Has anyone ever used a Minirig speaker as a guitar rig?

[Jim Soloway]

Some TGP members has recommended these as FRFR speakers. Anyone here ever tried them? Could you actually use them on a little restaurant gig with a modeler of some sort?

Minirig - Portable Bluetooth Speakers Bristol UK

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Good lord, Jim - I just got down to a Toob Metro and a Superblock US. Now you throw this at me - what's a guy to do???? If the Minirig 3 lives up to its presentation, it could be an excellent little rig for low volume gigs.

I never heard of it - and it looks fantastic! But the specs are vague and little help in knowing how suitable it might be for us. A frequency response spec of "60-18,000 Hz" is useless without an indicator of the -3dB points, and I strongly doubt that it's -3dB at those stated endpoints and flat across the spectrum between them with a 2 3/4" driver in that tiny enclosure. They spec the amp at "40 wrms", leaving us to assume (hopefully but without factual basis) that it's doing this into that little driver in that enclosure at an acceptable THD level. It's almost certainly a class D chip, so that 40 wrms rating is within kissing distance of its peak rating too - there's not going to be any reserve, so it probably won't be anywhere near as loud on a gig as a "real" amp. As they provide no input sensitivity rating, we don't know if a passive guitar pickup will pump enough voltage into it to achieve rated output. It has 2 gain settings, but there are no specs for either one in the manual.

Buried in the FAQs is this ambiguous statement about SPLs: "[U]sing the very exciting 'standard' IEC60268-5, the speaker in the Minirig 3 has a sensitivity (1W/1M) of 86-87db - very high! If we then apply the amplifier gain you get an output of up to 102db at 1M. So this tells you how loud it is in theory.... but not how it sounds in real life." If it would hit 100 dB at a meter driven full frequency by an input signal from a pickup, it'd be fantastic on gigs. Sadly, we don't know how it sounds "in real life" and they do nothing to assist us (e.g. actually measuring the output SPL in dB at a meter driven by a 250 mv signal).

With the USD as strong as it is now against the pound, $140 USD is little enough for me to want to try it out. My concern is that the subwoofer they sell to go with it is another $140 and probably necessary to get decent lows. It's spec'd at 48-120Hz, again without a reference point or an input sensitivity. The E6 is 82.4 Hz at concert pitch, so the sub should really beef up the lowest 6 notes of a 6 string guitar. But at $280 for the pair, it's at the limits of the "it's so cheap I can't resist trying it" range. And as they only sell direct, there's no dealer network even in the UK and no place to try it out.

Then again, in the immortal words of the great Brother Ray........

[pingu]

And I thought I was obsessed with small/light amps
But this is a step too small even for me !

Maybe for a solo gig it would work ok

you will probably need more oomph to drive the aux in on this
ie a pre-amp pedal of some sort

[rpjazzguitar]

I'm not clear on exactly what this is.

Apparently, it's a powered speaker with Bluetooth input and output. Is that much right?

What about the output from say, a cell phone headphone jack? It comes with an audio cable -- can you plug your cellphone headphone output into this unit?

Or does it just link up with your cell phone by Bluetooth?

What do you have to do to play guitar through it?

[pingu]

yes could plug your cellphone
or anything with a 3.5mm headfone
op into it ....

for guitar you’d need a pre- amp
with a headfone op

this little vox gadget maybe ?

Vox amPlug 2 - Clean Headphone Amp
| Vox Amps UK

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

yes could plug your cellphone
or anything with a 3.5mm headfone
op into it ....

for guitar you’d need a pre- amp
with a headfone op

little vox gadget maybe ?

That's why we need the specs. With 2 gain settings, it may even be sensitive enough to do a decent job with higher output pickups or an onboard system like Fishman. If it takes a preamp up front (which it may indeed require), the rig becomes a bit more cumbersome and expensive, and (at least to me) less appealing.....unless, of course, it sounds spectacular.

[Jim Soloway]

I read about this thing on modelling forum on The Gear Page. There were a few people using it with various devices. I've ordered a single one (which at least one of the TGPer's is using). My thought for driving it is the Fender Mustang Micro. Watching this video it seems to have a few solid clean tones and at least one usable reverb.

[stevus]

I have two of these Minirig Bluetooth speakers for music streaming and for listening to music on my phone. Fabulous stereo sound, they have travelled with me all over the world. Didn't know they could be used for playing guitar. Would be curious to hear how.