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Guitar Player
Mackie ShowBox All-in-One Performance Rig review
By Jimmy Leslie,
21 days ago
The all-in-one busker box has become a subgenre in the live sound arena. Mackie makes a range of them, and the new ShowBox takes the concept to the next level. The idea is a bona fide Swiss Army knife that works as everything from a guitar amp to an ensemble PA, with the option of cutting the cord and running guerrilla-style, on battery power.
The star of the ShowBox is an ingenious breakaway six-channel mixer. Its feature set includes multiple effects with snapshot recall, amp models, an overdrive, a compressor, a tuner, a looper , Bluetooth, and even onboard recording. ShowBox promises a lot. Can it really be all that?
It’s tempting to say “yes.” To begin with, the breakaway mixer control is awesome, giving a player total control over the mix right at the mic stand. iOS apps are fine in this regard, and Mackie’s other battery-powered boxes have them, but they require a reliable Bluetooth connection to a phone or tablet, which is often needed for other stuff.
The ShowBox controller is also light and designed specifically with the guitar-playing busker in mind. It can be affixed to practically any stand using the included hardware and the Ethernet cable that provides a powered link to the main unit.
Despite having six channels, ShowBox has four primary channels for mics and guitars, with channel 5/6 provided as an auxiliary/Bluetooth line that offers no processing other than EQ. The inputs on the back of the main unit dictate your setup: Channels one and three have XLR jacks, while two and four have ¼-inch guitar inputs.
The digital mixer’s controls are intuitive, considering that the rather busy-looking interface has a footprint about the size of a grown man’s hand. The eight knobs on the panel’s left are also push buttons to select functions, including volume, gain, EQ, and effects, and they light up different colors to help you navigate. Push the FX1 knob down and you’re in Tuner mode, which works well and is handy as hell.
(Image credit: Mackie)
In Effects mode, the effect names are displayed in a box above the FX1 and FX2 knobs; twist each to choose effects ranging from modulation and ambience to amp modeling and even reverse delay. You can create snapshots of your favorite combinations for quick recall and patch your favorite pedals into the main unit and control their overall level via the mixer’s FX Loop. The onboard effects sound good when used in moderation.
A button on the main unit toggles between P.A. mode – which offers a broad, full-range sound – and Amp mode, which is more mids-focused. Players will appreciate the abundance of guitar-centric effects here, which include fuzz, crunch, and overdrive, as well as tube amp and acoustic ambience models that add a mic-like spatial quality. It also adds a hint of compression and gain, so be careful, particularly if you play percussively, because a hard slap will make the built-in limiter pop.
(Image credit: Mackie)
The acoustic ambience settings work for clean electric, too. I tried them with a Strat , and while I didn’t love the high-gain stuff (no surprise), the tube amp model was quite nice and was the only effect that sounds best when cranked up. And although I wouldn’t likely use the ShowBox as an electric amp on its own, I wouldn’t entirely count it out, given the unit’s convenience for performing in a park or the backyard.
The right side of the mixer has a global volume control with a handy mute, a button to engage an onboard looper, and a knob for level. The back of the Box has a ¼-inch jack for your remote foot switch. Hit the SD Record button and ShowBox will record your performance to a microSD card.
I tested the ShowBox mainly with a Martin GPCE Inception Maple and a carbon Klos Grand Mini Cutaway . The sound was good, and the tone was very sculptable. Mids and highs liven up with a bit of EQ, and the bass is most impressive, given ShowBox’s eight-inch woofer and light weight – just 20 pounds. I got nice results using a Martin DJR-10E acoustic bass guitar .
(Image credit: Mackie)
However, players need to be careful not to crowd the Box, as the woofer will break up at volume if you do. While I wish there were more headroom and pure punchy power, what’s there is on par for its class. A lightweight compact enclosure that can run on battery juice for up to 12 hours can’t compare to the kind of heavy-duty, old-school Mackie that helped put the powered speaker on the map.
With that said, the ShowBox is powerful enough to fill a small space, such as a room, sidewalk corner, or a backyard. For larger spaces or more than two performers, you can link a pair together for use as a set of mains or a main-plus-monitor configuration. On that last note, the monitor’s side angle should be steeper for better projection from the floor. I wound up sticking a stuffed animal underneath to prop it up.
Ultimately, though, the Mackie ShowBox packs more goodness into a portable package than anything I’ve tried yet. It’s wonderful to have the mixer at your fingertips for everything from volume control to muting channels, and it sure beats walking over to the speaker box with your instrument on and flipping through controls in plain view of the audience. If you’re seeking a lightweight all-in-one busker box with loads of features and conveniences, the ShowBox is worth a look.
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