Ampeg PF-350 Live advice sought

[indiegrungesound]

Evening all! I'm once again in the position of needing the sage advice of the good people of this board.

There's a fair bit of love on this site for Ampeg's Portaflex heads, the PF-500 especially, but I need to ask some advice about it's little brother, the PF-350.

I'm now in two bands. The second of which is an acoustic indie rock 4 piece, made up of a singer/acoustic 6 stringer, keyboard player, drums & me on bass. We've got at least 5 gigs coming up between now & the end of November. Now, I think that,due to the places we are going to be playing(Small but established venues in Manchester like Dry Bar, Moho Live & The Witchwood in Ashton-under-Lyne.), the PF-350 should be more than up to the task. (My Hartke LH500 would be too loud far this band, so that's being saved for when I finally get my indie punk band sorted.)

So, to cut to the chase, I need to know from any PF-350 users what I need to do to get the best out of the amp live. This includes stuff like:

* Is the DI any good, or should I use a separate DI box instead?
* Is it better Mic'd up?
* Should I take my own Warwick 12" cabs or ask to plug my amp into another bands cab?
* Do I need to do any specific EQ alterations? (FYI-FWIW-I have the db cut engaged as my Squier Jaguar's active, Bass is on 6 or 7, Mids are on 10 and Treble is set to 4.)

As ever, any and all advice is much appreciated!

[Lozz196]

I`ve no experience of the PF-350, so can`t answer all but one of your questions. The one I can answer is, should you take your own cabs - yes. No matter what amp I`ve used over the years, I`ve found that cabs really change the sound, so whenever possible, always use my own cabs. As such, I`d always advise others to do the same.

[Monckyman]

The d.i on the amp will be fine,but most engineers will prefer a d.i box just in case the amp fails.
All the venues you mentioned will be happy to supply a decent D.I box.
It would only be better Mic`d up if you had a particular cab you loved the sound of, and you wanted that represented in the P.A mix.
99% of engineers at this level club will use only the D.I.
If your Speaker cabs form an intrinsic part of your tone, then of course you need to take them.However, as said above, this tone won`t be heard by the audience,only you.
It`s a bit of a let down I know but if you have decent P.A support, then your amp and cabs really are just a personal monitor for your own benefit.
Your personal setup will be more important on those in between gigs where you have a "Vocal" p.a best suited to coping with vocals, and your backline has to provide the rest.
Enjoy!
MM

[indiegrungesound]

Ta for that gents! Re: the D.I. box, I've got a Behringer one just in case.(Could be garbage as I've never had to use it, but I bought it cheap, so I'm not to mithered if it should fail.) As for the cabs, I was only asking in terms of having less gear to cart around. My 2 x 12"s sound great, but I'd have no problem putting them through someone 4 x 10" if allowed for instance.

Any one else with pointers?

[lojo]

Ive a PF500 and the DI is great, I love the tone of it through the cabs and when Ive had it in the PA, but as others have said, when you come some sound guys will just throw a DI box in your input cable and by pass the amp, meaning your only get your amp tone through your cabs

Take your own cabs

As far as Eq goes, cant advise sorry, but I've gigged the PF flat 2 twice and it sounds good