Gear needed for a solo act...

[adamj]

for years now my family have been pursuading me to get a few backing tracks, take my guitar on the road and do a solo project (like those guys you see on your hols in the costa del sol singing away in the background for a couple of hours with the same set every night!)

Im already in a successful local band providing standard pub rock entertainment, so this kind of appeals to me so i have been wondering about what i would need, and came up with the following:

Backing tracks - ipod/laptop
Guitar
Decent Combo Amp - (open to suggestions)
Mic for amp, Mic for vocals, and relevant cables.

Is it really this simple or am i missing something? My band currently run their own mixing desk, PA, complete backline etc. Gear suggestions welcome, this could well be a possible future venture. Im pretty certiain some of you guys already do this kind of thing.

[38thBeatle]

I'd say a dedicated piece of kit for vocals. If you are thinking of putting vocals through your guitar amp then I would think you'll find it hard to find one that is good for both vocals and guitar. If it were me, I'd look at one of those Bose PA systems & maybe put everything through that (or maybe a separate guitar amp) If you are going acoustic then you'd just need the PA as you could put everything through that. I hope I have interpreted what you were asking.

[adamj]

sorry, maybe i wasnt too clear.

The idea would be me, with an eleccy guitar (with amp) and my ipod or laptop to play along to. I was thinking a venue would have their own PA system of some sort for the vocals? I was thinking I could set the output of my backing track to come out the house PA and mic my amp to do the same and blend them nicely. Perhaps trickier than i imagined without my own pa system and mixer.....

[gwEm]

consider reducing the amount you have to carry and get an amp modeller

[Frank]

Spare guitar!

[Bob Gnarly]

I doubt you could rely on most venues to have a serviceable PA system.
What style of music? If you don't need to pump out kicking backing tracks, a 2nd hand compact PA system wouldn't set you back too much.
Might be easier to mix/blend with a modelling amp going straight into the PA for your guitar.

[38thBeatle]

OH I see what you mean. The only thing to be wary of is the house PA. In my experience not all have them and personally I'd be happier with my own system ( I used a house PA the other week with my band and it was not too good). I think you've put your finger on it where you speak of bl;ending it all together. Not impossible and you'll get better at it but a lot depends on whether you get a proper sound check and someone to help you level everything. Whereas if you have everything going through the PA with a good mixer that is close by you then you can get it balanced that way. A mate of mine does it all the time but takes all his own gear and knows all his levels in advance and tweaks according to the venue once set up.He used a small PA and guitar amp. The backing tracks were all made by him and he allowed for reverb when he recorded them so that he adds reverb to the voice and backing track at the same setting.

[psy]

If you are going to be depending on house PA's it might be worth getting yourself a powered monitor wedge.  Nothing worse than trying to run samples or backing tracks when the house PA doesn't have monitors (or they're broken).

[Twinfan]

I'm with a couple of the guys here - Mr38th and gwEm.

The Bose L1 Compact is a great portable PA for £899:

http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/shop_online/speakers/portable_amplification_systems/l1_compact/index.jsp

Then plug your guitar into a Line6 Floor Pod Plus for £160:

http://uk.line6.com/floorpodplus/

Then with your iPod backing tracks, for just over a grand you'll have everything you need for a pub gig  :)

[adamj]

thanks folks, guess i overlooked the Pa/mixer side of things. I already use an old Pod 2.0 for home use, completely slipped my mind that a modeller like this would be a better option. Now to get saving a grand......  :lol:



and a new guitar to celebrate the occasion obv..... :P