Re: SMALL HARMONICA AMP

[rocket@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Rick Barker)]

>The signal from a microphone is much "hotter" than from a guitar...

This just isn't true, even with a high-Z bullet mic. Actually, the opposite
is true.

You may not want to believe me, so I'll quote the Yamaha Sound
Reinforcement Handbook: "Preamplifiers are used to boost the weak -70dBu to
-50dBu nominal output levels of microphones...Preamplifiers are also used
to boost certain guitar pickups, although here they often act more as an
impedance converter than as a voltage booster, since guitar pickups can
generate voltages that are equal to the line-level voltage of the typical
mixer."

>and you hear distortion whether the effect is on or passing the signal
>>straight through.

What you may have experienced is a lower signal-to-noise ratio when using a
microphone. Therefore, it's not distortion but a degraded signal based on
an increase in the noise level.

Another problem using effects units with amps is that the effect unit comes
before the amp in the signal chain. It is preferable to add effects which
make the sound more "wet"(such as reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, etc.)
after all analog processing has been done. What happens is, a relatively
clean sound from the microphone is reverbed, etc. then sent to the amp,
which unless it is very clean, will distort(or overdrive) the signal to
some degree. Distorting the reverb et. al. sounds like dog #$%!. Imagine
what one is really trying to achieve by adding reverb: Run the sound
through the amp with no effects in a room which has exactly the
reverberation characteristics desired. This is why, if you look at any
multi-effects unit on the market with a pre-amp, the pre-amp, compressor,
EQ, etc. always come before the digital effects.