Would a tube amp work with a computer?

eldorado99

Lifer
Feb 16, 2004
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My friend has a fender tube amp for his electric guitar and we were wondering if we could hook it up to his computer using a 3\4 inch phono to stereo minijack cable. Would there be any problems with using this amp or that adapter? I'm new to the whole guitar amp thing so I don't have any idea.
 

Yanagi

Golden Member
Jun 8, 2004
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You mean as in hooking it up to record from the guitar, or to play the soundf rom the computer on the amp?

Ive done the first, but can recommend to not do that. Most likely you will get poor quality. What I did was that i had my guitar connected to a Dist pedal -> Mixer table -> Computer

That way i got better result, as in no distortion when playing and so on.
 

tiap

Senior member
Mar 22, 2001
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It will work on stero out analogue 1/8 mini plug
Don't try to connect to digital.
 

Barnaby W. Füi

Elite Member
Aug 14, 2001
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A guitar amp is meant to play guitar sounds; generally, playing music through one will sound like complete crap.
 

ronnn

Diamond Member
May 22, 2003
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Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
A guitar amp is meant to play guitar sounds; generally, playing music through one will sound like complete crap.

Such a nice amp also, is it a twin reverb? :beer:
 

eldorado99

Lifer
Feb 16, 2004
36,324
3,163
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its a fender 30 watt blues junior, we were just curious as to what it would sound like, and we didnt want to damage it, thanks for the advice.
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
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I agree with an earlier answer. Guitar amps are designed to CREATE sounds not REPRODUCE music. Better to use a Hi-Fi amp or receiver for playing recorded music. But yes, a tube amp would work if the output and input impedences/sensitivities were reasonably matched. One mobo I know of has a tube amp on it (from AOpen) - quite a curiosity...
.bh.

Where's the :sun: !
 

3chordcharlie

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2004
9,859
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guitar amps are heavily focused on the 'mid-range' part of the sound spectrum. They also make no attempt to cleanly amplify sound - they are designed to make your guitar sound good!

You CAN hook it up, though your line-level output will probably get completely sucked dry of any high tones and your headphone output is actually too powerful and may overdrive the front end of the amp more than the most powerful humbuckers (not generally a good idea). It will sound bad... but you can do it.