this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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I was hoping I could plug it into my guitar & watch the sounds on an old computer monitor…
Do you think it would work?
All we need to do is build a similar setup and then find a guitar and a CRT and see what happens
Edit: actually, I've got a guitar and a CRT and maybe half of the pieces there. The big thing I'm concerned about is destroying the CRT. I have no idea how sensitive CRTs are or how much power is coming from a guitar.
I have no idea if it would work, but I do have a spare CRT monitor if you blow yours up.
Maybe look into a direct box? I had to use one when recording to change the ohms between the instrument & the usb interface in the tower.
I'll take a look at it. The CRT is a bit sentimental to me (it's the same model as the one my first PC had, managed to find one on eBay in good condition after like, a year of searching) which is why I'm concerned about blowing it up. However, I might see if any electronics recycling places in my area have a shitty, beat-up CRT TV they'd be willing to part with. That said, I discovered recently that most of the remaining recycling places in my area are run by computer enthusiasts and tend to sell or hold onto anything with any value like CRTs though, so wish me luck.
Kinda genius really. Into old PCs but don't wanna pay eBay prices for them? Become an electronics recycler and then people will pay you to take their old SGI workstations and Sony BVMs.
The only way you'll blow your CRT is if you tried to plug that dongle monstrosity into the speaker output of a power amp haha, guitars have a high impedance signal. Direct boxes actually lower the impedance, so that definitely won't help make your output safer. (Still safe) So I say go for it directly from the guitar, the worst that can happen is nothing, (which is likely) which probably means you actually do need to lower the impedance with a direct box. (Which I still doubt would work but who knows) An amp with a line out or a digital pedal board would be the most likely options for actually getting sound through.
Do you know what the tolerances are on connectors like VGA, coax, and bnc? My monitor has VGA and BNC, so BNC might be easier to use (fewer intermediate steps, more control due to separate sockets for sync, r/g/b, etc). I'm curious if you might know how high the voltage can go before I run the risk of frying something.
Also, my guitar is an acoustic-electric with a preamp, which would probably make a difference.
My background is in audio engineering & live sound, so I'm not sure about the specifics of those ports. But there is zero risk of frying anything with the signal generated from a guitar, even an acoustic w/preamp. You would need orders of magnitude more power to do any damage, like if you plugged the 1/4" inch into a power amp designed for passive speakers (which can take the same 1/4" input as a guitar for some stupid reason.) I have to imagine that the only interaction happening within the CRT is directly with the built in speakers, so even if you did that crazy thing the speakers would blow but the video might still work (kinda want to see what would happen here lol, we need one of those YouTubers who like to break things.) For you though, the worst that would happen is the signal getting distorted and sounding horrible. My guess is either port would work granted you have the right adapter, and I actually think you're more like to hear something from an acoustic because of the slight boost from the preamp. All this to say there's nothing to worry about, but it's a lot of work for something silly, I'm sure you could make the world's worst amp with it if you try hard enough, seems like it should work to me.
Oh, I think you misunderstand. I'm not sending the audio into audio, I'm sending audio into video. So the signal from the guitar goes into the video connector (there aren't any built-in speakers). Why? It might look cool.
Oh! Actually I've seen something similar done before with a modular synth! There's this awesome Instagram profile called Ellingson.tv with a guy that uses modular synths to manipulate CRTs and combines that idea with a "Pepper's Ghost" hologram effect. Highly recommend checking it out
Alright, thank you!
I also think this won't hurt the CRT at all