Amp Advice

RafterGirl

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
Messages
1,743
Reaction score
572
Location
Utah
I've finally gotten up the nerve to join my praise band at church. They currently have one electric guitar player one acoustic guitar player, a piano player, and an additional 4-6 singers. I should be getting my first ukulele with a pickup within the next week (Loprinzi concert with MiSi pickup). I'm not sure what the amp situation is at church. I don't know if I'll be plugging into an existing system or needing to bring my own amp. I'm a total novice at this sort of thing, but they have been quite welcoming and they said that playing in front of the church congregation is a great way to begin playing in public.

I have a Blackstar Fly 3 combo. 6 watts total. If I need to provide my own amp, will this surfice, or should I invest in something bigger?

Medium sized sanctuary. 70-100 bodies in the pews on any given Sunday.

Advice (and prayers) welcome as I venture into playing in public. My uke group did play a 30 minute Christmas concert at an assisted living center yesterday and that was great fun. There were about 20 of us playing, so I was definitely just one of the herd. Playing at church will be more nerve wracking for me!
 
RafterGirl, While I really can't give you good advice about which amp to use, I would reckon that any decent guitar amp would work.
To help with the jitters, just make sure you rehearse with the members of your "praise band" at least twice before any performance. Our ALF band practices on the average of three times per performance, and at least once before open mic (much more casual, and a great way to learn). We make sure we can do each song perfectly 3 times, or we throw it out or save it for later. It entails about 4 - 6 hours of practice for a one hour performance.
We're doing a 30 minute Christmas show at my church, and will have two practices beforehand.
 
Your black star is useless in that situation. They most likely have a PA system and you’ll plug into that. Otherwise you need to work with the church and other musicians to see what you need to fit in. Premature to recommend an amp with this info. There are a wide range of good acoustic amps and portable PA systems. How big is the room. How high is the ceiling. What is your role in the mix. What kind of amplification does the acoustic guitar player have.
 
Your black star is useless in that situation. They most likely have a PA system and you’ll plug into that. Otherwise you need to work with the church and other musicians to see what you need to fit in. Premature to recommend an amp with this info. There are a wide range of good acoustic amps and portable PA systems. How big is the room. How high is the ceiling. What is your role in the mix. What kind of amplification does the acoustic guitar player have.

Medium sized sanctuary with high ceilings. Will hold about 150+ people if every seat is filled. My guess is that I won't need my own amp and I figured my little Blackstar would be useless in that setting. I'm a total novice at this kind of thing, but I love to play, so I figured church was a good place to dive in. They practice during the week and again early Sunday morning before the service. I'm sure they will have to figure out how best to add my ukulele sound into the mix.

What's a good portable amp for smaller venues? Like playing for a small room of 20-40 people? Since I'm getting a uke with a pickup, I should be a decent medium sized amp at some point. The Blackstar is good for home practice.
 
Last edited:
You need to talk to the sound guy/gal first. Katysax had good advice there. If there is any kind of PA system, you might want to consider a multi-effects unit instead of an amp. And talk to the other "guitar" players and see what they are doing. Start small, keep it simple, and have fun!
 
Sounds like you would be able to use the church PA for this gig. See how you like it and if you like performing get an amp for all your future gigs. I've found that an amp designed for accoustic instruments works best. I use a Roland AC33. If you do get an amp and like the sound you are getting, you can send a line out of the amp into the PA and have the amp as your own little foldback box.
 
Sounds like you would be able to use the church PA for this gig. See how you like it and if you like performing get an amp for all your future gigs. I've found that an amp designed for accoustic instruments works best. I use a Roland AC33. If you do get an amp and like the sound you are getting, you can send a line out of the amp into the PA and have the amp as your own little foldback box.
I saw that amp mentioned in a lot of threads about portable amps.

The church has a sound guy and a big sound board in the back of the sanctuary, so maybe I won't need an amp to start with. We'll see how is goes. I'll start by attending a practice session to see if I'm a good fit with the group. I think they are just happy to have people willing to participate.

