Hooking up a guitar to a computer

[Spinnerke]

As the title, I want to hook up an electric acoustic guitar to my computer.
What do I need in hardware ?

The situation is not imminent, I'm a 1 year amateur guitar player with a love for blues rock riffs.
I asked my guitar teacher half a year ago and his reply was "Do you have a moment ...." and let it hanging there.
In other words, it was so much that he could not cover it in half an hour of a lesson.

So, I'm hoping for some TPU computer addicts with a guitar hobby or TPU guitar addicts with a computer hobby to talk about their stuff.
How do you hook it up ?

My computer is about to be replaced with a latest gen powerful system, in case the current specs don't allow anything within this field, it is not a problem, that 'issue' will be fixed (soon)

 

[68Olds]

Does your amp have an output or headphone jack? You could get a patch cable from the amp to the PC's audio in.

 

[Spinnerke]

Does your amp have an output or headphone jack? You could get a patch cable from the amp to the PC's audio in.

I blame my initial post, but this is already too far for me, I don't know what an amp is.
I currently use an acoustic western guitar and would like to acquire an electric acoustic, which probably comes with an amp (the box that the cable from the guitar plugs into ? yes/no?)

I'm not really aware of Ohm and what that does in audio between natively different systems as a computer and a guitar, I'd rather not destroy expensive hardware due to not knowing what I'm doing. Is there anything that I should be aware of ?

Looking at equipment like below, makes me feel lost ...

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Depending what you want to do (and how you want to do it) some 'practise speakers' like the Yamaha THR and Boss Katana series of amps come with their own USB interface that can hooked up to a PC and used to record stuff.

::EDIT::

Positive Grid Spark is also another one of these 'practise amps' that can be used for recording.

 

[68Olds]

Amp in this case is short for Guitar Amplifier with integrated speaker. The really good ones go to 11. (movie reference joke).

 

[1freedude]

Not to sound discouraging, but why do you want to connect guitar to PC? Try a plain microphone hooked up to mic input for recording your sounds.

 

[Frick]

I use an old Line 6 UX1. Can be found for very little money.

Not to sound discouraging, but why do you want to connect guitar to PC? Try a plain microphone hooked up to mic input for recording your sounds.

That depends on what OP wants to achieve.

 

[oobymach]

You can use 1/4" to 3.5mm mic input via an adapter and then you just need amp software to take advantage of it. I would recommend a dongle vs a straight adapter a guitar cable is heavier than the 3.5mm was meant for and it's better to have it hanging vs a straight input.

1x 1FT 3.5mm 1/8" Male to 6.35mm 1/4” Female Mono Audio Adapter Converter Cable | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1x 1FT 3.5mm 1/8" Male to 6.35mm 1/4” Female Mono Audio Adapter Converter Cable at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.ca

This is the first software for free I found from a quick search.

AmpliTube 5 CS - FREE amp simulation and guitar gear modeling software

Supercharge your guitar tone with new signal chain & routing, new cabinet section with VIR ™ technology, custom IR loader, new gear, and much more.

www.ikmultimedia.com

 

[AsRock]

Amp in this case is short for Guitar Amplifier with integrated speaker. The really good ones go to 11. (movie reference joke).

View attachment 258551
View attachment 258552

Best way to do it.

 

[Spinnerke]

I use an old Line 6 UX1. Can be found for very little money.



That depends on what OP wants to achieve.

Recording sound on PC, play around with audio mixing applications
For example recording music in my living room and using an application to make it sound as if I'm in a cave ..

 

[silentbogo]

Since you are an amateur, no need to spend much on that type of gear.
Did a little setup for my stepdad, who's been retired for almost 15 years now, so he uses it almost every day for his songwriting.
He still uses a cheap-ass USB guitar cable which I bought back in 2000-something, and it still gets the job done, even though his guitar processor has a USB output and much cleaner sound. If you have access - get a Real Tone cable (guitar cable for Rocksmith). It's a wee more expensive, but this way you can do your usual recording stuff, while also use it to practice in-game (which is pretty cool on it's own, and may even eliminate the need to pay for a guitar teacher). Their cables are likely just a generic AC97 USB audio interface, but the game checks device ID to validate whether it's "genuine". There are workarounds to spoof the ID on any cable, but that's a topic for another day.
Alternatively - just get a regular jack-to-minijack mono adapter, stick it onto your regular guitar cable, and use Line-In on your PC. Results may vary, but it usually works fine on most motherboards. Once again, not Mic-in(red), but Line-in(blue). If you have switching inputs/outputs - do the same.

Pros and cons are short and simple:
1) most USB cables or USB audio interfaces give perfect sound but add latency.
2) Good-ole analog cable is faster, but you will need to do some tweaking and tinkering if you encounter noise and clipping.

 

[skizzo]

I blame my initial post, but this is already too far for me, I don't know what an amp is.
I currently use an acoustic western guitar and would like to acquire an electric acoustic, which probably comes with an amp (the box that the cable from the guitar plugs into ? yes/no?)

I'm not really aware of Ohm and what that does in audio between natively different systems as a computer and a guitar, I'd rather not destroy expensive hardware due to not knowing what I'm doing. Is there anything that I should be aware of ?

