Bass directly through PA only?

[BluesCam]

Hello. I am in a duo with a bass player. I sing and play acoustic/electric. Our current PA speakers are 15" with horn. I have been keeping them because the bass player doesn't want to bring an amp to gigs and I'm afraid a direct bass will kill 12" cabinets. Anyone have experience with this? In the past, with a whole band, we would leak a slight bit of all the instruments through the PA. But, now, in a duo, the bass would be pretty driving through the cabinets. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[rmyAddison]

Many bass cabinets have 12" speakers, you just need a good balance between your guitar and the bass.

My concern, and I played in bands over 35 years and did sound, would be monitors, how are you going to hear each other and yourselves (and the balance) if the PA cabs are "out front".

Tons of variables, if neither of you is using an amp (which would provide instrument levels/monitor on stage), and you're doing the traditional PA out front left/right, you need monitors, or you're guessing about the balance/levels the audience hears.

Decent 12" cabs with horns can handle the bass, but how are you going to mix/hear yourselves ??

[RustyAxe]

I play bass in two duo singer/songwriter projects, and an acoustic classic country trio. No problem running bass through the PA when I need to. I use a tiny Gallien-Kreuger MB200 micro-amp with a Genz-Benz STL8 (8") cab on stage as my bass monitor, and DI the amp to the board. I don't want bass in the vocal monitors, ever. Playing acoustic bass guitars and/or acoustic upright bass putting the bass in the vocal monitors is asking for boomy-ness and feedback issues. With the tiny cab between and behind us we hear the bass fine on stage. In fact, that tiny rig can fill a decent sized "listening venue" (50+ people) all by itself.

12" mains are no problem. Even 10" are OK if the volume isn't too loud. The problem with speakers not designed for bass is that they don't have the excursion necessary to accurately reproduce those low note at volume without causing damage. If you hear no distortion in the mains at sound check, you're fine.

Finally, tell your bass player if he wants to play gigs, he has to provide the gear to play gigs.

[CaffeinatedOne]

The big issue is whether the speakers are overdriven. For a duo, its hard to imagine that happening with the cabs you describe. I've had fine results doing sound for bands using 12" Mackie cabs and leaving the subwoofers at home (I have two 15" subs the size of small dishwashers - anyone want 'em?). I just never did any metal bands.

Whether the sound works or not is going to be an individualized thing, but I wouldn't worry about it with a duo. It can get more complicated with four or five people on the stage.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by BluesCam

Hello. I am in a duo with a bass player. I sing and play acoustic/electric. Our current PA speakers are 15" with horn. I have been keeping them because the bass player doesn't want to bring an amp to gigs and I'm afraid a direct bass will kill 12" cabinets. Anyone have experience with this? In the past, with a whole band, we would leak a slight bit of all the instruments through the PA. But, now, in a duo, the bass would be pretty driving through the cabinets. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Hi BC…
I own a PA with 12" two way cabinets, which my bass player dozens of times has just plugged into his outboard gear and then into the board. It works great!

Of course you don't want to overdrive the cabinets, but I'd think that is a simple matter of doing your sound check, and not ramping up the volume extremely after that.

We tend to run our cabinets behind us and fire over the top, so he has a monitor too.

[BluesCam]

Thanks guys! Mostly, we would be playing small venues with 30-100 people. Anything larger than that, we would need to rely on a "house" PA.

I played in a duo about 30 yr. ago and we used large Yamaha 15" 2-way cabs.
We set them to the side, slightly behind us, and angled in. It worked great. That was with two guitars, two vocals, and no bass.

Around town, I see all kinds of set-ups including the acoustic guitar amp with a mic input. We are in our 60's and do not want to move a ton of gear around, especially because the gigs don't pay very much. Trying to find a reasonable "small footprint," nice sounding set up.

Thanks!

Bob

[slewis]

Originally Posted by RustyAxe

....Finally, tell your bass player if he wants to play gigs, he has to provide the gear to play gigs.

Absolutely!

[jonfields45]

That is our usual set up with a single Yamaha DBR10 high and behind.

[BluesCam]

Wow, it's pretty amazing that you don't get feedback. What a back saver!
Thanks.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by BluesCam

Wow, it's pretty amazing that you don't get feedback. What a back saver!
Thanks.

Hi BC…
We've been flying our PA above and behind us for 20 plus years with no feedback issues…no need for monitors, and for smaller gigs, only a single cabinet.

Doesn't work well for heavy metal bands, but about everything else - it works fine.

[crikey]

Originally Posted by RustyAxe

Finally, tell your bass player if he wants to play gigs, he has to provide the gear to play gigs.

Bass players, sheesh. (I keed! I keed!)

[MODELL]

I play bass in a small trio with singer, guitar and drum machine. Many times, we actually used no amps and the bass went directly into the PA while using QSC K8's as the mains. The woofers in these speakers are 8". I was very impressed with the bass tone I was getting through these speakers even when they were on stands. The bass went direct via an active DI.

[BluesCam]

Thanks guys! To those of you who are using powered speakers, what do you use for a mixer? Also, anyone using Yamaha powered mixers? I was looking
at a Yamaha EMX-312SC.

Thanks!

Bob

[Br1ck]

Originally Posted by slewis

Absolutely!

There are many compact bass amps out there that will be fine in a duo setting. My Carvin AG 300 is plenty of amp and will even handle bass and acoustic at the same time.

[sam.spoons]

Phil Jones Briefcase bass combo is a great bit of kit. 2 x 5" speakers, 100 watts and an option to have a built in battery. Sounds great for electric bass and EUB. We even use it with a Uke Bass for the ultimate portable bass rig I have a Roland AC33 acoustic guitar/vocal combo for off grid gigs but I'm seriously considering a PJ Briefcase for acoustic guitar as it has a lot more beef than the Roland.