[Harp-L] Re: Rat tail IMT

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"John F. Potts" wrote:
> If anyone is interested, I found a cost effective source for Peavey  
> rat tail style impedance matching transformers,  Green Fly Music  
> Supply on the web carries rat tail style IMTs by Peavey and Hosa.   
> Put in the search term "transformer" on their website and they will  
> come up.  Btw, Peavey makes one w/ a male XLR Connector and one w/  
> a female XLR connector, but the photo is the same for each which  
> can be confusing.  

The purpose of the rat tail connector is to relieve stress on the input jack that would otherwise result from plugging the heavy transformer in directly.

There's another and less expensive way to do the job if you can't find a rat tail IMT.  Radio shack sells 1/4" female/female connectors, which allow you to connect two 1/4" guitar cables.  These connectors cost about $3-4, and if you have a 6" or 12" cable lying around unused, it's a cost-effective way to make a rat-tail for your IMT.  Just plug the 1/4" male end of the IMT into one end of the Radio Shack connector, and one end of your short guitar cable into the other side of the connector.  Then you can plug the other end of the short guitar cable into your amp.

This is about one-quarter to one-fifth of the cost of a real rat-tail connector, just as functional, and only slightly less elegant.  Plus, you can use the radio Shack connector whenever you want to extend a standard 1/4" cable, which you can't do with the rat-tail.

Regards, Richard Hunter    


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