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Hey everyone,

Ive tried to do my own research on this before posting, but too many conflicting opinions. Basically i want to run my SV-1 through guitar pedals and through a valve guitar amp, i really ideally want a real fender rhodes through my amp, but trying to do the same thing with an SV-1 ive tested it on very low volumes and i love the sound, i haven't done it at a gig because im worried about damaging the amp.

My keyboard signal is significantly higher than a guitars, i bought an impedance adapter online but it only works through the XLR out which is already a hotter input than the 1/4 inch line out so it hasn't helped, the impedance adapter just brings the XLR out down to a noisy version of the existing 1/4 inch out.

I can't find 1/4 inch impedance adapters and im not sure if thats the solution, anyway have any specific experience like this? The main issue is i want to go through a VALVE guitar amp, ive done bass amps which sound decent and solid state guitar amps which i wasn't the biggest fan and that usually turns out fine.

My friend just suggested using an EQ pedal before the amp to control the volume, before i go out and spend more money anyone have any suggestions?

As far as impedance, you should be fine going straight from the SV-1 in to the guitar pedals, and the output from the pedals are already matched to guitar impedance (being guitar pedals). You should be able to get away without needing the impedance matcher there.

The biggest risk in impedance is between the amp and the speaker, and being a combo amp, those should be set fine. Impedance mismatch there could result in a blown power transformer.

However, your risk is going to be the speaker itself. A guitar amp is very midrangy, and the speaker is not designed to handle a lot of heavy bass response, which a keyboard can do. At higher volume, risk of blowing speaker, but the chances of damaging the amp is very low.

Playing through a bass amp is a lot safer, and you would not have issues there.

Through a guitar amp, you have the choices of: Keeping the volume low (Can do through either the keyboard itself or a pedal, pedal is just extra money to accomplish the same thing you can do at your keyboard) or replace the speaker with a full range speaker at the correct impedance of your amp, and well able to handle the wattage range.

I will say this though, I don't exactly know what you are going for specifically going for tube/valve amp, but no one can tell. I played out for years, and ran through tons of different gear. Tube stacks. Tube racks. Solid state amps. Modellers. My gear was always aimed at the drummer instead of out front (I like my hearing, and they wanted more volume, let their ears suffer instead of mine)
but invariably, no matter what I was playing through someone would come up and ask what tubes I was using. There was a lot of disbelief when I showed them on stage when it was a solid state amp.

I only mention that because I think you are perhaps creating a lot of headache for yourself, when you could just plug in to an amp made for the job, and it will be just fine.

Another thing I forgot to mention/ask is: What size venues are you going to play? Is your amp the sole stage monitor for your keyboard? Is it going to go through the PA?

The reason I ask is, unless you are on a huge stage, 30W valve is going to be plenty for most guitar situations. Bass and Keyboard require a lot more power though. Bass frequencies require that power and that AC30 might not cut it, even with a speaker that can handle it.

I ran mine through a 100W fender tube amp sounded great! But only on the Rhodes and Wurly sounds.
On the Acoustic Piano it sounded muffled.

Hi thanks for the replies got busy and was doing some of my own research,

I have a mackie srm450v2 Active PA speaker which i currently use at small gigs, trio cafe stuff and i use it as my personal monitor at bigger gigs where i run through a PA system, for all my covers corporate wedding gigs i probably still want to run through a PA clean. And im pretty happy with that sound generally.

This whole guitar amp business is for my own gigs playing with my band, potentially my own music as well, probably no more than 100 odd people. And i imagine bigger venues i'd mic the guitar amp up? Basically the sound i want is a real fender rhodes running through a valve amp, and when i said i liked the tone of my ac30 i had the gain quite high up like around 6-8/10. Ive played through bass amps and solid state stuff and most of the time i liked the sound, its basically that i want an overdriven guitar amp for my own music and to get a more 'ballsy' tone. I like the valve drive on the SV-1 to an extent and im trying to get more of that going, i turned off the drive on the SV-1 and used the gain on the amp instead when trying this stuff out. I'll be using the SV-1 for clavs, electric pianos and wurlies for this kind of stuff, no intention to use the pianos and organs or synth patches. That would only get used in the commercial cover gig stuff.

As far as the range of the keyboard all these gigs i have in mind there will be a bass player and i doubt i'd use much more than an octave below middle C and above for range, i dunno if thats still too bassy for a guitar amp?

Someone suggested using a Reamp box out of the keyboard into the pedals and guitar amp.

Basically i want to know if i can just use the keyboard on low volumes and be able to turn the amp up and be safe, or should i buy something to go in the signal chain to keep the signals low.

With the AC30, i used to play alot of guitar in bands and thats the amp i have lying around at home and doesnt get as much use now since i play predominantly keyboards, however if i can get this whole thing working i may sell the AC30 and look for a specific tube amp for the job.

I know the sound you are looking for. My concern is to get that sound you may end up damaging the Vox Amp's Speaker. I got the sound you wanted running my Rhodes through a Fender Twin Reverb. But I had some very heavy duty JBL speakers in the Twin. It did fine with the Fender Twin. But again I did not have the stock speakers that came with it. I did mic the amp and that took some of the load off it. I ran the amp preamp at 8 and the master volume at 3-4. So I overloaded the preamp on the twin to get the sound I wanted. It was a silver face cbs instruments I bought in 1973. An idea is to find a tube petal that you can overdrive. Also does the SV1 have a internal Preamp tube you can overdrive.