Mic vs line level

[lkingston]

One last thing about impedance matching:

Sometimes at an open mic, they will hand you a guitar cable that is plugged directly into a line input of the mixer instead of a DI at the other end.

Most effects pedals buffer the input even in bypass and will match a mixer line input impedance more closely than the output of the guitar.

I keep a reverb pedal and an extra cable in my guitar case just for those occasions. If they don't have a DI, usually the reverb sucks to, so it works out. It's easier than carrying around a DI and extra XLR cable, and sounds about the same.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by lkingston

One last thing about impedance matching:

Sometimes at an open mic, they will hand you a guitar cable that is plugged directly into a line input of the mixer instead of a DI at the other end.

Most effects pedals buffer the input even in bypass and will match a mixer line input impedance more closely than the output of the guitar.

I keep a reverb pedal and an extra cable in my guitar case just for those occasions. If they don't have a DI, usually the reverb sucks to, so it works out. It's easier than carrying around a DI and extra XLR cable, and sounds about the same.

Great suggestion!

[jonfields45]

Getting back to the OP's question, I neglected to mention that the mixer might have more EQ options on its mic channels and that might justify moving to one from a line input.

Since the Taylor ES2 is already active and low impedance (just much hotter in output than a low impedance passive mic), then even a 1/4" TS to XLR cable will do the job nicely, but a DI is fine too.