Toaster or Rack? Travel advice for small budget club gig tours?

    I once had a KPA head. I need to fly low budget so I checked in my Strat (neck unscrewed inside the suitcase) and took the KPA head into the cabin. Then the rack version came out and I thought: "wow, that´s much more practical!" After two years I sold the KPA for some other reasons and since then I travel again schlepping a small tube-amp with me.


    Now I am decided to buy a KPA again but I am not so shure whether the rack really is the best choice for me. It certainly is ideal for musicians who tour with an equipment truck and a roadie-crew but I am more touring small club-gigs where I myself have to carry all that I need in trains and busses and airplanes. I read the rack KPA needs a 4 unit rack case because of the heat dissipation. (I want the powered version). A 4 unit case might be a problem with finnicky check-in controls, the height exceeds the stupid 55 x 40 x 20 cm rule.


    The head weighs half a kilo more than the rack but if you carry it close to your body it can go inside a simple bag and only needs a little foam to protect the dials. The rack is much more bulky and heavy if you include the case in the equation.


    I am thankful for any hints, advice and reports from your point of view.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Edited 5 times, last by fretboardminer ().

    I recently bought the powered head for a couple of reasons.


    One of which is the portability of the head and shoulder carry bag and the fact that head works better on my studio desktop than a flight case. That's really just a mater of personal preference.


    The other thing that swayed me to the head was extra set of knobs on the front panel for direct access to modulation parameters. I thought that would be really useful and might limit the ease of use of the rack version. However, in the month since I bought it haven't actually used the direct access to mod parameter knobs once so if I was doing it again I would just make the decision based on travel convenience. If you need IEM or guitar radio packs for example the ability to set them up in the rack would sway me but as I don't currently need this it wasn't an issue.

    Just to add its easier to rack mount other things alongside...I have the rack version in a shallow rack ( to reduce size) but I also have my wireless in there.


    BTW I'd not heard about the air dissipation, I went 4u because they are easier to find!