Busking Question

Afternoon all, I was wondering if any of you have tried busking with an electric guitar, and what in your honest opinions - are the best setups?

I am currently pondering buying a laptop computer (with a couple of spare batteries), that I can plug my Ibanez Jem into, and have it play loads of Joe Satriani / Steve Vai backing tracks... (yep busking Joe and Steves music lol)..and also load some guitar effects onto it etc...

No need for a external power source and can take it anywhere....The only question is speakers that run off the computers power source, as I don't think the computers speakers are powerfull enough..

Has anyone tried this...would you recommend it, or would you recommend an alternative method of achieving the samr thing?
Thanks for any ideas.

Hm... So you want to buy a labtop just so you can play backing tracks and play your guitar through it?? I guess if you have the spare cash go for it... yuo can do a lot through a computer... however, labtops aren't what you want for recording or high end software... they're not easily ugradable and they normally have less RAM and less hard drive space... since they're mostly designed for certain tasks that are more job oriented than music or other tasks that require greater space and more technology...

If you're just interested in getting the backing tracks to play over... youc can just burn them to a cd and play over them... If you're interested in effects... there are a lot more useful tools than an effects processor ran through your computer... and that might be the main concern... the sound card on any labtop won't support an effects program... so like I said... you can burn a cd... or a couple of cds of your backing tracks... and purchase a Digitech effects processor for 100-300 dollars depending on what you want... I would recommend a GNX3 or GNX4... it comes with a built in recorder... might give you more bang for your buck... when you're looking at 2000 USD for a labtop that probably won't even be able to support your effects program...

I don't mean to be an annoyance, but I think you missed my point a bit, I'm looking to use the laptop specifically for Busking (in the high street etc)....to allow me to play my electric guitar to the public or cash etc....
So i'm thinking of plugging into a laptop to achieve this...

I thought it would be portable, allow me to play electric guitar though it, and also not give me worries about power sources etc. (...I have a suped up computer at home for recording music)...

I get your point... You can still just buy a little battery operated amp for 30 dollars... It's your choice, I'm just trying to show you some other alleys so you don't end up spending a ton of money on something that you get limited use out of... Even if you get a labtop... you'll still need to change the sound card to accept a 1/4" instrument jack... also upgrade the soundcard to handle the load... and then you'd have to buy speakers to amplify the sound beyond the built in speakers................. that's a lot of money wasted in my eyes.

A battery amp, effects pedals and a portable cd player (pumped into the amp - possibly)....is certainly a lot less to nick during a chav attack ;) , and probably would sound a lot better...and would be less inticing..

Great..thanks for your help.

All of this because rigmorole - because I absolutely suck on accoustic..

yeah, them chavs is right feevs an wiwl nick it innit!
I' be carfuwl bruv, yeah