I stopped trying to use under base because it never turned out right. Guess my question is, do any of you printers out there disregard under base and just do with out? Or is an under base needed?

There are many high density (opaque) inks that you can print on dark garments without an under base. They cost just a little more but save lots of time. You may need to h/f/h though in order to get good color.

Apeshirt is correct. There are many high quality inks designed to print directly on black or dark garments. These inks will be sold as high opacity inks. Here is a very recent video I did about just this:



Sometimes you may want to do as Apeshirt suggested and do a hit flash hit if you want a very opaque print that jumps off the shirt. See the following video for more on that:



Otherwise with the correct mesh like a 125/70 then you may be able to print it simply with 2 or 3 print strokes and then send it off to the oven as in the video above.
If you need help with mesh nomenclature then see this article:

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/sc ... sions.html

On the 125 mesh the thread diameter of 70 micrometers makes for a screen that prints like a 110 but with higher detail and resolution. It actually has better ink flow characteristics than a 110/80 or especially a 110/90.

So yes, you can print without an under base if it is suitable for the job you are printing.