Who's responsibility is the PA?

[Laserman]

Ed,

I understand how you feel. I didn't get my PA overnight with one purchase. I got a mixer and a powered monitor to start with. Later I got an effects device, and soon a little more. After awhile you can put a good system together peice by piece. I got half my rack gear used off Ebay with great savings. Some things you do want brand new. The idea is JUST START. When you own the PA you are not kicked out of the band unless you act like a jerk. It's nice to have some say so. A vocalist with No PA equipment to me is just a sideman filling a job. He's expendable and has very little Say so at all because he's not invested in himself. If I had the talent of a great vocalist I'd take my PA and get in a great band. Some vocalist do, they usually end up on top of the charts.

Barry

 

[stu FORD]

The first time a band i was in played together, the guitarrist and I both had nice amps, a couple effects, and good instruments, the drummer had a very nice drum set, and then the singer shows up late, with a karaoke machine, that he BORROWED from a friend. within a week, he was telling us that we NEEDED to buy a PA, and since he didnt have a job...

needless to say within less than a month, we were instrumental, way happier, and recording a demo

 

[Bard2dbone]

My last band was together for most of a decade. Our keyboard player had an 18 channel mixer and a couple of EV speakers. It had been the house PA for a club in Dallas that upgraded. He bought it used from them for, like a grand. We ran vocals into his board. That worked fine for most gigs. For bigger gigs when we needed to mic the drums, we had a second mixer that I had gotten used for all of 80 bucks. It was old, tired and ugly. But it had a great, warm sound. Eight channels of drums mixed down to two channels out to the keyboard players mixer. Everybody had their own mics. Eric(the keyboard player) had the best mics, so we used them for the vocals, and used mine for the drums.

So for bigger gigs we just needed four channels on his board and a rented second power amp and mains. Our small gig mains would efectively become monitors.

But basically, the guy who needed it the most owned it. I sang lead. But I was at least as happy just playing bass. Eric needed the Crown amp and EV speakers to make his keyboards audible at all. When we needed to rent bigger gear we all chipped in.

I guess I don't see the problem here.

 

[MuzikMan]

I'd like to say that my bandmates and I have reached a nice resolution to this. 4 of the 5 of us agreed to declare ownership over specific pieces in the system and pay for those. I'll be paying for the power amp and the snake. That way things are clearly divided to avoid arguments later. Everybody was cool and I'm looking forward to having a nice Carvin PA and monitoring system next week! After thinking about the whole situation I realized it was pretty ridiculous of me to not want to contribute to improving my band's overall sound.

So who was the fifth guy? My guess is the drummer.

 

[DaveDeVille]

i know i'm lucky ...
i own the Mackie 808m , the two JBL 2-15's , mic stands and cables{ plus the no name monitors that we use } . i also haul and set up the PA .
if it ever needs repairs , which it has only once ,{ blown tweeter } , everyone in the band pitches in to pay for repairs or replacement parts , depending on band members circumstances ...
{ this is actually a pre-agreed arangement with any new band member } .
so whose responsibility is the PA ? in my band , it's all of us ...

 

[Ryan L.]

Wow !

$20,000 PA system. I wonder how much I have in My PA. I got some Pieces off Ebay and saved some $. About half was bought brand new.

8 Channel Makie mixer $300
JBL Eon Mains $700
Carvin Monitor $400
Phonic Monitor $350
JBL Eon Subs $400
duel 15 Band Eq $200
Duel 31 Band Eq $300
Real Time Analyzer $300
3 ART Multi effects uunits $250
Digitech Muiltieffects $175
Peavy Multi effects $125
BBE stereo SONIC Maximyzer $250
Compressor $300
Mikes and stands $1000
TOTAL $5,050.00 If I added right, Long day today. Wow, $20,000 PA. Please list out what you have. Man in the Boat overboard!!! How much PA do you need?

Barry MY PA must stink

Our PA has been built up over the years, with the major upgrades done recently. But the JBL SRX series speakers are not cheap--and we are running 4 dual 18" subs and 4 dual 15"+horn mid/high cabs. We have around $12000 invested into the FOH speakers. And we don't run all those speakers all the time, for smaller venues we use 2 of each, and half the power.

Start adding in Shure wireless in-ear monitors, an Allen & Heath board, various effects, compressors, EQ's, gates, power amps to power those speakers, racks, a monitor board, a splitter snake, etc, etc, it all adds up.

And maybe we could get by with less. In our case, it may not be about how much we needed, more like how much we wanted. But for some outdoor gigs, we have been VERY thankful to have what we have.

 

[Schwinn]

So who was the fifth guy? My guess is the drummer.

yep, but I see where he's coming from.

 

[Edwcdc]

i know i'm lucky ...
i own the Mackie 808m , the two JBL 2-15's , mic stands and cables{ plus the no name monitors that we use } . i also haul and set up the PA .
if it ever needs repairs , which it has only once ,{ blown tweeter } , everyone in the band pitches in to pay for repairs or replacement parts , depending on band members circumstances ...
{ this is actually a pre-agreed arangement with any new band member } .
so whose responsibility is the PA ? in my band , it's all of us ...

We are running the same Mackie/JBL set up. That Mackie is bullet proof. We've had ours for 4 years and it has never given us an ounce of trouble.
I'm currently knocking on wood.