Sound is so brilliant and perfect combination to blues it just makes my sole sing. Is it imperative that I append new apparatus that exhibits an alternative tubular orientation?”. Is the CABINET “stereo?” In other words, are there two or more speakers in the cabinet that each have their own input and are not electronically connected? After saying that, a dual amp rig will give a huge sound with nice complexity to your tone. In our unending quest to forge a guitar tone that sounds like somebody opening the Ark of the Covenant inside a tyrannosaurus, many of us will eventually find ourselves considering the possibility of using more than one amplifier. Plug it in my other amp, play. I love this writers style! Multi-amp guitar rigs use two or more amplifiers to create a unique tone that could not be achieved with the use of only one amplifier. I beef up the distortion and low end using a modified Boss GE-7. My current project is to mate the Line6 PODHD500 on the floor (that goes to the PA) with the Line6 Flextone on stage. For example, any combination of 6L6 or 6V6GT; EL34 and EL84 tubes – typically characteristic of Fender, Marshall and Vox respectively – has the potential to produce a mighty alliance. Dipping of proper toes in actual water is not encouraged whilst experimenting with amplifiers. By blending these two tones, you can achieve the best of both worlds. One of … Do you have an article about A/B/Y setup where you have 2-3 amps on the clean, 1-2 amps on the dirty, have an optional tertiary style amp that you can rotate in when you want several types going all off at once and using the effects loop when necessary and how to wire all this up so a RJM GT MM can run it all? Using a two amp rig is awesome. Your purchases help youth music programs get the gear they need to make music. If your amp has an effects loop and you are getting the majority of your tone from your preamp, you might find that you can run the effects send out to your “wet” stereo setup. Well, without getting too bogged-down in “science” and “facts” and “electricity doesn’t work like that, Nicholas”, let’s go ahead and examine some of the basic considerations for any guitarist looking to run more than one amplifier. A/B/Y is the same as A/B but you also get to run both amps at once. For example, you could run both amps with wildly different gain and EQ settings, or you could perhaps apply a preposterously short (around 10-20m/s or so) delay before the input of the second amp to give you an agreeably plump “double tracked” sort of sound. Right now I’m thinking my Fender with a clean oriented KT66 early marshall would be nice, but there are a couple other amps I’d like to integrate. Setup 2. The fuzz component is a must. Where I ran into trouble was the A/B Switch – it would “pop” like a mother on the 5150. All guitar and bass amps use the same power cable. “What about digital amps and modelers?” you further probe. Powering Your Amp and Setting Up Your Guitar 1. Blues virtuoso Joe Bonamassa, for example, has recently been touring with a pair of Fender Twin Reverbs, known for their high headroom and bright tone, and a pair of Fender Bassmans, known for their grit and meatier low end. I can even go two heads into one cab if I want using an old Peavey 412 cab with stereo and mono inputs to cut down on my gear load in or if the stage is too small to accommodate two cabs. There must be a good reason then, right? The way I use different Amps? The simplest way to set up a dual-amp stereo rig is to use two amps of the same make and model, in either a combo or head-and-cab arrangement. (Behringer V-Ampire, Line6 Flextone III, rack units paired with power amps … Rocktron, Digitech, Roland, BOSS) This set up allows for two different virtual wah wah pedals, voiced optimally, controlled from one pedal. Tremonti seems to favor a Mesa Triple Rectifier mixed with one or more from a gnarly lineup that has included Bogner, Dumble and Cornford. No cables. Also rather informative article. You can always insert a delay after the splitter for your guitar signal. How should one split the signal from the guitar? This is where things get a bit hectic and I have to draw a graph with some wavy lines on it, from which you can use a jolly expensive calculator to “extrapolate” the “amplitude” and determine the “sinus wave” or something. Keyboard players have been doing this a long time to fatten up their sound(s). No effects pedals. Manufactured to a high quality this Roland Micro Cube GX stereo guitar combo amplifier is battery powered and is a durable ultra-compact amplification option. An A/B/Y box will give you the choice of running each amp individually or both together. George Lynch has been known to favor this method (he even has his own signature pedal for such capers), and many other players switch between different amps for different sounds. I like the POD XT because of its dual sound capability. I run channel A into my 5150 Signature through the low gain input with the gain set on around 2 and the B channel into my 5150 II with the gain set on around 4.I don’t set the gain on too high on the amps so I can prevent any hiss