How can I connect pedals and amplifiers without accidentally damaging them?
I've understood that there are some risks with connecting pedals, amplifiers, instruments and microphones and that I should be aware of what I'm doing, or it could damage my equipment. How can I figure out if connecting something (e.g. a bass guitar to a guitar amplifier, or a microphone to an effects pedal to a guitar amplifier) is risky or not?
Is this related to signal strength? Equipment impedance? I wish I could play around more with my setup, but I'm worried about damaging it.
electric-guitar maintenance electronics microphones
asked Jan 6 at 18:50
AnnaAnna
686414
add a comment |
I've understood that there are some risks with connecting pedals, amplifiers, instruments and microphones and that I should be aware of what I'm doing, or it could damage my equipment. How can I figure out if connecting something (e.g. a bass guitar to a guitar amplifier, or a microphone to an effects pedal to a guitar amplifier) is risky or not?
Is this related to signal strength? Equipment impedance? I wish I could play around more with my setup, but I'm worried about damaging it.
electric-guitar maintenance electronics microphones
asked Jan 6 at 18:50
AnnaAnna
686414
add a comment |
I've understood that there are some risks with connecting pedals, amplifiers, instruments and microphones and that I should be aware of what I'm doing, or it could damage my equipment. How can I figure out if connecting something (e.g. a bass guitar to a guitar amplifier, or a microphone to an effects pedal to a guitar amplifier) is risky or not?
Is this related to signal strength? Equipment impedance? I wish I could play around more with my setup, but I'm worried about damaging it.
electric-guitar maintenance electronics microphones
asked Jan 6 at 18:50
AnnaAnna
686414
I've understood that there are some risks with connecting pedals, amplifiers, instruments and microphones and that I should be aware of what I'm doing, or it could damage my equipment. How can I figure out if connecting something (e.g. a bass guitar to a guitar amplifier, or a microphone to an effects pedal to a guitar amplifier) is risky or not?
Is this related to signal strength? Equipment impedance? I wish I could play around more with my setup, but I'm worried about damaging it.
electric-guitar maintenance electronics microphones
electric-guitar maintenance electronics microphones
asked Jan 6 at 18:50
AnnaAnna
686414
asked Jan 6 at 18:50
AnnaAnna
686414
asked Jan 6 at 18:50
AnnaAnna
686414
asked Jan 6 at 18:50
AnnaAnna
686414
asked Jan 6 at 18:50
AnnaAnna
686414
686414
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
With decent modern equipment, it's really hard to cause any real damage by incorrect connection. Tales like “bass into guitar amp will damage it” are pretty much this: tales.
Guitar and bass amps are anyways designed to be operated outside what would be considered the “safe range” for e.g. a HiFi amplifier. Overdrive is nothing else but overloading an amp, i.e. giving it more signal level than it can really handle. Because this is so commonly done, amp designers make sure that they will handle that gracefully, i.e. simply clip the signal. Decent amps therefore survive pretty much any signal you can possibly give them from an ordinary pedal or instrument.
The only thing that you should be careful with are speaker outputs. These offer much higher voltage and lower impedance than line-level outputs, therefore they can quite possibly fry something you connect. Furthermore, tube amps can even fry themselves when not connected to a suitable load, i.e. a speaker. But, there's probably not really anything interesting you'd want to try with a speaker output anyways – these are for speakers only, which I suppose is obvious!
tl;dr don't be afraid, just try out what you want to do. Usually the worst that can happen is a loud crack when connecting, or uncontrollable feedback, so just be prepared to quickly mute the power amp whilst experimenting.
Note that the tales do have some basis in reality: old equipment not always so robust. So if you have some kind of vintage boutique amp, better sell it and get a modern amp that won't have these problems (and probably will sound better anyways).
answered Jan 6 at 19:15
leftaroundaboutleftaroundabout
20.5k3690
Thank you, I'm happy to hear that! Would you consider my Studio Pro 112 amplifier vintage or modern?
