Thought about creating a special thread for guitarists/bassists using both op1s.
Don’t know if there are many guitar/bass players around here - but I thought it might be cool to have a place to discuss all things op1 X gtrs!
Cheers!
As per use, lemme kickstart the thread!
SET-UPs
Been using many guitars, amps, multifx and modellers so far.
Amp wise, I use a Helix Floor, a DNAfx, a Headrush MX5 and some Vox amps (including the AmPlug series). Clearly, the Helix was way overkill so I sold it (been using it for live use only the past 6 years and recently decided I was done with gigging).
Guitar wise, I’m a Fender guy. Telecaster for guitars, JazzMaster for bass. Got me a Martin folk guitar and an Alhambra classical guitar. And a cheap electro ukulele from Thomann. All these can either go DI or processed in the op1 Field with the right cables.
WORKFLOWS
Depending on the mood and the available guitar (usually the closest one on my stand), I either sketch song ideas (one full take, guitar + vocals captured with a Tula mic) or write about 4 loops (usually a verse, a chorus, a bridge and a final strummed chord) and structure a song around these.
Lately, I’ve been testing the limits of the dual-mono tracks/dual reel workflow. I record both acoustic, mono, hard panned. Same with electric guitars. Same with bass (i usually play live the Jazzmaster on the Left channel of a track and record some synthbass notes on the Right channel). Same hard panned technique for some recorded percussions around the house with the Tula mic in analogue mode.
Then, once my 4 tracks are full, I bounce this to the album, and retransfer this to a new tape. From there, I use the 3 free tracks to overdub vocals and harmonies.
And I end up polishing this in Logic Pro (mostly on Mac, but lately on iPad too).
I think the audio interface and recording capabilities of the op1 Field are, at times, overlooked.
IMO, that’s mostly why an iPad is never gonna be the best alternative to the op1 Field - that and the output jack. Although, granted, both work superbly together.
Only little inconvenient bug : some metallic noise sometimes invites itself on the takes. Still haven’t been able to track the exact reason. I’m suspecting ground loops, specific cables and impedances to be the main culprits here. But it has been cited elsewhere that this might just be a software issue of sorts.
Anyways.
Here goes.
If any guitarist and/or bassist is around here, feel free to share!
I use my Op1-field as a preamp/EQ/compressor for my Strat using the vocoder at 0% wet to then route the audio out the op1field into a Shallow Water, Blooper, Mood Mkii, Meet Maude, & El Capistan V2 then into an SSL2+ interface into Ableton 
Now, that’s some creative thinking.
Love this.
Gotta say, I’m eyeballing these ChaseBliss pedals. Looks like they can create havoc and harness beauty at the same time.
Your setup sounds crazy. Would love to hear what it yields !
So. Quick update.
Been playing with the (relatively) new Ampero Mini lately.
And for this price point, this thing delivers.
It still misses a few things (a creative looper, some more creative FXs) but it sounds great and, thanks to a simple yet effective architecture, you can dial in great tones in a matter of seconds.
There are drum patterns too inside, which I already heavily sampled into the op1f.
All in all, despite the fact that you will definitely need to have a wall socket to use it, it is portable af.
Pair it with an expression pedal and you’re good to go.
I used it to process guitars, basses, digital pianos, some Roland compact Aira synths. It delivers. And can achieve anything in between subtle to total wet signal without losing the original signal feel.
I still have to use a dynamic mic with it, tho. But for now, it does what it needs to do real good, and with a form factor that makes it a no brainer for any guitariston the go!
great thread idea 
im primarily a guitarist and relatively new to the op1f, but one thing that i was very surprised about was that i was able to plug my telecaster directly into the op1f audio in and it sounded excellent, very clear and a strong signal, without any preamp of any kind. is this what others have experienced as well? i was surprised by this because i saw in the op1f little owners manual it has a graphic at the end which shows a guitar with an audio interface then connected to the op1f, so i assumed one would need an audio interface.
and for my setup i do sometimes plug my guitar straight into the op1f, but my more full setup currently is:
I had the same surprise as you. Plug in virtually any guitar and you’re in for a treat.
I found out that basses, when recorded hot on the Vintage and Porta studios, deliver quite the harmonics, with or without pre-amp.
I love the way you split your signal. Makes for an effective workflow.
I recently bought a 30$ tape recorder. I plug in the guitars same as the op1f, and then resample the loops I recorded into the op1f.
It gives a true lofi vibe, and, at times, gives a fuzzy tone to my basses.
Now, the one feature the op1f lacks for guitarists is a count-in.
It’s a real hassle to record two-handed instruments without a count-in.
I’ve had a lot of fun recently with a workflow like this:
I actually think this would be even better on the OP-1F because of the 20s sample time.
I completely agree. I often put a measure in between loops at first but that does require more editing later.
I love that epic workflow. I’ve got to give it a try. With a guitar. With vocals. Heck, with foleys too!
Nice one. The creative thinking behind this one is next level.
Last nite, I tried recording a « forced feedback » out of the OB-4 with a TulaMic. Had next to no hope that it would work. But in the end, I ended up resampling a long looped sustained note out of the OB-4 into the op1 Field and played with it. I thought it was gonna sound drone-ish, but in the end, with some tweaking, it sounded like an out-of-this-world rhodes (with the help of the Mother verb, of course).
that sounds amazing. can you explain more your process and what exactly you did?
Of course!
I set-up a Telecaster (my favorite guitars) with the Ampero Mini. Light compression into a light chorus into a midgain amp. I went for a somewhat Santana-in-the-2000´s kind of dirty tone.
Plugged the mono out of the Ampero into the OB-4 line and played around.
