given an old BK PRECISION 2120b oscilloscope - can i read a wave from an ordinary guitar amplifier
oscilloscope has bnc inputs
i tried to input the mic to the amplifier then rca out of the amp to bnc an into channel 1
i would think that that would be an input of voltage to the scope. why is this newbie always wrong?
thanks
matt

 

rca out of the amp to bnc an into channel 1

That should work. What did you get?

 

The speaker is part of guitar amp - I put rca Jack in the headset out of the amp - converted that to
Bnc and put to channel 1 of scope
On the input side of amp I have microphone
Do I need to ground the scope to the amp ??

 

given an old BK PRECISION 2120b oscilloscope - can i read a wave from an ordinary guitar amplifier
oscilloscope has bnc inputs
i tried to input the mic to the amplifier then rca out of the amp to bnc an into channel 1
i would think that that would be an input of voltage to the scope. why is this newbie always wrong?
thanks
matt

Make sure the V/div is sensitive enough to see it. Also make sure the time/div is not to fast. It is easy to make this mistake. That is the only thing I can think of besides a bad cable or something.

 

There are four items you need to consider:

1) The amplitude of signal at the source must be high enough that the oscilloscope can detect.
2) The input sensitivity (VOLT/DIV) of the oscilloscope must be set to match the amplitude of the signal you want to view.
3) You need to set the time scale TIME/DIV to a suitable setting to match the frequency of the signal. 1-10ms should work.
4) You need to set the TRIGGER section properly in order to capture the signal. Try AUTO.

Post clear, well focused photographs of your oscilloscope screen and front panel so the we can see how your scope is set up.

 

The speaker is part of guitar amp - I put rca Jack in the headset out of the amp - converted that to
Bnc and put to channel 1 of scope
On the input side of amp I have microphone
Do I need to ground the scope to the amp ??

Post the make and model of the guitar amp.
Does the guitar amp have a 2-pin or 3-pin AC plug?

 

There are four items you need to consider:

5. Is the line out ground connected to the BNC ground? If backwards the output is probably shorted.