Praise band amp.

[MalcolmAmos]

Just been asked to play bass in our church's Praise band.

The room is approximately 300' X 100' with 125 to 150 people in attendence.

How many watts? And is one 15" speaker enough?

Thanks, guys.

[CL400Peavey]

Originally Posted by MalcolmAmos

Just been asked to play bass in our church's Praise band.

The room is approximately 300' X 100' with 125 to 150 people in attendence.

How many watts? And is one 15" speaker enough?

Thanks, guys.

Totally depends on how loud everyone else is... A 115 and 200-300 watts might be just right.

[Green Lantern]

I had a 100 watt bass amp and it was only good for pratice. My son has a 200 watt Eden combo with a 15 speaker and it sounds great and is loud enough for playing in our church. You need headroom and I found with bass amps 100 watts does not provide enough of it.

[bass4worship]

I use a 4/10 in about that size church too and that to much sometime. I find that my Markbass combo with one 12" work best without PA support. Not to loud that the older people complain about their ears busting out.

[MyMusic]

I would consider a 200+ watt head and a 12, 15 or 2x10 cab. +1 on the headroom.

[craig.p]

I did bass duty day before yesterday with a "polite" P&W band in a 250 seat room with high vaulted ceiling and a low-end permanent installation PA. Un-mic'd drums behind Lexan, keyboard through the PA, Taylor 710 through the PA, 5-string fiddle through the PA. All I had was my Carvin MB15, not running through the PA. I was running it nowhere near its capabilities, maybe 25% or less, but EQ'd way up at the bottom end to compensate for the tiny cab's inherent rolloff. (I know what it can do -- I've run it WFO on several occasions.) First song was Better is One Day, and the sound man came running up to me in a half panic to tell me I was shaking the walls & needed to turn down.

If it had been Fireflight up there instead of us, or some other form of true Christian rock, it wouldn't have been enough, but it wasn't, so it was.

Uh, well, you get it.

[bobcruz]

Originally Posted by craig.p

I did bass duty day before yesterday with a "polite" P&W band in a 250 seat room with high vaulted ceiling and a low-end permanent installation PA. Un-mic'd drums behind Lexan, keyboard through the PA, Taylor 710 through the PA, 5-string fiddle through the PA. All I had was my Carvin MB15, not running through the PA. I was running it nowhere near its capabilities, maybe 25% or less, but EQ'd way up at the bottom end to compensate for the tiny cab's inherent rolloff. (I know what it can do -- I've run it WFO on several occasions.) First song was Better is One Day, and the sound man came running up to me in a half panic to tell me I was shaking the walls & needed to turn down.

If it had been Fireflight up there instead of us, or some other form of true Christian rock, it wouldn't have been enough, but it wasn't, so it was.

Uh, well, you get it.

That's not very different from my church--reasonable volume from unmiked drums (no Lexan shield), miked piano, percussion, keys and vocals through the PA, and me with a 112 powered by 180 watts that I elevate 24 inches off the floor to cut down on boom. It's a long room with super high ceiling and all hard floors/walls/pews, so the natural reverb slurs a lot of the sound and in that setting, less is usually more (less volume, less low frequencies), IME.

[Versatek6]

Take a look at a GK MB200 head and their Neo 112-II cabinet. I am moving this way after January.

The cab is very well balanced, sonically; should not get boomy. The amp is rated 140 watts into 8 ohms. Shopping carefully, you can get both for about $520. Combined weight is roughly 32 lbs.

My current amp is a Trace 715X, 385 watts into a 15. Excellent amp! Also heavy.

[Jhengsman]

Originally Posted by craig.p

I did bass duty day before yesterday with a "polite" P&W band in a 250 seat room with high vaulted ceiling and a low-end permanent installation PA. Un-mic'd drums behind Lexan, keyboard through the PA, Taylor 710 through the PA, 5-string fiddle through the PA. All I had was my Carvin MB15, not running through the PA. I was running it nowhere near its capabilities, maybe 25% or less, but EQ'd way up at the bottom end to compensate for the tiny cab's inherent rolloff. (I know what it can do -- I've run it WFO on several occasions.) First song was Better is One Day, and the sound man came running up to me in a half panic to tell me I was shaking the walls & needed to turn down.

If it had been Fireflight up there instead of us, or some other form of true Christian rock, it wouldn't have been enough, but it wasn't, so it was.

Uh, well, you get it.

