I've been looking into getting a new amp to replace the old Peavey Backstage Plus that I've been "making do" with for almost 20 years. The old 35W Peavey looks like a 1987 model. I got it from my brother for pretty cheap sometime around then, and a few years back I replaced the original speaker with a 9" Pyle Driver, but it worked well for a looong time.

Recently I've been getting some buzzing sounds from it and the knobs need a serious dose of tuna-lube, and I decided it was finally time to retire it.

The hunt

I started looking for amps a couple months back and got some really good information from my buddy Todd of the Trespassengers and I immediately ignored it all. Well, that's not true, as you'll see. One of the things he suggested was that I look at the Mackie SRM450s which I did.

These speakers are just nothing short of awesome, and if I was really serious about gigging, I might have gone this route. You can use just one, and grab another one for shows as needed and daisy chain them. They're powered, so you don't need a separate amp, but they're really made to be run out of a mixing board or a pre-amp, having only a single XLR input in the rear and they really scream to be up on a speaker stand (something I want to avoid). Another thing he mentioned was that Fender makes an acoustic amp but that he didn't know much about it other than Sam liked his.

What I wanted

I play acoustic music mainly; Irish and Celtic folk, mostly using an Ovation acoustic/electric, though I also have an old (1900) Guitar Lute, I mess around with a tin whistle, and if someday I get a better mandolin I think I will play that a lot more. A lot of the stuff I do is old parlor room Irish ballads and the like. I wanted something that would not destroy the sweet acoustic sound of the guitar, while at the same time enhance my untrained voice a little maybe with some really light chorus or reverb. I didn't want heavy effects - for that I'd go for a dedicated effects processor. I'd rather spend the money on a decent amplifier with at least two channels than dump some of the upfront price into flashy effects since I'd end up with a lower quality amp with a bunch of low quality effects. I really only need the amplification on the guitar for when I'm picking out jigs and reels (this stuff gets lost in a big room with a lot of other instruments and voice babble) and for my voice since I am not as strong a singer as some of the other folks I play with. A lot of the singing I do is backup and sometimes falsetto. I also needed one critical thing: I wanted an amp with an XLR jack (for the mic) with phantom power. I have a Behringer condenser mic that I really like using for my voice since I'm convinced that it mellows it out more than my Shure SM-58s. Todd suggests using the condenser for the acoustic instruments and to keep to the SM-58s for voice, but as I already said I ignore most of his good advice. I probably will use the condenser on the guitar lute if I play that out.

What I found

I decided to look for an acoustic amp which is specifically designed for amplifying acoustic instruments. Most amplifiers seem to be designed to amplify electric guitars, acoustic amps are more rare. I looked for something with two channels, with the aforementioned phantom powered XLR input on at least one channel. Ideally I'd like to have a choice of phantom powered XLR inputs on two channels and a third for line instruments, but you don't get that without going up a notch in the cost. I wanted to keep this purchase under $400 if possible. I wanted at least 40W, preferably one big 10" speaker, as minimal on the effects as possible, with the connections on the front or rear, not on the top. This is mainly because I know that somebody (probably me) will spill a beer on it someday and I'd rather the sticky liquid not go directly into the connectors and tuning knobs. The typical consumer, I want all this and I want it to be light as well since I'm lugging around enough stuff already. I found the Marshall AS50D had most of what I was looking for in a sweet looking package. It has two 8" speakers which makes it a bit bigger than I wanted, but at 50W that's to be expected. I read a zillion good reviews on it, so hopefully I won't be disappointed.

What!? You didn't go play it first?

Like most of the accessory music stuff I buy (excluding instruments), I got it at Musician's Friend but Amazon has it as well. Here's a link to it.