– Anna
Jan 6 at 19:29
That seems to be a hybrid tube/solid state amp. These should be very robust.
– leftaroundabout
Jan 6 at 23:23
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "240"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmusic.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f78367%2fhow-can-i-connect-pedals-and-amplifiers-without-accidentally-damaging-them%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
With decent modern equipment, it's really hard to cause any real damage by incorrect connection. Tales like “bass into guitar amp will damage it” are pretty much this: tales.
Guitar and bass amps are anyways designed to be operated outside what would be considered the “safe range” for e.g. a HiFi amplifier. Overdrive is nothing else but overloading an amp, i.e. giving it more signal level than it can really handle. Because this is so commonly done, amp designers make sure that they will handle that gracefully, i.e. simply clip the signal. Decent amps therefore survive pretty much any signal you can possibly give them from an ordinary pedal or instrument.
The only thing that you should be careful with are speaker outputs. These offer much higher voltage and lower impedance than line-level outputs, therefore they can quite possibly fry something you connect. Furthermore, tube amps can even fry themselves when not connected to a suitable load, i.e. a speaker. But, there's probably not really anything interesting you'd want to try with a speaker output anyways – these are for speakers only, which I suppose is obvious!
tl;dr don't be afraid, just try out what you want to do. Usually the worst that can happen is a loud crack when connecting, or uncontrollable feedback, so just be prepared to quickly mute the power amp whilst experimenting.
Note that the tales do have some basis in reality: old equipment not always so robust. So if you have some kind of vintage boutique amp, better sell it and get a modern amp that won't have these problems (and probably will sound better anyways).
answered Jan 6 at 19:15
leftaroundaboutleftaroundabout
20.5k3690
Thank you, I'm happy to hear that! Would you consider my Studio Pro 112 amplifier vintage or modern?
– Anna
Jan 6 at 19:29
That seems to be a hybrid tube/solid state amp. These should be very robust.
– leftaroundabout
Jan 6 at 23:23
add a comment |
With decent modern equipment, it's really hard to cause any real damage by incorrect connection. Tales like “bass into guitar amp will damage it” are pretty much this: tales.
Guitar and bass amps are anyways designed to be operated outside what would be considered the “safe range” for e.g. a HiFi amplifier. Overdrive is nothing else but overloading an amp, i.e. giving it more signal level than it can really handle. Because this is so commonly done, amp designers make sure that they will handle that gracefully, i.e. simply clip the signal. Decent amps therefore survive pretty much any signal you can possibly give them from an ordinary pedal or instrument.
The only thing that you should be careful with are speaker outputs. These offer much higher voltage and lower impedance than line-level outputs, therefore they can quite possibly fry something you connect. Furthermore, tube amps can even fry themselves when not connected to a suitable load, i.e. a speaker. But, there's probably not really anything interesting you'd want to try with a speaker output anyways – these are for speakers only, which I suppose is obvious!
tl;dr don't be afraid, just try out what you want to do. Usually the worst that can happen is a loud crack when connecting, or uncontrollable feedback, so just be prepared to quickly mute the power amp whilst experimenting.
Note that the tales do have some basis in reality: old equipment not always so robust. So if you have some kind of vintage boutique amp, better sell it and get a modern amp that won't have these problems (and probably will sound better anyways).
answered Jan 6 at 19:15
leftaroundaboutleftaroundabout
20.5k3690
Thank you, I'm happy to hear that! Would you consider my Studio Pro 112 amplifier vintage or modern?
– Anna
Jan 6 at 19:29
That seems to be a hybrid tube/solid state amp. These should be very robust.
– leftaroundabout
Jan 6 at 23:23
add a comment |
With decent modern equipment, it's really hard to cause any real damage by incorrect connection. Tales like “bass into guitar amp will damage it” are pretty much this: tales.
