Do I need a Powered Monitor?

Bellycaster

If or when I use my back up system: Guitar > Pedalboard > Sansamp Tech 21 British > D.I Box > P.A(Mixing Desk), it is obvious that I will hear very little of my guitar on stage as it will be coming out front of house. Our band has 2 monitors which seems to suffice in normal circumstances(with my amp working). One is placed in front of the singer and one near the drummer. I have my amp for reference on stage.

But if I use my back up will I need a passive monitor or a powered one?

Doesn't need to be anything flash, something between £100 - £150 and preferably small but mighty :-)

Thanks.

John_P

Are they powered monitors? You could run an extension monitor from the singers to give more vocals anyway and then if you need a backup feed a bit of guitar into them - just enough for you to get through the night as a backup. It might be that in an emergency you could get enough signal from here and the main pa to survive the gig.
If you want extra just for you back up then it might as well be a guitar amp but for the, hopefully, rare times you'll need it then I'd just rely on the pa.

Bellycaster

I assume at least one has to be a P.M @John_P

I'm a twat for not knowing right now, haha, our Bassist owns and takes care of all PA related stuff. I thought one way might be to just get a cheap P.M and go from the DI Box into that instead of into the PA and Mic up the P.M.

Your way sounds good though. If I go DI Box into PA can you control what comes through each individual monitor?

John_P

It depends on the desk and how you are running it. It could have an aux send for each monitor allowing a different mix but if you only have vocals in the monitors then I suspect you're currently running one monitor aux send and linking the two monitors. One of them might be powering both or they could both be powered. If you find out what desk and monitors you have that would help suggest options. I try to keep my backup options to minimal gear though so in my case I just switch to using a do to the existing pa gear and get through the set.

Bellycaster

Thanks @John_P

I can find that info out easily. I thought I'd explain the scenario though, either way, I was wondering what was good and cheap, the Laney ones around that price tag might be a winner for what I want. Not looked too deeply yet though.

simonk

I'd consider the little Alto TX-8; cheap as chips but plenty loud enough for your average pub gig. I wouldn't go sticking bass and kick through one and be expecting to get sensible results, but for guitar and vox they're more than fine.

John_A

Get an EHX magnum 44 and wire it up to your current speaker, it'll fit in your gig bag and they sound really good, some people have reported reliability issues but I've never had a problem with mine.

Beexter

I've got a pair of the ts110a powered Alto's which are great. Small, powerful, cheap and sound good. They will take 1/4" jack or xlr input.
You could plug into these first (giving you just your guitar sound) and then connect the output to the PA or you could feed a signal from the PA to them giving you your own personal mix. They have 2 inputs so can be used in a variety of ways.

Bellycaster

Thanks lads, will have a look at all your suggestions.