Amp / PA advice

mattydee

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I will be playing an outdoor gig in August, on a large patio at a senior center, for about 100 people. Currently, the only real amplification I have is a Fender Acoustasonic 90. I think I will probably need to beef up the sound a little. Can I buy a couple of 10 inch passive speakers like these and use the amp to power them? I like the mix on the amp already, so I don't think I need a whole new PA system with built in reverb and mixing capabilities, etc.

Would this plan work? Does it cause more problems than it's worth? Other thoughts?

Thanks!
 
I don't see any powered outs on that amp. Looks like you need a self powered PA that can take an XLR cable or just get a more powerful rig.

If that's an XLR in on the front you might be able to get away with purchasing another combo amp that has XLR out, using that new amp as primary and slaving your fender to that one.

Or just purchase a real PA speaker and go XLR from your fender to the PA speaker.

Someone else will have better suggestions than I do of course.
 
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I don't see any powered outs on that amp. Looks like you need a self powered PA that can take an XLR cable or just get a more powerful rig.

If that's an XLR in on the front you might be able to get away with purchasing another combo amp that has XLR out, using that new amp as primary and slaving your fender to that one.

Or just purchase a real PA speaker and go XLR from your fender to the PA speaker.

Someone else will have better suggestions than I do of course.

Thanks!

Thoughts on the size of PA speaker?
 
If you can go try your amp, you might be very surprised.
I have done many an outdoor gig with my Crate Limo, which is only a 60 watt.
If you can try and elevate your amp to head/ear level of the audience.
 
Matt- It's a little more $$$, but I've got a couple of these powered PA speakers - we use them as monitors for our trio, but one of them is also enough for an open mic we run in a small restaurant. They're pretty versatile and sound great for the price.

Looks like your combo amp has an XLR out on the back - you could XLR out to 1/4 TRS line in on the 50W PA. - I imagine that would be enough. If you got two of the small PA's, you could daisy chain them with an XLR to XLR cable, but you definitely want to use the 1/4 TRS line in for any source other than a microphone - the PA XLR input is for mic only.

These little speakers are great. Like I said, I've got two and use them quite a bit for many different applications. You might try one first and see if it's got the volume you need, but at $100, getting two wouldn't break the bank and you probably get use out of the pair. They've got three channels with various types of input, but there are no onboard effects - I usually run them off a mixer, but for small open mics, I just plug in two mics and go.
 
I use the Powerwerks PW50/Kustom PA50 for a variety of PA applications. They interconnect with microphone cables. Mount them high on speaker stands and they will cover surprisingly large crowds. Here's an outdoor party where we used three of them with 6 microphones. They were aimed in three seperate directions. This was a large party and had three large canopies set up for the guests to sit down in the shade. They were spread out all over the property. Guests were called up to the buffet one canopy at a time:

CraigAndTheCruisers1.jpg


CraigAndTheCruisers3.jpg


CraigAndTheCruisers5.jpg
 
Here's a review I wrote on this system in 2008:

Ukulele amp/P.A. system for under $100 bucks…



About 3 months back (which is now 6 years ago), I was in Guitar Center checking out sound reinforcement gear. I came across a Kustom PA50 and intrigued by its size, specs and versatility:

KustomPA501.jpg


KustomPA502.jpg


KustomPA503.jpg



I searched the Guitar Center website, Musician’s Friend website and Kustom Amps website, but did not find any reference to this system. When I searched PowerWerks, I came up with:

http://powerwerks.com/pages/PA-Systems-8.aspx

http://powerwerks.com/ContentHandler.ashx?ID=87 Owners manual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZk33_3GmE4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL-RzN98VT0

http://www.youtube.com/user/GenoKreis?blend=5&ob=5#p/u/0/0xIY65YWEi0

The frontal shows the two 4.5” drivers and the high frequency horn:

KustomPA504.jpg


You can also note the rugged construction and the protective steel speaker grill. In addition, each corner is protected.
 
The rear view shows the three channels, controls, inputs and outputs. I was asked if the XLR and ¼” inputs could be used at the same time, so I plugged a microphone and instrument into both jacks on both channels. All can be used at the same time:

KustomPA505.jpg


One of the long sides has a carrying handle and the other side has four rubber feet:

KustomPA506.jpg


The bottom has a speaker stand adaptor and four rubber feet:

KustomPA507.jpg


Here it is shown mounted on an OnStage speaker stand:

KustomPA508.jpg



I liked the first one enough to purchase a second one. I almost always have one loaned out. Hula halau’s like to use a microphone for announcing and an MPR/CD player for their music when musicians are not available. There are no effects onboard, but I generally prefer to use my systems “dry” - without effects.
 
Since that review, I've purchased 6 more. Two I leave in a club we kanikapila in weekly. These make a nice modular system, where space is an issue. I have plenty of sound equipment for very large venues, but find myself using these more often. You can place them wherever you need sound coverage and interconnect them with microphone cables. Keeping the costs and size down, I sometimes plug the subwoofer out into:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Ampeg-BA-108-25W-1x8-Bass-Combo-Amp-106377534-i1784581.gc

BA-108_FRONT.jpg
 
ricdoug - I bought my two PA50's based on your recommendation and this review and I love em - thanks a million. Like I said upthread, I use them regularly for different things, but mainly as monitors for a trio. The one thing I've found - when I run from my board directly into the XLR input with a mic cable, I get a fair amount of noise. I've had much better luck using the 1/4 line level input for most sources and only use the mic/XLR input when I'm plugging a mic directly into the speaker. I use an XLR female to 1/4 TRS cable to plug into the board and they sound great. Thanks again for the heads up on these - they're a great value.
 
23skidoo, I run the XLR from the mixer to the XLR under "sync" on the PW50. Ric

....ahhhh! Thanks for the tip - never thought about that being a line-level input - just use if for daisy-chaining....thanks!
 
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