Clarification needed: mic / line / instrument levels - DI Boxes

Richard, What kind of guitars? You definitely don't need a DI for the guitars if you're talking electric guitars or acoustic/electrics with onboard preamps. I don't think acoustics with passive piezo's will work in there, though - they should have preamps. If the bass is an electric bass with passive pickups, you'll need a DI. It would be just like any other electric guitar. Generally: Line inputs are for consumer electronics like CD players and for instrument preamps. Instrument inputs are for electric guitars/basses with passive pickups or acoustic/electrics with batteries in them (though these may work in line inputs too - not sure. Someone correct me.) Guitars should use direct boxes or instrument preamps for interfacing with Line Inputs. (EDIT: Direct Boxes interface guitars with MIC PREAMPS, not line inputs. Sorry about that. Guitars need instrument preamps to interface with line inputs. There.) zedhed

Hi Richard, If the input is labelled instrument in, then it has impedance matching for high impedance sources like guitars and basses. Active pickups are a different story. You can get away with using active pickups on regular inputs and still get a good full tone with minimal coloring.

you would do well to put the bass into a DI..