On 12/26/2011 11:20 AM, Larry Pattis wrote:
So, is there any use for this box with an internally pre-amped UST?
I'm not sure what a UST is (sounds like a weapon of mass
destruction) but if it's a guitar with active electronics,
the answer is "maybe." If you're plugging the guitar
directly into an amplifier, then probably not. Any damage or
damage control at the interface to the pickup has already
been done by the instrument's electronics.
If you need to run the guitar through 100 feet of cable and
back to a mixer, then for sure. It gives you a balanced
output that, to a mixer, looks like a microphone. It will
probably do less damage at this job than a cheap DI box.
I think that some of you need to understand the difference
between a "guitar preamp" and a "DI." A preamp has voltage
gain - it'll make it easier for you to overdrive an
amplifier. But it can't have too much gain because
instrument pickups have a pretty high level as is. Slam on a
guitar and you can get 5 volts out of a pickup. Scream into
a sensitive microphone and you might get a half a volt.
A pickup doesn't quite make it to what we consider to be
"line" level but it's much higher than mic level. Most line
inputs can squeeze enough gain to get a usable signal if you
were to plug a pickup directly in, but with a nominal line
input impedance of 10k to 20k ohms, the pickup's inductance,
if it's a magnetic pickup, will start to look like a high
cut filter. And if it's a piezo pickup, the line input will
try to draw too much current from the pickup and the level
will go way down.
A DI is an impedance matcher, and in this sense, it has
current gain and actually voltage loss. You don't want to
put 5 volts into a standard mic preamp (or mic input on a
mixer), nor do you want to load a high impedance (which is
why they have a pretty high output level) pickup output with
a 1500 ohm mic preamp input impedance.
No one box will solve all problems or improve anything that
you connect to it. It depends.
--
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