Proper rig for my church

FindYourNess · #1 05-21-2009, 11:47 AM

Hello my friends,

I have finally reached my budget of around $1200 for a new rig. I currently play at a church every sunday and would like to get some opinions about how much power I am going to need to fill up the room.

The room is about 70 ft deep from stage to back wall and around 40 ft wide. They currently are using two 15" speakers on each side of the stage and they do a pretty good job of handling the room. (No subs)

I am considering some sort of Ampeg head with a 4x10" cab. How much wattage am I going to need to get a good sound? Also, would it be better to mic my amp and run some bass through those speakers (which is what I am doing now, and it really hurts my tone). Or would it be better just to let my amp handle the whole thing, no miking.

Thanks everyone!
FIND YOUR NESS

OrionManMatt · #2 05-21-2009, 11:49 AM

1) Are you okay with feeding any signal to the console? It could be used to support your live tone and provide some midrange clarity.
2) What are your tonal goals?

FindYourNess · #3 05-21-2009, 01:08 PM

Feeding some to the console would be fine. I just really don't feel confident that the speakers can provide the lows I am looking for. But your right, maybe using the speakers for some midrange would be a good idea.

As for tone, I am not looking to blow everyone away with low end, but I definitely would like nice round low sound that fills up the band. I don't really need my tone to be overly bright either. Just a full and well rounded tone.

Rick in Dixie · #4 05-23-2009, 07:22 PM

70x40 is pretty close to the size of my Church, I use an older Pevey TNT 160 that I leave at the Church and I run it Flat with the couture activated, I use an Active Fender Precision and adjust my tone on the Bass, Our keyboard player puts a lot of bottom end in his piano, I've found this to be the only way to cut through him, but it fills the room up. I also play Southern Gospel and play many different size churches and auditoriums, so far I haven't found one that my Harke couldn't handle, if I did, I would just run a line out to the board.

derekd · #5 05-27-2009, 10:58 AM

Pretty small room, relatively speaking. Playing in this type of setting, I have used my Hartke Kickback 12, with a line out to the board. I am just not interested in humping heavy gear. Good luck with it.

MNAirHead · #6 05-30-2009, 03:05 PM

Not sure if you have amp lust and/or if you're willing to test a different way.

Churches are notorious for being Gyms or deisgned for choirs etc.

I tried about 10 different amps.. couldn't find ANYTHING that would work.. either guys with me couldn't hear OR I'd be blasting Gramma's wig off.

I tried huge stadium rigs (400watt biamp) .. tons of different speaker cabinets.. different heads.. combo amps.. practice amps etc.

Instead of going to a guitar store, I went to a pro sound store.. asked them a method to solve the issue.

Of course they went straight to a $4000 gizmo..

I then poked around.

Ended up getting a Rolls PM351 (hard wired personal monitor that clips onto a mic stand) and then a DI Box (found my basses were too hot for the Rolls)

We eliminated 2 of the stage monitors (drummer is using the same thing) ..

For $200 ($90 for the Rolls... $90 for the DI - MXR Bass DI+... $10 for in earphones.. $10 for a mic stand) I'm in biz... I don't have to ask the sound guy to crank me.. I don't have to wake up hours in advance to shuffle gear.. I can swap out basses....

Overall the band's sound has gotten better.. We have less gear.. cleaner stage.. I don't have to bring in all my $$$$ stadium gear...

For some reason.. out of all the chruches I've played - amps just don't work for bass.

MNAirHead · #7 05-30-2009, 03:05 PM

Note - it does take a few weeks to get used to headphones.

capnsandwich · #8 05-30-2009, 03:13 PM

My church is about the same size as yours. Here's my rig I used to use.

I still use the cabinets but I have switched from this rig to an EA iAmp 350. I didn't need 480 watts of power, a compressor, and BBE Sonic Maximizer for my church. I do, however, use a BBE Optostomp pedal for compression. I don't go through the house system either. I totally rely on my rig to be heard and no one ever complains.

OrionManMatt · #9 05-30-2009, 06:33 PM

If you know other bassists or have a way to test out the room, that's what I would start with before you purchase anything. I would figure out what the room "needs" for the low end. You didn't mention how tall the room is. My church is very tall and wide and there's a noticeable bump at around 550-700Hz (D5 to F5, basically). So, I took that into consideration. There's a few subs, so I just run direct. Works great.

wazzel · #10 05-30-2009, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OrionManMatt

If you know other bassists or have a way to test out the room, that's what I would start with before you purchase anything. I would figure out what the room "needs" for the low end. You didn't mention how tall the room is. My church is very tall and wide and there's a noticeable bump at around 550-700Hz (D5 to F5, basically). So, I took that into consideration. There's a few subs, so I just run direct. Works great.

What church? I play at Christ the Redeemer (Catholic) on Huffmeister.

wazzel · #11 05-30-2009, 10:18 PM

For my church rig I use a Genz-benz shuttle 6.0-12T with a line out to the house. In my situation I am just using it for monitoring and most of my sounds is from the house. Since I tote it back and fourth the small amp made sense. It does have enough power so that if I have to play with out the direct line I can.

OrionManMatt · #12 05-31-2009, 02:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wazzel

What church? I play at Christ the Redeemer (Catholic) on Huffmeister.

I play around town every weekend but my "home" is Ecclesia Clear Lake. We meet at Vineyard Clear Lake on Sunday evenings, which frees me up for mornings.