Yeah, generally need a DI device. For $33 you can get a BDI 21 which also has great tone additions and can DI right to the house sound system
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From my experience of watching my brother and other local bands, a lot of the venue’s won’t have an in house pa. Maybe some, but most are just pubs, so would just be in the corner of the room, probably under the dartboard 
haha
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I do sound for my brothers band and we have a PA system to use at places where they don’t have house sound. The bass player has a direct box or we mic the amp. I couldn’t tell you what wattage his amp is, but it’s a Mark Bass amp with a 15 inch speaker so I’m sure it is probably in the 300 watt range. With a PA you can go with a less powerful amp but you might need to play closer to your amp at gigs or get monitors. We use monitors so the guys can hear themselves.
I didn’t think about practice and a loud drummer. For our practices we only set mics up for the vocals and it seems to work. I don’t go to every practice, but I know they can get a little loud at times and I end up being the referee and have to tell them when they need to turn down. Never a fun job and someone always gets a little butt hurt.
I was thinking I was going to be able to help with some soundman advice, but after typing what I had to say it really isn’t that helpful. In the end, if you are going to be competing against your drummer your going to need a bigger amp. I guess the one piece of advice I can give you is if your drummer is as loud as you say he is you are going to need to have some sort of system to amplify the vocals for your band at gigs.
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I should have put this with the original post, but here is a video of the band. The sound isn’t the best because it is just a phone video, but it’s not terrible.
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Doesn’t sound bad at all considering the venue . . .
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In that case the Peavey is good option. I even recorded it in studio on one of our songs
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Yeah, that’s surprisingly good for a phone recording. 
Which one is your brother?
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Props for singing that while playing bass! Good voice too!
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He is the one on the left side with the Fender Strat.
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The bass player is a really good bassist and a very good singer!!
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I’ve got a Peavey I picked up for $280 aud if I remember correctly ( and that’s a rare thing nowadays) Awesome for the cash
And most importantly, congratulations @MattHinchliffe. Little envious to say the least
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What about mic’ing or DI. Or better yet both?
Nice video! I envy people that can sing and play at the same time 
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This would never work with a band with live drums unless you scrupulously went over the sound/PA gear / specs with the venue sound engineer before the gig to ensure you had adequate monitor coverage / monitor mixes, or you brought in-ear monitors.
The investment and tech-experience needed to go safely and smoothly amp-less is a big hurdle to clear.
Yes, some venues have PA systems and you won’t need your amp to carry to the back of the room - but most rooms have terrible monitor systems that don’t allow for great tone/volume control on stage and if you’re sharing the stage with a drummer, you’ll need an amp.
Until you’re a band that can send out pre-show contracts to establish the capabilities of the PA system of the venue, either bring your own PA and sound engineer or your own amp.
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Good point. All of my shows we brought our own guy or the house system was good, and I had lugged my amp around anyway, but in hindsight didn’t need to because my DI would have been perfect for it. But again we hired someone unless the venue had an adequate system.
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