will a mixer take a guitar line input

Fine in the main but to be absolutely sure, it depends on what kind of inputs. Hi-Z input is perfect for a guitar, others may require a DI.

Someone who actually knows waht they're talking about should be along soon !

Guitarists have been plugging their guitars "straight in" almost since the beginning of time. Phantom power shouldn't an issue as you will most likely be plugging into a 1/4" direct in. Mackie is a good example of a mfg that designs their inputs for a wide variety of signals. You should consult your user manual to be sure.

Also agree that a good direct box is probably a better way to go. You will probably get a stronger cleaner healthier signal that way. Those little ART Tube MP units are good direct boxes. Behringer makes an inexpensive unit too I think. If money is no object there are many boutique DI's out there in the $300-$500 range. Radial Engineering comes to mind. They are highly rated.

ORIGINAL: Somexone75

just like the title says

will a mixer take a guitar directly with no other things involved? or will I need to patch from an amp?

This question has been bugging me like none other for a while

You can do both in most cases and you should to see what sounds best. However, many mixers don't have a High-Z input to the microphone preamp. Some of the new small ones do, for example the Soundcraft Compact 4 and Compact 10 both have guitar inputs. I think some Mackie mixers have the line in rounted through the preamp just at reduced gain but it might still load down your pickups and reduce tone and sustain so a direct box to convert from High-Z to Low-Z would be good to have. Also, very old mixers and preamps might have a high-Z input because in the old days many microphones (like old ribbon mics) were High-Z also just like guitars.

A High-Z (high impeadance) input is good for guitar becuase it's not as close to a dead short as Low-Z is and the pickups can hardly tell it's there and will keep up the sustain and tone, guitar amps have High-Z inputs, most are 1 meg. ohm and that's a good thing. Modern microphones work best at Low-Z more like 50 to 200 ohm so even if you can convert the guitar cord to XLR the mic preamps in a mixer are still not ready for guitar. On my the soundcraft Compact 4 (great sounding little mixer) there is a button you can push on channel two so that input changes to High-Z for guitar and the XLR has the special hole in the center so you can plug in a guitar. The entire mixer is less then the cost of a good direct box.

If you use a guitar amp with a preamp out then you can just connect that to the line in on the mixer channel and you are good to go.

If you want to be able to use any microphone preamp (mixer or stand alone) then get a good direct box, the Countryman Type 85 is the gold standard and should be about $150 online.

Just to clarify: A guitar output is not a "line in." It needs an instrument input, or "High Z" or "high impedance."

It totally depends on the mixer, but most mixers do have at least a few instrument inputs. If the mixer has only line-level inputs you might be able to get it to work but the sound quality probably won't be that great.

Cheers.

You ideally need a DI box if you want to run a guitar/bass thru a typical mixer.
Your mixer has 1/4" inputs... but those aren't typically designed to deal with high impedence input from electric quitar/bass.
The result with be a dull/life-less sounding guitar/bass.
Use a DI box... and all will be fine. In a pinch, the Behringer Ultra-DI will do. Radial makes excellent DI boxes...

What the guys are saying to you is that unless you know that those "instrument" ins are Hi-Z, you'll need to use a DI box to get the best sound out of your guitar. Unless you're already happy with the sound, that is.

Me ? I'm off to buy a DI box !

ORIGINAL: Rev. Jem

What the guys are saying to you is that unless you know that those "instrument" ins are Hi-Z, you'll need to use a DI box to get the best sound out of your guitar. Unless you're already happy with the sound, that is.

Me ? I'm off to buy a DI box !

A good DI is nice to have, that way you can try any microphone preamp you have access to with guitar and bass. Some microphone preamps have one built in but many only have the XLR mic input.