Well, to disagree with Anahata (Dare I ??) .....We at Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club decided to call ourselves that so as to attract those performers who might otherwise, sadly, be put off by "Folk Club".Having said that, we use venues where it is seldom,if ever,necessary to use amplification, built-in or otherwise,although IF it is a particularly noisy pub, OR it is Saint Patrick's Night,then we WILL and DO use picks-up, microphones,amplifiers,etc, as a means to being heard over the usual extraneous racket....but otherwise not....I mean, who in their right mind would want to amplify a Malodeon or a Discordion anyway ??