Hello all!
I'm designing a color organ to animate LEDs around the perimeter of my bass amp. I want to just "listen" to the source guitar signal and use the value to change various animation parameters. It works fine with the practice bass amp I'm using to test the enclosure, but not with my gigging amp.
Here are the specifics:
Inputs:
(2) 1/4" guitar jacks that are paralleled. I want to pass signal even if my circuit is off. Guitar cable ground to my enclosure ground, signal to a 1uf Poly cap to an op amp configured as a buffer, i.e no gain. From there the output of the op amp sends the signal on to the rest of the circuit.
I connect my guitar cable to one of the input jacks and use another guitar cable to go from my effect to my amp.
My practice amp is a 5W Roland micro cube bass amp with an input impedance of 1MOhm. Connecting my enclosure to that amp allows me to see the signal in my circuit. I can use the gain knob on my enclosure to adjust the input level to the effect.
My gigging amp is a 250W TC Electronic BG250-115 bass amp with an input impedance of 500kOhm, half that of the Roland. When I connect to the big amp I can hear the guitar signal fine in the amp with no noticeable coloration from my effect. However, I see no signal in the effect, even when the gain knob is all the way up.
Any suggestions on what I can do to fix this issue? I'm still a noob when it comes to electronics but I've learned a lot over the past year and a half developing this project. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve Hurd
Floyds Knobs, IN