Need PA and new acoustic guitar buying advice...

[AcousticWolf]

My band currently has 2 guitars and a violin as instrumentation, 3 singing. I'm looking to get a PA that will be good for this, as well as room for supporting a full band later. Also in the market for a new acoustic guitar. Looking at a total $6k budget for both the guitar and PA. Ideas? Thanks.

[cotten]

Since your question seems to be more weighted toward the PA system, I'm sliding this thread over to our Amplification section, where more of the right people are likely to see it. You may want to repost your guitar question in General Acoustic Guitar Discussion, giving us as much to go on as possible about the kind of guitar you are interested in.

In fact, to be the most helpful, we need more information on your PA needs, too. You now have three instruments and three vocalists (6 channels so far), with a full band to come. I'm guessing that means at least 6 more channels for other instruments, so I assume that 12 channels would be the barest minimum. 16, or more if you're going to use 4 or so on the drum set, would give you more flexibility, but 20 0r 24 would be my preference.

The more you can tell us, the better our suggestions will be. For instance, here are just a few basic questions that come to mind.

• How much power will you need for the venues you'll play?
• Will they include outdoor settings?
• How will you hear yourselves? Will you use floor monitors or in-ears?
• How important is size and weight of the PA components?
• Can you live with a Shure SM58-type mic, or will you want something more sophisticated?

Something like this might be a good start, offering a lot of firepower for just under $1,500: http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/C2040-PM153
C2040 20 Channel 4-Bus Mixer w/ 6 Ch Sends, 3 Band Ch EQ
HD1500 Ultra-Light 1500W Power Amp
2 PM153 3-Way Neodymium Main Speakers
2 M68 Mics & Cables
2 C10XLR 10' Mixer/Amp Cables
2 C50S 50' Speaker Cables
(You'd need to add things like additional mic, cables, stands, etc. but this could be a great foundation for your system.)

Of course, there are many good brands out there. Peavey, Mackie, JBL, EV - the list is nearly endless and that's good, though it can be daunting. Hope this stimulates your thinking a bit, anyway!

cotten

[jomaynor]

I'm assuming you already have decent vocal mics. If not, buy some. Your vocal mics should at least be at the Shure SM58 level of quality, although there are many good inexpensive vocal mics out there, such as the EV ND767. The EV RE410 is a superb condenser vocal mic for the money.

No reservations at all on my recommendation for a mixer: the Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 is the mixer to get, especially since you state that you want expandability, and you're probably not a techie.
The StudioLive will give you up to 16 input channels, but much more importantly (and I'll keep it simple and non-technical) - being a digital mixer, the Presonus has all the tone controls and reverb effects that you'll need, all built in. And it's the simplest to use digitial mixer out there. $1200


It's difficult to recommend speakers with the limited amount of info you've provided, but ...a couple of QSC K10s and a couple of good stands to put them on will cost you around $1500-$1600 total. Get some appropriate cables, and presto! You've got a great sounding mixer and speaker system for under $3000. (The amps are built into the speakers.)

Recommending a guitar is a delightful can of worms to open. Just play some before you buy, for sure. The Martin OMC-16GTE is very good performer's guitar.