Finally got the chance to properly test out my AER Compact 60/3....

Lewy · October 2019

Up until now, I've only used it as an onstage monitor, with a PA producing the out-front sound. But I had three different gigs this weekend as part of Swanage blues festival and decided to experiment with just using the Compact 60 for guitar and vocals, no PA. I still took my little PA with me just in case but I'm happy to say it never needed to come out of the car.

I was performing sitting down, with vocal mic and guitar plugged into the AER on a mic stand, a bit higher than my (seated) head height kind of behind me and over to one side.

Gig 1 - small restaurant, generally a listening audience...I knew this one was going to be fine and it was.
Gig 2 - gastro pub, talking audience and an awkward playing position. Spread of sound was my main concern about whether it was going to work because I was positioned such that virtually none of the audience was in-front of me, they were all off to each side. If I'd have been using my PA I'd have angled the speakers outwards but I just set the AER facing straight forward and as it goes it radiated the sound perfectly well
Gig 3 - larger restaurant/wine bar - my worry with this one was that the amp on it's own would sound a bit small in a bigger space. Again it came up trumps and put out plenty of overall level and also low end.

For the loudest of the gigs, I had it up around halfway on the master. There was definitely headroom. I felt it worked very nicely for vocals (with a beta 58) and above everything else at no point did it sound like everything was coming from a small box in the corner.

Definitely sold on the concept now - I can't think of any gigs that I do where I'd bother using anything else now. The only pain is making any adjustments while it's up on a stand (controls on the top) but that's a small price to pay (and I don't think it would have worked as well had it not have been up on a stand).

Highly recommended! Especially if like me you were put off acoustic amps for a long time by experiences of sh*t ones....either using or being subjected to listening to someone else using.....

Jalapeno · October 2019

Love mine, agree they're amazing !

ICBM · October 2019

If it matters to anyone, I'm pretty sure the shop I work for still has a spare bag/case for one. I'm sure they'd be happy to sell it, it's been there since the person who bought the last one we had didn't want the bag... I assume they were going to use it purely at home.

maltingsaudio · October 2019

They are great amps, and just for interest when my original one finally released the magic smoke, I swapped the speaker in it for a 200 watt Beyma and now use it as a cab for my Bluguitar Amp 1 .

i did also buy another compact 60 for acoustic duties

thomasross20 · October 2019

Are these £800?

Is this because not all places have pa system?

Do you have gig links, Lewy? I'd love to see

Lewy · October 2019

thomasross20 said:

Are these £800?

Is this because not all places have pa system?

Do you have gig links, Lewy? I'd love to see

They’re about that, yep - although they brought out a Mk4 so the Mk3 like mine could possible be found a bit cheaper.

These days, I rarely play anywhere that has a house PA so sound reinforcement is usually down to me. With this, i can have my cables and crap in a backpack, guitar in one hand and AER and a couple of mic stands in the other. And the sound is better than with my (admittedly fairly crap) Yamaha Stagepas PA.

The only limitation is that it would need to be a plugged-in gig. Experimenting just at home and at low volume has not been encouraging when it comes to amplifying the guitar via a mic (and also it would be a faff because the amp only has one mic input ...) so I’d need another bit of outboard gear to do mic’d guitar and vocals at the same time.

Danny1969 · October 2019

They are one of the nicest sounding acoustic amps .... not the best acoustic amp sound I've heard ... that was an old Roland acoustic chorus combo but for there compactness they are amazing. We have one in our band plus the extension cab

Last year I had a MKI 60 in for repair, needed a new input jack socket and a channel switching relay plus the DSP wasn't quite right ... getting too hot. Called AER in Germany and they agreed to change the socket, relay and install a new DSP board with latest firmware for £200 which I thought was very reasonable and quite commendable they were still supporting a 15 year old amp.

menamestom · October 2019

I’m wondering whether I should sell my Princeton for one, since I’d like to do more acoustic gigs and have another valve amp for guitar.

I’d use is for vocals, acoustic guitar (probably with helix stomp and acoustic IR’s), and even potentially electric with the Helix (but only in an acoustic setting).

Does it mount well on the stand?

thomasross20 · October 2019

I'm not gigging (yet) but I'm liking the sound of this thing...

Lewy · October 2019

menamestom said:

Does it mount well on the stand?

Yep, as long as your mic stand is sturdy it’s fine.

BigLicks67 · October 2019

@Lewy regards vocals have you always used the Beta 58 and do you prefer it to the SM58?

Lewy · October 2019

BigLicks67 said:

@Lewy regards vocals have you always used the Beta 58 and do you prefer it to the SM58?

I'd happily use either but I chose the Beta to try with this amp because I anticipated that the added presence might come in handy...I was concerned about cutting through in the noisier larger venue. As it was, I didn't need to add any treble on the EQ so could have happily used an ordinary 58 too.

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Finally got the chance to properly test out my AER Compact 60/3....

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