Cafe Walter HA-1 Queries..

[faiz0802]

I have a few questions regarding the HA-1A. I'm going to buy it soon but thought I'd clear my head first...

1) Can I plug in 2 basses/1bass+guitar through the input? My brother plays guitar and bass and I can't really afford 2 CW's right now. Also, since I'm doing that, can me n my brother listen through 2 separate headphones simultaneously using a 1/8" splitter? I'm sure it's possible but I'm worried about the sound quality as well as the Amp itself. What impact will that have on the sound?

2) What are the practical applications of the Aux out jack? The site says I can't use it to drive an amp, and sending the output signal to speakers might damage the unit because of impedance issues. Is there a possibility that I can send it to the Line in on my laptop/PC's sound card?

3) Can I use it with any pedals?
Bass>Pedal/Board/Processor>Cafe Walter
Is that possible? How's the sound in that case?

4)Is there any way I can use the Cafe Walter in a Live situation? I mean, suppose I use a splitter on my Bass' Line-out 1/4" jack, send one cable to the Amp and another to the Cafe Walter, will it be possible to hear EXACTLY what I'm playing while performing alongside the band? If it is possible, any precautions or measures I should stick to? Lets assume that in another situation one half of the splitter leads the signal through a pedal board/processor and then to the amp. What then?

5) What are all the input possibilities with the 3.5mm input jack? Can I pull off the splitter thing there too?

Sorry, but I'm a little too curious for my own good. Thanks.

[Derk_Falsco]

I don't have all the answers, but I'll give you a bump and answer what I do know. First off, how are you digging that little box so far? I've had mine for about 9 months and it is awesome for what it does, giving me super clean and transparent instrument amplification. Invaluable practice tool for me.

1. Never tried to send two signals into the input but I've used a splitter on the headphone out with good results. Didn't really have to adjust the volume much nor did it have any noticeable impact on tone.

2. Don't use it often enough to tell you

3. Absolutely! That is my favorite thing about this headphone amp. My main rig is basically used to amplify the tone of my board. I can put on my headphones and quietly dial in tones on my pedal board (especially helpful with OD and other tone shapers, like my sansamp) and not have to worry about the headphone amp coloring my sound too much. Then when I get a sound I like, hook up the board to my rig and tweak it to taste when jamming with the band. I really love that I can hear how my pedals interact with my bass while knowing I'm getting minimal (if any) coloration from the amp itself.

Haven't tried to use it live and I haven't used the aux in for anything other than lonely ipod jam sessions, so I can't help you there. Hope I was able to answer some of your questions. Have fun with that unit and stay inquisitive!

[faiz0802]

Hey.. thanks for the bump. Yeah man, you cleared a few of em questions, and i thank you. No haven't bought it yet, going to order one soon...

[faiz0802]

Contacted Mr Walter, below's a copy of the mails we exchanged...

Me: I have a few queries regarding the HA-1A. I'm going to buy it soon but thought I'd clear my head first...

1) Can I plug in 2 basses/1bass+guitar through the input? Also, since I'm doing that, can me n my brother listen through 2 separate headphones simultaneously using a 1/8" splitter? I'm sure it's possible but I'm worried about the sound quality as well as the Amp itself. What impact will that have on the sound?

2) What are the practical applications of the Aux out jack? The site says I can't use it to drive an amp, and sending the output signal to speakers might damage the unit because of impedance issues. Is there a possibility that I can send it to the Line in on my laptop/PC's sound card?

3) Can I use it with any pedals? I know it's purely meant for clean tone but I can't really afford any more gear after this for a while because of college fees n all.
Bass>Pedal/Board/Processor>Cafe Walter
Is that possible? How's the sound in that case?

4)Is there any way I can use the Cafe Walter in a Live situation? I mean, suppose I use a splitter on my Bass' Line-out 1/4" jack, send one cable to the Amp and another to the Cafe Walter, will it be possible to hear EXACTLY what I'm playing through while performing alongside the band? If it is possible, any precautions or measures I should stick to? Lets assume that in another situation one half of the splitter leads the signal through a pedal board/processor and then to the amp. What then?

