Audio Systems: Setting up a sound system, channel mixer, expert friend

Question
I play acoustic music( country,folk ,and some blues) with two friends We play mostly for our own enjoyment but are sometimes asked to play for private parties small clubs,ect.We have two Fender acousticonic pro's and one Fender FSX a 12 channel mixer with two P.A. speakers and two JBL powered monitors along with mics. cables ect. We do not intend to play live a lot but we want to sound good when we do.None of us know much at all about setting up a system when we play for fun we just use our amps and run the guitars and vocals through them.but we need help to get things straight for playing in public. Would love any help. Thanks

Answer
Nothing wrong with the setup you mentioned.  At least not for a small crowd in a not too-big space.

Actual setup in a hall is to a great extent experimental.  It will be necessary for you to figure out how you sound by either playing back a recording of your self or use the help of an expert friend who can advise you on the mix settings.

If you need more power you can always add more amplifier/speakers, etc.   but JBL is good stuff and the monitors that I am familiar with will work as okey sound for  a crowd.

Here is some equipment that you may need when the crowd grows in size:

http://www.ssemusic.com/speakers.asp

http://www.instrumentmonster.com/?c=Live__Sound_DI_PA_SUB_Active_DI_Powered__Mai...

http://www.zzounds.com/cat--Active-Powered-Main-PA-Speakers--2737/page--2

There are lots of discussions on the web, such as this one:

http://mixonline.com/live/FixIts/pa-system-design/

If you want to get into the engineering aspects of sound systems you could start here:

http://meweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~me413/Handouts/JBL%20doc/ssdm_99.pdf

and other such places on the web.

Hope this helps you get started. Feel free to come back to me after noodling over the prospects of where you want to go thereafter.

C