Educate me on stereo rigs

[IMENATOR]

Ok, I was reading this link from Egnater and it basically says that if you turn the stereo pedal off then your signal works in mono mode

http://www.egnateramps.com/TechTalk/Volume5.html

"...when the effects are bypassed (no effects are turned on) the signal passes through…..in mono. It does not really become “stereo” until you turn on an effect that is actually stereo"​

Are there stereo delay pedals (or any other stereo pedal) that you know can pass signal thru both left and rigth even when the pedal is off? I would like this to take advantage of having two 1x12 cabs so I can have a better sound spread by running two speakers all the time and not get stuck on having an "always on" stereo pedal that I may not want to hear all the time.

 

[dominus]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

You need a signal splitter and two amps. You can't put a pedal in between a cabinet and an amp.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

Amy stereo pedal will pass signal to 2 amps with the pedal off.

What the guy is saying is that if there is no stereo effect such as a ping/pong delay, a panning tremolo, etc then it's not really stereo....

I get the point but it's sort of pointless IMHO to even make the point.


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[IMENATOR]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

You need a signal splitter and two amps. You can't put a pedal in between a cabinet and an amp.

I forgot to say I will use a stereo poder amp

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

And I will add that stereo reverbs, delays and chorusing sound great in the bedroom, but on a club stage, it typically doesn't work very well. You simply lose too much presence and "cut". There is noise. And it is a pain to be dragging all that extra gear around. In many smaller clubs, you'll have oddly-shaped stages and oddly-shaped rooms--so the effects are really lost on the audience. This is why most bands don't do a stereo PA mix...people on the right side of the room can't hear what's panned hard left.

I read years ago that EVH was using a stereo rig, with the L/R amps fully wet and a fully DRY center amp. I'm sure it sounded wonderful, for the first five rows of the arena. And Eddie has a lot more techs, time and dough to use on a rig than I do.

Even stereo guitars, where the neck pickup goes to one amp and the bridge to another (like the Gibson ES-345 and ES-355) are a pain. It's an unwieldy system requiring special cables. And just compare the value of a vintage ES-345 with the Stereo Vari-Tone to the mono-wired ES-335--the 345 is a much more expensive guitar, yet values are about 1/3 of a 335. Most guys who have them can't wait to rip out the original wiring and make them mono.

I've tried using my effects in stereo several times, and it is an inspirational tone--getting lost in all of that swirling echo goodness. I thought that doing this with a rock "power trio" would make my guitar sound bigger, but it just lost the focus. And like I said, it was a pain to set up and get the levels correct, and then some of the stages were simply too small for that second amp. I even bought a second matching Maverick 212 combo to use in stereo with the one I already have--I think I used it twice in 10 years--and both those times were at practice...I never have used that amp live.

And for recording, there are better ways to get stereo guitar effects than miking up two guitar amps.

I'm sure there are others who may have had more success that I, but I've found using stereo effects impractical. Good luck.

Bill

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

Just to get things straight in my head, are you using a mono preamp and a stereo poweramp?

If that's the case, Boss has several pedals that will split your preamp's mono signal into a stereo signal. For a couple examples, their CE-5 Chorus Ensemble is a mono input only, but has stereo outs, and their DD-6 has stereo inputs and stereo outputs. And they let the signal pass through both outputs whether the effect is turned on or off.

You could also find an older used processor that would accomplish the same thing, such as a Boss ME-50 or DigiTech RP 7, which can be found fairly cheap.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

I generally play pure mono - with one guitar being effected (chorus/flange/phase/delay, whatever) and the other guitar dry - when live.

 

[hydro]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

And I will add that stereo reverbs, delays and chorusing sound great in the bedroom, but on a club stage, it typically doesn't work very well. You simply lose too much presence and "cut". There is noise. And it is a pain to be dragging all that extra gear around. In many smaller clubs, you'll have oddly-shaped stages and oddly-shaped rooms--so the effects are really lost on the audience. This is why most bands don't do a stereo PA mix...people on the right side of the room can't hear what's panned hard left.

