As part of my effort to learn about transistors I want to be able to use a simple transistor circuit to produce a desired simple waveform in LTSpice IV. To keep me focused, I am working toward designing a single transistor NPN common collector preamp to sit between my electric guitar and my sound card (or perhaps more accurately, to understand the obvious design well enough that I could design it).
Without a preamp, I can't hear anything out of my speakers from my guitar with everything turned up to max. Unfortunately, it appears to be impossible to get exact specifications from the sound card manufacturer (ASUS/Xonar DG). Initially I assumed that the voltage generated by the passive pickup needed to be amplified. However, recently I stumbled across some info that made me think that my guitar already provides enough voltage for the sound card, so now I am wondering if I need to be amplifying the current (whatever that means). Normal strumming results in about 50 to 200 mV, with extreme strumming topping out around 750 mV. However, my digital multimeter shows 0.00 mA, possibly because it won't measure anything under 50 µA. Does anyone have any idea what I actually need the preamp to do?
Without a preamp, I can't hear anything out of my speakers from my guitar with everything turned up to max. Unfortunately, it appears to be impossible to get exact specifications from the sound card manufacturer (ASUS/Xonar DG). Initially I assumed that the voltage generated by the passive pickup needed to be amplified. However, recently I stumbled across some info that made me think that my guitar already provides enough voltage for the sound card, so now I am wondering if I need to be amplifying the current (whatever that means). Normal strumming results in about 50 to 200 mV, with extreme strumming topping out around 750 mV. However, my digital multimeter shows 0.00 mA, possibly because it won't measure anything under 50 µA. Does anyone have any idea what I actually need the preamp to do?