best portable/battery amp and classical guitar w/pickup

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daveblue222

New member
hello all

i been doing lots of gig lately playing classical guitar for weddings/functions, just as background music. at the moment i am lumping round a powered floor monitor and micing my guitar with a sm58 (not very ideal!)

im looking for a different setup. basically a half decent CG with a built in pickup/jack, and a lightweight portable amp with reverb. i have been looking at the roland street cube which seems lightweight yet loud enough, but im not sure what else is out there on the market. havent even begun to look at classical guitars yet.

any ideas??? i know it is preferable to mic classical guitars with a decent mic, but as its only background music aot of crowd/talking noise would bleed into the mic.

much appreciated
 
i have a little Orange micro crush amp. it's battery powered, or can be plugged in..clean/distortion channel....small like 3 inch speaker or something, don't remember the specs...but it can get LOUD. i think they're only 50 bucks or something; i got it for free from some website back last year. it's pretty cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiT9fgyHP0E

theres a video of the clean channel with my strat
 
The Roland street cube might be your best bet if you MUST be battery powered.
But If you want to have a clear crisp sound, go with a Crate.(AC powered)
Normally Crates are junk, but their acoustic amps sound fabulous.
The others won't offer a tweeter which will let your guitar tones shine through.
Marshalls and Genz Benz's are also great but cost a lot more.

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/prodsearch?form=search/ppc&cat=2589&cat2=3531

Don't be afraid of used on Ebay either. I've had old ones that worked well with no problems.
 
I'm thinking that 6x AA batteries are not enough power for a wedding gig, at least a decent sized one. There are some contradictory specs in the Roland manual:

Rated power: 5W
Current: 235mA
Battery life: up to 15 hours.

OK, 6x AA is 9V with 2.5Ah (amp-hours), that's 22.5Wh (watt-hours). So if you're driving speakers at 5W, you can't get more than 4 hours, given an 85% efficient class-D amp. Obviously if you aren't driving that hard, you would get more.

But what is the 235mA figure? Quiescent (no output) load? I don't think so, but 235mA is only 10 hour life. Maybe that is "typical" use. Who knows?

Anyway, volume. They use highly efficient speakers, let's say they are 100dBSPL/1W @ 1m. With 5W, that's 107dBSPL -- at 1m. Sounds loud to you, but 10m away that's only 87dBSPL. Maybe enough for classical guitar that nobody is paying attention to because they are busy talking at a reception. Any bigger hall than that, you're probably out of power.

I think they could have done more reasonable performance with 4x C batteries . . . so unless you are at a gig with no 120VAC available, I would get a standard PA. Yeah, you can plug in the Street, but you still have that 5W limit. It's really nice to be able to aim a pair of speakers different directions in a hall for better coverage, especially since they don't always put the musician in an ideal location. I'd get something like one of those Fender PA systems that bolt together in a convenient package and come with stands. Combine that with a decent mic/pickup blend system with preamp, and you're doing pretty well.
 
mshilarious said:
I'm thinking that 6x AA batteries are not enough power for a wedding gig, at least a decent sized one. There are some contradictory specs in the Roland manual:

Rated power: 5W
Current: 235mA
Battery life: up to 15 hours.

OK, 6x AA is 9V with 2.5Ah (amp-hours), that's 22.5Wh (watt-hours). So if you're driving speakers at 5W, you can't get more than 4 hours, given an 85% efficient class-D amp. Obviously if you aren't driving that hard, you would get more.
Click to expand...

An AA has 2.5Ah @ 1.5VDC? I'm not doubting you, just surprised it's that high.

EDIT: I checked and you are correct. 2500mAh.
 
the battery thing isnt a must, its would just be nice to have if i ever go busking again though lol



mshilarious: yes i was concerned that it may not be loud enough, but i have checked out user vids on youtube and it seem to have enough headroom for the smaller gigs, plus i would be using the ac for these gigs. if need be i have a p.a which i could always use for bigger venues. tbh the main reason this amp appeals to me is because its light weight (i dont drive) so getting gear to gigs is often tricky. and it has both xlr and jack input so i could blend the two together

ZoSo58LP: i have looked at this amp but it seems to small, and i need to have reverb and an xlr input, nice playing btw
 
OP, you might want to look into Crate's Taxi and Limosine portable amps- they both have rechargable batteries, built-in.

