[MakoMako]

I wasn't too sure where to post this to be honest. I thought about in the Amps/Effects Forum, but I wasn't too sure to be honest. If this is the wrong forum, please just let me know.

My issue is that I recently had a Martin Gold+ acoustic pick-up installed in my Alvarez AD70S. The guitar sounds absolutely amazing when plugged into my amp. I have no complaints on that. But whenever I play live, I would much rather run my mic and guitar through a mixer and then through the amp. (I play small venues and its all I can afford to do at the moment) But whenever I plug the guitar into the mixer, the sound comes out very distorted. The sort of distortion that comes from too much volume for something. Since the guitar sounds perfectly fine directly in the amp, I'm assuming this is the mixer's fault?

The mixer is very cheap to begin with, just some crappy Radio Shack mixer, so I'm not going to be heart-broken if that's what the issue is. Just please help me out, so I don't end up spending money I something I might not even need?

[GoDrex]

On most mixers there's a switch to change the input level for each channel - - on my radio shack mixer you can choose between 0dB, -20dB and LINE level. That can greatly effect your signal.

This post has been edited by GoDrex: 02 January 2008 - 08:31 AM

[igorski]

Don't forget each channel has a extra gain feature to increase the level. Just turn it down (or the volume) until it stops clipping. That's all there is to it.

[MakoMako]

Well, that's part of it, and I probably should have mentioned that first. I've tried lowering the gain all of the way down, but even then it still clips. When I plug the guitar into my amp, I have to turn the volume further down that I do with my other guitars.

So, would getting a better mixer help solve this maybe?

[_brad_]

mmight help, the mixer may be a real crappy mixer that doesnt do its job and amplify but im going to say its the way you are using it, i have no problems using the line level on my mixer but play around with the +20db -4db button/control

if ur blind (which i doubt u are mr wonder) then u may have all ur eq controls in wrong spots, im not familar with the mixer but read the manual and try a different instrument into it and see what happens then u will know if its the mixer

[ninjato]

WHen I googled Radio Shack mixer, ALl I get are RS mic mixers. That may be the issue. Does your mixer have trim controls?

This post has been edited by ninjato: 04 January 2008 - 02:11 AM

[MakoMako]

WHen I googled Radio Shack mixer, ALl I get are RS mic mixers. That may be the issue. Does your mixer have trim controls?

The only thing that my mixer has on it is a volume control for each jack. I've plugged in my other guitars into it, they have their own volume controls as well, and those work perfectly fine, but only when the volume on each guitar is turned down rather low.

[ninjato]

that means it is a dynamic mic mixer made for vocals and not instruments. It has built in gain for vocals.

[jaredf10]

I have another question. My band played a gig about 3 weeks ago and we use a Yamaha 512 Emx powered mixer. We played through a whole set and then came back for a second... when we started it was fine and then shortly into the song the volume of our outputs (2 voice and one keyboard) failed and we were left with a very low volume and slightly distorted sound from all inputs. We ended up having to quit early.. So we tried the speakers the next day and the same thing... my buddy gave us his speakers and everything was fine and dandy again... we practed 3 weeks with NO problems at all.... last night we played at another gig and the exact same thing happened... we played a set... came back for the second.. got into our first song and everything cut out again (or at least got very quiet and fuzzy)... do you have ANY idea what might be happening? Our powered mixer has 500 watts per channel and we only play acoustic for the most part so there we are not even getting close to the upper limits of power going through it.



Do we need to run everything through a surge protector? I am starting to think there is something wrong with the powered mixer (which we have only had since June)... we changed cables and speakers and the same thing happened... needless to say we are very worried that if we get new speakers the same exact thing will happen... do you have any inkling as to what might be going on or the name of someone that could help? Please help if you can!

Jared - The Jabs