Looking at equipment like below, makes me feel lost ...
View attachment 258547

Scarlett 2i2 is a perfectly reasonable audio interface for the bedroom guitarist. It's not overkill, but has good options.

Please share the exact guitar model you have?

You will need to get familiar with DAWs though too. Digital Audio Workstations. Start messing around with a free program like Audacity to start. You can use a DAW without an interface. But without an interface, you may not be able to hook up your instrument to your PC.....or at least in a way that doesn't sound like junk..... like going into the mic input. I mean don't get me wrong, I used to record myself using a literal PC mic from 1998 on a Windows 98 system, of course this was 20+ years ago but you can imagine how shitty a PC mic will sound, they have very little headroom. Point being, do what you gotta do when you are just starting out and learning.....THEN work your way up to being more finicky about your gear and tone, etc. Though I would say going into the mic input is a horrible idea (for getting a good sound), if you're just having a good time jamming in your room that is what matters. No one is going to complain that you don't have golden ears or don't have the best guitar tone in the world.

You can use 1/4" to 3.5mm mic input via an adapter and then you just need amp software to take advantage of it. I would recommend a dongle vs a straight adapter a guitar cable is heavier than the 3.5mm was meant for and it's better to have it hanging vs a straight input.

1x 1FT 3.5mm 1/8" Male to 6.35mm 1/4” Female Mono Audio Adapter Converter Cable | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1x 1FT 3.5mm 1/8" Male to 6.35mm 1/4” Female Mono Audio Adapter Converter Cable at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.ca

This is the first software for free I found from a quick search.

AmpliTube 5 CS - FREE amp simulation and guitar gear modeling software

Supercharge your guitar tone with new signal chain & routing, new cabinet section with VIR ™ technology, custom IR loader, new gear, and much more.

www.ikmultimedia.com

AmpliTube is an excellent plugin/piece of software....but will potentially be overwhelming for a noob. It has a plethora of layers of options available. It's not super convoluted, just the amount of options as far as amps, mics, rooms, mic placement, post processing and mixing, etc. I'd recommend to the OP to give this a try but don't try making custom setups. There are presets for all these options. I would start by using the presets and then you can tweak stuff if you want. Then eventually you'll learn how to setup your own sounds from scratch

 

[Deleted member 185158]

Does your amp have an output or headphone jack? You could get a patch cable from the amp to the PC's audio in.

That's exactly how I did it, right off my Line6 Pod.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Recording sound on PC, play around with audio mixing applications
For example recording music in my living room and using an application to make it sound as if I'm in a cave ..

First you need to decide if you are or are not going to buy an electric guitar.
With one you can get what others have said or use the pc as the amp with a simple usb to 4mm guitar plug Available via Amazon and others, and some software.
But the best way is via a analogue to digital converter in a input station or mixing desk I used one back in the day, via mic(acoustic) or line out from an amp(electric)

Line 6 do some good stuff for this kind of thing, even a podHD can output to pc plus are ace and cheap second hand, I have a floorboard version they have effects and can simulate other Amp sounds.

 

[Spinnerke]

Scarlett 2i2 is a perfectly reasonable audio interface for the bedroom guitarist. It's not overkill, but has good options.

Please share the exact guitar model you have?

None electric yet.
Just a beginner acoustic western guitar for now.
I promised myself an upgrade as soon as I can play 'Come as you are - Nirvana' and 'Gloria from Van Morrison' without mistakes.
For an electric guitar, I like what this looks like :

€1300

Electric acoustic, I don't know yet.

 

[erocker]

Amazon.com: Yamaha AG03 3-Channel Mixer / 1 Microphone : Musical Instruments

I have this and a Focusrite 2i2. I definitely prefer the Yamaha mixer/audio interface. Works really well as a DAC/sound card too.

 

[bobbybluz]

Years ago I'd plug one of my electric guitars into the mic input on the audio card. Control the volume and tone with the pots on the guitar. Single coil pickups will sound very bright with little bass, humbuckers have more output and better bass. Use a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter on the end of the cable to plug it in. The cheapest way to go.

For an acoustic guitar a Barcus-Berry Hot Dot is a great way to go: Barcus Berry DISQOS Soundboard Transducer for External Mount | Reverb

 

[Bones]

None electric yet.
Just a beginner acoustic western guitar for now.
I promised myself an upgrade as soon as I can play 'Come as you are - Nirvana' and 'Gloria from Van Morrison' without mistakes.
For an electric guitar, I like what this looks like :
View attachment 258573€1300

Electric acoustic, I don't know yet.

I don't know what sound you're looking for but Cobain always played a Strat so if you want something like his sound, a Strat or a Strat clone/copy would work.
I don't really know what Van Morrison used (Not a fan) but it kinda sounds like a standard Les Paul to me - Don't ask me why.

Mine is just a cheap POS Washburn HOB and it's also called a Strat copy due to how it's made. Inspite of the cheap guts/electronics it actually has a good feel, fret action, not too heavy and so on plus it sounds..... Well it sounds like a cheap electric is all I can say about that. Nothing a complete gutting and rebuilding of all that (Including better pickups) can't fix.

However my bass (Fender Jazz V) is a different story - Well built, good setup, guts and all plus it's a heavy guitar too.
Nothing you'd want to have on the soulder strap any longer than required for sure.