Electro Voice Evolve 30M

[SierraTango]

The good news is my duo is getting more bookings as the venues open up. One guitar, one Trumpet/Flugel playing GASB and as much Clifford Brown, Miles, Lee Morgan as we can get away with. Indoor and Outdoor small to medium private parties, restaurants, etc. Mostly conversation allowing volume. Vocal mic as I warble a few to satisfy the Sinatra/ Bennett requests, in some venues we place a mic in front of the horn at low levels.

Guitar is my beloved 1990 Benedetto Cremona with a floating Bartolini pickup. I go directly into (no pedals-just a patch cord) into my Evans JE200.
Line out into PA. Happy.

However I have been looking into the "all in one" array type PA systems, the EV caught my eye. Sure would be nice to eliminate some boxes and cords. I know about the Bose L1, however, it's only two channels and I need that third channel for the horn mic.

I've heard several of these systems, and they generally sound pretty good, but it seems they are being used by players with Flat Top guitars with Fishman or other piezo type pickups. And these usually have a pre-amp onboard.

So my question is-has anyone used one of these P.A. with a archtop w/ a floater in a performance situation? I realize I would need to try out personally and decide for my application, which I of course would do, but I'm not close to many stores that stock this item.

TIA for any comments!

[SierraTango]

Update: I found GC not far from me that has this item in stock. I'll go try it out, so thanks for the views, but still would like to hear from anyone using this type of setup.
Cheers!

[SierraTango]

Update: I purchased the Electro Voice 30M last weekend. I was able to try it out against the JBL and Bose systems, and found the EV fit my needs. These systems have a learning curve to sound good, and require some tweeking. One thing I found out early-download the app to your phone or tablet first, connect via Bluetooth so you can control the different parameters remotely, instead of constantly kneeling down behind the unit to twiddle with the settings.

There are several presets on each channel, and so far I'm finding the Bass Guitar preset sounding the best with my Benedetto. That said, even with the pre-set it still needs some EQ tweeking to sound right.

I'm hoping this will be a convenient tool for the smaller gigs we play and eliminate some boxes and cords. We shall see...

[citizenk74]

Sounds like you are on the right track. Reliable FOH is a precious asset which, if it's doing its job, becomes basically just part of the furniture when, in reality, it's doing much of the heavy lifting - unobtrusively and thus well.

[SierraTango]

Update #2

We got a call from one of our regular venues to cover a gig, the entertainment cancelled due to illness. Short notice, but I took it. At first I hesitated to go with the new EV system, but then thought I had just invested in it and why not? I can put my old rig in the truck and if it's a disaster, swap it out on break. It's a outdoor venue (weather has been nice-75 degrees daytime cooling to 60 or so in the evening), usually draws about 150 people.

Since I was most concerned about the guitar sound, and one of the reasons I got the rig, question was could I get by without the Evans JE 200, plug straight into the EV and be happy? Before the gig I set up the Evans and the EV then connected through a A-B switch. This way I could try to get the EV system to sound as close to what I was used to hearing from the Evans using the Bluetooth control. I got pretty close. Wasn't to worried about the vocal and horn microphones.

The first set was a adjustment for me, as the EV array was set up between the horn player and me. I have been used to having the Evans on my left side, so now all the sound is coming from my right. Took a few songs to get used to it, but no problem. Of course I asked around the audience and everyone stated we sounded great! My girl too took some short videos and confirmed the mix was very good. The old system stayed in the truck. And SO easy to pack up!

So short answer to myself-yes it was worth the investment, and I think performers in my situation or similar would benefit from at least trying this type of rig out.