How to use the Direct Out

The Direct Out works much like miking your amp, but without a mic parked in front of the cabinet. All you need is a balanced XLR cable to the PA's mixing board, set for a mic-level signal. As you turn the amp up, the Direct Out gets louder — so adjust the mix to get as much guitar in the PA as you need. Why it sounds good: the Direct Out is taken from the speaker side of the power amp. The amp's low damping factor lets the speaker interact with the circuit, which adds richness. There's also a touch of low-pass filtering to tame harshness in the overdrive, bringing it closer to what you hear from the amp's own speaker. - You can disconnect the speaker and use just the Direct Out, but you'll lose a little richness, and the output voltage rises with no load. - To keep stage volume down, run the Master lower and push more guitar into the house mix. Even if you're not used to miking your amp, it's worth sending the Direct Out to the board and letting your sound engineer have some extra control over the guitar in the mix — you might notice a subtle improvement in the whole band's sound.