Playing guitar through 2 amps...

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32-20-Blues

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I want to play my guitar through 2 amps, what is the best way of doing this? I can buy an A/B switching pedal, or use a y-cable, right? The thing that confuses me about the y cable is that the only examples I can find have a stereo jack (at the guitar end) and two mono jacks for the amps. I can use a stereo jack, right?

Anyway, what would you guys recommend? The switch or the y-lead? Any problems I'm likely to encounter with either method?

Many thanks for this.
 
Are you talking about using two different amps at the same time?
 
A/B pedal, guitars don't output in stereo, unless you have one of those fancy rickenbackers that do.
 
HateMail said:
A/B pedal, guitars don't output in stereo, unless you have one of those fancy rickenbackers that do.
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Cool, thanks.
Are there y-cables that will work with a mono output = the guitar's a strat.
 
another thing you could do, is use a stereo chorus pedal, or a stereo anything pedal i guess, that has one input and two outputs. thats what i do anyway. this wont work if you want your chorus pedal in your fx loop, but if you're like me - you want chorus and you want 2 amps, its perfect.

anyone else do this?
 
Are you trying to get different sounds out of each amp at the same time (ie. have the chorus on on one of the amps and distortion on on another), or are you trying to use the effects from one amp and have it come out both (ie. play through say a JCM 800 and have the same exact sound come out of your other amp too)?
 
Yeah, all of my Delay & Chorus pedals have 2 outputs-even my tremolo pedal does too.
 
gitrguy87 said:
Are you trying to get different sounds out of each amp at the same time (ie. have the chorus on on one of the amps and distortion on on another), or are you trying to use the effects from one amp and have it come out both (ie. play through say a JCM 800 and have the same exact sound come out of your other amp too)?
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this is quite an important point.

i was assuming that he wanted something like the second one but not exactly.

cos if you think about it, if you run exactly the same signal (including fx) to two different amps, you're gonna get a slightly different sound out of each amp, just cos they both colour the signal differently, and so by creaming them together you're creating one new sound, from two different sounds.

but im not sure if he maybe he wants them both hooked up but only use one at a time.

for example say one amp has a really sweet clean sound but one has a nice dirty crunch that he wants on for the chorus of a song, an AB switch would be optimal
 
Anfontan said:
Yeah, all of my Delay & Chorus pedals have 2 outputs-even my tremolo pedal does too.
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yeah any of those kinda things would do the trick, i think you can get stereo flangers too
 
gitrguy87 said:
Are you trying to get different sounds out of each amp at the same time (ie. have the chorus on on one of the amps and distortion on on another), or are you trying to use the effects from one amp and have it come out both (ie. play through say a JCM 800 and have the same exact sound come out of your other amp too)?
Click to expand...

I want different sounds out of each amp at the same time. Sorry, I should have clarified that - I want to use the two amps simultaneously.

Basically, I want to run my guitar into two combos, but each with a different pedal in front of it.
 
32-20-Blues said:
I want different sounds out of each amp at the same time. Sorry, I should have clarified that - I want to use the two amps simultaneously.

Basically, I want to run my guitar into two combos, but each with a different pedal in front of it.
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Just get the Morley. Then on the cable going to the amps you can add whatever pedals you want there. If you want a pedal to do both, add it before the Morley.

There is another thing to note. People will say a simple Y splitter from radio shack won't work because of signal loss. Its true, but its also BS imo. Its a minor amount and in most shitty clubs and garages you will never notice. In the studio, you might though. Just something to remember. And also, a Stereo TRS splitter will work find because if you look at a TS cable, the sleeve extends up to the ring area on a TRS. They both end up as a ground so its a mute point. But a stereo splitter sends a stereo singla to both outs so you will still get your gutiar coming out. And for the $3.50 they cost they sound damn good.

The other option outside of the Morley or the splitter is the Boss Multiple Jack J-5. They don't make them anymore but its a simple ONE input with FOUR outputs. Ya, you can hook up 4 amps at once. I have one.
 
Outlaws said:
Just get the Morley. Then on the cable going to the amps you can add whatever pedals you want there. If you want a pedal to do both, add it before the Morley.

There is another thing to note. People will say a simple Y splitter from radio shack won't work because of signal loss. Its true, but its also BS imo. Its a minor amount and in most shitty clubs and garages you will never notice. In the studio, you might though. Just something to remember. And also, a Stereo TRS splitter will work find because if you look at a TS cable, the sleeve extends up to the ring area on a TRS. They both end up as a ground so its a mute point. But a stereo splitter sends a stereo singla to both outs so you will still get your gutiar coming out. And for the $3.50 they cost they sound damn good.

The other option outside of the Morley or the splitter is the Boss Multiple Jack J-5. They don't make them anymore but its a simple ONE input with FOUR outputs. Ya, you can hook up 4 amps at once. I have one.
Click to expand...

Brilliant! Thanks for the help, you've cleared a lot up for me.
 
I like the Morley George Lynch Tripler pedal myself. It allows you to use up to 3 different amps at the same time, or any combination of the 3. It also has a boost to compensate for lost signal volume when using all 3 outputs at the same time.
 
Depends on the Y-cable you use. If the TRS has the Tip connected to one of the mono ends and the Ring attached to the other mono end (like an insert cable) then it won't work, because your guitar's jack won't be contacting the Ring connection. Either way, I would think that having a Y cable coming out of your guitar would be really cumbersome anyway.

I would build a passive splitter and incorporate an isolating transformer in it. If you want it to switch a switch (SPDT, I believe) can easily be added to the circuit.

http://www.jensentransformers.com/as/as013.pdf

Build this. You don't necessarily need to use the expensive Jensen transformer. The purpose of isolating one of the outputs is to avoid 60 cycle hum caused by a ground loop, which can be common when using two amps (especially if they're higher gain amps). Using an isolating transformer is a safe alternative, as opposed to lifting the ground on one of the amps, or using a 3-to-2 prong adapter to get rid of the ground connection.
 
Build your own A/B/Y box. They are stupid easy to make, and if you get the 3 pole footswtiches (Stew-Mac has `em), you can easily add LEDs.


HERE is an easy one. If you want (and it would probably be a good idea, if you are going to be using two amps) you can easily add a simple BUFFER AMP, or even a MORE COMPLEX BUFFER, by just inserting it before the switches.

Costs next to nothing, to, by the way. I mean, you can make that whole thing for about 1/3 the cost of buying one, even if you do a buffer. I've never seen an A/B/Y box with a buffer (they really should have them, though, as far as I'm concerned, because any time you split the signal you are in a tone suck situation, which the buffer eliminates).


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M.K. Gandhi
 
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