Use a powered PA speaker or monitor?

[crockpot2001]

I've just purchased a WAV4 (yea me!) for use in my acoustic band (1 guitar, 1 bass, 1 violin, 2 voices). I've been using an acoustic, fretted bass. I broke the acoustic theme and now need to get an amp of some sort. 'Tis a slippery slope, I know.

Here's the rub: I live in South Korea where buying a bass means you are part of a "special", small group and should thus be shafted horribly (think Caligula and Crisco). What is available are tons of powered PA monitors. I'll spare the cultural explaination of why every Mr. Lee has old PA stuff but it's cheap and omnipresent. I'm looking for compact size, cheap-ish, no need to import into Korea, low to moderate SPL ability. I don't wanna shed a bunch of tears if my wife's job folds and we go back tot he States in a hurry, leaving this thing here.

Has anyone ever had modest success using a powered PA speaker (10'' Driver) for live sound? Be gentle.

[kwd]

I had a Polytone Mini-Brute for several years. The only way I could get a good sound out of it was to bypass the preamp. Realizing that I was essentially using the amp as a powered speaker I sold the Polytone and replaced it with a Behringer Eurolive powered speaker. I'm happy with the set up. The unit has a built-in HPF at 65kHz, weighs only 15 pounds and can pump out more sound than the Polytone could. I have to do some pretty extreme eq'ing to get a good sound out of it though. I suspect that's because PA speakers aren't voiced for double bass.

My regular gig is playing at church through the board going into 2 Mackie 15s and monitors. I bring the speaker and preamp eq just in case the sound guys run out of time to mix the instruments. I played with the speaker for about 20 minutes during the sound check with the rest of the team. It sounded good and I would have been comfortable using it during the service. I've used it at rehearsals and have been pleased. I don't get that 'wall of sound' thing that I get with the big 15s or with an amp and I don't have any reverb. If those things are important to you, you may not want to consider a powered PA speaker. I get a pretty nasty resonance on a B natural if I have the speaker close to the bass. That's okay for me because I have a notch filter on my pre-eq. I suspect that doesn't have anything to do with the speaker but I don't remember having that problem with the Polytone.

This unit as an 8" speaker. It's available with a 10" and 12". The people in the shop said there was no discernable difference between the 8" and 10" so they weren't carrying it. They may have felt differently had they used a double bass to compare the sound.

[MR PC]

The little Yamaha PAS 300 system works very well. Two 8" cabs and plenty of power.

[crockpot2001]

It sounds like this may be an option for me. It sure saves me money and could be used in more ways than just my bass. No I just have to sift through the jillions of powered speakers available at the music gallery.

Cheers,
Crockpot

[MNAirHead]

yes.. dial off the tweet.. boost the lows.

For your WAV you'll want some type of preamp

[crockpot2001]

Originally Posted by MNAirHead

yes.. dial off the tweet.. boost the lows.

For your WAV you'll want some type of preamp

I've looked at the WAV megathread and see that a preamp is highly recommended. Would a small 4-channel mixing board work in this capacity before the powered speaker or is this preamp a whole nuther beast in addition to the mini mixer then the speaker?

[bassdaddyfive]

Yes you will need a pre. to get the impedance issue resolved and with some e.q. and a little gain control and I run it through a Mackie SM450. Great setup if you don't have to get to loud.