Acoustic Amps How Big

tonyrath

I am looking to buy an acoustic amp to play electro nylon through for gigs in pubs and restaurants etc. I am impressed by the Roland 60 watt but I understand they do a 40 watt version and also a battery driven 33 watt version. There is also the Street Amp series of battery driven ones as well. NB I am a loud player on a nylon with a big sound 

Fretwired

Check out the Roland AC range [rather than Cube] ... there are various models with an anti-feedback feature. The 33-watt version will be too quiet IMHO for a typical pub. Check out the 60 watt and above.

ecc83

Go for as much power as you can IMHO.

You are getting a wideband speaker that will be a good 10dB less sensitive than a V30. Then to get clean, strong reproduction calls for power.

This also applies to electric guitar as well of course. Really clean reproduction in a decent sized pub needs a minimum of 30watts and that is with 100dB sensitivity speakers.

Dave.

ICBM

Yes, go for as much power as you can afford and carry - especially if you have a loud, percussive playing style. Don't think that because you play loud the amp will have to do less work - it's the other way round, you'll need all the headroom you can get or it will distort (or limit itself, if it has that) on the transients. There's no power that's "too much" for amplifying a dynamic clean signal.

As an example, the Marshall AS100D is also good, but the AS50D is underpowered for anything other than very quiet solo gigs or as a stage monitor when most of the work is being done by a PA.

Jalapeno

Bigger in terms of power the better - eg. the Fishman Loudbox at 25W is very weedy, the Loudbox Pro at 100W has plenty of headroom. If you can stretch to it the AER60 is fantastic !

tonyrath

Thanks Roland 60 watt AC it is then AER is very desirable but wife would purse her lips 

p90fool

I ran a pair of 100w Marshall acoustic amps for years, if a few people were talking loudly in a pub the way drunks do one amp was not enough on its own.

You will get away with 60w for some gigs, but you'll be back with a "Which powered monitor" thread in, ooh I dunno, about four weeks?

ICBM

p90fool said:

I ran a pair of 100w Marshall acoustic amps for years, if a few people were talking loudly in a pub the way drunks do one amp was not enough on its own.

I think the right solution in those kind of places is the other kind of 100W Marshall and sod the acoustic purity .

And a Telecaster.

tonyrath

I am not aiming for that type of gig Flamenco jazz latin and cheesy Spanish guitar stuff

p90fool

tonyrath;233217" said:

I am not aiming for that type of gig Flamenco jazz latin and cheesy Spanish guitar stuff

Neither was I, but you know how it goes with acoustic gigs - some are recitals where you can hear a pin drop, the next night you have the rapt attention of six people at the front and have to cover the sound of forty other peoples' progressively louder murmuring.

To be fair though I was putting two electro acoustics and a voice through mine so probably needed a lot more headroom than you will.