Advice on Preamp pedals

[Rsnoke]

Originally Posted by varmonter

if your plugging your guitar directly into
a snake than your signal is lost in the long
run thru the snake into a board. A di box will
take the high impedance 1mgohm kk and
convert it to a low imp mic like signal,
this is what mixing boards are designed to take.
that 800 ohms you mentioned above. a guitar
cord should not be much longer than 10 ft or so.
Are you plugging right into a snake? a big box
on the floor that everyone else is plugged into.
if you are than your guitar cord is now 200 ft long
or how ever long the snake is. you won't have much
if any signal when it reaches the board. Talk to the other
guitar players in the group to see what they use.
welcome to agf.

Thank you! The little that I do know right now is that there is a long cable plugged into a box on the floor and then the output on the box is plugged into my guitar. The cable going into the box is pretty long (I never paid attention to how long but maybe close to 10 feet or a little longer) The cord coming from the box to my guitar is less than 10 feet. Not sure if this helps but I do appreciate all the insight. I will learn more as this was my second time with Worship team. This at least gives me ideas to start with and to take a look at.

[Rsnoke]

[QUOTE=ljguitar;5658249]Hi R

Of course you can improve the tone with a preamp. But your guitar can be made to sound good with just the K&K, and if they have the guitar in the house mix, then it's not an impedance issue. Someone just needs to be sure your signal is turned up in the monitor mix. You still have not told us what you plug your ear-buds into to hear the monitor mix.

I suspect the reason you hear everyone else and not yourself is your guitar has not been put into the monitor circuit.

Are you using a dedicated in-ear monitor station/unit? We use individual stations for each musicians who then mix their own monitor-mix. Since they added you in the main speakers, then they need to adjust/add your instrument volume in the monitor mix as well. If it's a typical PA board then the adjustment for the monitors is a separate volume control from the one which adjusts volume in the house/room.


[/Q

Our mixer is like this one https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/P16M
Each musician has their own mixer. Sometimes two of the vocalists will share a mixer. I'm assuming it's a typical PA board. I will check next time I practice with them if they can add/adjust the volume from the board. Funny because the first time I practiced I was okay with no one hearing me because I'm still not that good and these guys have been playing for a long time. Then I thought I need to hear myself so I can tell if my timing is off or if I'm late changing a chord etc.... Thank you for help! Have a great day and I'll keep you informed.

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by Rsnoke

The first week I practiced with team I shared a monitor with another guitar player using a splitter. He could hear his guitar as well as I but I couldn't hear mine. I will definitely be exploring possible causes/solutions as I learn how things are set up. Dumb question. I know sound hole covers are to help prevent feedback. I'm wondering if I have mine in my guitar if it would help to hear my guitar through the in ear monitor.

A soundhole cover will make no difference.

Louis

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Rsnoke

Our mixer is like this one https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/P16M

Hi Rs

We use that same headphone mixer for our Worship Team as well, and they are easy to use once you understand the functions. If you are splitting a headphone it will make it more difficult, because you are also sharing a mix, but you should still be able to be heard - especially if you are being heard in the main PA.

I'd go to the internet and download the owner's manual for the Behringer stage headphone mixer to see how to adjust the individual channels, and control each aspect of it. It's pretty straightforward, but the details are very important.

The individual numbers on the bottom row (1-16) are the channels each singer/player is plugged into the PA board with, and you need to turn up your channel on the headphone mixer.

Our mixers are all labeled, yours may not be. But it should flicker the light on the channel you are in when you strum…that doesn't mean it's turned up, just that the signal is present.

The top section is the overall volume and tone into the headphones, whereas the bottom section downward is the individual instrument volumes, their pan in the mix and their individual volume in the headphone mix (compared to the other instrument/vocal volumes).

If you are not turned up enough in the bottom section of the mixer, you will not be heard in your headphones. This could be the issue you are experiencing. You have to isolate each channel to turn it up or down.

The way I learned to use our headphone monitors was to download the manual, and hit YouTube for some tutorials. I'm still the only one on our team (after 2 years of using these) who saves my personal headphone mix for the team I play on.

It saves me having to reset every channel when I slide in for the week I'm playing (because someone else used it and reset volumes/balance last week).

Hope this helps rather than overwhelms you.

[Rsnoke]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi Rs

We use that same headphone mixer for our Worship Team as well, and they are easy to use once you understand the functions. If you are splitting a headphone it will make it more difficult, because you are also sharing a mix, but you should still be able to be heard - especially if you are being heard in the main PA.

I'd go to the internet and download the owner's manual for the Behringer stage headphone mixer to see how to adjust the individual channels, and control each aspect of it. It's pretty straightforward, but the details are very important.

The individual numbers on the bottom row (1-16) are the channels each singer/player is plugged into the PA board with, and you need to turn up your channel on the headphone mixer.


Our mixers are all labeled, yours may not be. But it should flicker the light on the channel you are in when you strum…that doesn't mean it's turned up, just that the signal is present.

The top section is the overall volume and tone into the headphones, whereas the bottom section downward is the individual instrument volumes, their pan in the mix and their individual volume in the headphone mix (compared to the other instrument/vocal volumes).

If you are not turned up enough in the bottom section of the mixer, you will not be heard in your headphones. This could be the issue you are experiencing. You have to isolate each channel to turn it up or down.

The way I learned to use our headphone monitors was to download the manual, and hit YouTube for some tutorials. I'm still the only one on our team (after 2 years of using these) who saves my personal headphone mix for the team I play on.

It saves me having to reset every channel when I slide in for the week I'm playing (because someone else used it and reset volumes/balance last week).

Hope this helps rather than overwhelms you.

Thank you! I will download the manual. I’m guessing it might have something to do with the PA board because when I strum I get no flicker of light to show me which channel I’m on. I think that’s why another guy on the team suggested a ore-amp. He thought maybe the signal from my pick up wasn’t strong enough to be picked up in the in ear monitors.

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

First of all, every piezo pickup on the planet, of which the K&K is one, needs to be run into a devise with a 1 meg input impedance. The average mixing board is 800 ohm. Why? without getting into electrical theory, the piezo will be smoother with no annoying harshness, in other words sound better. This can be a simple DI box or a pre amp. Not being a fan of cheap consumer electronics I can't recommend any.



A good old tried and true Baggs PARA DI could be had used under $150.



I've seen more people at open mics sound horrible with $3000 guitars plugged into an 800 ohm channel board input, and many running those open mics not knowing or caring either. Maybe horrible is too harsh, but high end edgyness is greatly mitigated with a decent devise with the correct impedance.



I imagine there are a lot of volunteers in churches who don't know this basic fact.

Yes, yes, yes! I go to an open mic almost every Monday and I always plug in my Tech21 Q/Strip preamp and let everyone play through it. The guitars with active preamps benefit a little from this, but the guitars with passive pickups benefit immensely, even if I run the pedal in bypass! The difference in sound once this impedance mismatch is corrected is stunning.

Note that good acoustic amps already match the impedance and sound fine without an external preamp, but mixing boards do not.

[CEB]

I have the Behringer Acoustic preamp. For $30 they are OK. I quit using them when I got my Fishman. I use my preamps for Banjo.

A Baggs or Fishman are way quieter. The Behringer produces some hiss. I like the Fishman Platinum but they start at $150 new as opposed to $30. But the slight hiss is the biggest strike against the Behringer. Radial preamp DIs are nice also.