Thanks for all the info -- there is great food for thought here. Our group is aware of PA systems and has used them for paying gigs like weddings, etc. We just hate to hump a heavy system to a bar where we're only getting free drinks. In general our instrumentation doesn't need too much reinforcement -- we have fiddles, banjos, guitars, mandolins, bass, guitars and concertina -- its the voice I was concerned about. We have sometimes tried one mic with a battery powered small amp and that has sometimes sufficed. I also experimented quite some time ago with a cheap PZM mic -- one of those flat ones that's supposed to pick up everything in a ten foot dome -- and tried sticking it up on the ceiling above the group, the idea being that it would reinforce the whole group sound without having to fight for position. That, for some reason, didn't work well at all. What I was really interested in was how musicians actually coped with sound reincorcement before electricity. I have read accounts of banjo contests in the minstrel age (1840's) being held in front of 3,000 people. And they had gut strings back then! Also, as I mentioned in the first thread, Rudy Vallee sang in front of huge crowds. (Remember the weird sound on "Winchester Cathedral" ? ) I realize that megaphones would sound equally weird, but I'm just real curious about it.