Amping for Small Venues
Small, cozy venues like wine bars, botiques, coffee shops and record shops are often overlooked by performers. Small venues are great for First Friday and Art Walk performances, with a constant flow of new comers or a performance for a private party. There is an art of amping small venues. It’s not hard to provide a concert-like sound without blowing the roof off of the place. I’m learning how to keep the vocals warm and full sounding and having the reverb compliment the natural sound of a small room. Right now I’m working with what I got; a tube mic preamp, acoustic amp, delay pedal and a couple monitor speakers.
I’m sure there are millions of ways to do this, with tons of gear choices but I’ve been very happy with my acoustic amp made in my home-state, Arizona. I use the Genz Benz Shenandoah 100w. It is a great sounding amp with two channels each with an xlr and 3/4inch input for a possibility of 4 different inputs. Each channel has an effects level and equalizers. For smaller venues I use the amp for both vocals and acoustic amp. Volcano Vineyards’ Tasting Lounge in Bend, Oregon is a very warm room and perfect for this set up. The walls are brick and the floor is hardwood. I run two monitors in series off of the powered speaker outlet, one pointing toward me for monitor and the other on a stand.
