Have you ever looked longingly at your current bass amplifier and wondered whether it would cut it at a live show? Perhaps you only have a small practice unit, or maybe you only have room at home or in your car for a smaller amp. At the same time, you might be assuming that gigs at larger venues require your modestly-sized bass rig to be upgraded to an 8x10 in order to cut through. Is that actually true?
The truth is that having an amplifier for a live show isn’t completely necessary. There are plenty of bassists out there gigging without amplifiers on stage, DI-ing themselves straight into the PA or via a pedalboard/preamp in tandem with an in-ear monitoring system. This solution doesn’t really affect the front-of-house sound in larger venues, but it will certainly affect your experience – most notably because of the absence of air being moved behind you, or the lack of a rumble from the amp. There are workarounds to compensate for this in the form of vibration packs like the BackBeat or vibrating platforms by Porter & Davies, but you’ll need to get comfortable with this over time. It’s also worth noting that an ampless stage will look empty, so stage dressing or stage sets will be necessary to make up for this.