#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

What does everyone sing through?

It seems I get great voice sound from my karioke machine (don't laugh, it was free) one day and I get not so great sound out of it the next....and ton of feedback...plus, I crank the thing to get it to sound good and loud.....I bought another small amp thinking it was about the same size as the speaker in my karioke machine, and feedbacks like crazy too.....I would really love to have like some sort of a PA system...but of course that costs money...so what else would be another good thing to sing through...maybe another bigger guitar amp?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cigar Box Nation on June 20, 2010 at 11:55pm

I use an Astatic harmonica mic thru a digital delay pedal (set for slapback echo). It gives me a great "shortwave radio" vocal sound. I feed it into the PA

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jerryrig240 on June 21, 2010 at 12:12am

I have been using my zoom II pedal, geting some good lo-fi sound out of it....but latley, nothing but feedback....I am wondering if it is how I have my mic set up too close to my karioke machine or what.....plus, I have to crank it of course....

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skeesix on June 21, 2010 at 12:16am

Back in the old days, before PA's, people would input a microphone into their guitar amp to sing.

If you do that, you have to make sure the microphone is not pointing at the amp, otherwise it will feed back. In other words, the amp has to be in front of you pointing towards the audience, not behind you.

When you use a PA, you always set the speakers out in front pointing away from you for the same reason. There are also monitors pointing back towards you so you can hear yourself, but you have to be careful with the volume - otherwise - you guessed it - feedback!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Greg on June 21, 2010 at 5:16am

Vintage Shure sm55 and the Scott Biram trick of strapping my Green Bullet to the side of it. An Aleisis pico verb in the the line for some delay and on occasion a cheap distortion pedal to get nice and dirty with. All going to the PA. Very LoFi sounding in a HiFi kinda way.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brendan deVallance on June 21, 2010 at 7:51am

The Shure SM-58 is a classic and in the hundred dollar range, that is what I use for recording. But free is hard to beat.—B

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jerryrig240 on June 21, 2010 at 9:42pm

Could I run my mic and my guitar to the same amp? Would that cause a ton of feedback? Or sound pretty dang good? I have a mic input on it I think...our a line in...I will have to look into this.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by HOLLOWBELLY on June 21, 2010 at 10:31pm

I use a bog standard SM58 plugged into the diminutive Vox DA5, dial in a little filth, then it gets miced up to the club pa.Thats how the album was recorded and thats how I play live.You get the filthy sound but without the feedback that can plague old school mics in a live setting.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joker on June 21, 2010 at 11:16pm

I know the point of your discussion is to figure out an alternative to buying a PA, but I still wanted to answer your question about what does everybody sing through. For a while I used a small Line 6 amp that had a built in mic input but I found that it was just not loud enough for most venues. So I broke down and picked up a Harbinger 75 watt powered speaker for $200- basically an PA amp and speaker in one box. Great for a small venue that does not have a PA. Also It is wedge shaped so it makes great monitor for those venues that don't provide them (I have come across a few, mostley small open mics). I feed my vocals and foot stompers through a little Xenyx 4 channel mixer and then into the PA. I run my cbg's through a Peavey 75 watt amp, but I have ran them straight into the mixer to the PA also and they still sound pretty good, especially piezos pluged into a mic channel. You can adjust the tone better. I put the mixer right next to me for quick adjustment. You may have seen this before Jerryrig but here is the latest pic of it set up in my drummers basement where we have been practicing our set for Huntsville

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ben on June 22, 2010 at 1:02am

I'm not a huge fan of singing through the guitar channels on guitar amps. It might just be the tonal quality of my voice with those settings. If you want to go through one amp, you can sometimes find an amp that has an Aux In that doesn't get EQed the way the guitar channel does (even if you use the EQs on the guitar channel). The Fender Frontman 25R is set up that way. I also have a little mixer similar to Joker's. I use it all the time! Its great if you have a couple of different output levels from different pickups. You can get them where you want them before you play and then just switch guitars without having to fiddle with settings.