FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Kustom Amplification

Question:
It's high time that I bought some decent amplification equipment. What makes my desire unusual is that I want something that I can use to amplify guitar, bass, keyboards/other MIDI and backing tapes, some of them simultaneously. The usual solution to this seems to be to have a guitar amplifier, a bass amplifier, *and* a mini-PA rig. In theory, getting one power amp, one set of speaker cabinets, one effects box, one mixer, two different pre-amps and (if necessary) a speaker emulator should be a better solution. It ought to be cheaper; it ought to be easier to upgrade and maintain; and it cannot fail to be smaller and lighter. If there are people using an all-in-one solution, does anybody have any good tips on the specifics? Features to look out for in the components? Recommended brands? Recommended models? System-building strategy?

Answer:
You have plenty of headroom (excess wattage) for your application (mine is 385 watts into 8 ohms). I played guitar through a Kustom PA for a while. The sound was wonderful, but if we tried to run vocals through it as well, power chord from the guitar would drain power from the vocals, as if the volume had been turned down. I played in a band in which vocals, synth and bass all went through the PA, and it sounded fine, but it was a big PA system.