Basic Home Setup?

[joe boo]

Hey guys, first time posting...thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer.

I've been playing the guitar for years, but only played in public on a few occasions and have never been very well-educated in terms of live sound quality. When your only audience is your wife and 2 1/2 year daughter, they're not the most picky about sound quality (or talent for that matter). So if I misspeak or call something by the incorrect term, I apologize.

What I'd love to have is a setup where I could have a mixer (?) with different inputs. I would leave a mic plugged into one channel, then have another channel dedicated for my electric guitar, one for my bass, and maybe another for an acoustic guitar. In other words, something where I could sing while playing one of my guitars without having to adjust settings depending on which guitar I'm playing.

Any thoughts are welcome and appreciated!

Joe

[MrSandMan]

Mixer is good to have around. Just a small 4 or 6 channel Behringer should be fine. I have a cheap 4 channel Behringer that comes in handy.

Would you run it through a PA or headphones?

[joe boo]

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to have it run through a speaker, so I guess that would require a PA?

Would something like this work? http://www.guitarcenter.com/Behringer-EUROPOWER-PMP518M-Powered-Mixer-630185-i1175394.gc

[MrSandMan]

Yeah you could do that or just run one of these into your amp
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Behringer-Eurorack-UB802-Mixer?sku=631238

That's the one I use and it works pretty good. You can find them use for half that price

[Brian Krashpad]

Yeah, you would either have to have a mixer and power amp, or get a little multi-channel PA head like that Behringer. There are used Peavey PA heads that are 5 or 6 channels all over the place for next to nothing. I have an old one that I use as a PA head for band practices or small gigs, but in that situation I use it for vocals only and the instruments use their stage volume from their respective amps.

But they can also be used the way you suggest. In fact, right now for my church gig I'm using that same Peavey PA head for both guitar and mandolin, so that each can stay plugged in, and I don't have to unplug anything to switch instruments. Plus each channel can have different volume and tone levels. You'll need some type of speaker cabinet as well. At church I use an old 1x15 bass cab so that just in case I have to play bass rather than guitar or mandolin, it'll be able to cope with the signal without blowing up or farting out.

[cubis]

were you interested in recording or just playing?