I do have an iRig Acoustic. I believe I can plug my MiSi into the iRig to work as a pre-amp. I know I don't actually need a pre-amp with the MiSi, but I think the iRig would give me some volume & tone control. Again....I'm a total noobie to playing plugged in. Lots to learn.
 
Last edited:
I have got more than a dozen amps. For most gigs I find that a plug is available and I have a $99 kustom pa that has a built in mixer and is very expandable. When I need a battery I use my Phil Jones db4 which is a bass amp but which works fine as an acoustic amp. I also sometimes use a lunch box sized Roland pa when indoors in a rec room. The Phillips loudbox mini is a good acoustic amp. I like the burgera ac60 as an alternative. For gigs I find that simpler is better. There is always background noise and all kind of distractions so the purest sound is not important. You need loud enough, adequate range and no noticeable distortion. The fewer extra cables and boxes and switches the better. The kustom pa50 is genius.

Skip the irig. I have lugged around preamps and pedals and in most cases have always gone back to as simple as possible. If I were a big-time musician with roadies that stuff might be cool. Fun to play with but I have to get on and off stage fast and there are crowds. Keep it simple.
 
Last edited:
I have got more than a dozen amps. For most gigs I find that a plug is available and I have a $99 kustom pa that has a built in mixer and is very expandable.


I'm not very knowledgeable about playing in public venues but I was going to suggest for general situations the Custom PA50 is quite versatile and very reasonably priced. They retail for $99 and often go on sale for $80-$85. I'm looking to pick up a second one soon as they can be connected together.
 
Check out Booli's FAQ page for more info, but a preamp/DI box might do wonders into the PA (or they might have something for you). Especially up against an electric guitarist (notoriously hard to complete with, sonically) you want your sound as focused and trimmed as possible.

PS: Another vote for the Fishman Loudbox Mini. Review on my site if you need to be convinced.
 
I'm not very knowledgeable about playing in public venues but I was going to suggest for general situations the Custom PA50 is quite versatile and very reasonably priced. They retail for $99 and often go on sale for $80-$85. I'm looking to pick up a second one soon as they can be connected together.

Any kustom pa50 can be connected to another with an xlr cable. They also make a matched subwoofer which I don’t have because I use a bass amp for my bass. I have seen some venues with multiples of the pa50 daisy chained together.

There is all kinds of more expensive equipment but the more you take it out the more you appreciate simplicity.
 
I play in a very similar situation (150 seat church with mult-instrumental band). Plugging into the PA can work, but you give up a lot of control to the people on the PA board, plus the PA system isn't necessarily designed to work with a plugged in uke. When I did my research, the one amp that was universally praised was the Fishman Loudbox Mini - it is plenty to make me heard in our church. I sing through the house sound system (they're used to dealing with vocalists), but control my own destiny with the ukulele.
 
I play in a very similar situation (150 seat church with mult-instrumental band). Plugging into the PA can work, but you give up a lot of control to the people on the PA board, plus the PA system isn't necessarily designed to work with a plugged in uke. When I did my research, the one amp that was universally praised was the Fishman Loudbox Mini - it is plenty to make me heard in our church. I sing through the house sound system (they're used to dealing with vocalists), but control my own destiny with the ukulele.

This can work. I often use a bass amp for my bass and bypass the house system. But in most cases you need to work with the house. In most situations it’s not that good for a uke to be outside of the mix. This is a reason to use a preamp if going direct.
 
This can work. I often use a bass amp for my bass and bypass the house system. But in most cases you need to work with the house. In most situations it’s not that good for a uke to be outside of the mix. This is a reason to use a preamp if going direct.

Yeah. Good or bad, the soundguy is trying to balance the levels of the band. If you're only coming through your own amp (or its louder than what's coming out of the PA via the XLR output), there's not much he can do to make you fit in the mix. This is why mixing loud drummers and loud guitarists sucks!!!. If you can't turn them down then everything has to be louder to match.
 
I got a steal on a Roland AC60. Based on your needs, would be perfect.
 
Check out Booli's FAQ page for more info, but a preamp/DI box might do wonders into the PA (or they might have something for you). Especially up against an electric guitarist (notoriously hard to complete with, sonically) you want your sound as focused and trimmed as possible.

