Amp vs. P.A.

[chacho]

Cool, some new boards...

Just curious what those of you who perform acoustically use to amplify guitar and voice.

I've used P.A.'s in the past. I think they're great for vocals but sometimes a little flat for recreating acoustic guitar.

Currently I use a Genz Benz Shenandoah Acoustic 100 with guitar on one side and vocals on the other. I run my guitar through a DI box but my vocals go straight to the amp. The amp is the reverse of the P.A.: great for guitar tone, lacking for vocals. Since vocals are in less than half of my repertoire I decided to sacrifice that instead of guitar tone.

I guess in a perfect world I'd have a P.A. for vocals and an amp for guitar. But many of the places I play have small areas to set up, not to mention the pain of lugging the extra equipment around, and the extra $.

[haoli25]

Gingold, have you thought of running your vocals through small mixer board or a microphone processor into the amp? Both are small, not very expensive, and allow you to adjust the EQ that you need.

Haoli

[haoli25]

haoli25 wrote:

Gingold, have you thought of running your vocals through small mixer board or a microphone processor into the amp? Both are small, not very expensive, and allow you to adjust the EQ that you need.

Haoli

haoli25--that's a good idea. I haven't given it too much thought to be honest. I tend to put vocals as a lower priority so I've just lived with my vocal's sound the way it is. I'd like to experiment with a mic processor and compare the difference though. Any recommendations?

[haoli25]

Actually, YES, Gingold. At our group of radio stations we use two different models. I prefer the AirCorp Model 500 TV...a friend of mine designed it. lol It works well and is very easy to use.
The disc jockeys prefer the Symetrix Model 528E. They like the De-Esser and Downward Expander features to make up from their improper mic technique. lol But then again, what do disc jockeys know.

Haoli

[grahamg]

Hi my most recent adventure was in a small club, we were asked to do a 30min set prior to the main act. There was a PA so we did not take amps == the sound was awful due to the PA not being set up correctly for us and we did not have the time to sound check. So in that situation the amp is the best option as you can easily change it.... however I must confess that as the venue was small it would have been better to not use either.

I also find that if PA is used and the speakers are in front of you with not monitors - I find it really hard to hearwhats going on...

Graham