Hi,
my band often gets to play in small to medium sized clubs - at the moment our bass player uses a 300w Hartke amp and I put my guitar through a PODxt in the venue's pa. We occasionaly mic up the bassdrum and snare with a tiny Behringer mixer, which also takes the vocal mic and keyboards. However pas vary enormously and we hae recently done a gig where the sound was truly abysmal.
I would like to get a small portable pa which we can use to rehearse and perform to, occasionally putting everything through it, including the bass guitar. 300 + 300W would be more than loud enough. I dont know if should get a powered mixer like the behringer PMH3000 and a decent pair of spakers (plus a small monitor wedge for the drummer), or should I go for a non powered mixer plus a pair of active speakers? My budget is around £450.
Many thanks in advance
Andrea

You simply won't get anything that's really any good for that money. Sorry.

The behringer powered desks are not really great. I've used one for an acoustic cafe type venue, couple to a pair of HK PR112 speakers. That makes a decent little setup for pretty low volume vocals, acoustic guitar and maybe a bit of keys...

If you want to start putting bass guitar through a PA, your need a sub.

And if you want a vocal system to compete with backline, then you might just rustle something up for that money, but you can forget trying to put together a full system that will amplify the backline.

I'd look at something like mackie active speakers, with at least one sub, and a compact mixer. With new kit you won't do it for less than £1500... do without a sub for now, and buy second hand.... see what you can get.

If you do it wrong you'll find you spend a lot of money one something that doesn't do what you want.

Your bass player already has a 300 watt amp. Forget mic`ing him up. Look instead at a system that will do for vocals and if you insist on sticking the Pod through it, that as well.
Contrary to what has been said earelier, you will not need subs. I would suggest since you already have a small mixer that you consider something like the powered Wharfedale range - a pair of them would just about fit your budget and are pretty adequate at 250 watts a side for what you actually need. I have been using one of their 12" monitors for some time and can highly recommend them. Also used a pair of their 15" powered full range speakers for an outdoor event recently and they were fine.

I normally use a small but quality system comprising Celestion SR1`s and a Dynacord Powermate so I am used to using a decent small system.

Sadly a setup like mine would rush you about 2k, but at least if you bought the Wharfedales you could later use them as monitors. Come to think of it, why not buy 2 of the 15" monitors at about £275 each? They would still be fine used as a PA with a bit of lateral thinking as far as mounting them on stands is concerned.....