You didn't fly out to California and use my rig did you

[two fingers]

Are you filling the room from the stage? If so, that would be rare. Most have PA support and like low stage volumes. I own a Mesa Walkabout Scout stack with 2 15" cabs and I never take that to church. It's usually something much smaller. I actually used my Bassman 25 practice amp and DI'ed in once just to show the guitar player how quiet my rig actually is. He couldn't believe it until I showed him with a 25W amp.

[canadian*eh]

I would say Get at Least 300 watts and a 212 and maybe even more!! :O I look at it this way, I would rather have Too Much amp and cab, Cause there is a thing called a Master Volume knob that most amps have and People tend to forget that you can turn it down!! You can have a 2000 watt amp and still play a small venue.......you just need to turn that knob down is all. I have used a 810 with a 1000 watt head for a small 50 seat club before and it was not too loud, I just kept my volumes down, and the one thing it was.....was filling!! i always say you can turn down, but it is hard to turn something up that is already max'd. Remember there may come a time when you are playing a bigger room with out PA support and will need the extra power!! IMHO there is no such thing as over kill when it comes to watts!! I pack my fEARful 1515/66 and a Carvin B2000 head with me to just about ever show i play big or small,cause i just never know when i may need the power to fill the room my self and there have been a few times i have needed it and it was good to have!! Just some food for thought All the best in your search!! cheers Mate!!~Elliot

[Mehve]

If you don't have PA support, I'd give a little consideration towards dispersion. With larger speakers, especially 15's, your instrument get turn to mud really fast for the people at the edge of the room.

If you have the option of renting a mid-size combo for a week or two, consider it. For my own church of ~100 people in a 120'x120'-ish room, I used to use a older Peavey 110 with about 25W on tap, and my feed into the (mediocre) PA was pretty much high-passed by 80Hz. But it still handled things, and I had headroom when needed. You may find that such an approach is plenty for your needs, and it would vastly simplify your load-out and setup.

[soulman969]

A 200w-300w 1x15 rig or a combo like the tc Bg250 I use would work well in that environment with or without sound reinforcement. If the church has a great FOH PA even a smaller combo might do. I've used my MB 112 in rooms that size when it was mostly just a stage monitor for me.

The acoustics in the room would also have something to do with my decision if I was playing without a FOH PA. If the room tends to magnify the low end I might opt for a 12" or 2 x 12" cab in place of a 15".

[bertbassplayer]

Depends on your PA and the room construction. If your PA can handle it, the best thing is usually just to go through the FOH system.

A lot of older churches were designed to bounce sound around quite a bit and so bass can go crazy in those types of rooms. They were designed liked that back in the day of bad or no PA support to be able to carry the pastor's voice easily around the room. The problem is in modern days with modern praise music this creates some crazy havoc with modern instruments.

[JimmyM]

A 115 could be enough. I've played quite a few stage volume gigs with a 115 in bigger rooms than that and we weren't quiet. We didn't tear your head off but we were pretty loud. And on many of those gigs, I used a 25w tube amp with it.

I would suggest more than 25w for you, though It's possible 100w might do the job for you. But with most modern 115 bass cabs, you're not going to be able to put much past 200-250w into them without farting them out, so it's not like a higher power amp will do you much good. 300w would be max usefulness with a 115 IMHO.

I'm getting the impression you're asking if you need to expand your current rig to meet the demands. If that's the case, I'd go ahead and do a gig or rehearsal with what you've got and see how well it works. If everyone works to get a good balanced sound between each other without resorting to volume wars, it should work fine.

[MalcolmAmos]

Thanks guys. Going in today to purchase the amp. You've given me what I need to now talk to the tech at the music store.

Looking at 200 watts and was going to go with one 15" speaker, I'll now listen to four 10's or 12's. Would not have thought of that.

Appreciate you help.

[Green Lantern]

My church installed GIK acoustic pannels that were put all around the rear and sides walls. It made a nice improvement in controlling the reflections in the church. The praise band sounds better now.

[iiipopes]

EFFICIENCY!!!

Everybody forgets efficiency of the driver. It's not watts, ohms, or speaker configuration. If you have to carry the room, it's EFFICIENCY of the drivers that is important.

So if you have a 15" speaker cab that is rated at 110dB @ 1watt @ 1 meter, you could conceivably carry the room with about ten watts. If you have a speaker cab that has only a 97dB @ 1watt @ 1 meter rating, you might need 300.

Is plugging into the church's house system an option? If it's a good system, and most mid-to-large church auditoriums/sanctuaries/naves/worship spaces (depending on what your denomination calls the room) understand the need for a good sound system, if for no other reason than so that the guy who preaches is heard clearly. If that is the case, a small monitor amp and a good DI is all that is needed, and let the sound man earn his $$.