Integrating a guitar into a car system

[Trendkill 10+ year member]

Let's say I wanted to be able to hook up my electric guitar to my car audio system. How would I go about doing that? I don't mean just temporary. I mean as an actual feature of the system. If anyone knows of any example installs please post.

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[mtlhead 10+ year member]

you should be able to take your guitar cable, get an adapter to put it into RCA's and then hook them in to an amplifier. Im not sure if that would work or not, but you could do this:

Get a ac/dc converter, hook that up in your car, find a place to mount your amp, and plug your guitar into that

or even better (although im not sure if a guitar can be used with a car amp) is you could get a "Y" adapter, and hook your guitar AND your headunit rca's into that, then connect the other two into the amp

edit: i would strongly recommend using a cheap walmart car audio amp/speaker (IE: sony and durabrand) to experiment with this, just incase something goes wrong inside the amp/speakers

 

[mtlhead 10+ year member]

i would also mess around with a DMM on your normal guitar amp first (IE voltage and impedence of the line level signal)

 

[Ku-sama]

you'lll just need the 1/4th to RCA adapter, but if I were you, I'd just get an inverter, then an amp...

 

[Tonyguy 10+ year member]

Buy an 07 Jetta.....

 

[mtlhead 10+ year member]

you'lll just need the 1/4th to RCA adapter, but if I were you, I'd just get an inverter, then an amp...

the only thing id be worried about is output voltage on that

what you could do, is if your headunit has an AUX input, just get a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter (or whatever it uses) and then plug it into the headunit

 

[mtlhead 10+ year member]

Buy an 07 Jetta.....

wooo first act guitars!!! if slash plays one...why should i //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

 

[SkatinBassPLaya]

haha I already do this with my bass guitars and my guitarists gibbys. My Head unit has the external aux input, so I got those 3.5 mm cables and used a 1/4 inch mic adaptor to plug da ***** in and whala! pwnage

 

[mtlhead 10+ year member]

haha I already do this with my bass guitars and my guitarists gibbys. My Head unit has the external aux input, so I got those 3.5 mm cables and used a 1/4 inch mic adaptor to plug da ***** in and whala! pwnage

that would be my first choice of how to do it, but i would make sure you have a crossover somewhere in there (for the bass) so your not killing your speakers

 

[SkatinBassPLaya]

all my basses got bartolini preamps installed in em, so I just cut the bass knob on my bass lol. but actually wouldn't need to do that cuz my system's got crossovers. subs handle it fine

 

[Trendkill 10+ year member]

Ok so you think if I take my guitar amp and put it my car, then use a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter from the amp's headphone jack to my HU's aux input it should play fine through my whole system?

 

[SkatinBassPLaya]

yeah but then you would need a power inverter for the guitar amp to plug into safely.

do straight into the head unit from your guitar if your guitar works with it.

 

[Trendkill 10+ year member]

yeah but then you would need a power inverter for the guitar amp to plug into safely.
do straight into the head unit from your guitar if your guitar works with it.

Yeah I figured the inverter. I could find a way to work the whole deal into the rest of the install design and even have a nice mounted place to plug my guitar into. Would be pretty sweet. I guess the only thing left would be to make sure that the signal from the guitar amp's headphone jack wouldn't wreck the HU. I'll come back here and ask more detailed questions if I actually decide to do this.
Oh and I'm not really sure what it would sound like if I went straight from the guitar to the HU. There would be no way to add distortion or effects.

 

[Da64u 10+ year member]

watch pimp my ride... i saw them do that one time

 

[IamMurph 10+ year member]

It all depends if your guitar uses active or passive pickups. You might need a preamp.