I'm the tech support for a little church, seats 150. I'm also the orchestra director, of course. I don't play piano.
We are buying a Yamaha Clavinova (model CLP-845 if it matters). These things are meant to be pushed up against a wall in a house so the speakers fire backward, toward the player. That doesn't work in a church where the player faces out toward the congregation.
If you had a $500 or so budget, what keyboard amp would you buy in this situation?
Thanks!
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Yes, thanks for responding Charlie. It's a most reasonable idea until you run into what I did: church politics. There is a sound system from the 1960s, and the people who put it in and are still members of the congregation feel that is fine. It's not. And no one manages the mixer. There are only two old speakers in the front of the church that would feed back into the microphone used for live Zoom online services.
I want the amp for use by the choir and by my 14-piece orchestra for special events. Stand-alone amp is the way to go in this circumstance.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Now there's a name from the past: Peavey. Thanks, Steve. I think I need more than 20 watts. I've found a few around 60. That might work and I can spend up to around $500.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
My church has a sound system from the 1995 era. I keep reminding people that was the era of Gun Smoke. Does not matter than it only turns on and the faders work - nothing else. It has 3 big gym speakers in the ceiling with one of them not working either.
I do a bit of amp work, and my sales pitch for the bigger Peavey KB60 is that it puts out a ton of clean power AND, unlike a lot of new stuff today, the schematics are out there and any amp tech can fix it using common components. On the other hands, at 50 lbs, if you drop it down the stairs you're going to be doing some step repair. The amp will still work though.
Hey, we had your same PA system in our church 50 years ago! It could pick up AM radio from Mexico for some strange, fascinating reason...
Good luck!
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
Why did the old PA system get a new job at the Pentagon?
Because it could pick up AM signals from halfway around the world and always knew the enemy's battle plans
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Just hope that the truckers minded their vernacular. Sometime truckers have a language all of their own
Good luck with your search. I'm also a fan of Roland.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
We broadcasted a live funeral to the next door elementary school. Someone from the school then was able to ask who we were during the same funeral. The school's in house audio system (our system was also on the same band) was on the police band. ;-)
I already got rid of the old wireless mic that was made before frequencies were changed. It was picking up police chatter. 😎
"Breaker breaker. Car 54. Where are you?"
Sorry, now back to the main program...
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Sweetwater has some Roland and Peavy stuff on sale at the moment. There is not a lot of difference in price. I have worked on both brands in the past. Roland seems to be well liked by many keyboard players. I have had a couple of Roland amps in the past and liked them.
How they sound from one brand to the other is mostly related to the speaker in the amp. Most all of the brands will sound better with a 15 inch speaker. In general it is better to have a bigger amp and turn it down than a smaller amp and turn it up.
Reverb sell a lot of good used gear. Sometimes a real deal can be had. 370 Results for "roland keyboard amps" on Reverb.com
Good luck Matt
Billy
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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