Bass Splitter

D

DJL

Self Banned
I want to drive two bass amps at the same time with my bass guitar without freq or signal loss... or loading my pickups down... who make's the best splitter? Thanks
 
Behringer make a splitter box that will do that for about £20, called the DI120 I think. Not spectacular but it would do the job.
 
Thanks Dave... but the Behringer ULTRA-DI DI20 won't work for my needs because in the link mode, channel 1 can only be split up into 2 balanced XLR connectors plus 1 unbalanced 1/4" jack connector... and I want/need two unbalanced 1/4" outputs.

What I've found so far is...

The Axess BS2 Buffer/Splitter http://www.axess-electronics.com/ but I'm not sure if I want/need the Buffer stage or not?

Oh, and on page 170 of this months Guitar World there is the Morley Tripler also at http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...080876116/g=home/search/detail/base_id/113646 but I'm not sure if I want/need the Boost stage or not? And will it lose bass freqs?

And there is the Mesa Boogie amp switch box rack... but I don't need the switching stage.
 
Ten years ago when I was in a metel band I played through two Acoustic 450's into four 301 cabs. I just hooked the two heads together with a pasive splitter. It worked great and I never detected any tonal issues doing it this way.
 
One option is to get a small Behringer mixer. Plug the bass in and send the left output to one amp and the right outout to the other amp.

You can get simple Behringer mixers from MF for about $40.

Ed
 
Does either amp have an unbalanced direct out? You could run that into the input (or just the power amp input) of your second amp.
 
Track Rat said:
Ten years ago when I was in a metel band I played through two Acoustic 450's into four 301 cabs. I just hooked the two heads together with a pasive splitter. It worked great and I never detected any tonal issues doing it this way.
Click to expand...


That is how Stevie Ray Vaughan did it, and it seems to have worked for him, and he used a lot more than two amps. When I used to use two amps, I would just split them with my TC Electronic Chorus pedals stereo outs. I loved the sound of distorting one amp, and leaving the other clean. A very cool sound.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Have any of you that have run multiple amps with a passive splitter encountered ground loop problems? If so, what did you do to correct them? The guitarist in my band bought a Morley A-B-Y box to split his guitar signal into two 5150 heads running two 4x12 cabs each, and got a massive ground loop problem. We know it was a ground loop because the problem went away when he used a 3-to-2 prong adapter on one of the amp's power cords. Obviously this is a far less than ideal solution, but the only fix we could come up with, neither of us being too electrically inclined, was something like an Ebtech Hum Eliminator.

We don't have this problem now since we're in a different band (one that doesn't benefit from two 5150s going full tilt), but that sort of knowledge is always useful to tuck away for future reference.
 
what i would do (cause i'm cheap) is hook up the line out from your amp that the bass is hooked directly up to into the active input on your secondary amp. reverse the eq setup on this one.

IE: bass amp 1 has BASS +5 MID +10 TR + 8 setup this amp to like, BASS 0 MID -5 TR -4 then go from there and tweak it to sound how you want you can't really go wrong here, and you won't have to buy an extra unit.

just my two cents there.
 
Adam P said:
Have any of you that have run multiple amps with a passive splitter encountered ground loop problems?
Click to expand...

I have run multi amps for years. One thing I learned early, was to run a ground wire from one amp chassis to the other. That takes care of any ground issues between the amps. Those pesky hums go away and it costs about 50 cents for a wire with 2 clips on it.

Look at it this way, if you try to ground the amps, boxes, pedals, and guitar through the 1/4" signal cable, you need to make sure that every connection is very solid. Each time you plug a 1/4" jack into a connector, it is another possible point of failure. If you run a ground wire anywhere you can, you take those points away.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top