Small amplifier

[John Bertotti]

I do not have a Mandolin with a pickup of any type. I have used a mic into my QSC K10 and it sounded good and I have used my 000-18GE with the pure western mini pups direct to it as well and it worked well but fed back a lot although I was in a small room and too close to it. It is best to have some price limitations and size, wattage decisions in place because an open question like this can go all over the place for suggestions.

[Dave Greenspoon]

I just used a Bose S1 pro last weekend. I'm thinking of clearing out my amps and buying one...or maybe two.

The band was guitar+, mando, acoustic bass, and percussion. All the vocals went thru the board and PA. A Fender Princeton and Fender bass amp for the fellas; we mic'd up the guy who sat in on mandocello.

The El Rey was plugged into the S1. That was my rig. Axe, cable, PA.

We were under a pavilion in a park with 50+ folks. Frankly, thinking of going unplugged next time and using the S1 just for vocals. That said, anyone interested in a couple of great used amps?

[mandroid]

JJB being a Piezo type pickup, (as most are) a company like Fishman would have the high impedance input buffer, to handshake with that pickup.
there are separate preamps too, to open up your range of choices to, say, a small self powered speaker for the final amplification stage..

[James Vwaal]

After my beloved Carvin AG200 died on me, I picked up a Roland Cube Street EX (50W) for a demo discount. It is my amp/PA solely, the other two in my trio have to provide their own amps. I am the only vocalist and so I use a Schertler DYN-M P-48 into one XLR input, and my vocal mic into the other XLR input. The acoustic guitar setting on the "guitar" input works well with the contact-mic'ed mandolin. And the thing runs for a couple of hours plus on 8 rechargeable AA batteries.

The Cube does not have phantom power (48V), so I bought a Behringer Xvive Audio P1 portable phantom power box that has internal rechargeable batteries and I zip-tied it to my mic stand.

Works for me. Someday, when I am rich, I will buy my own PA system but for now, those $300 gigs don't add up too fast.

[Mark Gunter]

Might look at a Marshall AS50.

I had one for a few years. Great amp, lots of features, but so freakin' heavy.

[Tom Dillon]

Check out Henriksen amps

I always use a Grace Design preamp before sending my signal to an amp, and I always send my signal to the PA if I can. That way, the amp is just for stage volume.

For amps, I used the largest Fishman Loudbox for several years. It's a good sounding acoustic amp for sure. I found it was sometimes not loud enough in a band with a loud drummer, and I switched to a QSC wedge, and ultimately to in ear monitors. For gigs with a quieter (or no) drummer it's fine, but maybe a little bigger to carry than I'd like.

Eventually I settled on the Henriksen "Bud" for those quieter gigs and I'm really happy with it:
https://www.henriksenamplifiers.com/product/the-bud/

It's pretty much identical to a Loudbox for features. 2 channels. You can plug into it with no preamp. It has 48v phantom for mics. FX loop. Sounds very similar to the Loudbox in a side by side comparison I did. Comes with a nice gigbag. Better build quality than the Fishman IMO. It's REALLY compact and still puts out all the clean volume you'll need most of the time. They also make a larger model now with a 10" speaker. Worth a look.

If you want more volume than that, check out Acoustic Image:
https://www.acousticimg.com/home

...and maybe a Raezer's Edge speaker cabinet to go with it:
https://www.raezers-edge.com/