Jack

It bothers me that some of the cables don't go all the way to the edge of the frame!

So you want to use them in the place of centre fills but not necessarily as centre fills? Not ideal but then we've all worked with less than ideal setups before, just a part of gigging in the real world. Normally when one puts speakers there they are used to make sure that people in the very front of the audience can hear the things on stage that don't produce much volume on their own. The thinking being that if you're right at the front then the main pa is shooting over and past your ears. So it's often vocals, vocals and more vocals in centre fills as things like drums and guitars are probably making enough stage volume on their own for the first few rows. If possible I'd put the extra speakers on an aux send, that way you can do their own mix and eq. Even if they are just duplicating the main mix and being used as extra volume rather than extra coverage they're still going to sound different and the added control of being on an aux send will likely help.

Sorry for all the quotes, just getting caught up on one of my favorite threads. Downsizing from multiple pedals to a multi is definitely a 'thing'. Much easier now as well as they are all fantastic, you could honestly gig with nearly all of them. Although I'm sure in 10 years time they will all sound terrible again! I still have a little analogue board with 3 pedals on a nano, but my QC (and before that my HX stomp) is just my rig now. What else could you need? He says, looking at the limited edition Sansamp paradriver... Pleased to see I'm not the only one, although it still feels like cheating. Just for three songs in our set, what about you? That is slick. Have you seen the little cable ones? They put a bit less strain on the jack socket IMO.

That would bother me.

I once spent £250 on a pickguard and it wasn't quite that nice. Of course it came with a free bass

In fairness that is beautiful.

Oh trust me, if I was being funny you'd know about it as I am hilarious. My point was that if you're sitting at home doing late night practice or whatever using IEMs then fine, do whatever sounds best to you. But if you were playing live and using IEMs then you might go to great lengths to get it to sound great to you in your IEMs, and in doing so ruin the sound that the audience hear through your amp or the pa or whatever.

Is this for playing live? If so, the audience aren't wearing iems.

I might have a situation where I have to use a traditional backline for a bit. Can the QC run enough output to properly drive a PA power amp? 1.4V?

There's no need for a talkback mic for the soundguy, I'll just lean over on stage and talk to him. That sounds nice, thanks Matt I'll float that with him. As for the Studiospare I know what you mean, I'm not selling mine either.

I figured but then I also know that what works in a rehearsal studio doesn't necessarily work at a gig. Good to know that in this case though it pretty much does, weight off our mind. Oh he's buying but it's been stressed that he's on a budget. Not my business past that. Thanks for the other suggestion, that's the one I mentioned in the op and I'm with you, I think it's the budget contender at the moment.

Thanks for the help all. That's at least two votes for the passive di, two votes for the Behringer ADI, no votes at all for any kind of amp, several mentions of soundhole covers and even a recommendation for a piece of gear I already own and specifically ruled out in the OP. Seriously, there is a consensus and I really appreciate it. I think the direction is to stick with a passive di for now and see if a cheap preamp comes up or maybe have him buy the Behringer further down the line. Oh well. I am surprised the inbuilt preamps and tuners are actually useful on gigging stages, but hey, that's why I asked! Possible side quest for a sound hole cover but I know he is not interested in buying gear and I'll bet this is one those "don't need it until you do" things that people won't be convinced on until it's too late.

Using my extensive knowledge of vintage instruments I can tell you that the neck plate was made in Japan sometime before 2025.

Hi all, Unusual request, just looking for some advice please. I've joined a jam band with an old friend and we're at the point where we're going to start shopping for gigs. Out of the 5 of us, 2 of us (me being one of them) have played in plenty of gigging bands before and we have hundreds if not thousands under our belts between us. The drummer and the singer haven't gigged before but they are sorted. The issue is with the acoustic guitarist. He's a nice fella and a great player but never left the bedroom. Currently they own a nice selection of acoustic guitars and that's it. No stage gear to speak of. I even had to show him how to plug into the amp at the rehearsal space, no joke he had the instrument cable from the guitar in the speaker output of the head. Have any of you ever played acoustic guitar in a band or been in band with someone who has? Advice for what gear you need to be able to actually do that? I would lend him my Fishman Platinum Pro, but once I've done that once I'll be doing it at every gig and I don't want to start a precedent. We have a full pa setup so he could go ampless and then rely on the wedges I suppose. I get the impression that most acoustic guitar amps are relatively flat anyway? Or do nice-but-mid-range acoustics benefit from some tone sweetening? So is it just a plain DI box then to get the guitar into the mixer? I think that all of his guitars have built in preamps and tuners, so just a passive DI would work. But then wouldn't it be nice to have some eq and feedback fighting options on the floor? Or a better tuner? Do the inbuilt ones on guitars work on loud stages under bright lights? What's a good budget acoustic guitar amp? Or preamp pedal? I have seen the Sonicake ones that look alright but they don't have a tuner. Do multi effect pedals work well with acoustics? It occurs to me that something like a Mooer/NUX/Valeton 'hx-stomp-alike' might be a good solution to this? I don't even know how to ask an intelligent question on this as you might have guessed. I own an electro acoustic and if I had to play it live I'd just plug into the quad cortex or the aforementioned Fishman, but that's because I already own those solutions and I'm not an acoustic guitarist by trade. I'm trying to remember back to when I've shared a bill with acoustic guitarists or when we've worked weddings and I've had them through my desk and pa as the first acts. I think most of them have had some sort of pedalboard, mostly with looper pedals, but I guess that's not appropriate for a band. I guess what I'm asking is: for a player who has been playing for a long time but who is brand new to playing live (and who is on a tight budget) should we go amp or pedal board? If so what are some good cheap options in those categories? Is there anything else here that I haven't thought of? Thanks in advance.