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Just been doing some recording using a condenser mic and an acoustic guitar. Condenser mic needs phantom power from the recorder (Boss 1200), but with that turned on, the input for the guitar will also bang out 40v. I was concerned that plugging the guitar in wouldn't do it any good, so used 2 mics instead. Not the best arrangement for what I wanted. Would I have cooked anything by doing this?

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    Please check the owner's manual. Most likely it says that phantom is delivered to XLR only, not to TRS. I'm not sure which exact model of the recorder you have (is it BR1200CD?) Commented Jul 14, 2023 at 23:58
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    Yeah, the Boss should not deliver phantom power to anything not XLR. The biggest risk of phantom power these days is having an XLR connection somehow adapted to TRS, as might happen in a TRS patch bay. That can be bad for so many things. If you really want to be sure, just get a DI box for the pickup. Sonically, that's a good idea also. Commented Jul 15, 2023 at 0:03
  • Who are you, and what have you done with @Tim?
    – Laurence
    Commented Jul 15, 2023 at 16:56
  • @Laurence - sorry, I don't get you drift. I basically panicked, having realised I didn't want to fry a friend's guitar while recording. Don't often cock up, and didn't want to with this.
    – Tim
    Commented Jul 15, 2023 at 17:34
  • @Tim You're #1 contributor to this list! If you really don't know this stuff (though there's no harm in checking) you certainly know how to find it out!
    – Laurence
    Commented Jul 16, 2023 at 10:36

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Upon reading the manual (if all else fails...) it appears that phantom power is only provided through the XLR socket (for condenser mic), and not the jack (for guitar). If I'd looked more carefully, I'd have noticed that the XLR was not the kind which has an integral jack socket too, as is more common now. There's a moral somewhere... But I hadn't used the machine (Boss 1200CD) for a year or so.

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