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Using a practice amp as a vocal monitor?

B

bryantandrew

Dec 17, 2008
48
31
#1
I've started to play a bunch of duo gigs with a guitar player, where the setup is just 2 vocals, guitar and bass all through a simple 2-speaker PA. I usually bring my tiny Peavey MAX 158 practice amp if I need some extra bass monitor, but the PA has been fine so far. That said, we don't have any vocal monitors, and I'd like to send a line from the board to my practice amp to act as a vocal monitor instead.

Assuming there's another suitable output from the board, are there any technical problems with this setup? Are there any potential issues of the board being too hot for the amp?

Thanks for any advice!
 
#3
bryantandrew said:
I've started to play a bunch of duo gigs with a guitar player, where the setup is just 2 vocals, guitar and bass all through a simple 2-speaker PA. I usually bring my tiny Peavey MAX 158 practice amp if I need some extra bass monitor, but the PA has been fine so far. That said, we don't have any vocal monitors, and I'd like to send a line from the board to my practice amp to act as a vocal monitor instead.

Assuming there's another suitable output from the board, are there any technical problems with this setup? Are there any potential issues of the board being too hot for the amp?
Click to expand...

Yes, the signal will be very hot for the amp input. It won't hurt anything, but you'll have to turn the gain on the amp and/or the monitor send way down. It will probably sound pretty bad, but it will work.
 
#4
Probably your best advice would be to look for some sort of little $150 generic/chinese/behringer-ish self powered 10" or 12" two way speaker. They are all over in various brand names you've heard of and not heard of. Who cares about the long term quality, it will beat the idea of running into your bass amp all day long.

Could you..yeah ok you could. Should you, not when you can peel off a few dollars and get something that will serve you well many times over. Don't do the bass amp thing, if nothing else than for personal pride (tuck in your shirt, comb your hair, sit-up straight in a professional musician kind of way). Please know I'm not picking on ya, just no reason to not spend a couple small dollars on something that will help you for a long time. The majority of this ilk of powered speaker will not sound sound amazing, will likely clip long before they are turned all the way up, but you can do things to help you. Buy one and put it on a speaker stand laying around so the horn is closer to your ears. That will help you to not run it so hot that you hear how these sort of powered boxes clunk out when driven hard. If its just for rehearsals and small duo gigs, these speakers should serve your purpose much more positively.

Go to Ebay or Amazon and just buy something that will serve the purpose and give you a useful sound.

Amazon.com: Pyle 800 Watt Powered 12" Two-Way Plastic Molded Loudspeaker: Musical Instruments

Amazon.com: M-Audio GSR 10 Active Loudspeaker: Musical Instruments

All kinds of deals for things like this out there. Are these a great speaker, NO! Is it a much better idea for you than running it through a bass amp,YES!

Friends don't let friends run their vocal mics through their bass or guitar amps for any reason. There has been no reason to do it past the age of 13 for over 40 years running.
 
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#5
Keithwah said:
Friends don't let friends run their vocal mics through their bass or guitar amps for any reason. There has been no reason to do it past the age of 13 for over 40 years running.
Click to expand...

Well, checking back in from last night's gig, the whole bass amp as vocal monitor worked just fine, as it turns out. We hardly turned it up and it gave us just enough so that we wouldn't be burning out our voices.

Just to be clear, there was a PA, and it was just a small pub, no stage to speak of. All we needed was some signal pointed at us. The bass amp took a monitor feed from the board. It wasn't acting as our PA speaker and was only heard by the musicians, not the audience.
 
#8
bryantandrew said:
Well, checking back in from last night's gig, the whole bass amp as vocal monitor worked just fine, as it turns out. We hardly turned it up and it gave us just enough so that we wouldn't be burning out our voices.

Just to be clear, there was a PA, and it was just a small pub, no stage to speak of. All we needed was some signal pointed at us. The bass amp took a monitor feed from the board. It wasn't acting as our PA speaker and was only heard by the musicians, not the audience.
Click to expand...

I know.....it's just that if you were better off doing this than you were before,just imagine how much sweeter it would be for a very small investment. It would really be worth your time and you would all benefit from having it.
 

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