Oxfan, you a John Entwistle fan?

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Very cool! The Ox was one of the finest bass players to ever walk the earth. Way, way ahead of his time.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Thanks supro, he was awesome.

Hey Brad, I see you're hanging around MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanks guys. I've been doing so much reading on powered mixers, amps, etc. I'm thinking of staying with an amp. It just makes more sense and is so much simpler. Now, I just have to figure out a way to buy what I want. I can say I plugged up to a Laney today and really wasn't feeling it so I passed. Very possible I'll end up buying a Fender Acoustisonic.......although I'm still looking around. It may take me a month of looking, but I'll find one eventually.

Have had a Fender Acoustasonic SFX for 5 years and recommend same. Not the huge horsepower of the 300 watt Genz, but hey, it's acoustic music, not death metal.

You have to remember that wattage numbers can be misleading. First off the GENZ-BENZ amp that I have is not 300 watts because I don't run the amp at 4 ohms. I run it with the speakers included in the cabinet which brings it down to 175 watts which is just about right for being on the low end of gig-worthy. You WANT lots of power in an acoustic amp. It's not like an electric guitar amp where amp distortion (break up) is not only allowed but desirable at volumes as low as 3 on the dial. Think of it as a home stereo amp. They make iPod dock stations that boast 100 watts. Chew on that for a second. My Harmon Kardon home stereo is "supposedly" 600 watts over 5 channels. My 55 watt Rivera blows it's doors off. You want as much clean headroom as physically possible. Bigger power means more definition and articulation on the bottom end, more punch in the middle better sound. It's not about volume. I don't reccomend any acoustic amp under 80 - 100 watts if you actually intend on playing "out" with it even if it's just a coffee shop folk setting. Too small and it'll sound thin and nasally.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

The Fishman Loudbox Mini I have is 65 watts and does a pretty nice job. I always went through the PA but wanted more control of my tone. It can actually fill a smaller room/coffee house pretty easily. It has plenty of bottom end, but I guess it just depends on your guitar and pickup system I think it would get lost in a large room, but it has a balanced XLR output to plug into the PA system. I would just use the amp as a monitor in a large place. Cool, great sounding little amp IMO. You're only going to get so loud before feedback becomes a problem anyway. Whatever you get, get something with a phase switch or other EQ system to help control feedback. So far it hasn't been a problem, but I've only used the amp on three gigs since I bought it a few weeks ago.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Been looking at Fishman amps too. My Fishman preamp already has a phase button which is nice. Looking for a Fishman to try out. Haven't found one yet. Maybe I'll go by Guitar Center and see if the carry them.

Jack, they build the phase switch into the amp too. Mine only has chorus and reverb as effects. I think the higher end Fishman amps have more. Keep BMW's comment about the wattage in the back of your mind, it is important. I just bought what I needed. I play with a couple of different acoustic projects so 65 watts is plenty for me.

My gigs range from coffee houses to fairly large clubs. Not many festivals any more. My main electric guitar amp is only 20 watts. We keep our stage volume at a reasonable level so I have plenty of power for my needs. Like I said, the Fishman has a balanced line out so I can go through the PA and monitor with the Fishman. When I bought the Fishman, my first choice was an Fender Acoustasonic. I found the modeling/voicing horrible to my ears. I was once again disappointed by Fender. Why can't they just leave the bells and whistles out and just build a great sounding amp??? I bought a Martin and I want it to sound like a Martin. I also tried a Bose and that didn't really have enough eq control and it sounded like one of their radios, I also tried the Marshall and Acoustic amps, didn't really do it for me either, though I did like the Acoustic better than the Marshall though.

Try a bunch of amps out with your guitar and don't make a quick decision that you'll regret later. Compare features too. I spent a few hours trying out amps. Be sure to crank it up too.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

You just reminded me of the OTHER thing you want to look for in an acoustic amp. Feedback resistance. Most of the better preamp systems on acoustic/electric guitars these days will have a notch filter and usually you'll have the best luck centering it right around 450Hz to 500Hz or so as long as you don't dip too deeply. This won't completely rid your rig of feedback, though. You'll need a soundhole dam (rubberlike plug) but you'll also need to have an amp with a parametric or at least a semi-parametric EQ section because you will find there are other sore spots in the frequency spectrum that will rear their ugly little heads and cause you grief. When an acoustic guitar rig feeds back it is a truly ugly thing to hear.

It will be important to take your own acoustic with you when you try out amps and it will be even more important to try each prospective amplifier at volumes much louder than you expect you will likely use in real world settings. This is because the volume you think you are hearing in the little amp room at the store is not the same as the volume you will hear in a live situation at the same dial settings. If you can play at a reasonably loud volume in the small space of the amp room at the store without feeding back then you can likely play in a larger staged setting with confidence that you'll probably be able to dial out any feedback the room might present to you during your sound check.

So, the three things you are evaluating:

Tone. Your guitar should sound bigger than life (or at least really really good).

Power. You need more volume than you think you do. Once you set up on stage you'll be surprised that the amp doesn't have the same depth and punch you remembered it having during rehearsal.

Feedback resistance. Parametric EQs help but sometimes even they are not enough. A good amp designer will take this into account during the development process and engineer some of the simpler problems out of the amp before it even gets to you.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.