iPhone to amp?? - help please.

acresfield

hi all, 
complete newbie here. I have searched and cannot find the answer I am looking for so please excuse me if this is a dumb or already answered question. 
I have just bought my first 'grown up' amp. As in, it's not a bedroom practice amp. I have the fender bassbreaker 15 and whilst I love it I am finding that I am wishing it had a line in so that I could jam over songs. Is this something that is easy to do? A media converter or indeed just a cable with adaptor into the fx return? I don't fancy sacrificing either my phone or the amp by just giving it a go! Is there anybody with an easy solution to this. Many thanks

ecc83

You can't use the FX return since, although it will play through the amp (maybe very loudly!) you will break the link to the pre amp that gives you your guitar.

You could use a small outboard mixer* such as the Behringer X802 similar but a simpler solution would be to just use a completely separate active PC speaker system (or a hi fi rig)

*The mixer idea has other possibilities. Headphone output e.g. This would allow you to turn down the Fender's master volume and have totally silent practice. In fact Allen and Heath have just released a new clutch of mixers and one has 24 bit 2 ch recording via USB. The mixers also have a hi Z input option. HOW LONG has it taken the project mixer industry to wake up to that one?

But I am surprised no one AFAIK markets a simple, passive iThang "injector/mixer" for this purpose?

Dave.

ICBM

A Boss LS-2 pedal in the FX loop will work as a small mixer (and is useful for loads of other things too). Connect the amp's FX send to the pedal's Return A, the iPhone to Return B, the pedal output to the amp's FX return, and set to 'AB Mix'.

jaytmon

The Boss RC-20XL (looper pedal) has a mini jack 'aux' input, and I'm sure some of the others do too. Would involve spending money but you'd also have the option of recording your own loops and playing over them. If you put the looper pedal in the fx loop of the amp you'd bypass any reverb/preamp distortion too. 

Having said that, MP3 player through a guitar amp in my experience sounds like ass. Someone with more knowledge could probably explain why, but possibly to do with speaker frequency response. How about headphones, one ear in one ear out as a quick solution?

ICBM

jaytmon said:

Someone with more knowledge could probably explain why, but possibly to do with speaker frequency response.

Exactly that.

acresfield

Thanks guys.. I did think it wouldn't be as simple as I was hoping or else I would have found an answer sooner. I think the 'headphone in headphone out option is a goer!