Using column PA speakers as stage monitors?

[Beedster]

Probably a non starter but wondering if a) there are any potential issues and b) if anyone's tried it

 

I have a relatively small and lightweight Maui column PA that while pretty loud and decent is probably not quite big enough for the band/venue in question. The singer has a much larger old school Peavey PA that we're probably going to use instead. However neither system currently has any stage monitors and money's a little tight at present. Would it be madness to use the smaller PA facing the band as on-stage monitors, albeit with bass cut? There are only three mics on stage - vox, backing vox, and kick - all facing the back of the stage (no need for more on drums as it's a small venue and the drummer's solid). 

 

Thanks in advance 👍

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

No problem at all, I used to do this when touring in the '70s. Since our gigs were usually a full week I used to hang them in front of the band if there was available rigging.

[Beedster]

13 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

No problem at all, I used to do this when touring in the '70s. Since our gigs were usually a full week I used to hang them in front of the band if there was available rigging.

Thanks Bill, if it’s good enough for you it’s certainly good enough for us 👍

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Thanks. BTW, the columns I used were Shure Vocal Masters. They were too tall to work well as monitors, which I fixed by cutting them in half. That gave us four of them, so there were no dead spots on the stage. This was 1973-74, when monitors were still almost unheard of, so we were quite pleased to have them. I'm not saying I invented them by any means, but I'd never seen monitors used in clubs prior to that. They came about because the band had the Shures when I joined, while I brought along the JBL 4550 copies that I had built, so it was either figure out a use for the Shures or leave them in the van.

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Thanks. BTW, the columns I used were Shure Vocal Masters. They were too tall to work well as monitors, which I fixed by cutting them in half. That gave us four of them, so there were no dead spots on the stage. This was 1973-74, when monitors were still almost unheard of, so we were quite pleased to have them. I'm not saying I invented them by any means, but I'd never seen monitors used in clubs prior to that. They came about because the band had the Shures when I joined, while I brought along the JBL 4550 copies that I had built, so it was either figure out a use for the Shures or leave them in the van.

 

That's a nice story, we were thinking along the same lines 'We've got two PAs, two's gotta be better than one, but how do we do it'