I tried the old « feedback loop » trick by pushing volumes all across the board but would really get anything out of the OB-4 (and was really scared of damaging it). But at some point, I played a note and let it sustained. Out of amusement, I looped it on the OB-4 - I looped the middle of the note, only the sustained part. And out of luck, it looped quite well.
And since the TulaMic was set-up already, I grabbed the op1F, plugged the USB-C cable in between the two and recorded the note into the op1f’s vintage tape with a bit of a warmth by pushing it to its gain limit. I lifted that looped note into the synth sampler, adjusted the ins and outs, the gain and the unison a bit.
I added some Mother reverb with a LFO controlling the color setting (lightly) and recorded a long note into the Studio tape. Lifted that up into the Synth engine again and added some Tremolo (via LFO) and a very subtle Nitro filter to get rid of excess lows and hi. And voilà.
A rhodish, warm synth worth 10 minutes of fun. Haven’t used it yet, but it will probably be used as a chord machine in some next folkish tune I’ll write on the guitar. Seems to fit the vibe.
Thanks @darwiniandude for unearthing this one out :
A gem.
Pretty useful for the songwriter-guitarist centered workflows out there!
Hello, can you precise the way you re cabling and the type of cable. Because I’m trying to plug my guitar directly in the op1 and then THE OP1 toward my DAW and I get a noisy sound from my guitar and not that strong. And also I get noise behind like if it was a radio.
Thx and sorry for my bad English
absolutely. and no problem your english is great!
first i should say that i have never plugged the opf1 into a DAW. i only have done guitar into op1f and then op1f into speakers.
i should also say that i have never had the op1f charging while i did this.
i have a normal guitar patch cable and the 1/4inch to 1/8inch adapter made my Monster Cable so that i can plug the guitar into the op1f input port. then i just make sure my volume on guitar is quite high (80% or more) and then adjust the op1f level, which is usually around 14 i believe.
one other thing to keep in mind is patch cables for guitar are notoriously noisy so make sure your cable isn’t bad by testing it in a different setup
No probs for the english. I’m french, so you’ll have to do with m’y approximative english!
Regarding cables, nothing too fancy.
I’m using a mono 6,3 to stereo 3,5 cable - you can find one for about 10 to 20 € anywhere nowadays.
And when connecting to my DAW, I go two ways, mainly :
using the op1 Field as an audio interface and using an USB-C to USB-C cable, I set-up my DAW so the op1f is the audio interface. And then, it’s just a matter of setting up the track for recording in the DAW.
using either a stereo 3,5 to split 6,3 stereo cable or just a stereo 3,5 to a stereo 6,3 cable, I connect to my DAW through any audio interface I have available. I then setup the track accordingly in the DAW and I’m good to go.
Usually, noises could come from :
That being said, it can come from way too many sources. I’d have to be in front of your gear to diagnose properly. Best practice is to swap each element of the chain one by one until you get the culprit out of the equation.
As for the volumes, it depends too.
Either the op1f input is set too low, or your guitar needs some kind of amp (but it should not with the op1f), your DAW track might not be setup properly, etc.
There, again, you’d have to go element by element to find the issue.
Feel free to send pictures/videos - or even a private message. If I can be of help, I’m in!
Thought I’d chime in, even tho @djcuvcuv already nailed this one
Thx guys for your attention and precision it’s really agreeable.
I’m using strandberg guitar who has a really clean mic trough a IRIDIUM and a focusrite 4i4 3nd gen and mi cable are new and from a good brand (cordial )
I’ve tried different things and I’m thinking I’ve made a progress.
NOW my question : what is the difference between a stereo TRS cable or a split mono cable
Thx
Ps: Heyes, je suis français aussi, ça serait cool de se faire un appel tu as l’air d avoir beaucoup de connaissance, je vois que tu aides beaucoup la communauté, tu m a l air bien sympa
ma mere est française donc je parle un peu français aussi. mes compétences francophones ne sont pas tres tres bon mais si tu préfère expliquer qqc en français aucun problem pour moi.
i forgot a totally important point, you MUST change the input selection in the op1f to MONO by twisting the 2nd brown/tan knob while in the mic screen. otherwise you will get a weird sound or faint sound.
ahah, you too, you seem’s have a really good french then. oooh yeah i didn´t seen that neither
Ce Guitarist Lounge, un vrai coin pour les frenchies!
@D.Baka si tu peux m’envoyer un DM, on se programme ça pour dans la semaine avec plaisir! Content d’aider, toujours!
@djcuvcuv your french is as good as it gets! Don’t know where you’re from, but that’s impressive.
(I’m gonna keep this in english for future users)
@djcuvcuv covered all the basics already.
But yeah. The way your op1F’s input is setup, the way your AudioInterface is setup, the way your DAW is setup and the cables you’re using are just a matter of the right combination for the intended result.
Even tho Focusrite are great pieces of kit, I try to refrain from non-compliant Audio Interfaces. When the interface needs a piece of software to work great with my computer, it’s usually another potential bug-maker and potential resources at use. Granted, nowadays, these things are marginal.
But as a mastering engineer, I learned the hard way how modern interfaces and their softwares tend to make for a tedious workflow.
The difference between a TRS cable and a Split-Mono cable is a massive topic. But if I’m talking about guitars only, a split mono cable works when you want two different pickups to be sent to two different preamps.
As a rule of thumb, I’d say in your case, if you’re strictly recording guitar direct in, a simple mono cable is good enough.
When using stuff like the Iridium, you could try a mono to stereo or a mono to mono cable in between the guitar and iridium. Then, from there, dual mono out of the iridium to TRS mini into the op1f.
Best advice here, imho, is :
Please, let us know how you manage to get rid of any problems - it might help others down the line!
I’m generally going for portability - strat with a mission engineering 529 m with a small pd usb battery plugged in to a ua max pedal for cleans or a ua ruby