Connecting Guitar Amp to cheap PA
 

Hi, someone suggested that for a volume increase,
I can connect my Roland AC-33 to a cheap PA instead of an expensive one.
Will a cheap PA speaker still be transparent and do the trick ?
And that way, will I keep my Roland AC 33 tone, but gain additional volume?
Or will a cheap PA kill/color the tone too much.

I am asking, because the Bose s1 price range is too much for atm.

Would love to hear your opinions/ experiences.

The whole idea of any PA system is the Full Range Flat Response FRFR nature of them -- full range covers the lows and highs, flat response does not color the sound. That's why many electric guitar players get a modeler multi effects unit and plug in into a PA and get good results (though some tube amp users will surely disagree). Nonetheless, plugging your Roland into a PA speaker and/or PA system should (in theory) do just that -- take your wet signal from your amp, and amplify it. I plug my large pedalboard into my PA all the time and get great tone. Also, I patch my Yamaha THR10II into a PA and get great results as well. Read your manual and make sure the line outs are "post" (that is, the wet signal from your amps settings and effects), otherwise, you may have to line-out via the heaphone jack, which, although not recommended, will work.

"The strength of amplified sound is always compromised by the weakest link in the chain. " Milli Vanilli circa 1988

"Cheap PA" - first judge what your guitar sounds like plugged straight into it. Cheap systems tend to make acoustic guitars sound harsh, specially when the volume is raised.

Define Cheap. There is a lot of junk out there, and some actually think it sounds fine. While I have QSC taste, I'm pretty happy with Behringer powered speakers, especially the 8" model. Less than $200. To me that is pretty affordable.

Are you looking for volume or coverage?

I'm against cheap.

Anything.

I think the word "cheap" is muddying this thread. There are PA systems out there that "cost less" than the premium offerings that, while they may not have a 6 year warranty, and you won't see them being used in concert halls or large houses of worship, the major retailers sell hundreds of them and there are real world users for whom they work just fine.

Cheap is subjective. To me, cheap could be having a multi-thousand dollar PA system and using taped up XLR cables from the 80s. To you, cheap may be playing a guitar that didn't cost $2500. It's a relative term.

To the OP, I believe as long as the PA system is listed in the Pro Sound section of a reputable retailer, yes, patching your (not cheap) Roland amp to it will make it louder and it should not color the sound unless someone gets out of hand with the EQ dials.

I humbly suggest weighing your options and making a pragmatic decision. You need more volume but you don't have a ton of money to throw at the problem. Your options are:

1) Buy the best-sounding PA you can afford

or

2) Not buy any PA and just carry on with what you've got

If buying a less-expensive PA gives you less than stellar results, is that "colored sound" better than not being loud enough?

It all boils down to this question: Which is more valuable to you - protecting the quality of your tone, or achieving the volume level you desire?

Who is this for? If it's for you, I can understand sparing the money and soldiering on. If it's for an audience at a gig, they aren't going to notice.

Musicians Friend use to sell on their SDOTD the Harbinger VARI2112 12" powered speaker. Over time I bought 3 of them.

I have 2 of them in my garage and the third I use when hosting an open mic.

I use to take my Yamaha speakers to open mic until one was accidentally knocked over and put an ugly scratch on the casing.

When using the Harbingers, I've never had any complaints about the sound quality from anyone at the open mic, musicians or audience.

The key to the low budget speakers is to not push them too hard. If you want to crank the volume all the way to 10, get better quality.

I've used my Loudbox Mini with a Harbinger, outside where again, I didn't want to risk damaging my better gear. There was no complaints of sound quality.

I prefer to play through my better gear, I also want it to last a long time and will use it when I need to but when the needs not there, the low budget gear is used.

No one complaining at an open mic is a pretty low bar. I and a friend co host one where the venue had an ancient pair of Peavys that sounded horrible. We bought a pair of QSCs to fly from the ceiling. They are superb. Very few people care. We use the Behringer powered speakers as monitors.

This gets back to the audience not caring, which is so true. The people who care are the performer and the other one or two performers in the audience.