[The Bard Rocks]

Keep the mixer, buy all means. The L1C will not work for even one person and a guitar unless the guitar has it's own pickup. Not all do (only one of mine has a p/u, for instance). And if you get a duo or a trio, you would be SOL without the mixer.

Now, going on: the ASCAP police are real and they will eventually find you and threaten to sue you unless you pay up. What you pay depends upon several things, one of which is how often these events are featured. Whether or not you are non-profit is not a concern of theirs. You can avoid them by insisting vehemently that the music played has to be either originals by the writer or PD material. And that is nearly impossible to control or enforce. And it will cost you a high percentage of potential performers.