Back on Tuesday 27 May 2008, Fons Adriaensen was like: > On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 02:49:29PM -0500, Reuben Martin wrote: > > Back on Tuesday 27 May 2008, Simon Williams was like: > > > Are guitars mic or line or what? > > > > Hi-Z Line level. (The output level can vary quite drastically depending > > on the type of pickup though) > > Well, I'd say they are neither. Typical levels for a guitar are > well below standard line level, and on many pro equipment the > line input Z could well be as low as 10k so, which is too low > for a guitar. It can work, but the sound won't be the same. > This is because the impedance of a typical guitar is not only > high but also inductive, and in many cases (depending on the > setting of the controls on the guitar) this can resonates in > the audio band with the capacitance of the cable. Connecting > it to a medium Z line input will kill that resonance. Guitars > expect at least a few hundred k. Well, to you I would say "neither". To somebody asking if they should plug it into their mackie mixer line input or mic pre-amp input, I say "line" simply because I know the chance of them actually going out an purchasing a DI is kind of low, and if they're going to plug it direct, it's better for them to stick it in the line input than fry the mic pre-amp. :o) >[...] > > Today (and for the last 30 years) it would be perfectly > possible to make guitars low-Z, balanced, and compatible > with a normal mic input. It would save all of us a lot of > trouble, and would also allow for phantom-powered active > electronics in the guitar. So why didn't this happen ? > Because a guitar manufacturer would push himself out of > the market by doing it. People expect any guitar to work > with existing guitar amps. I think I read an article in TapeOp a while back that Les Paul did just that. IIRC, he rewired a pickup to be Low-Z because he thought it better retained it's character by being able to plug it directly into a preamp. Or something to that effect. I should dig around and see if I can find that article. -Reuben _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