from the heads, which is cut down already anyway because Before the ABY is a Boss NS-2. Modelers are typically the most practical (and affordable) way of experimenting with different “amplifiers.” Many systems, including the Line6 Pod HD series and Fractal’s Axe-Fx, will let you run virtual rigs with two amps, usually allowing you to pan each one to a different output. In what ways have you used more than one amplifier? A typical ploy would be to set one amp up for your clean or rhythm sounds and the other for your dirty or lead tones. Signal routing may be a simple task, but lower cost A/B boxes can have problems with silent switching. sorry for bad english. Unlike an amplifier for an electric guitar, an acoustic amp doesn't create the sound. Hearkening back to earlier days of rock excess (and underpowered PA systems), many big touring acts—especially in the metal genres—liked the look of a “wall of amps” behind them as part of the show. If you prefer live backline for monitoring but still want something small and affordable, one great choice is a Roland Cube, such as the Cube 40GX. The rigors of the road can be rough on amps, and when your main amp dies onstage, a backup can be a worth its weight in gold. Bridge pick up goes to one amp, and the neck to another amp. Another type of setup uses three cabinets in a “wet/dry/wet” arrangement, with the center amp running your dry (unaffected) guitar signal, and the outer two speakers running a 100% affected signal panned to each side. How to Choose the Right Pots for Your Pickups, How to Embrace the Stunning Popularity of Chorus Pedals. Which combination of amplifiers is best? There are more pedals but the ones I started with never change! EQing your guitar amp is the quickest and easiest way to sound amazing quickly. Guitar players such as James Valentine and John Mayer use multiple amplifiers simultaneously to achieve their tones. Most of us probably don’t start out with a vast array of amplifiers to choose from. A/B is the most basic configuration. Slash, for example, tours with matching pairs of his signature Marshall AFD100 heads and 4x12 cabs. There’s also a purely practical reason to tour with multiple amps: failure. That’s quite bag of technical cats to suddenly put amongst your experimental pigeons, so let’s take a closer look at some of the issues that such a device would help avoid. Many players use two amps for stereo techniques that require multiple loudspeakers. If you have a posse of enormous roadies, you could even go all Mark Tremonti and have a couple of amps for your clean tones (often Fender combos, in his case) and then an A/B/Y setup … Connecting two guitar amps together is a technique that many veteran guitar players use to expand their sound. So, how does one go about finding it a suitable mate? If some other bugger hauls your stuff to your gigs in an enormous truck, then you may even like to try Wet/Dry/Wet, or “none more wet” as nobody probably calls it. An audible “pop” is not only distracting musically, but can damage sound equipment. ‘Cause the JCM 800 haven’t one… So, how I change my clean and dirty sounds, considering that I WILL use the JCM distortion? Mostly in P90/humb-channel I use crunchier tone amp (Peavey Classic) with normal reverb and with single coils a cleaner sounding Line6 with some tremolo and delay. “If I may I interject?”, you interject, “What if I have hitherto maintained a brace of amplifiers with thermionic valves from the same sub-species? Guitar amps are the heart of your guitar tone. The only way to hook up 2+ heads to a single cabinet is by using a Radial Headbone or similar. In other cases, you’re J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and you utilize your multiple Marshall stacks to their fullest potential. Most guitar players have effects either in the form of single pedals or multi effect processors. Usually a “Blackface” Fender and either a Vox AC or Marshall (or something based on a Marshall) with a A/B/Y switch. If you have a posse of enormous roadies, you could even go all Mark Tremonti and have a couple of amps for your clean tones (often Fender combos, in his case) and then an A/B/Y setup for your heavy rhythm and leads. Alternatively you can add a second mic to your “dry” cabinet, add stereo effects to that and run the resulting signal direct to the board, à la Eric Johnson. what this setup gives me is a 3 channel preamp with two tube type power amps. Employ the usual method for choosing an amp, but execute it as many times as necessary. This signal is then passed to a separate stereo power amp (or two mono amps) which can output the stereo effects into your “wet” speakers. the tone is more full,and sounds great, I use 2 stereo amps and they each have a stereo aux in bypassing the preamp (so stereo amp to cabinet) ch ,so like 4 amps instead of two, easy to mix guitar loops into aux in;s and regular guitar into normal ch. As many recording artists and studio engineers know, your amp is often a more important factor in your overall tone than your guitar, and different amps have vastly different characters. When you plug into two amps, you’ll often hear