Hey Mo,
All good points. I made an early inquiry about the pa800, and there's a good chance that I'll give it a whirl very soon.
I played with a blues trio over the weekend as piano/organ with LH bass and never missed a thing ! The guitarist was excellent, the harmonica player was right on the money and I had a ball playing live bass all night long. I split my 61 note kb at D below middle C, and transpose the RH 3 octaves down an octave, so I have 2 full octaves for bass and three for chords. I like having that extra D in the LH for certain melodic bass lines that need to stretch a bit. As long as I'm the bass player, three octaves have always been plenty for my chords. I can always hit the octave UP button if I need a higher range to solo with too, so that's an option that's there, as well.

First time I ever played an "energy" gig without a drummer ( live or otherwise )...never missed it ! The bass lines carried the rhythm and the guitar filled in all the holes. It was really a lot of fun!

right on, unc..all that jive about smaller groups not sounding "full" enough..is just that, jive. good playing always carries the day. i ran into a folksinger I know who is pretty good, and he set up for his acoustic solo sets with a monster pa head, 2 giant 15" speakers about 20 ft apart on tall stands about 8 ft high..all in a small space.
i don't know what these cats are thinking..why sound like
a dj? I'd have used one 8 or 10 in spkr at shoulder height,
right next to me, and it would sound like what it looks like..a solo acoustic performer w/ volume boost...