Guitar amplification

[Joel]

Can a home stereo be used to amplify an electric guitar? Will it hurt the stereo?

[Schecter_dude]

My friend used a stereo to amplify his guitar... so I suppose it'd be OK. But it might depend on your stereo.

[slaughteredsoul]

i dont think it will hurt your stereo..an amplifier is an amplifier..but dont take my word for it :p

[jaytee]

i actually looked into this once....

there are a couple of things you will need to do it with...cant remember what they are but i decided id be better off with a regular amp rather than trying to route one more thing through my already messy stereo with its millions of wires....

plus....you risk blowin your speakers....

it can be done but as far as i know its not recommended unless your setup is pretty much dedicated to your guitar....

if i come across the info illl post it....but i bet ESP Viper knows it right offhand.... :)

--jt

[jaytee]

i looked in a book i have and it says you need a special jack that you can pick up at any place like radio shack....should only cost a couple bucks and if you explain to them what you are doing they should know what you want....

its an adapter that has "a mono female quarter inch jack on one end and a male RCA (or phono) plug on the other"....

goes into your auxiliary inputs on your stereo....

now it says youll only get sound out of one speaker...whichever you plug into....but it may be possible to set your outputs to get a little better sound...our stereo has a little button that says "mono" on it that when pushed combines the channels...

however...there is a WARNING......

turn your speakers all the way down until you are set up and bring your volume up slowly ...or else youll blow your speakers....

my husband says you can also do this through a cheap tape deck (might have to put it in record/pause) if it has mic inputs....something about most tape decks have the same impedence as guitars....and a whole bunch of other technical stuff i couldnt regurgitate too easily....

like i said....i decided this wasnt a good option for me because there is just so much stuff hooked up to our stereo....so be careful if you try it....its hell being married to a genius....

--jt

[Joel]

Actually Radio Shack makes an adapter that goes from a 1/4" mono phone plug (standard guitar plug) to dual RCA's, thus allowing a mono signal to be passed to two speakers.

Thanks for the info, though, Jaytree. I thought that line level was a higher level than that put out from a guitar. Oh well, I'll just have to try it and cross my fingers. My stereo is much more powerful than my guitar amp.