a strong humming sound that vibrates out of your speakers. Just make sure you get a ABY pedal that eliminates ground loops and has a switch to reverse the phase (painful experiences from the past). So might look into that A/B/Y gizmo gadget thingy . It took me years to understand its real value for a tone that cuts through the mix. This software comes with 24 different amp cabinets and multiple parameters to practically change your sound in any way possible. Pro Tip: Ensure that the variety of sounds that you are after wouldn’t best be achieved using one amp with some pedals. Despite their basic functionality, a good ABY unit can cost as much as any other decent effects pedal. With a pedalboard amp, the benefits are obvious. I am a huge fan of having two different sounds at once, where one sound makes up for the other’s deficiencies. Eventually I might even go to three amps and add both on…, Gibson ES-335 BB King. Of the many products for guitars available, pedalboards are at the top of the list for best “bang for the buck” guitar gear. You can throw it in your backpack and off you go. This will cause your stereo signal to be smooshed (a technical term) into mono, tragically thwarting the juicy stereophony of your expensive wobblebox. This, therefore, necessitates the use of the guitar amp setting guide. But for the working player who may not be able to afford—nor desire to haul—an exact duplicate, there are many alternatives. My rig is split from the last pedal on my mainboard (boss DD3) with dry to a Peavey classic 50 212 combo, and wet to a Carvin X-60 halfstack (old Acoustic 4×12 cab.) I have been known to split signal with chorus or short analogue delay into a Marshall and a small combo cranked to the max. Similar small modeler combos worth checking out are the Fender Mustang II and the Blackstar ID:15. If you run a lovely stereo chorus before an overdrive, for example, you’re only going to be able to plug one of the former’s outputs into the latter. The question of head versus combo has been complicated in recent years by the dawn of the pedalboard amp – a guitar amp that’s housed in an enclosure the size of a small multi-effects, yet often powerful enough to replace your amp head. Nick, I learnt nuttin’ ’cause I was laughin’ 2 hard whilst reading it. Conventional wisdom suggests that the raunchiest of tones can oft be achieved by combining amplifiers that each feature different kinds of output tubes (or voicing, in the case of solid state). This is a how to video on how to set up one, or multiple guitar effects pedal(s). 8ohm mono or 4ohm/4ohm stereo with a small switch. I use a Morley ABY pedal (around USD 50.00) as the last in my chain on the pedal board. I know the purists frown upon digital modeling but it does the job for me. Having said that, any amp will amplify any electric guitar - and obviously, an electro-acoustic guitar is electric!. The “multiple amps sharing one cabinet” is my headache at home right now… I use a POD X3 (clean signal) and use L/R to each amp (Randall solid state amp and 5150 tube amp) and I get a high pitched demon-noise from the speaker. My fave trick is to get two amps with tremolo and run them simultaneously with the tremolo on each amp set a little different. Awesome article. That being said, it is an enterprise that is not without its challenges. I have been doing the “two amp” sound for many years. I’m planning on building a tweed Bassman kit to use as part of a new rig (I played through a 5f6a Bassman not long ago for the first time in a while, I’d forgotten how good they sound). Chorus rate and depths don’t have to be the same. Marshall and Fender often work well together, as does the high-end of a Vox with the bottom half of a Fender. Many amps you purchase … Plug out, no play. I have vomited a grotesque puddle of words already, but there are still all sorts of factors that I haven’t touched upon: Multiple amps in a studio environment, daisy-chaining amps, multiple amps sharing one cabinet, plying the venue sound engineer with enough liquor that he’ll agree to mic more than one cabinet, the contempt of your bandmates as your preposterous paraphernalia occupies two thirds of the stage… tips on how to find a good chiropractor. Then, there's whether the guitar amp is a head or a combo. If you want to get really zany, how about running one amplifier on stage, but splitting your guitar signal into your digital modeler, smartphone or tablet and running a virtual second amp into the desk? You can get a swirly Leslie type sound or a gonzo warpy phaser type sound depending on how different you set each amp. Multiple stereo tremolos… you get the idea. Wet/Dry rigs are often spoken of in hushed tones by those that feel like they don’t already have enough stuff to haul to their gigs. Do NOT use an A/B/Y splitter box etc. They may not be all that sexy, but a well-organized pedalboard is a must for guitarists for both stage and studio use. Failing that, an amp or power-soak’s direct-out (DI) can sometimes work. Fender Acoustasonic 15. They also lack the crunch needed for heavier rhythms. 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