![]() It seems that practical electronics at home has been on the decline over the past couple of decades, mainly due to the disposable products were are presented with these days. It all adds a couple of drops into the pool of knowledge, though, so I posted it up. Once one has a guitar, a computer and stuff I suppose the cost of a basic interface wouldn't stretch the bank much further. It's probably, as you say, something to play around with on a rainy day more than a noob option. I was looking around for something like this because I was sure there must be something quick and simple and cheap to get the impedances matched up for plugging a guitar into a built-in soundcard. This of course involves the use of a voltmeter so may not be for the totally inexperienced. The guy at the url I gave in bold goes through a trial-and-error procedure for getting the optimum value for this resistor.just pulling one out and dropping another in and measuring the voltage. Since the circuit is so simple there's a ton of variations to have fun on a rainy day. Trust us here, you'll want more headroom unless you're using it with a low output tele or strat pickup, or don't mind MPF102 distortion. That is, I broke lots of jfets trying with a similar circuit.Īnother problem can be headroom at 9v with high output pickups if you want a clean DI, and finding the right value for R2 can be tricky (you could use a trim pot but they drift). I wouldn't build it into a guitar plug because it's incredibly difficult to work in such a tiny space. MPF102s aren't so great for distortion but have served me fairly well in mic pres. Sadly, they're also the nicest sounding /feeling. To save the cost of the preamp input socket, you could sticky-tape the input wires of the pre-amp to the correct points on your guitar cable plug. You'd also save on the cost of the preamp output socket. Connect this lead to the output from the preamp and that would go into the computer.wouldn't need to be very long. These are often stereo, so just twist the coloured wires together. If you need to scrimp on the cost (or want to keep costs to a minimum until you've tried it out) and not buy an extra guitar cable, you could scavenge a lead which has a 1/8 plug on the end. A little more time would be needed to get it mounted nicely in some kind of metal box with the input and output sockets on it. If you are new to practical electronics and don't fancy doing it yourself, it wouldn't take an experienced friend long to put it together for you to try out. Capacitors usually have their values printed on them in numbers and farad symbols.Īnd 9V is a pretty safe level to be toying around with. Google again to get "resistor colour codes". The other components could be snilched from old electronics units. I'll be building it as soon as my field effect transistor arrives, and will report back.Ĭheap as chips! Google "J201 semiconductor" to get a price on the transistor, or try "MPF102 semiconductor" (I just bought this here, for 89 British pence plus despatch ): ) if the J201 is hard to locate or only available in quantities of 100 or has a high minimum-order fee, and refer to the url in bold above to get the mod specifications). ![]() ![]() It seems the preamp does produce a good tone too. That should eliminate the sound quality problems caused by the impedance mis-match which results from a direct guitar input into the soundcard. I think the main feature is that this preamp matches up the impedances correctly - high impedance input from the guitar and low impedance output to the computer. Plenty of info - the designer shows how this can be built into a guitar cable plug! Control pots can be added also, in place of fixed resistors. This site has a link to the site of the guy who designed it, which is here: The guy shows how to fit this inside a guitar but you could put it into a small metal box with input and output sockets and use it between the guitar and the computer. You'd also need two guitar-plug sockets, an extra guitar cable and a 1/4 to 1/8 plug adapter if you didn't fit it into your guitar as shown but used it externally (economy tips at the end of this post): ![]() I found this site which shows you how to make a preamp using just seven components and a 9V battery. (Just came across this site - this preamp has a good reputation.tube-like warmth, to quote: which has a ton of info about the preamp and using alternatives to the transistor used in the original design) I guess some people might not be able to afford the cost of even a cheap store-bought interface. I've notice quite a few posts from beginners about plugging their guitars directly into a computer's built-in soundcard. ![]()
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