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Headamp for Electric Bass?

post #1 of 5
12/23/11 at 2:15pm
Thread Starter 

Has anyone plugged an electric guitar or bass into their portable headamps to listen to their instrument?

 

It seems possible to me, but haven't tried it yet (just thought of it a few minutes ago and I'm still at the office). 

 

Thanks.

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post #2 of 5
12/23/11 at 7:04pm

I'm not positive but isn't the level coming out of a guitar/bass way below line-level. You would probably need some sort of pre-amp in order to get to a listenable volume.

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post #3 of 5
12/23/11 at 7:10pm

Yes the output from a guitar pickup is very low, I usually use a jfet input stage or an LM386

 

cheers

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post #4 of 5
12/23/11 at 8:31pm

Yes, in general, you need what is referred to as an "instrument" pre-amp.  My USB audio interface has some instrument inputs - they are very high impedance, and allow a lot of gain to be applied to the signal. (the gain is adjustable). The high impedance is important, because it retains the full frequency range of your guitar. If you can find an instrument pre-amp that has a headphone output on it, that would be the ideal. Some good quality standard headphone amps may have a high enough input impedance, and enough gain - I am not sure. My interface has an input impedance of 1Meg ohm on the instrument inputs, whereas the line inputs have an impedance of 10K.

 

Greg.

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post #5 of 5
12/23/11 at 8:45pm

Here's an example: http://www.voxamps.com/amplug/   (some of them have effects and other bells and whistles)

 

I'm not a bass/guitar player and don't know the subtleties of pickups and input impedance matching, to tune the sound etc etc.

 

Greg.

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