Conference napalm::guitar

    There is nothing to stop you from using a home stereo component
    with musical equipment. You will, however, have to use adaptor
    cables to go from 1/4" phone jacks to RCA. Also, home stereo
    equipment is not built as rugged as musical equipment and constant
    road use would most likely lead to an early death. Most home stereo
    equalizors are not rack mountable. A lot of the home recording
    equipment from Fostex, Tascam, etc. is built on the same basic
    principles as home stereo equipment (not as rugged as road gear,
    and often times RCA phono jacks are used on the patchbays).
    
    On the flip side, there is nothing to stop you from using a
    professional equalizor with your home stereo. I would opt for this
    alternative since you would end up with a much more rugged unit.
    I own a Rane ME15 which is a single rack space dual 15 band
    "micro-equalizor". They call it a micro equalizor because of the
    fact that it is in the single rack space package, and therefore
    the sliders have a much shorter throw.
    
    You also have to be concerned about levels if you plan to use
    an eq with a guitar or mic. Guitars and mics put out a very
    small ac signal (something in the order of 50 to 100mv), while
    home stereo gear, pa gear, recording gear, etc runs at 1v line
    levels. Mixing boards generally have trims which are amplifiers
    to boost mic/instrument level signals up to line levels. Equalizors
    made specifically for guitar like a Boss GE7, or SR&D rock module
    eq are made to operate at instument levels. Guitar amps are really
    designed to handle instrument level signals going into the input.
    A lot of guitar amps have effects loops which can run at variable
    levels ranging from instrument levels up to line levels. 
    
    Best bet is to try any unit you are considering with the rest of
    your gear before you buy.
    
    Mark
    
    
    

    
    	Re -1
    	Only if you have a loop built into the head(pre-amp out, pre-amp
    	in) to patch it in, or an instrument pre-amp in front of the eq.
    	In your case, the idea is complicated by the fact that you are
    	running in stereo. You can't plug your bass directly into these
    	units because they need ~1V at the input and your bass puts out
    	~.1V .
    
    	Neal
    

    Most pros strongly recommend against using stereo components.
    
    The main problem is that they are not designed to handle the
    dynamic range that instruments are capable of producing and
    are easily damaged by transients.  I would imagine that this
    is especially true for the cheaper (like $99) EQ's that are
    so popular these days.
    
    Many component systems are designed to handle only the limited dynamic
    range of records and tapes.  This is why the initial CD's came with
    those warnings about damaging your stereo system.  They had a dynamic
    range that much equipment wasn't designed to handle.  In fact, I
    blew a set of tweeters 1 month after getting my CD player (who listens
    to those warnings right?)
    
    The good stereo component EQ's cost the same as pro audio (musician)
    EQ's anyway.
    
    	db

    I have some top of the line equalization gear (thanks to pawn shops) &
    agree that it sometimes limits your signal processing capabilities.
    On the other hand, If you work with it, you can often gain the desired
    results. For example, My Twin Reverb sounds quite differnt at low
    volume than it does when it's louder. I like the sound of it when it's
    louder (richer midrange). Since I play at lots of places where I can't
    really bring up the volume, I run the guitar thru a 10 band sterio
    equalizer & adjust things so they sound better. This is mounted in a
    rack (It'll get destroyed otherwise - trust me, stuff gets beat up when
    you play out much). My suggestion is to try it & always buy the best
    that you can afford or need. For what you are doing, you may find that
    the sterio gear is quite effective.

						    Jens

	    
    

                                                  
    Until I picked up my Laney stack, I went through numourous Peavy
    and Traynor amps, so I ended up using an old radio/amplifier from
    an old nackered stereo.  I got my father (electrician) to convert
    the jacks, I ran it through a home made speaker stack and hey presto 
    - its the only amp (other than my Laney) thant I HAVEN'T blown up 
    yet!! for home use its plenty loud (+/- 30 watts).         
                                                               
    I never used it for road use though, so I don't know how it would
    handle it.  The only problem I have with it is that I sometimes pick
    the taxi cab radio signals up with it !! (hell, my father is a taxi 
    driver so I should has passed any good jobs onto him 8^)
                                                               
    -Tony                                         

    An EE that I work with recently updated a design for me (came out of
    Electronic Projects for the Musician by Craig Anderton) that will
    allow you to use your home stereo amp as a guitar amp.  It also
    has mixing capabilities (playing along with your favorite tapes).
    The claim is that you'll be surprised how clean your sound is when
    run through a "decent" amp.  The guy obviously hates guitar amps.
    I can post it upon request.
    