PS: Another vote for the Fishman Loudbox Mini. Review on my site if you need to be convinced.

Cheers Brother Brad! :) (link down below in my signature for said FAQ)

...I do have an iRig Acoustic. I believe I can plug my MiSi into the iRig to work as a pre-amp. I know I don't actually need a pre-amp with the MiSi, but I think the iRig would give me some volume & tone control. Again....I'm a total noobie to playing plugged in. Lots to learn.

Yes, output of MISI is going to be guitar/instrument level, PA system house mixer INPUT is likely to be MIC level, thus an impedance mismatch, and needing at least a DI box to go into house mixer. If the church has a sound guy, they likely have an 'audio snake' on the stage for all the cables to plug in.

Such a snake is usually using XLR connectors for BALANCED audio to cancel hum and RF interference due to cable runs to the mixer being much longer than a standard guitar cable.

Th iRig Acoustic Stage, as well as the LR Baggs Five.0 AND the MISI are all 1/4" (6.35mm) output and NOT XLR output, as well as UNBALANCED, so you need to go from the instrument into either a DI BOX or preamp/DI with an XLR output....

Something like the Behringer ADI-21 ($39 everywhere) does this handily and on the cheap
. and gives you control over your sound in a foot pedal at the stage, otherwise you can spend for the LR Baggs DI/preamps ($149+) or the Fishman Aura or Zoom A3 ($299+) or a RADIAL PZ/DI ($399) or RADIAL TONEBONE ($349).

Others have suggested lots of good choices.

..but before going off and spending $300+ on a Fishman Loudbox Mini or Roland AC amp or any kind of preamp/DI box, I would attend at least a few rehearsals with the sound guy present and go with the flow, for if the house mixer out to the PA is done right, you might not need to buy anything....

Also if there is an acoustic guitar player, look at his setup, ask him questions and take some notes as to what he uses in his rig and out to the house PA system.
 
Cheers Brother Brad! :)

..but before going off and spending $300+ on a Fishman Loudbox Mini or Roland AC amp or any kind of preamp/DI box, I would attend at least a few rehearsals with the sound guy present and go with the flow, for if the house mixer out to the PA is done right, you might not need to buy anything....

Also if there is an acoustic guitar player, look at his setup, ask him questions and take some notes as to what he uses in his rig and out to the house PA system.

Exactly. Well said. This is what I was trying to say. Lots of ways to address amplification. Easy to spend a lot that is unneeded.
 
Mostly pretty much what Booli said.

Guitars, ukes etc are generally impedance mismatched with PAs. If you plug straight into a PA you often find your signal sounds weak and thin. That's especially true if your pickup is passive and the instrument has no preamp. (If you don't have to put a battery in or charge up your pickup in MISI style then your pickup is probably passive.)

Some instrument preamps have a kind of built-in DI box. In that case there will be a 3-pin XLR socket as well as the standard instrument jack. If the instrument doesn't have XLR then you plug into a DI box. A DI box matches the instrument impedance with what the PA likes to see and makes you sound a world better. The DI box I use most often is cheap (around £20 GBP) and requires no power, so they're much cheaper than amplifiers.

I get what people say about sacrificing control if you go direct into a PA. That said, when you start playing with other people in bands or at services then it is time to grow up and accept that it's not about you being in control any more. You're part of a whole. If you have an experienced sound guy at church then let him set levels and EQ - it'll sound much better and mean you have less to worry about.

When you have a bunch of players all with their own backline amps it can become a messy nightmare. The sound guy can't keep things together because everyone thinks he/she knows best how to twiddle the knobs. Also, set up and break down are much quicker and tidier when as many people as possible DI into the PA.

If you eventually find you do need an amp then the Fishman is pretty good. My favourite acoustic amp, however, is the Marshall AS50D.

I play in an "acoustic" band. As I own the PA I'm also sound guy! Everything except the bass goes into the PA without amps. That means guitars, 'ukulele, mandolin, bouzouki all work fine without amplifiers. Smaller footprint, less clutter, less to carry, less volume creep... Luxury.
 
Top Bottom