HELP! Need advice on afforadable keyboard/bass +PA rig

[SoulOfJonas]

Hey TapeOp-ers,

It's been a minute. Feels like I've been out of the loop.

Anyway, we I finished up an album with my band we're really excited about (Glad Hearts - listen HERE if you're interested) and we're starting to play out in support of it - mostly house shows, basement shows, small bars, etc - BUT now my whole keyboard/bass rig is starting to fall apart. It's ruined the last few shows (at least for me).

My rig:
-Mexican Fender P-Bass thru a Humphrey modded Badder Bass Monkey
-M-Audio Axiom 49 feeding a Roland SC33
-both above into a Kustom KPM7250 PA (7 channels)

Admittedly I play a very ghetto rig but it's what I had available and I've liked the way it's sounded thus far. We're sorta a lo-fi band anyway so it's gone along with our style. It's held up pretty well for the past year and a half of practices and short tours.

Now, though, it seems like the Axiom isn't responding correctly to my playing AND the PA head is starting to distort in a really unflattering sorta way. My bass itself is fine but obviously playing into a PA that is crappin out isn't any good. I've been thinking about getting a better keyboard setup - maybe a Nord - and a better PA but I'm really strapped for cash after finishing the album. I have some stuff I'm about to sell but I also have to worry about covering bills so it all can't go towards a new rig.

Anyone have any suggestions for an affordable (possibly even temporary) keyboard setup and a PA that I can also play bass thru? I would only need the keyboard setup to have 2 workable patches: a decent clean piano and an decent E. piano somewhere between a Rhodes and a Wurly. We have a short tour coming up in the middle of March and so I need to figure something out soon.

Thanks for the help.

-JV

[zachary]

what about a shure vocalmaster pa head? you can usually find them pretty cheap, and in my opinion make pretty cool instrument amplifiers... but kind of crappy for vocals.

you should be able to find one for like than $200 if you look around.

or really any old pa head would do (bogen, orange, sunn...)

[SoulOfJonas]

Ha! Thanks for the reply, Zach. I actually forgot I have a Shure Vocal Master head lying around that I got on the cheap a while back. I gotta dust it off and try it out but from what I remember it broke up a little too early for some of the stuff that I'm doing. I actually prefer the sound of the Shure to the Kustom head but the Kustom could do louder cleaner cuz it's 200 watts @ 8 ohms and the Shure is only 100 watts @ 8 ohms. Might be good enough for the tour we have coming up, though. Thanks for reminding me.

Now what about a decent cheap keyboard solution? Maybe if my Roland SC33 can hold up, I'll just get the cheapest 49 key controller I can find for the time being.

-JV

[SoulOfJonas]

bump.

anyone else have any advice?

-JV

[NeglectedFred]

For convincing piano's on a budget I really like my Roland XP30, I picked it up about 8 years ago for $600 loaded with extra sound banks (but the stock pianos are excellent).

I prefer it over the pianos in pretty much anything you can get your hands on for under $1000, and still prefer it over many others that cost more. I own or have regular access to a Korg X50, Yamaha S90, an unknown Kurzweil, and a few older modules, it's pretty much my choice, but I have a friend who prefers the Kurzweil.

[SoulOfJonas]

Thanks for the suggestion, Fred. The Roland XP30 seems pretty cool and, from what I've read so far, probably a good investment for the future but as of now $600 is out my range, especially considering how little time we have left before tour.

I just scored a used M-Audio Radium49 for $80 shipped on Ebay. Hopefully it's in good enough shape so I can just swap it out for the Axiom then also swap out the PA heads and just get on with it.

-JV