Guitar and bass amps are anyways designed to be operated outside what would be considered the “safe range” for e.g. a HiFi amplifier. Overdrive is nothing else but overloading an amp, i.e. giving it more signal level than it can really handle. Because this is so commonly done, amp designers make sure that they will handle that gracefully, i.e. simply clip the signal. Decent amps therefore survive pretty much any signal you can possibly give them from an ordinary pedal or instrument.
The only thing that you should be careful with are speaker outputs. These offer much higher voltage and lower impedance than line-level outputs, therefore they can quite possibly fry something you connect. Furthermore, tube amps can even fry themselves when not connected to a suitable load, i.e. a speaker. But, there's probably not really anything interesting you'd want to try with a speaker output anyways – these are for speakers only, which I suppose is obvious!
tl;dr don't be afraid, just try out what you want to do. Usually the worst that can happen is a loud crack when connecting, or uncontrollable feedback, so just be prepared to quickly mute the power amp whilst experimenting.
Note that the tales do have some basis in reality: old equipment not always so robust. So if you have some kind of vintage boutique amp, better sell it and get a modern amp that won't have these problems (and probably will sound better anyways).
answered Jan 6 at 19:15
leftaroundaboutleftaroundabout
20.5k3690
With decent modern equipment, it's really hard to cause any real damage by incorrect connection. Tales like “bass into guitar amp will damage it” are pretty much this: tales.
Guitar and bass amps are anyways designed to be operated outside what would be considered the “safe range” for e.g. a HiFi amplifier. Overdrive is nothing else but overloading an amp, i.e. giving it more signal level than it can really handle. Because this is so commonly done, amp designers make sure that they will handle that gracefully, i.e. simply clip the signal. Decent amps therefore survive pretty much any signal you can possibly give them from an ordinary pedal or instrument.
The only thing that you should be careful with are speaker outputs. These offer much higher voltage and lower impedance than line-level outputs, therefore they can quite possibly fry something you connect. Furthermore, tube amps can even fry themselves when not connected to a suitable load, i.e. a speaker. But, there's probably not really anything interesting you'd want to try with a speaker output anyways – these are for speakers only, which I suppose is obvious!
tl;dr don't be afraid, just try out what you want to do. Usually the worst that can happen is a loud crack when connecting, or uncontrollable feedback, so just be prepared to quickly mute the power amp whilst experimenting.
Note that the tales do have some basis in reality: old equipment not always so robust. So if you have some kind of vintage boutique amp, better sell it and get a modern amp that won't have these problems (and probably will sound better anyways).
answered Jan 6 at 19:15
leftaroundaboutleftaroundabout
20.5k3690
answered Jan 6 at 19:15
leftaroundaboutleftaroundabout
20.5k3690
answered Jan 6 at 19:15
leftaroundaboutleftaroundabout
20.5k3690
answered Jan 6 at 19:15
leftaroundaboutleftaroundabout
20.5k3690
20.5k3690
Thank you, I'm happy to hear that! Would you consider my Studio Pro 112 amplifier vintage or modern?
– Anna
Jan 6 at 19:29
That seems to be a hybrid tube/solid state amp. These should be very robust.
– leftaroundabout
Jan 6 at 23:23
add a comment |
Thank you, I'm happy to hear that! Would you consider my Studio Pro 112 amplifier vintage or modern?
– Anna
Jan 6 at 19:29
That seems to be a hybrid tube/solid state amp. These should be very robust.
– leftaroundabout
Jan 6 at 23:23
Thank you, I'm happy to hear that! Would you consider my Studio Pro 112 amplifier vintage or modern?
– Anna
Jan 6 at 19:29
Thank you, I'm happy to hear that! Would you consider my Studio Pro 112 amplifier vintage or modern?
– Anna
Jan 6 at 19:29
That seems to be a hybrid tube/solid state amp. These should be very robust.
– leftaroundabout
Jan 6 at 23:23
That seems to be a hybrid tube/solid state amp. These should be very robust.
– leftaroundabout
Jan 6 at 23:23
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmusic.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f78367%2fhow-can-i-connect-pedals-and-amplifiers-without-accidentally-damaging-them%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
