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Post subject: Dual amps, stereo amps, A/B/Y... what's the best?
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 6:56 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:44 am
Posts: 604
Location: Richmond, VA
I posted this on Facebook, but realized I probably will get better answers here:

"For all you fellow guitar players or perhaps electronics technicians, recording studio engineers and sound men, etc... Now that my (resurrected, repaired) 65 watt Fender Frontman guitar amp is working again, after I took it all apart, cleaned it all up, blew it all out, etc... I have this insane idea of running both amps together (stereo) or perhaps running each one independently.
CLICK -- I'm running my beautiful, amazing, do everything, fully integrated, Boss Katana Artist guitar amp.
CLICK -- I'm running my old Fender Frontman amp, that still has that classic, shimmering, "Fender Tone" that everyone has heard.
CLICK -- I'm running both in 100% full stereo mode.
Can they be chained together (line out jack (Boss) --> input jack (Fender)) or do you use a splitter (A/B/Y box) or a stereo guitar pedal effect?"



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Post subject: Re: Dual amps, stereo amps, A/B/Y... what's the best?
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 7:15 pm
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I favor (and use) the Radial Big Shot A/B/Y pedal. In addition to discreet signal routing it also features an isolation transformer to eliminate phasing problems and ground-loop issues. About a C-note wherever quality stomp-boxes are sold.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: Dual amps, stereo amps, A/B/Y... what's the best?
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:15 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:44 am
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Location: Richmond, VA
Thanks, Arjay!!

It's really cool hearing your guitar tone come out of two totally different guitar amps!


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Post subject: Re: Dual amps, stereo amps, A/B/Y... what's the best?
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:37 am
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+1

The sonic possibilities are -- literally -- endless. Two identical amps, two disparate amps, differing effects used on each of the signal paths, both amps used simultaneously, you name it. One of my favorite combinations is my '64 Vibroverb paired with my '66 Vibrolux Reverb.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: Dual amps, stereo amps, A/B/Y... what's the best?
Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 3:56 pm
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Hobbyist
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Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:31 am
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I'm going to purchase the Radial Big Shot ABY. I plan to use it as a switcher between the two channels of my Deluxe Reverb ReIssue or to combine the two channels. At other times I'll use it to run my DRRI with my Peavey Bandit 65. Due to the fact that you can run pedals before or after the switch as Arjay said I should be able to get a number of different tones.


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Post subject: Re: Dual amps, stereo amps, A/B/Y... what's the best?
Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 6:32 pm
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Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 5:14 pm
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Radial Engineering Products are what you need to investigate. They are fantastic construction and electrically have their act together. What you want to do is electrically isolate via transformers each amplifier's signal from the other. Their products include isolation transformers that include that feature. They also have buffers that improve the signal if you have longer guitar cable lengths. Now, there are more than the single Big Shot product. They have the Shotgun and the Twin City. Take a little time to analyze what it is you want to do first. If you have three amps that you want to run at once, then take a look at the shotgun. Some of their switchers can incorporate a tuner. I have been using their products to run 4 amplifiers in stereo and I just love the way the amps combine. Their products aren't that expensive, but you might want to really think about what your priorities are before you buy one only to realize you might have wanted another of their products.


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Post subject: Re: Dual amps, stereo amps, A/B/Y... what's the best?
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 2:00 am
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Joined: Sun Aug 20, 2017 1:16 am
Posts: 65
The sonic results of a multiAmp set up always sounds better to me; especially with fx.

I've was using a 4 amp setup with 2x CyberTwins as my dual mono "dry" and 2x Tech 21 Power Engine 60 as the wets. I'm using an LMS-1 splitter to split the guitar source to 4 destinations.

I started down this path by experimenting with wet-dry-wet with the three amps I had at the time: CyberTwin FE, Princeton 65 and Peavey Rage 158. Just two amps is pretty good, yet 3 amps is wow factor. That Peavey is a tiny little thing, yet without it...something was missing.

MultiAmp set is fraught with noisy ground loop challenges and signal splitting and routing conundrums ....and multiple midi madness if doing such things...but the reward can be breath taking.

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