    Thanks,
    Mike

    One of the many problems with sterio front ends (depending on what
    inputs are available) is that there are special equalization curves
    for certain types of devices (like phono cartridges) that boost
    certain fequencies and subtract other frequencies. Add this to the
    type of device (magnetic pickup, ceramic cartridge, etc), and you
    potentially end up with impeadance problems. Most all of this is
    easy to compensate for by building some soret of front end (as was
    described in note .6). I use sterio gear where I feel that it works
    appropriately. However, I doubt many people are going to haul around
    a set of Walnut Cabinets and their Sterio Power Amplifier to a paying
    'gig'. The gear may not fail electronically, but it certainly won't
    look any better after a few trips.

    Guitar amps are not designed to accept more than a single device as
    input. You can plug more in, but that is not often the design intent.
    Because of this, there is usually some optimization based on a single
    sound source & the speaker system is often matched to that single
    instrument goal. Try connecting your turn-table to a Twin Reverb
    sometime and tell me how good it sounds (pretty mediocre). The Amp
    designer never had this in mind (besides, it's probably equalized wrong
    and there is some impeadance mis-match).

    The speaker system on the average sterio (or even above average sterio)
    system is not as efficent as what is typically used in Pro Guitar
    amplifiers. The Pro gear tends to require better high volume transient
    response (grab your high E string, pull it a foot off of the fret board
    slap it down, sending a wild signal thru a distortion box), because
    of the nature of what you are doing. Records & tapes have limited
    dynamic range. CD's can easily destroy an existing set of 'average'
    sterio speakers.

    Being able to use your sterio gear is great & I use mine in my studio
    all of the time, but I do reserve the gear that was designed for a
    given task for the task at hand. Sometimes things are overkill,
    sometimes the utility of the need must be considered. The thing to
    consider is what your goals are & then figure out what you'll really
    need to resolve them. My needs are probably different than yours, so
    your solution may not be appropriate in my case, or visa-versa.

							Jens

    Also, if you ever try to run your amp as preamp to the stereo, and tape
    the whole shenanigan, you'll notice that your tapes sound like total
    garbage.  The whole signal coming in (even when amp is inputting at
    correct levels) is too freaky and "stand-alone" for even good
    equipment to get a hold of.  By stand alone(for lack of a better term)
    I mean that it's the only thing coming in, no other drums, keys, or bass 
    to even the sound out. Lots of flutter and warble on the tape.  
    
    /c

    >(grab your high E string, pull it a foot off of the fret board
    >slap it down, sending a wild signal thru a distortion box)
    
    On MY guitar if you pull the high E a foot off the fretboard, you'll be
    hearing that "wild signal" long before you try to slap it down (as it
    snaps).  You'll probably be hearing a simultaneous "wild signal"
    coming outta me too!   ;^) 
                                                                   
    Greg 

    What I did have in mind was using a home stereo amp for a practice
    amp.  Sorry for the misclarification.  I admit that disconnecting
    and dragging your home amp around would become tedious.
    
    Unless you've invested in a decent home amp and speakers, it won't
    be worth your while anyway.  In my situation, I have a NAD amp rated
    at 100wpc with 6db of headroom and 400 watt peak power.  I might
    clip it but I know my speakers can handle it.  First of all, Bose
    901s don't have tweeters :-).  The Bose 901s are very similar to
    Bose's Pro Series 801s (Black ones).  The only differences are in
    the 801 which is missing the one driver in the front and the active EQ 
    that the 901s have.  Bose puts in writing that the 901 has NO MAXIMUM
    POWER RATING FOR NON-COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS.
    
    Mike

>    What I did have in mind was using a home stereo amp for a practice  amp.  
    
    Instead of using the stereo I would strongly recommend getting
    one of those cheap 12 watt practice amps.  I think I got mine
    for $20.   They sound much better (my Dean Markeley was surprisingly
    good) and you aren't limited to the room that the stereo happens
    to be in.  
    
    Some (like mine) practice amps have "overdrive" settings.  I almost
    wish mine didn't because I prefer to practice without distortion but
    every once in awhile, the temptation is too great.
    
    	db

    I didn't realize you could get a practice amp that cheap.  I'd probably
    pay $20 in op-amps for my home stereo adaptor.
    
    Thanks for the info db!
    
    Mike

    If you were to hook up a delay or effects processor to your home
    stereo, would the units go between the guitar and the preamp/amp?
    
    I assume they do, but just want to check.
    
    Mike