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Post subject: New Passport Owner and questions
Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 3:17 pm
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Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 5:11 pm
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Hello:
I am a proud owner of a new 150 Passport. I think it's perfect for a beginner like myself, besides being portable for anyone at any musical level....
I would like to get an amplifier next. I am wanting to play an acoustic guitar, and an electric keyboard through it. Can I get one amp to do the job? Should I convert my guitar into an electric acoustic or just play it through a mic hooked into the passport?


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Post subject: Re: New Passport Owner and questions
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:20 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
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The Passport 150 already is an amp. And a mixer. And speakers.
You can plug your vocal mic and your guitar into this unit at the same time and mix the signals together.

As for the guitar, you probably should start with an external microphone and a stand, if you have an acoustic guitar that you like a lot. Adding most pickups will change the acoustic sound of the guitar because it adds mass to the bridge or soundboard. There are some internal microphones that don't physically attach to the bridge or mic, but they tend to be pricey, and if you are new to this, you probably don't want to spend that much money yet, especially since installation is not particularly cheap, and you probably don't want to try to do this yourself. It really can damage the sound of the guitar.

Voice of experience talking here. I spent money getting a pro to remove my pickup and restore the sound of my guitar after I was unhappy with the result of my installing the pickup.

I have a guitar with a built-in pickup. I bought it that way, new. It's the only way I'll ever have a guitar with a pickup. I need to like the sound of the instrument with the pickup installed. I won't assume that installing the pickup won't change the sound.

Make sure your microphones have XLR connections and the cables are XLR at both ends. Don't get the cables that convert to 1/4" at the amp end. This is a bad idea. XLR was invented to carry low-level mic signals over long distances without corrupting the sound quality. No other kind of cable does this better, and it's the kind of input that the Passport expects to provide a mic level signal.

Your keyboard should have 1/4" connectors. Make sure you use an "instrument" cable and not a "speaker" cable. While identical 1/4" plugs are used on both speaker cables and instrument cables, the physical wiring is different between these two different kinds of cables. Speaker cables tend to be fatter and heavier, though the difference is subtle. If you buy longer speaker cables for your Passport, make sure that you either label or mark the cables, or that something about the cables is obvious to you so you won't get them confused.

Speaker cables are not good at carrying line level signals from instruments. Instrument cables are downright dangerous if misused as speaker cables because the speaker-level signal has enough amperage to heat up the instrument cables, potentially to the point of starting a fire.

That's why it's good that the speaker cables that come with the Passport do not remotely resemble instrument cables. They are not of great quality, but they are short enough that this doesn't really matter. I bought 30' and 50' speaker cables for mine, and I have them clearly labeled.

If, after you've used this system for a while, you decide that you don't like having to keep your guitar a steady distance from the mic, placed just right, and you don't like wind noise playing outdoors, etc., then invest in a guitar with a pickup built in, or go to a pro you really trust and have him install a high-quality pickup. Don't take this decision lightly, unless your guitar is cheap enough that you are already not that interested in acoustic sound coming from it.

I hope this helps.


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Post subject: Re: New Passport Owner and questions
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:43 pm
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Dear ContraCaller:
Really cool.....thanks a bunch for your reply to my questions. It helps, and I appreciate it. I will take heed to your recommendations. :)


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