Cant hear my SM57

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hawk

hawk

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I'm running it into a Fender M80 amp. I'm trying to mic a classical guitar but I simply cannot get any volume. I've cranked the volume up to 7 or so and still it's very soft. What am I doing wrong? I didn't think the SM57 required a pre-amp?
 
All mics requre a preamp. You may be thinking about phantom power, which is only a requirement of condenser mics. The amp has a preamp section, which will serve to amplify your signal, but it was not designed for a microphone. Also, miking a classical guitar with a dynamic mic, like the 57, will require that you place the mic very close to the guitar strings (like 6 inches or less). Needless to say, your setup is less than ideal.

Is this for live use or recording purposes? For live, get a pickup. Dean Markley makes a stick-on piezo that works fine for classical guitar. For recording, get a condenser mic (or two) and a decent preamp.
 
Thanks for your response scrubs. You're right- I was thinking of phantom power, not pre-amp. This will be for a small gig, say 50 people in a somewhat noisy envirnoment (restaurant.) The pickup is a good idea, but I really wanted to capture the tone of the guitar and from what I understand, pickups pretty much negate the guitar's sound. I've heard of little clip-on mics that might be an option too. Know anything about them?
 
What you need is something other than a guitar amp to run it through. Do you have access to a small PA? Or maybe consider renting one.
 
What kind of cable/connectors are you using from the mic to the amp input? Which input are you using?

I don't know anything about your amp - does it have xlr or only 1/4 inch input jacks? If you're going in through a high impedance guitar input, you are 1) having a low to high impedance mismatch, which will lower your volume and change the eq, and 2) only using 1/2 of the balanced signal from the mic, further cutting your signal level in half.

You can get an inline matching transformer from radioshack or elsewhere, which will help with both these problems.
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=274-016

The problem of miking a classical guitar with a SM57, and into a guitar amp, remains - you may not like the tone you get out.
 
Getting a PA is a good option, though I can't afford one right now. Then, I'd still need a decent mic. I'm thinking all I need is one of those clip-on mics and a pre-amp and I'll be set (I'm assuming those too need pre-amps.) Not a good long term solution, but might do the trick for now.

On the connectors, I'm using XLR (from mic,) to 1/4" cable plugged into the amp's input. I've tried both inputs, and the second one sounds a little better so might be a impedance mismatch issue there.
 
I think if you get an xlr-xlr mic cable, and the impedance matching transformer, you'll be happy for now, and it's a cheap solution. You can use your tone controls to adjust the eq to the most pleasing (or least offensive) sound. Then look into a condenser mic and preamp. Does your amp have a line input (maybe on the back)? If so, you can plug an external preamp into it.
 
Just get a pickup. If you go to any big concert and someone pulls out an acoustic guitar, they are using a pickup. (most of the time) Any lack of quality will not be noticable through your guitar amp. If that was an acoustic guitar amp, then you would be talking.

There is no point in being a purist about having a mic'd vs. pickup sound when you aren't being a purist about what you plug it into. Your guitar amp is the quality bottleneck in this situation. It is not a bad amp, it just isn't made for what you are attempting to use it for.
 
The amp's input is instrument level - It's not going to have enough gain for a mic.

*IF* you want to go that route, you could get a cheap mixer (UB602?) and run the line out into the amp's power amp input.
 
Massive Master said:
The amp's input is instrument level - It's not going to have enough gain for a mic.
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I think it will. Matching the impedance will probably boost the mic's output by at least a factor of 10, and transforming from balanced to unbalanced will double it again.

But I have to agree with Farview and scrubs - just get a pickup. By far the simplest solution.
 
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