How much wattage would you recommend...

[tisza]

For a show in pretty big room. Actually its a big room beneath a church with a stage. There would be upwards of like 60 people, maybe even up to like 150 for a big show. How many watts would you recommend for each guitar (2 total), a bass, vocals and drums (or if I even need anything for that). What type of stuff would you recommend. And what would be the cost.

Oh and could this stuff be used for practice and smaller shows?

[moaner]

hmmm.

you've 2 major options:

Just use Pa for vocals
Use Pa for vocals, guitar, drums, bass...

I'd usually advise the former for smaller bands with less money who might not be together forever...

Anything that can be used for big can be used for small. however, having somehting too big can be inconvinient to transport.

I'd advise against solid state halfstacks. they may look "cool", but the tone is rarely acceptable for the amount they charge for them. A tube/valve combo of 30w usually has nearly as much useable volume as a 100w half stack if put through the same cab.

but valve amps are more expensive. and 30w of valve, without a cab, may not be enough for your needs. And so you would put a mic in front of the amp and send this to the Pa system.

for that size, some on here might advise you towards 2x300w. and its always good to have some power in "reserve". It prevents clipping and all.

But I can envisage you getting away with less. I've seen gigs where the vocals were simply sent through a peavey escort PA. which is only around 100w i think. the vocals were almost loud enough in a large hall of around 50 people.

Almost loud enough. the guitarists were running 50w Mgs, without mics, which were giving poor tone and weren't properly audable. And so the bassists 120w combo was thudding along to the unmic'd kit (which was loud enough, to be fair) with a background fuzz of guitars and some not quite loud enough vocals.

So, you need a balance of tone and wattage.