Electric Guitar through a Keyboard Amp

[seratone1]

I'm resurrecting this thread as it seems to have died out in 2009..and there have been a lot of enhancements in this area since then.

 

Perhaps I'm chasing the Dragon here.  I use a Traynor K4 as a keyboard player in two original bands, I play acoustic and electric as well

[Mr.Grumpy]

I'm surprised you're not able to get a usable tone with any of those setups.

Here's the deal: Guitar amps don't have "flat" response, their tone controls are generally designed with a heavy mid-scoop to compensate for guitar pickups' heavy midrange output. And then the single speaker rolls off the high treble and can't produce deep bass very well. Keyboard amps are generally "full range" and have a fairly flat response - basically a PA speaker in amp form. 

However, the various "amp-in-a-box" gizmos you have tried should emulate the tone controls AND speaker response...on the POD make sure it's set to "direct" mode or whatever it's called. There's a switch to turn the speaker cabinet emulation on or off, you want it ON if you're playing through a keyboard amp. 

Try starting out with all tone controls on your keyboard amp and POD in the middle position, and work from there. 

 

[seratone1]

I have the 'AIR' on the POD on, and, since the Bass, Mid , Treble controls on the K4 are pretty limited, I have a Boss GE-7 EQ before the pod with a few Mids slightly scooped.

I can't believe the first gen POD sounds MILES better than hundreds of bucks worth of SansAmp pedals - I realize now they're made for guitar amps, possibly home recording - they sound great through headphones - but definitely NOT a 250 Watt keyboard amp. Also the signal is too weak - TU 2 Tuner - SansAmp Blonde - Line 6 M9 - I have to use a Voodoo Labs Sparkle drive as a booster and that complicates things in the chain.

I have a really versatile MXR 0 band EQ licking around somewhere  - would it make sense to EQ AFTER the POD?

I

[zzzxtreme]

Guitar to nonguitar amps sound horrible, with the exception of amt duhast speaker simulation. Yesterday, plugged in my keyboard to my bogner guitar tube amp, surprisingly sounded good !

[maarkr]

I've been using fx boards from Digitech and Boss thru our mixer and into keyboard amps and powered PA/sub speakers instead of using guitar amps for a while and while it takes some tweaking and understanding of the signal output, we get a good sound.  It is NOT the same as a really good amp/cab but the sound is tighter and  mixes well with other instruments... makes it easy to control the band mix and reduces the need to drag several hundred pounds of amps around.

[Gribs]

The newer PodHD floor pedals sound pretty good, but you have to tweak and make sure you have cabinet emulation turned on. If you like the Vox sounds then you can get a small Vox modeling amp for under $300 new that will sound good and is set up to be tweaked in the traditional tube amp sense. It sounds to me, though, that you are hearing and chasing some small tube combo amps that have quite a bit of charm. A gut check would be to try to plug your guitar into your band mates rig and see if the sound comes close; it is possible you are blaming the amp/signal chain instead of the guitar.

[seratone1]

I did an experiment last night.

 

I borrowed a Tech21 Trademark 60 from a local shop

 

Vox AC 15 from my guitarist

 

12 watt VHT amp

 

My existing pedal board with Boss TU2>Tech 21 Blonde>Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive>Line 6 M9>Traynor K4.

 

My 'Jerry Rigged' board: Boss >TU2 Tuner>Boss GE7 EQ>Old POD>Traynor K4

 

I was using a New Jazzmaster and a Gibson Les Paul Special. Not surprisingly the two tube amps needed some tweaking to get a smooth jangly sound, The VHT was barking and turning itself inside out trying to get loud enough for the drums the drums - As a keyboardist I'm primarily a rhythm guitarist (slight breakup, delay trem, shimmer). The Tech 21 amp immediately achieved what I was looking for but I had trouble getting rid of some boxy Mids. Awfully quiet for a 60 watt amp!

 

Surprisingly the winner - this with my band mates input, who are tone snobs - was the EQ>POD>K4 chain! My POD 2.0 has been gathering dust for 12 years. The trick was pre-pod EQ. The delay and modulation effects are dead simple compared to what

[Darkstorm]

Use processor of choice to get your ready for recording voice. Thats the main thing. Useing either keybaord amp/cab rig or bass rig then is same as useing good Pa for sound. Avoid using keybaord or bass rigs that use piezao tweeters. Those just create garbage tone and are  especially horrible if you use any overdrive or distortion with yort guitar voice. But again it starts with feeding the amp and cab rig your allready for recording tone. So they are simply sound monitors then rather then part of the tone shaping.