Acoustic Amp vs PA vs Powered Speaker

[Mattydaddy1]

Hello everyone, my name is Matthew. This is my first post on the forum. I just recently acquired my dream acoustic a 2004 LTD Taylor 710 L9 w/ a Fishman Matrix under the saddle type pick up. The fact that it had the pick up was just a bonus, really fell in love with the acoustic itself. I want to amplify the acoustic without losing any of her tone. I get most of my equipment from trading on Craig's list. I don't necessarily need actual models, just want to know if an acoustic amp, PA with passive speakers, or Powered Speakers (JBL EON type) would be the best way to go. Also, I want to know if I need a preamp or DI. My trade range is between $800-1000 in equipment, but if I can get under $300 worth I can also do that. I want to use this to Jam with, maybe some day play a bar or small show, and may also want to be able to plug up a mic too. Thanks to all for your time reading and replying.

[David Youngman]

Matthew,
For your purpose of jamming in small venues you will very likely want an acoustic amp. They are portable and convenient. They have built in preamps and effects. Many acoustic amps include a 2nd channel for a microphone as well. Some can be mounted on speaker stands. Most will have a DI out so you can plug into larger systems if you have to.

As far as keeping the natural acoustic tone of the guitar, that has a lot more to do with your pickup. If it's just an undersaddle you probably aren't going to get a very natural sound. If you aren't sure you will be playing out much, I would wait on getting into pickups for now.

[pieterh]

Amp v PA v powered speaker is a tough one to answer. I use powered speakers as acoustic amps but with my Radial preamp as part of the setup.

I also have a decent 16 channel mixer, separate 2x31 band eq, compression and reverb and delay units for the bigger gigs.

In the end don't forget that an acoustic combo is a powered speaker with a certain amount of control. An active speaker is a great option as it can be many things, especially if you opt for a guitar preamp in the chain.

My Guild has a Matrix UST with the jack preamp. Plug and play it sounds pretty good - but with a good DI or through my Radial preamp it sounds amazing.

You're not going to get your guitar's inherent sound but louder, but you will get a decent sound that is good in its own right

[MadMike62]

Originally Posted by pieterh

Amp v PA v powered speaker is a tough one to answer

^^^
This.

My first acoustic amp was an old Crate 60w with 2 8 or 10 inch-speakers. It had a guitar and mic input and this thing sounded GREAT, but was not powerful enough. I ended up selling it (sadly) and bought a Genz-Benz Shenandoah 150w, after trying Fishman and Marshall amps. The Marshall was a nice surprise, but I still went with the GB and never really liked it, so out it went. I bought the mini-PA Yamaha 500w StagePas and never looked back. This is perfect for me @ home or in the small gigs I do. If I have to go light, I can use only one of the speakers.

[RockerDuck]

Depends on the size of venue, but I found it easier, when using a full PA, to use passive speakers and a powered mixer. My JBL eon15's sound real good, but finding power source on both sides of the stage and signal cables going to both sides seemed illogical. Now one powered speaker with built in mixer is good, but if you need more inputs, a mixer will be required. Now you need two power sources and a signal cable. A powered mixer with a passive speaker is faster and easier, with a speaker cable and one power source and all the inputs I need.
This how I do it.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Mattydaddy1

Hello everyone, my name is Matthew. This is my first post on the forum. I just recently acquired my dream acoustic a 2004 LTD Taylor 710 L9 w/ a Fishman Matrix under the saddle type pick up. The fact that it had the pick up was just a bonus, really fell in love with the acoustic itself. I want to amplify the acoustic without losing any of her tone. I get most of my equipment from trading on Craig's list. I don't necessarily need actual models, just want to know if an acoustic amp, PA with passive speakers, or Powered Speakers (JBL EON type) would be the best way to go. Also, I want to know if I need a preamp or DI. My trade range is between $800-1000 in equipment, but if I can get under $300 worth I can also do that. I want to use this to Jam with, maybe some day play a bar or small show, and may also want to be able to plug up a mic too. Thanks to all for your time reading and replying.

Hi Mattydaddy1...

First of all, Hello and Welcome to the forum!! Glad you joined...

For me it's not an either/or choice between acoustic amps and PA, because we play a lot of venues…small (up to 100 people), medium (up to 200 people) and large (more than that), and our acoustic amps are our PA for the small gigs.

So, we both have acoustic amps which is our small PA in small situations, and then when we move up to a small PA (12 inch two way) for medium rooms we use a powered mixer and passive 12 inch 2 way cabinets. We still use our amps as stage monitors (no vocals) into the PA.

For large venues, we still use our acoustic amps as our stage monitors and send a feed to the house PA…which is sometimes our powered board with larger cabinets, or sometimes it belongs to the venue.

I prefer a Powered mixer with passive speakers to a non-powered mixer with powered speakers. That is because we own three sets of PA speakers - small, medium and large and we can keep increasing the size of them with larger venues.

I think we were able to get more bang-for-the-buck value with non-powered speakers than with powered ones, hence have more flexibility this way.

If one wanted to add larger powered speakers to a passive situation, they cost quite a bit more per unit than non-powered ones.