micing my classical

[dave222]

i am currently doing a few gigs for small events/shows. at the moment im using my passive pickup which i fitted into the guitar (yamaha c40). i knew the sound was always going to be dire but hey. i have condenser mic but im worried that will pick up to much noise, so i guess ill opt for a shure sm57. the main problem i face is not having a small p.a to plug a mic into, i only have my small practice amp. i have been told that you cannot plug a microphone by means of xlr to jack into an amp because a microphone is not a high output device, i have also been told that you can buy a converter which would increase the input to the amp. not sure where i would buy one of these???

any advice or other ideas?


-dave

[lbix.]

Hi Dave,

The SM58 (Shure) is a nice mic to use.
You might want to get either a pre-amp or a small mixer (2-4 channel) depending on your budget.
I don't know what you mean about not being able to plug a mic by XLR to jack, that depends on the practise amp. If you can turn the input from line to mic I don't see why you can't. If it's only line in, then yeah, you need some sort of signal boost.

[dave222]

sorry what i mean is someone told me you cant plug a microphoe into a guitar amp beacause microphones dont have enough output (ohms), i could still try it i guess but that mean buying an xlr to jack lead. whats the smallest and cheapest way of doing what i want?


cheers

[lbix.]

What amp you got exactly? ie, make and model.

[dave222]

peavy practice amp forget what model. its pretty much the same output as any other practice amp. i also have a bigger amp which is a fender hotrod deville 4x10

[echosonic]

As I understand you, you want to be heard at a venue without a PA and that is too large for your practice amp?

Unfortunately, I suspect that some money will need to be spent. This bad boy is expensive (c£400) but I've heard one in action and it sounds great. It also contains a built-in preamp (what you should be looking for) and an XLR input socket.

[dave222]

hmm that looks exactly the sorta thing i could do with. unforutunately i dont have the money for that lol. i think i will have to invest in one of them small fold away p.a systems.

[maltingsaudio]

What your looknig for is an impedance matcher for the mic, any decent music shop should have one this will turn the signal from your shure which is low impedance into a high impedance source for your practice amp.

Yours isn't an ideal set up as i'm sure your aware, the thing to do is to work out how much your getting for the gigs and from that work out how much you can allocate to getting a decent acoustic amp. This is the start of GAS

Have fun

[dave222]

i know this sounds sill but an acoustic amp would probably better? but my question is you still cant really plug in a microphone into an amp, the acoustic amps are mainly built so you can plug in your electro acoustic. also whats the difference in sound between the electro acoustics that take a battery and the passive pickup guitars which dont need a battery. does the battery work as a kind of signal boost???


thanks

[evilmags]

An SM57 will not capture much detail from a classical TBH. It is meanto for sticking next to amp cabs. A small diaphramme condensor, such as the sure SM81 is pretty standard for micing classicals, and they need phantom power and a PA type thing. You also need to understand how to use the EQ to remove feedbacking frequencies. Getting a good sound from a live Nylon is quite difficult TBH.