Guitars, Amps & Patchbays

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sky Blue Lou
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Sky Blue Lou

Sky Blue Lou

Well-known member
Kind of an odd question so I'll start with the scenario and then expose my ignorance.

I have several amp heads and cabs. Rather than have to run speaker cable, plug and unplug each time I want to try a different combination I would like to have all the units plugged into a patchbay and just make jumper connections. I know that speaker cable is not the same as instrument cable (I always confuse shielded/unshielded but that's beside the point) so I figure the jumpers would have to be speaker cable but what about the patchbay itself? T/S, T/R/S (balanced/unbalanced?) or does it matter?

It would be nice if I could use a section of the same patchbay for guitar/FX loop inputs as well.

Anybody have a setup like this and what did you use?


Thanx.


lou
 
I'd be really worried about turning an amp on without a load and accidently cooking a transformer.

If you're including FX loops as well theres gonna be a lot of inputs and patch cables, doesn't seem worth the expense or effort to me, surely you're gonna become familiar with what sounds you get from what combinations pretty quickly.
 
chamelious said:
I'd be really worried about turning an amp on without a load and accidently cooking a transformer.
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Is this a serious potential problem? You can't turn an amp on without a load? (More ignorance - I ain't skeered to admit it.)

chamelious said:
If you're including FX loops as well theres gonna be a lot of inputs and patch cables, doesn't seem worth the expense or effort to me, surely you're gonna become familiar with what sounds you get from what combinations pretty quickly.
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Dude, I have four amps, five cabs, multiple fx units and eight or nine guitars. I was even thinking of micing all the cabs and patching those to the DAW or mixer (hee hee). I want to be able to try a few different things in quick succession and I'd like to have the cabs and mics in a different room from the control position.


lou
 
miroslav said:
Yeah...if the volume is all the way down or better still if the amp has Standby...you could get away with it...but it's a risky thing.
Click to expand...

Even then it's not a sure thing. Some amps are designed so they can be run briefly without a speaker load, but it's a pretty good way to risk blowing a transformer.

That's about all I can contribute to this thread - I've never tried to do what you're looking to.
 
Well I don't have a problem shutting the amps off before I make the connections. If I hose one it's my own damn fault. I still think the patchbay would make life easier so the bal/unbal question remains open.


lou
 
You're looking to run unbalanced, unshielded speaker wire (aka lamp cord) into a patchbay.

While in theory it's possible...it's really a bad way to go.
You have to run two sets of wires for each amp/speaker combination every time you make your connections...so that's twice the length, twice the chance that you could accidentally break a connection and kill an amp.
Also...if you have other gear (typical patchbay audio gear) on that patchbay...who knows what type of noise/grounding issues you will encounter or create???

Mind you...you will be running high wattage through a patch bay...not low-level audio voltage.

I have several amps/cabs...and while I generally have specific combinations that are always connected, sometimes I too like to try out different stuff.
But...once you've done experimenting...you don't need repeat it every time that you want to pick an amp/cab combination...you just pick the combination you already know.
 
in general as long as there is no signal you will not damage a tube amp by simply turning it on with no load.

In general you won't harm a SS amp even if there is a signal.

A lot of patchbays are pretty lightly built. One of the main reasons you don't use guitar cables for speaker cables is that the small inner wire will heat up and potentially melt the insulation resulting in a short.
I'd think some patch bays could have equally small conductors somewhere that might do the same thing.

If you want to do this check out the very many speaker switchers that you can find. Cheaper than the Tonebone stuff would be switchers you can find made for home stereos.
 
Thanks very much for the input guys. Further research led me to several threads at Gearslutz. Evidently this is not a wise course - mostly for the reasons you have mentioned. One guy who has done it well uses neutrik connectors and hand-wired it for a studio application - the plastic ends are key here.

Anyway just a crazy work-flow shortcut that ain't gonna fly. I'll just cable up all the cabs and label the ends. Maybe I'll put the amps on swingout shelves so I can get behind them easily.

Thanks again.


lou
 
or make your own patch bay.

get some female and male bananna plugs. Solder speaker wire to the females and run that to the amps.
Then use speaker wire with male bananna plugs at each end for jumpers.
That'd work fine ....... carry all the voltage in the world and wouldn't cost much to do.
 
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