How to Record an Electric Guitar into Your iPhone

Put something with an instrument input between the guitar and the phone. That is either a class-compliant audio interface, including small guitar-specific ones like an iRig, or an amp modeler or multi-fx unit that has USB audio and doubles as the interface.

With one of those in the chain, the guitar records cleanly into an app like Reel. Without it, you will get a thin, weak or noisy signal, if anything at all.

An electric guitar's pickups put out a high-impedance, fairly weak signal, and the phone has no input designed to take it. Forcing it into a headphone-style adapter gives you a weak, hissy sound or silence, because the levels and impedance do not match.

An instrument input, sometimes labelled Hi-Z, is built exactly for a guitar's signal. That is what an interface or a guitar-specific adapter provides, and why one is necessary.

A class-compliant interface with an instrument input is the flexible choice, and most two-input interfaces have one. Plug the guitar into the instrument input, connect the interface to the phone, and record. Small dedicated guitar interfaces do the same job for less if guitar is all you need.

You can record a clean, direct signal and shape the tone later with an amp-simulator app, or use one while you record to hear an amp sound as you play.

If you already use an amp modeler or multi-fx unit with USB audio, like a Line 6 HX Stomp, IK Tonex, Neural DSP or Boss unit, it can act as the interface itself. It shapes your amp tone and sends the finished sound straight to the phone over USB, so there is nothing else in the chain.

This is the neatest route if you want your tone dialled in on hardware rather than in an app.

Record a clean direct signal and add an amp sound after, or commit to a modeler's tone as you go. Recording in 32-bit float means a surprise loud strum will not clip, so you can play with dynamics freely. And because a four-track lets you overdub, you can layer a rhythm part and a lead without a full studio.

For an acoustic guitar, this all changes: you simply mic it, or use the phone's built-in mic for a quick capture, since there is no pickup impedance to worry about.

Reel records the guitar from either path, a clean signal through an interface or a finished tone from a modeler, in clean 32-bit float, and lets you overdub parts on top. Plug in, arm a track and play.

A short walkthrough of how Reel records.