Guitar Question, can't be arsed to Google...

If you have a headphone adapter for an electric guitar, that should be enough for a line-in input on a computer.

Be careful if you use the mic jack rather than the line-in jack. I've heard it can blow your sound card if the guitar is turned up too loud.

I'm not an expert on this, so I can't tell you much more. It's better to use the line-in, but you have to use some kind of amplifier in between. dclary's suggestion of a headphone adapter might be okay. Try that first rather than the mic jack.

I think ChunkyC is both a computer guru and a guitar player. Maybe he's find this thread, or you can find him.

Cool. A Strat. Have fun with it.

I watched a guy in Penticton, B.C., playing a guitar in a restaurant lounge, and he only had a stump for one hand. He was awesome.

It won't sound great, but plugging into the mic input will indeed get the guitar sound into your computer. It will likely sound "dull" (with little or no treble, just like the tone control turned down) due to the relatively low impedance of the mic input. I don't think it could be destroyed by turning up the guitar all the way, but it will probably distort if you do, and it won't be the best sounding distortion. Plugging into the line input may help, but that's not a high-impedance input either. The soundcards that come in computers (either as a separate card, or nowadays built into the motherboard) are really cheap in every meaning of the word, so I wouldn't consider it much of a loss if you did blow out the mic input.

A "Pod" guitar amp simulator will do great (and drive a computer's line input with no problem), though for the tone purist it's still not the same as a "good" model tube amplifier at the right volume. Just to warn you, getting the "right tone" could cost you a couple times what the guitar is worth. I think even a cheap (maybe $20 to $50, as these things go) "buffer" pedal/effects box will work to get the full tone into the line input. You're probably going to want to use a stompbox or two anyways.

Geez, I feel so bad for your friend, pickin' a guitar feels like an important part of my life <you can insert crude jokes here, but I'm serious>. I do a lot more typing than picking, but I think I'd miss the picking a lot more. I feel like I should DO it a lot more.

The guy with the stump playing guitar reminds me of a band I saw 'round Atlanta back in the '80's, the lead singer played bass with a stump for his lower right arm and his band was called, oddly enough, "The Out-A-Hand Band." I was told the guy wrote the last hit song for the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

Nolita said:

Friend screwed up his hand and can't feel the strings on his Strat anymore. So he's loaning it to me indefinitely(said keep it as long as I like). I just have to catch him from between when he gets home from work, and when he takes his dogs out(but soon as I do, muahahahaha).

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I'm recovering from a bad fretting hand injury. Don't celebrate his misfortune for your access to a Strat. I have four of them. I'd gladly give you one of them to have not gone through over a year's worth of muscle memory therapy. Your mind knows what to do, but your fingers don't. Shame on you.

I don't know what to think of this post.




Mike

benbradley said:

A "Pod" guitar amp simulator will do great (and drive a computer's line input with no problem), though for the tone purist it's still not the same as a "good" model tube amplifier at the right volume. Just to warn you, getting the "right tone" could cost you a couple times what the guitar is worth. I think even a cheap (maybe $20 to $50, as these things go) "buffer" pedal/effects box will work to get the full tone into the line input. You're probably going to want to use a stompbox or two anyways.

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Yeah, what Ben said. I'll be surprised if you can hear it at all by just plugging straight in, either through your speakers or just recording it on the computer and playing it back, and if you can hear it, it'll sound just like playing the electric guitar unplugged.

I agree - get yourself a cheap POD like this http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/DigiTech-RP150-Multi-Effects-Pedal?full_sku=103952115. $100 in the store or less on EBay or a pawn shop. Or you could try an acoustic guitar and mike it or plug that straight in and you'll get much better results (assuming you don't want distortion, but you could always add that digitally later if you wanted). Feel free to PM.

Nolita said:

Hey I have a tube amp. I can route it into the computer? Guess I better google.

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It depends on your soundcard and amp. Some amps have a "line out" or a "mic out" so you can run a quarter-inch cable or even an RCA jack, but you usually need a special soundcard (like a Soundblaster Audigy) that takes that type of input. It might be better to just get a cheap microphone that runs to your 1/8 inch input and mike the amp (it'd probably sound better anyway if you're using a tube amp as opposed to a digital one). You can get mikes like this at Radio Shack or Wal*Mart. Plus you can use them for singing "Amazing Grace" too.

And where's MacDuff???? He's the technician! MacDuff - get out of the political forums for a few minutes and get over here! (I'm treating him as if he's Underdog and can hear a cry from help from 5 threads away).

Yep, what they all said. I would just add that no matter what you feed in, start off with the guitar and software volume controls OFF and then bring 'em up slowly. Always better to play it safe.

A strat aside: years ago some scumbag stole mine. I had her all tricked out with teleknobs and 3 way toggles for each pickup. Loved playing Pink Floyd tunes on that axe. I hope the phlegmwad is rotting in a jail somewhere.