phil.mcglassup Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Hi All, I'm a little bit confused!! I am looking for info on basic PA systems as we are about to want one in the near future. Years ago -about 20 years ago to be precise- when I was in a covers band our PA system was rated at 150W running through some basic speakers c/w horns and piezos. We had no monitors and it was adequate for 3 vocal michrophone inputs when we gigged in pubs and small clubs. None of the guitars/bass or drums were ever miked!! It had no effects or mixer in the system. All very simple!! Plug and play. The latest equipment is a little puzzling as I'm not familiar with it. Having read some posts on here it looks like the norm is for 500W+ for pubs and small clubs, and then at some stage miking up the backline. Is this the industry standard nowadays? I'm lost at the moment what level of PA system I need to look at to avoid embarrassment whilst keeping costs down. I have a budget of approximately £500 for secondhand gear-which could be increased. Unpowered speakers would be fine, to keep costs down. Is it worth considering Behringer PA gear? Has anyone any links to sites which explain about mixers, mixer amps, crossovers, monitoring, wiring diagrams, effects etc so that I can learn what is involved. It might save a lot of explaining. As usual, any advice appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 TBH if you have a disciplined band playing with gear at the kind of volume you used to play at when you had your old PA then you can get away with not much more than you used to have BUT in practice that rarely happens! We gigged 20 years ago with a basic pair of full range 15 Peavey Hi-Sys cabs, 1k power amp and 12 channel desk (+ effects unit) and that did us very nicely for all of our pub gigs up till about 2 years ago when we decided we wanted to go light weight and moved onto powered speakers (RCF). We sold our old system for a total of £350 (desk and power amp had been upgraded/replaced in the last few years) and it was all still perfectly useable and adequate... we just wanted bigger and better. Our upgrade cost us approx £2k (used) to get what we wanted but we know have an easily transported system that clocks in at just over 2k watts. From the above you can see that buying a perfectly adequate 1k rig is easily achievable for £500 but you need to accept that you'll be using weighty equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyonbass Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 I have always found [url="http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/pa_page.html"]Shavano Music[/url] to be a wealth of information Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPodmore Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 My band use a Behringer Europower PMX2000 (250w per side) into 2 1x12's and 2 1x15's for 2 vocal mics only. Altogether cost us about £600 over the past few years. Can easily get a competent PA for just vocals for under £500, but make sure your not only running 2 1x15's cause that didnt work so well for us, lots of feedback. Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil.mcglassup Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Thanks for the info everyone. I'm not too concerned about the weight as I have a Trace Elliot rig!! Apart from the 'for sale' forum here, is there any other sites I could look at other than Gumtree and the 'Bay? I was hoping to find the PA from a band that was either uprating or folding, as I appreciate that we need mikes, leads and stands etc!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Not sure where you are based (I'm in the NE) but I have a nearly new Yamaha PA (inc stands for speakers and mics + 2 mics) which is a 250w 6 channel mixer amp with matched 1x12 trapezoid speakers, that is available. It'll not take the whole band but as a vocal only system for small/medium pubs it is fine and will double as a monitor system when/if you upgrade. Just an offer if need be! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keeptrying Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 hji there, i run a jam night with my other half, for that we use a pair of mackie thumps active speakers on stands. with mics, guitars, sax running through an alesis 16 track mixer, we never need more than half volume on the speakers and master volume on the mixer also nowhere near max, and no probs playing gigs. cost us around £700 new. i suppose it depends on what youre playing and if youre trying to knock the back wall off the venue, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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