Review - Roland BA-330 Portable Mini PA

Hi guys, this refers to questions raised within thread: http://www.thefret.net/showthread.ph...ht=#post199916

Basically, I have been using my Boss RC-50 looper through my gutiar amp for sometime, knowing that it won't sound quite as good as it should for things like bass, drums, vocals etc.

In my other thread I have detailed my very first experience with busking, 1 month on and I've been very suprised by the reactions of passerby's. To shorten my other thread, my main reason to go busking was to try and overcome some nerves, my music sounds awesome (to me at least LOL) when I play alone, as soon as anyone is in the room it falls apart a bit, in that somehow some of the 'magic' is lost....

Anyhow, I've now used the BA330 twice (for busking) and am reasonably happy with it.
The drums sound quite 'tinny' or perhaps I'm just used to hearing them through a guitar amph!

The good:
* The BA330 is battery powered, as soon as I get a power option for the ME50+RC50 I can ditch AC power outlets altogether and play pretty well anywhere.
* It has x 4 6.5" woofers and 2 horns, much better for the range of sounds I'm using VS the guitar amph, luckily most of my playing is clean and the guitar parts sound OK. Guitar doesn't sound anywhere as good as playing through the guitar amph but I guess thats to be expected, somewhere along the line I have to compromise. You may not have to.
* Has seperate channels, so via the RC50 I can send the drum beats/patchs with bass through the SUB OUT into 1 stereo channel and main guitar parts through the MAIN OUT. This way without a mixer, I can have a LITTLE control over tone for drums and seperate control for guitar/other channels.
* Much lighter than a guitar amp (for buskers carrying gear around)
* Can plug in sources which is great for jamming with multiple guitarists, keyboard/singers etc without them needing an amph.

The bad:
Not much bad, the guitar parts don't sound quite as good....to the untrained ear it's minimal but I can hear the difference.....
* The very worst part of this setup - the Distortion is WOEFUL....really, if you're playing with any distortion DON'T buy this PA or at least check out with your own pedals if it sounds any good....At least with the range of distortion available on the ME50, NONE of them sound any good AT ALL.
I'm not sure changing to a better or boutique type pedal would make much difference since the speakers are only 6.5 inches....
* Boss/Roland Manuals.......are you listening Boss...??? When will your documentation team come up to the level of your gear...!?!?!? The manual is quite thin which isn't the problem, but it doesn't have many setup options shown except for the most
basic setups. It is advertised as 'stereo' but not if you only have the 1 you need 2 of them for true stereo. Doco is somewhat easier to read/better document that came with my RC50 however, that manual is TERRIBLE with a captial T!!!
* 'That' guitar tone is lost to a degree, which I was told prior to buying, that my Fx pedals will be very important to get a good tone from this PA.......it seems then my ME-50 is lacking somewhat, it's OK but only just......or maybe I need to search for some settings for clean sounds.....(atm jusing some reverb with fast delay)

So onto looking for settings for the ME50 and/or swapping it out for some singular pedals, really only need reverb, delay and some modulation. BluesHack is looking at some BYOC so I may go down this path aswell. They PA does have Reverb but won't be anywhere near the level/quality I'd like.

Anyhow, that's my review!