5) What are all the input possibilities with the 3.5mm input jack? Can I pull off the splitter thing there too? I know asking this is sillybut I'd like to know.

6) What accessories are included in the bundle with the HA-1A? If any are sold separately, I'd like to know. For mp3 input, what cable must be used? Is that included in the order as well?

Regards,
Faiz Shariff

Mr Walter:
Hi, Faiz, nice to hear from you.

The HA-1A has one instrument input, which is mono, and one aux input, which is stereo. The idea is that you plug your bass or guitar into the instrument input, and then plug an iPod, computer, metronome, etc. into the aux input in order to play along with it. You could plug a bass or guitar into the aux input as well, and in that way get two (or even three) instruments playing at the same time, but the aux input is low impedance and has less gain than the instrument input, so you might find that the instruments plugged into the aux input do not have enough volume and their tone is somewhat dull. It would be about the same as if you plugged a bass directly into an aux input of your home hifi or your computer sound card. It won't hurt anything, but the sound might not be good.

You should be fine using a headphone splitter to drive two headphones. Of course, if they are different kinds of headphones the levels might not be the same, but it should not hurt the amp itself. The worst case would be if you are using very low impedance headphones (like 16 ohm or less) and you have the volume quite loud, but that is a pretty unlikely scenario. I would not worry about it.

The aux out can definitely be used to drive an amp. Which part of the site led you to think it couldn't be? I may need to clarify that. Basically, the signal at the aux out is an exact copy of the signal at the instrument input. The most common application for the aux out is to send signal to a tuner, but it is also common to use it to send signal to an amp, or to a mixing board, or to a computer input. (Because it is buffered, you can use it to send signal to low-impedance inputs like mixer line inputs or computer sound card inputs, that normally would not sound good if a bass were plugged in directly.)

I wonder if you are maybe confusing the aux out with the headphone output? The headphone output is not good to drive an amp with, and not good to drive speakers with. The aux out is a separate output, which is on the rear of the HA-1A.

You can certainly use the HA-1A with pedals. The only exception is, there are some guitar overdrive pedals that are designed to boost the signal and thus cause the amp to distort more. Since the HA-1A is designed to _not_ distort, this will not have the desired effect. Most bass and guitar amps have some "soft" distortion as the signal gets louder. The HA-1A is extremely clean until the input signal reaches the point where the amp starts hard clipping, which is an ugly sound that you won't want. But other than that exception, pedals will work fine. Anything that you could plug into an amp, you can plug into the HA-1A.

Regarding your question #4, you can certainly use it live, at least if you are willing to wear headphones live. You could plug the bass into the HA-1A and then go from the aux out of the HA-1A to your amp; or you could go from the output of your pedal board into the HA-1A and then aux out into the amp; or you could use a splitter. However you like.

Regarding the aux input, it is just like a sound card or home hifi stereo input. Note that the signal from the aux input goes to the headphone output but it does NOT go to the aux output. The aux output only contains the signal from the instrument input.

The only accessory that comes with the HA-1A is the AC power adapter. (I don't know if this will work in India, without a 220V-110V stepdown transformer; the adapter is designed to run on 110V and it will probably blow up if you try to run it on 220V without a stepdown transformer.) It does not include any headphones or other cables. To plug an MP3 player into the HA-1A aux input, you would need a cable that has a 3.5mm stereo miniplug on each end.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Thanks,
-walter

[One Drop]

Crap, I've owned one of these for years and I'd never thought about using the Aux out!

Thanks for starting this thread and thank to Walter Woods for making these beauties.

[Dark Barn]

Originally Posted by One Drop

Crap, I've owned one of these for years and I'd never thought about using the Aux out!

Thanks for starting this thread and thank to Walter Woods for making these beauties.

These are made by Walter Harley of Seattle, Wa.

[One Drop]

Originally Posted by Dark Barn

These are made by Walter Harley of Seattle, Wa.

Well, I'm doubly an idiot, then!

I always thought these were made by WW. Tiny, Hi-Fi amps, I just assumed...

[faiz0802]

I'm getting mine in Dec. Can't wait to check this out... I'll be trying it out with a Squier Fretless and a Boss RC-2. Should be fun.