Last May, my casual guitar group played a picnic that had NO AC POWER. We had to play strictly acoustic, to a medium-small crowd, and we were barely heard. I have a 10-watt AC-powered amp- it says "McWhite Electronics, Portland, OR" screen-printed on the front, but I think it was home-built, as it has Radio Shack speakers in it. Two input channels, each with an XLR and a 1/4" input, each with it's own volume and tone controls. Also a master volume. I would like to cut the top off the thing, build two 10" speaker cabs with horns (using ultra-high efficiency drivers) and make it into a portable PA system.

Is this possible? The thing uses an 80's era power amp module, nearly self-contained. I researched it a while back and learned that, sorry, I can't open the thing this evening and tell you what the module is.

Is it possible for me to make this into a battery-powered PA? I would probably be fine with 4 to 5 hour battery life, I am thinking a sealed, rechargable battery.

Thanks, and sorry if I hijacked the thread.
 
Probably. The easiest way is to use a couple of sealed lead-acid (SLA) batteries, like those in a UPS. The amp will have a +/- power supply, probably +/-15V. You wire the batteries in series, where they connect, connect that to ground, then the open + and - terminals become your +/- rails for the amp. Then just pop the SLAs back in the UPS to recharge.

I would measure the power rails while connected to AC to verify . . .
 
daveblue222 said:
im looking for a different setup. basically a half decent CG with a built in pickup/jack, and a lightweight portable amp with reverb.
Click to expand...

Hey dude, I am a fairly experienced classical guitarist. I've played dozens of weddings. If there is a decent classical out there with a built in pickup, I haven't seen it.

I understand the problem though. Getting a classical to be loud is tough. If you have bad mic placement, it will be too boomy and prone to feedback. And otherwise, it's just not loud enough.

I have a trace elliot amp and I mic my Traphagan with a Neumann KM 184. It's definitely loud enough for most weddings.
 
For something a bit alternative you should check out the JukeCase portable guitar amp by Son Valise. A portable suitcase guitar amp with up to 40 hours playtime at 50W (rechargeable battery) and awesome sound, all the way up the range. My friend got one and you can play your backing track via Bluetooth whilst playing guitar/singing over the top. They look awesome are pretty lightweight (5-10kg)

Read about it here: JukeCase portable guitar amp

Guitar-amp-vintage-suitcase-speaker-JukeCase-boombox-portable-audio.jpg
 
Greg_L said:
French people don't work on mondays?
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The French dont work on any day.... The weekend starts Wednesday Morning and goes through to Tuesday lunchtime..

They do expect the rest of Europe to subsidize their lifestyle though. Why do you think all the migrants pass through France and just about kill themselves to get into Britain. Where there is no work there is no hope.
 
muttley600 said:
The French dont work on any day.... The weekend starts Wednesday Morning and goes through to Tuesday lunchtime..

They do expect the rest of Europe to subsidize their lifestyle though. Why do you think all the migrants pass through France and just about kill themselves to get into Britain. Where there is no work there is no hope.
Click to expand...

Britain is like america in that they'll let any piece of shit in to work while the natural citizens collect welfare.
 
Greg_L said:
Britain is like america in that they'll let any piece of shit in to work while the natural citizens collect welfare.
Click to expand...

It has certainly got worse. The dumb politicians proclaim that Brits wont do those jobs. Well thats bollox, I know lots of lads and lasses that are spending 60 plus hours a week foot slogging looking for jobs. They are ALL being undercut by immigrants that work for less and live 20 in a house. They do it for a few years and then fuck off home with enough money to set themselves up and send the next lot over. It's ridiculous, our kids want to work but cant afford to live on what is payed. The other claim is that the jobs wont get done with out immigrant labour. Thats bollox too, them potatoes didn't pick themselves before they all sailed over.... I'm all for immigration but it has to be a level playing field. Currently we are the propping up most of the EU with our economy, not Germany and France as they would have you believe. If that was the case they would stop there, they wont let them...
 
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