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Electric through the PA?

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(@jersey-jack)
Estimable Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 189
Topic starter  

I play acoustic guitar in a country-ish rock band and I thought I'd try a song or two on electric just to mix things up. But I don't want to carry around an electric guitar and an amp for one or two songs. So I'm thinking of getting something like the Tech 21 Blonde SansAmp pedal, which emulates a Fender amp sound, and running my electric through it directly into the PA.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Tech-21-SansAmp-Character-Series-CSBL-Blonde-Distortion-Guitar-Effects-Pedal?sku=151135&src ="3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=223947200"

Will this work? Does anyone have any experience running an electric through any kind of modeler into a PA?

Please, all of you tubed-up tone warriors out there--I respect your sound immensely, I really do, but it's not possible for me in my situation. Even a small amp would involve another microphone running into the PA--with stand and cable and mixing it right, etc. I want something decent and very simple, just so I can play a bit of electric now and then.


   
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(@slejhamer)
Famed Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 3221
 

I recently replaced my bass amp at church with a Tech21 VT Bass pedal, from the same "Character" series of Sansamp pedals. It is amazingly good.

The VT Bass pedal has speaker emulation, as does the Blonde pedal you are looking at, which makes it a good choice for running directly to a mixer or PA. These are great-sounding pedals; I just wish you could defeat the speaker emulation - that was the main reason I got rid of the Liverpool model, as it needed much EQing to get better sound through my tube amp. Running direct to a recorder or powered monitor was much better.

The main issue is connecting to your mixing board. These pedals have an unbalanced line out, not an XLR output, so you may need an adapter of some sort, or a 1/4" to XLR cable, depending on what input jacks you've got on the mixer. Also it's possible you'll get better results running through an impedance-matching transformer, or a DI box. I have spoken to Tech21 about this (great customer service, by the way!), and they said there's some impedance-adjusting voodoo in there already, and for short runs an unbalanced cable direct to the board would be sufficient in most cases.

However, because I've got a chorus pedal after the VT Bass, I decided to use a DI box. (I got a BBE DI-100x because I wanted the built-in "sonic maximizer" effect too.) If you don't plan to run any effects after the Blonde, like a reverb or delay pedal, and if you don't have a long run to the mixer then you should be fine with a standard cable and no DI box.

Do you use a DI box currently with your acoustic?

"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."


   
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(@kent_eh)
Noble Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 1882
 

Ideally you would want to run the Blonde thru a DI and into it's own input on the PA mixer.

If you don't have any extra inputs, you might be able to get away with sharing a DI with your acoustic, possibly using an A/B pedal, but you would have to make sure the level coming out of the acoustic and the level coming out of the SansAmp pedal are the same.
Any EQ on the mixer would, of course, affect both guitars.

I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep


   
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(@dogbite)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 6348
 

oh oh. I see GAS on the horizon. the Taylor T series. acoustic and electric simulator inside.
basically, that is what you do by hooking up to a sans amp/amp sim and DI ing into the PA.
both work.
the guitar is waayyy cooler.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=644552
http://www.soundclick.com/couleerockinvaders


   
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(@wes-inman)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
 

A DI box would probably be a good thing, especially if you do a long run over 20' or more, but it's not necessary. You can simply go out of the output on your pedal with a regular guitar cord into the 1/4" channel jack on your PA's mixer board. I have done this many times before without a problem.

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@gnease)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5038
 

oh oh. I see GAS on the horizon. the Taylor T series. acoustic and electric simulator inside.
basically, that is what you do by hooking up to a sans amp/amp sim and DI ing into the PA.
both work.
the guitar is waayyy cooler.

I've got a T5. It's okay, but far from my favorite guitar. What do you mean by "acoustic and electric simulator inside"?

-=tension & release=-


   
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(@jersey-jack)
Estimable Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 189
Topic starter  

Thanks for the responses. I believe I'm going to try out the Sansamp Blonde. :)


   
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