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Is there any need for a direct box when using active guitar/bass pickups? If so, why? Also, would this box most likely be passive?

Thanx.

Comments

jonyoung Sun, 09/19/2004 - 16:34

Yes, passive will do, active is fine if you want the particular sonic quality offered by the circuit. Impedance on guitar or bass is really high, ie: 20kohms(that's what my Fender PBass with EMG's tests out at). An average console mic input might be in the range of 1.5kohms. You want your input impedance to generally be at least 10x greater than the source impedance feeding it (power transfer law). The DI will give you low impedance at it's output. With my setup, if I track directly to a channel mic pre with passive DI, I'm generally setting the trim at about 12:00 to 1:00. HTH.