhaps with something like a POD as preamp)?

At present we only put the voices and acoustic guitar through there - not guitars and drums. The speakers are 15" EVs so good quality but I wondered if the bass would drown the vocals . If we can do it this way it would save us having to buy/hire an amp for the odd gig....

Any views?

You'll be fine.
We do this a lot where there isn't much space - we leave the bass rig in the bassist's car and DI him.
Yes the stage sound isn't ideal, but as we all go through the monitors anyways...