I just noticed that nowadays mikes are using balanced cables..

Rocker

In my friends house where a group of us gather every two weeks for a few hours playing, the mikes all use balanced cables.  I did not realize this until I was loaned a mike with stand clip to make it easier for me to modify a music stand to hold a microphone.  This I did, pics can be posted if anyone is interested, but I could not use the mike into one of my guitar amps.  Then I remembered a cable I found in my spares box, one end had a balanced connection and the other a standard jack plug.  This allowed me to test the mike and stand in my own music room.  Mike stands are not very expensive but with drum kit, lots of amps, a PA amp and speaker plus my friends hi-fi system, there is not a lot of space available.  Hence my modification work on the music stand.

p90fool

"Nowadays"?!!!

maltingsaudio

There is more of a career in being a music technician than being a musician 

ICBM

p90fool said:

"Nowadays"?!!!

Since the late 50s or early 60s, and almost exclusively since around the mid-80s. When I started working in music shops in 1986 it was still possible to buy a new PA amp without XLR inputs, but very soon after that it wasn't.

robinbowes

Maybe time to prefix your handle with "aging", eh @rocker?

ESBlonde

I'm old enough to remember my first (woolworths) 25w combo had 3 instrument and one mic jack input sockets on a single chanel !. Back in those days it was not uncommon to all plug into a single amplifier for some circumstances (not everyone had a car so lugging gear was much harder. Pretty much all the old school amps of the 50s and 60s had the ability to use multiple instruments or even a mic, think Vox AC30 with 6 sockets for inputs, but as the need for more power grew and the ability to move gear around too, then separate portable Public address systems became more common. At first everything still used the obsolete telephone 1/4" jack but it soon became obvious it was inadequate for loudspeaker power handling and the idea of a low impedence balanced line for microphones was technically a world apart. Guitars still use the standard 1/4" jack but only guitarists live in the 1950s and 60s with valves and guitar designs, everything else has moved on decades ago. The ITT designed XLR connector was adopted as the industry standard and is universal now for balanced lines and mics, the Nuetrik Speakon system has more recently done the same for high voltage/current loudspeaker connections.

Danny1969

At school when we played in bands we had to sing through the guitar amps. We had no PA at that point. As home though we had no guitar amps ..... I played through a small mono  taperecorder amplifier, once I had figured out how to lash up  the signal from my guitar lead to the tape amps 5 pin din input. 
The first PA we got was a Marshall valve one..... which made everyone sound like Muse ..... Matt Bellamy would have loved it

If you short pin 3 to pin 1 on a standard mic cable you can use it in any unbalanced jack socket on a guitar \ bass \ keyboard amp 

ICBM

ESBlonde said:

Guitars still use the standard 1/4" jack but only guitarists live in the 1950s and 60s with valves and guitar designs, everything else has moved on decades ago.

Not quite - keyboard players and studios still use 1/4" jacks a lot. It's actually a perfectly good connector for instrument-level signals… its only real fault is that it the tip makes contact with the ground on the way in or out, so it's not hot-pluggable without causing noise.

It would probably be a good thing to eventually move on from it for speaker connections though - not because it isn't up to the job at sub-100W levels, but because it's too easy to mix up the cables and connections with signal, and potentially damage something. This was also a problem with using XLRs for speakers, before Speakons became available.

Danny1969

In the early eighties HH were knocking out all their pro PA range with XLR sockets on the passive speakers. One band I joined used to have the power amp (HH 500D) on the table next to the desk then the engineer used to send the speaker level power up the multicore snake to the stage, I'm surprised it didn't smoke the multicore ! 

My pet peave with 1\4 jacks is guitar amp makers using them for everything and then putting the sockets on the back where you can't see them. On a typical guitar amp it's quite possible to plug your push to make footswitch into the speaker output .... I mean come on that's just stupid !

Rocker

Up to recently my last involvement with live music was in 1979. Then all mikes used on our band P.A. System used jack plugs. At that time I played with a few bands as well as my own and for those outings I used my own mike & stand. The mike used the standard jack plug, in fact I don't remember ever seeing a balanced mike input on any amp used. And you are right @robinbowes, since 1979 I have aged a bit but I suspect you did too.

p90fool

I've aged a bit too, I'm just surprised that our resident Quality Interconnects Hi-Fi man is still using 1970s Kay's catalogue mic cables!

uncledick

I've been playing since the early 70s and used a Speakon for the first time two weeks ago.  Always had 1/4" jacks with 2 core mains cable - the orange stuff - before then. ....And like some others on here I've had guitar, bass, keys and vocals through an AC30 - it was grim!

JayGee

Danny1969 said:

In the early eighties HH were knocking out all their pro PA range with XLR sockets on the passive speakers. One band I joined used to have the power amp (HH 500D) on the table next to the desk then the engineer used to send the speaker level power up the multicore snake to the stage, I'm surprised it didn't smoke the multicore ! 

My pet peave with 1\4 jacks is guitar amp makers using them for everything and then putting the sockets on the back where you can't see them. On a typical guitar amp it's quite possible to plug your push to make footswitch into the speaker output .... I mean come on that's just stupid !

Been There, Done That!

A hurried setup on a dark stage resulted in much head scratching when the channel select footswitch didn't work. All became clear when somebody noticed the LED channel indicator on the footswitch pulsing when the guitar was strummed - I'd somehow managed to plug it into the second speaker output socket...

UnclePsychosis

I hear that Steves, Trevors, Daves, and Sharons are all using balanced cables too these days.

Rocker

UnclePsychosis said:

I hear that Steves, Trevors, Daves, and Sharons are all using balanced cables too these days.

You lost me there @UnclePsychosis, please explain...

Bridgehouse

UnclePsychosis said:

I hear that Steves, Trevors, Daves, and Sharons are all using balanced cables too these days.

And presumably Donald's aren't using anything remotely balanced..

robinbowes

Rocker said:

UnclePsychosis said:

I hear that Steves, Trevors, Daves, and Sharons are all using balanced cables too these days.

You lost me there @UnclePsychosis, please explain...

...as well as Mikes.

R.

Rocker

Nice one!

PolarityMan

In my day we didn't have PA's. If you wanted to be heard you had to build an amphiteatre so you're voice carried

PolarityMan

Of course in my teens spoken language wasnt common so if you wanted a larger audience to understand you then youe needed to make your cave paintings MORE EMPHATIC

mike257

Danny1969 said:

My pet peave with 1\4 jacks is guitar amp makers using them for everything and then putting the sockets on the back where you can't see them. On a typical guitar amp it's quite possible to plug your push to make footswitch into the speaker output .... I mean come on that's just stupid !

I've got a strip of white LX tape along the back edge of my amp's top face, marking where all the connections and switches on the back are so I'm not hopelessly rummaging in the dark when I'm hooking it up.