UA-25 EX and guitar...preamp?

I've been using my UA-25 for my phantom power mic, and it's worked great. However, I just tried to hook up a guitar to it, and I got lots of noise when I increased the sensitivity knob. 

Do I need a pre-amp for my guitar? That would be a "direct box", right? Or am I missing something important about the UA-25? 

Hi, and thank for answering. The phantom power was off, and I was using input #2. The Hi-z switch was in. And yet, I had to turn the sensitivity way up...when I did, I heard lots of noise with the signal. I am using an electronic MIDI guitar (the You Rock Guitar), which I assumed would have no noise, since it doesn't use regular pickups. It has a 1/4 output, and I'm using a Monster cable to make sure the noise isn't due to that. 

Chappel


Was the phantom power still on? You don't want to have phantom power enabled on any input you use for an instrument that doesn't require phantom power.

Is your guitar plugged into input #2 (right input)?

Is the Hi-Z switch pressed in?

A direct box is great if you want to send a signal to the UA-25 AND an amp or other device. You shouldn't have any problem if you connect the guitar directly to the interface. Because the output of a guitar is high impedance you will get your best results connecting it to input 2 because that input is switchable from Hi to Low impedance. Input #1 is always set at low impedance.

It's interesting, since this is a very new kind of instrument. I did have the YRG's volume all the way up, and the gain knob was turned up higher than I thought should be necessary. Thank you for looking into this, it's very nice of you. I heard back from the makers of the You Rock Guitar, and they said this:

"You shouldn't need a preamp because the guitar has a buffered output but it might be worth it to see if it makes a difference. Could you try plugging in headphones to see if you still have the same issues. If you hear the noise when listening thru headphones, then we know that the problem exists within the guitar".


I just found my old RP-12 guitar effects processor, which has a preamp built in. I'll use that when I get my power supply back and report back here on how it goes.