Basic & small acoustic amp/vocal input for small small gigs?

Creed_Clicks · November 2019

Hi all, any good recommendations for a basic acoustic amp/vocal input. Not really looking for any effects as such.

I´m going to be using a EHX dispatch master and a TC Looper with the acoustic, and go through a TC Helicon harmony singer, and TC vocal looper, so going to play around with pedal effects etc.
I guess a basic neutral enough sounding monitor could do, like the Roland Cube Monitor, but that might be too small in terms of power?
Just browsing online to get an idea of what’s out there , there seems to be plenty of choice.
What should I look at minimum wattage wise? Seems like I could get what I need for around £150.

Modellista · November 2019

The Marshall AD50 is ubiquitous and fairly decent. It's loud, I once filled a decent size marquee with one (when I say filled I mean it was loud enough to be heard as background music above the general hubbub). It's a useful make louderer for vocals, acoustic instrumi and even bass. Has two channels, decent EQ, reverb and a feedback suppression circuit. £150 will get you a nice used one.

I do have a hankering after an AER which are on another level of quality and price.

hubobulous · November 2019

I have a ZT Lunchbox that I'd consider selling. Small, portable, loud enough and has a vocal input. Adrian Legg uses a similar one for monitoring

https://www.ztamplifiers.com/lunchbox-acoustic-amp.html

Image: https://www.ztamplifiers.com/uploads/8/2/0/3/82030324/4725020_orig.jpg

Image: https://www.ztamplifiers.com/uploads/8/2/0/3/82030324/9373593_orig.jpg

Creed_Clicks · November 2019

@Modellista yeah, I was looking at something like that. I came across the Artec A50D which is cheap and cheerful and would do the job too.

@hubobulous how does this sound with a vocal mic? How much you selling for out of curiosity?

ICBM · November 2019

Modellista said:

The Marshall AD50 is ubiquitous and fairly decent. It's loud, I once filled a decent size marquee with one (when I say filled I mean it was loud enough to be heard as background music above the general hubbub). It's a useful make louderer for vocals, acoustic instrumi and even bass. Has two channels, decent EQ, reverb and a feedback suppression circuit. £150 will get you a nice used one.

Be very careful running bass through one - I would not, at anything other than home volume. Or keyboards, or backing tracks or anything else with wide frequency range and/or high average power. The power IC is not adequately rated for sustained full power output, and will shut itself down meaning that the amp is then unusable for several minutes until it cools down - assuming the thermal protection does actually stop the IC blowing... it doesn't always.

The AS100 is in a different league, and actually doesn't sell for that much more - but it is a lot larger and heavier.

p90fool · November 2019

I agree, the AS100 is a great amp and feels much more like a professional bit of kit. I've done 200-seater gigs with a pair of them, used for two electros and one voice.

BigLicks67 · November 2019

Have a go on a Fishman Loudbox Mini you could probably pick one up used for £150.00. For acoustic, it has a natural and unprocessed sound.

Snags · November 2019

Not sure if a Loudbox Mini has enough oomph for a small gig on it's own. I guess it depends on whether people will be listening, or whether you need to overcome background noise. I've got one that I mostly use as a combined monitor/DI (just for the guitar) in certain situations, and it works great for that. I've only used the vocal input at home (at volume) to get used to hearing my own voice come back at me and my recollection was that there was a lot more push on the instrument channel than the vocal one.

Creed_Clicks · November 2019

It would be for use in small places in Spain and not to stereotype, but they can be loud !

Jalapeno · November 2019

In my experience the Loudbox mini is pretty gutless compared to its bigger brother (which would be fine)

ZT Lunchbox is a good idea, maybe with a bigger speaker through the External socket.

mgaw · November 2019

is a portable pa out of the question Yamaha (as always) do a decent range, I had the 400i and although more than you need was astounding for the amount i paid 2nd hand they do smaller ones, they all pack away very neatly

Creed_Clicks · November 2019

mgaw said:

is a portable pa out of the question Yamaha (as always) do a decent range, I had the 400i and although more than you need was astounding for the amount i paid 2nd hand they do smaller ones, they all pack away very neatly

I was thinking about this. An acoustic amp with vocal input V a portable PA. Both essentially the same thing?

ICBM · November 2019

Creed_Clicks said:

An acoustic amp with vocal input V a portable PA. Both essentially the same thing?

Up to a point - although the acoustic amp will usually have EQ and features specially designed to make an acoustic guitar work better, often including feedback control, and the vocal sound might be slightly better on the PA because it will be closer to a true full-range system.

But a PA is also quite a lot more hassle to carry and set up, even if it's one of those 'suitcase' type systems that pack into a single unit for transporting. It also depends on the size of the room.

I've used both for a guitar/vocal duo (one guitar, one vocal - I don't sing and she doesn't really play), and for a small room (20 or so people, low volume) I prefer an acoustic amp. For a larger room or with two guitars and/or two vocals, it starts to tip more towards a PA.

Creed_Clicks · November 2019

@ICBM yeah, good point. I'm still in decision. Ideally something with two XLR inputs would be good, so it would give the option of connecting the guitar to a DI box...

crunchman · November 2019

Snags said:

Not sure if a Loudbox Mini has enough oomph for a small gig on it's own. I guess it depends on whether people will be listening, or whether you need to overcome background noise. I've got one that I mostly use as a combined monitor/DI (just for the guitar) in certain situations, and it works great for that. I've only used the vocal input at home (at volume) to get used to hearing my own voice come back at me and my recollection was that there was a lot more push on the instrument channel than the vocal one.

It's 60W - which is 10W more than the Marshall that has been suggested. For solo stuff without a drummer it will be fine, unless it's a big venue, in which case there should be a PA anyway.

ICBM · November 2019

Creed_Clicks said:

Ideally something with two XLR inputs would be good, so it would give the option of connecting the guitar to a DI box...

No point unless it's going to a PA. If you're using an acoustic amp the cabling will be short and all on stage so losses and hum aren't an issue normally - and if they are, you probably need a preamp for the guitar not a DI box.

Creed_Clicks · November 2019

@ICBM I’ll be using a dearmond tone boss soundhole pickup. I nearly always used a DI box with any semi acoustic I used live in the past and it always gave it that extra bit of poke.
Are you suggesting a preamp instead would be better?
I was thinking of something like the mooer micro DI box.

ICBM · November 2019

Creed_Clicks said:

@ICBM I’ll be using a dearmond tone boss soundhole pickup. I nearly always used a DI box with any semi acoustic I used live in the past and it always gave it that extra bit of poke.
Are you suggesting a preamp instead would be better?

Or any buffered pedal, if it's going to an acoustic amp - something like a Boss tuner is fine. That's really all a DI box is doing when it goes to the PA - the conversion to low impedance/balanced is useful if it's going down a long cable to the desk, but not necessary if it's just 10 or 20 feet on stage.

Creed_Clicks · November 2019

@ICBM this I did not know! In all my years playing... yeah, it would most likely be going through a boss tuner. Now back to my original query

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Basic & small acoustic amp/vocal input for small small gigs?

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