Connecting Your Guitar to Your iPhone, iPod, or iPad

Apr 29

Connecting your guitar to your iPhone can be a simple matter of using the built in headphone mic, or getting a converter or interface for your iPhone's headphone jack. While a all-in-one ideal solution is still on the horizon here's a quick run down of you're various options and some tips to get you recording.

Connecting Your Acoustic Guitar to the iPhone

Simply place your Apple headphones around your neck or in your ears and play! The mic on the headphone will pick up the sound of your guitar in the room. You can also experiment by wrapping the headphones around you headstock or laying the headphone mic on a table, chair, or stool right in front of your guitar's sound hole. This is practically studio quality sound.

For most people this is all they'll need, but if you want to take it to the next level and use a better microphone I'll tell you how below.

Connecting Your Electric Guitar or Bass to the iPhone by Wire

There isn't an all in one perfect solution on the market yet for connecting your guitar to your iPhone yet, but a few companies are working on these and I'll review them when they're out.

For now my recommendation is to simple get a 3.5mm 4 conductor plug adaptor that you can plug into your iPhone and then plug your guitar cable directly into it. If you don't know what that is then don't worry. Just hop over here to KVConnections.com and grab yourself one pre made for about $20. I own two. You can also take a look at the parts and make your own if you're handy with audio wires. RadioShack should have everything you need.

The Paul Reed Smith also sells a wire/cable called GuitarBud for $30. Personally I'd avoid this, it's overpriced in my opinion and has a low quality construction.

Peterson makes a guitar cable which is much cheaper than the GuitarBud at about $12. However you can't connect your headphone into it at the same time as your guitar so you'll won't be able to hear your guitar in real time which is doesn't make the Peterson adapter very useful.

Okay, so if you're and audiophile or purest you'll know that between the iPhone and the guitar you're not going to have a matched impedance. It's not great because you can end up with too low a volume in some apps and even sometimes distortion, or poor tone quality. Follow this link for a more detailed discussion. Like I said it's not a perfect solution, but to be fair you can actually get pretty good and usable results with just a wire for now. For most apps I've used I've been happy with the results.

One work around is to put a pre-amp between your guitar and the iPhone. I've used an ART Tube MP with great results, or you can stick a stomp box between your iPhone and guitar like a distortion pedal, reverb, or chorus, etc.

iPhone Guitar Adapters

These are adapters that either plug into the headphone jack or the external device jack at the bottom of your iDevice and which are designed just for connecting your guitar to your iDevice. These are more than just wires and have circuits to at least match the instrument's impedance with your iPhone:

Out Now

• IK Multmedia, makers of Amplitube have created the "iRig", along with supporting iPhone app software. The Amplitube apps are already available on the App Store and the iRig guitar adapter is currently shipping. Current pricing is about $40.

To Be Released

• Sonoma Wireworks, makers of the pretty famous Four Track app have created the "GuitarJack". Sonoma's product is scheduled for a 3rd quarter release in 2010. With a slated $199 price tag, this baby better be able to make me coffee too.
   
• Peavey is entering the iPhone guitar adapter fray with their AmpKit LiNK audio interface. This will let you plug in a guitar and your headphones and come with the AmpKit app software. While this product isn't yet released it will be sold for about $40.
   
• Ground Up Audio, who makes a killer effects app called Amps & Cabs, is also in the process of developing an impedance matched iPhone guitar interface which you can learn more about on their site by clicking the link in this sentence.

Connecting a Microphone to the iPhone

Again here why not just use the built in headphone mic? It's simple it's cheap and it sounds good.You can sing in to it, or mic your instrument.

If you want to go more pro and use your expensive studio microphone then the same rules apply here as they do for setting up a guitar connection. You'll need the adapter cable, and you'll likely want a pre amp between your mic and the iPhone.

One other solution is to pick up a quality condenser microphone that you can snap onto the iPhone's connection port at the bottom of the phone. I personally like the Blue Mikey which you can pick up on Amazon for $50-$60. This will give you stunningly good quality room recordings, or close up vocal recordings. You can also use it to mic a guitar or bass cabinet, or any live instrument for that matter. I own one, and I'm very happy with it.

Comments, Questions?

This is an evolving space and so I may have missed something. Let us know if you have any other ideas for hooking up instruments to the iPhone in the comment section below. If you have a question just go ahead and ask!

Related Articles in This Series:

1. Connecting Your Guitar to Your iPhone, iPod, or iPad
2. Guitar Effects and Practice Amps for iPhone, iPod, or iPad
3. Multitrack Apps for Recording Your Guitar on the iPhone, iPod, or iPad (Coming Soon! Subscribe so you don't miss it.)
4. Getting Guitar Recordings from Your iPhone to Your Computer (DAW) (Coming Soon! Subscribe so you don't miss it.)
5. Miscellaneous Cool Guitar Apps for the iPhone, iPod, or iPad (Coming Soon! Subscribe so you don't miss it.)