# [SOLVED] Can I hook my bass guitar up to my stereo?



## soppy1291

The stereo is a Sharp CD-SW200 and the guitar is a basic Yamaha Bass Guitar... Not sure how to describe it further. Not sure if this is the right forum for this either but it seemed to be the best. I am doing this because I don't want to spend money on an amp but I need a way to practice, I am just learning so I don't want to spend money on something if I eventually give this up. Thanks in advance for the help.


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## yustr

*Re: Can I hook my bass guitar up to my stereo?*

You could try but you risk blowing the thing up. Here's a way that might work if you're careful.

Go to Radio Shack (or similar) and get a stereo headphone jack to RCA jack cable (like the 4th one down on THIS SITE) (I assume your bass uses this type connector. If not, get whatever one it does use as long as it has a male stereo pair of RCA plugs on the other end)

Then turn your system volume all the way down. Turn your bass volume all the way down. Plug the headphone jack into your guitar and the red/white RCA plugs into the two female receptacles on the front of the stereo. Switch the unit over to that input. 

Now begin by turning up the volume on the bass slightly - to 1. Then see if the stereo will play it by turning up the stereo volume until you can hear it when you pluck. If you can't hear it at all or if its not loud enough, turn the stereo volume back down all the way and increase the bass volume another hair. Then test again. You want to put as little signal from the bass into the stereo as possible. Once you've got it so it will play sufficiently loud at about 3/4 the way on the stereo volume - stop. Do not go any further.

I'm not guaranteeing it will work but if you're careful and progress very slowly it should pose only a small risk.

BTW: It will probably sound like crud.


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## soppy1291

*Re: Can I hook my bass guitar up to my stereo?*

Ok, maybe I will have to invest in a cheap practice amp...


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## d-thinkerdotcom

*Re: Can I hook my bass guitar up to my stereo?*

I play the electric guitar through a hi-fi amp.
The way I do it is to connect the electric guitar to some effect plugs which have a digital output, and this connects to my sound card which has a digital input.

The beauty of this is that u can record your bass at CD quality, but you play the guitar through the computer, the software to record is free though - audacity which is excellent at removing background noise.

For the electric guitar there is a program called guitar rig, where the actual sound can be played with different amps.

Another reason is that the quality of practice amps are very low, you can hear what you are playing but u need to be a good player for it to sound good.


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