PRS Guitarbust
Posted: January 27, 2010 Filed under: Technology | Tags: bullshit, Les Claypool, PRS Guitarbud 3 Comments »PRS Guitarbud is advertised as “the guitarist’s interface for iPhone.” Over at the PRS Cables blog, there’s a post up that says this: “The best part is…. I am playing LOUD… and my wife hears nothing!”
Well, I got excited about all that, but unfortunately the cable’s not really working for me. Something is coming through it, because I can hear a sort of spotty signal in the headphones when I hook it up with the PRS JamAmp app. But that spotty signal isn’t registering on the Voice Memos indicator, as it’s supposed to. I don’t know what’s up. Either I haven’t got it hooked up right, or the cable’s junk.
As for the PRS app, the effects seem pretty weak to me, but again, maybe I’m doing something wrong. I’ll keep tinkering. So far, it’s not looking worth the 40 clams for cable and app combo.
I should have spent that money on Les Claypool wine, which I learned about today via Jambase.
My recommendation, and this may not work at all, is to put your Boss multi-effect processor in between the guitar and the iPhone. Start with a really clean setting – no effects. I had a feeling when I saw that thing that there would need to be some kind of preamp to get the guitar signal “heard” by the iPhone.
Ooh – good idea. The Boss is busy gathering dust these days.
Another thing you could try is to use an inline impedance matcher such as a Whirlwind Little Imp between the cable and your guitar. I’ve have developed my own guitar multi-effects app, RiotFX (www.riotmode.com) and have used some pretty interesting adapter arrangements and circuits to attach my guitar to my phone over time, so have a little insight into these problems
. I’ve put a commentary on the Guitarbud up here: riotmode.blogspot.com.