Acoustic to PA Help

Travisthedog · December 2014

I have a Seymour Duncan Woody XL on my Texan and tomorrow night I may have to go to an open mike night as part of our works xmas party

How do i make it work through a PA?

BigMonka · December 2014

Normally via a DI box straight into the desk.

bluechargeboy · December 2014

Open mic nights normally have the DI box provided BTW.

english_bob · December 2014

^ they'll frequently have a guitar they can lend you too in my experience.

There's no getting out of serenading the office cougars matey.

Travisthedog · December 2014

Ha

No guitars at this place - it's glorified karaoke

Travisthedog · December 2014

Spoke to woman who runs it she says guitars can go into PA with 1/4 Jack?.......

ICBM · December 2014

Travisthedog said:

Spoke to woman who runs it she says guitars can go into PA with 1/4 Jack?.......

Only if they have an onboard preamp.

If not you will need a DI box.

Travisthedog · December 2014

I wish she'd be more bloody specific about the PA !

english_bob · December 2014

Travisthedog said:

I wish she'd be more bloody specific about the PA !

Probably would if she had a clue. ICBM may be right- your passive pickup may not have the juice to send a healthy signal to a PA system. If they can jack the input gain right up it might work, but might just introlduce so much background noise that it's not worth it. A DI box is the way to go, but it's probably too late to buy one now.

Worst case, if they have two mics you can point one at your gob and the other one at your guitar and make sure to stand really still.

ICBM · December 2014

english_bob said:
ICBM may be right- your passive pickup may not have the juice to send a healthy signal to a PA system. If they can jack the input gain right up it might work, but might just introlduce so much background noise that it's not worth it.

That's not the only problem - it's that the 1/4" inputs on a PA mixer will almost certainly be far too low impedance for a passive pickup. (Often 47K or so, when you need 1M+.) The result will be a very quiet, tinny signal (from a piezo) or quiet and dull (from a magnetic).

The good news is that if you don't have a DI box, any decent buffered pedal (eg Boss, preferably a TU-2 or similar) will work OK as a buffer and fix both problems.

bluechargeboy · December 2014

ICBM said:
The good news is that if you don't have a DI box, any decent buffered pedal (eg Boss, preferably a TU-2 or similar) will work OK as a buffer and fix both problems.

Hey I never knew that!

ICBM · December 2014

That's one reason I will probably always keep a TU-2. It's a pretty good buffer as well as a tuner and mute switch

.

It doesn't entirely replace a DI box because the output is still not balanced, so you may get hum if it's a long way from the pedal to the mixer, but in most other situations it will work. It has an input impedance of 1Mohm so it's OK with piezos. (10M is better but you will need a dedicated acoustic preamp to get that.)

As far as I know most other buffered pedals have an impedance of at least 500K, which is fine for magnetics and usable for piezos, even if a bit too low.

Even an unbuffered pedal will usually work if it's something you can leave on all the time, ie not a distortion!

midlifecrisis · December 2014

ive used a woody without a preamp straight into a pa, doesnt sound fantastic and you will have to crank it up a bit but doesnt sound too bad. Remember most people at the office party are not tone connoiseurs.

Travisthedog · December 2014

Yeah - did that in the end - can't say it sounded awesome but I was trollied as were everyone else

midlifecrisis · December 2014

yeah using a "woody" at an xmas party can have different meanings

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