I read years ago that EVH was using a stereo rig, with the L/R amps fully wet and a fully DRY center amp. I'm sure it sounded wonderful, for the first five rows of the arena. And Eddie has a lot more techs, time and dough to use on a rig than I do.

Even stereo guitars, where the neck pickup goes to one amp and the bridge to another (like the Gibson ES-345 and ES-355) are a pain. It's an unwieldy system requiring special cables. And just compare the value of a vintage ES-345 with the Stereo Vari-Tone to the mono-wired ES-335--the 345 is a much more expensive guitar, yet values are about 1/3 of a 335. Most guys who have them can't wait to rip out the original wiring and make them mono.

I've tried using my effects in stereo several times, and it is an inspirational tone--getting lost in all of that swirling echo goodness. I thought that doing this with a rock "power trio" would make my guitar sound bigger, but it just lost the focus. And like I said, it was a pain to set up and get the levels correct, and then some of the stages were simply too small for that second amp. I even bought a second matching Maverick 212 combo to use in stereo with the one I already have--I think I used it twice in 10 years--and both those times were at practice...I never have used that amp live.

And for recording, there are better ways to get stereo guitar effects than miking up two guitar amps.

I'm sure there are others who may have had more success that I, but I've found using stereo effects impractical. Good luck.

Bill

Bill I can't tell you how many times I have thought about going stereo, I have the gear to do it but I always suspected the drawbacks you describe. In the studio I might try it one day, but live it seems like a nightmare to handle.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

I have a stereo reverb pedal
the Biyang Baby Boom Tri-Reverb

My signal path is
Guitar-Morley ABY(A Channel to Joyo American Sound Preamp/ B Channnel to Joyo British Sound Preamp)-Biyang Tri-Reverb-(A and B channels each to individual Powered Carvin 15 Inch Pa Speakers)

with the Morley set to either of the preamps individually the amp plays only through its speaker
but the Reverb trails across the unused speaker
it sounds unbelievably big

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

Bill I can't tell you how many times I have thought about going stereo, I have the gear to do it but I always suspected the drawbacks you describe. In the studio I might try it one day, but live it seems like a nightmare to handle.

Well, if you already run two amps at gigs, going stereo with a delay is quite easy. Get a stereo dealy and use it to split your signal in front of your amps. This is how I do it when I feel like running a couple amps together. It does screw with your tone a little, though.

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

I can tell you, I've tried running stereo live... And I'm sure it can be done very well with the right venue... But I experienced a washout in my sound and all the balls and cut were gone. Add that the sound guy added his own reverb on top... I now run one head into two cabs and keep it simple.


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[JOLLY]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

Life's the same, I'm moving in stereo.

 

[IMENATOR]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

I now run one head into two cabs and keep it simple.

I guess that is the same as (1) Use mono effects thru both cabs... or (2) Turn off the stereo pedals and have both cabs play exactly the same sound.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

I used to run stereo through an old Alesis Quadraverb , one side was a Carvin XV-212 with an additional Carvin 4X12 cab. The other side was a Randall RG100-ES through a Randall 4X12 with Jaguars.

this

through this
After a few year hiatus in playing I decided to simply slave the Randall to the Carvin through the effects out of the Carvin into the low input of the Randall. Due to the tonal differences in the amps and cabs, the sound is massive, even though and maybe because of the fact that it's not stereo but "wide mono".

 

[IMENATOR]

Re: Educate me on stereo rigs

After a few year hiatus in playing I decided to simply slave the Randall to the Carvin through the effects out of the Carvin into the low input of the Randall. Due to the tonal differences in the amps and cabs, the sound is massive, even though and maybe because of the fact that it's not stereo but "wide mono".

Yes, my idea of having a couple of 1x12 is not just stereo but also to have an "easier to carry" rig, stacking the two cabs or placing one on each side of the drummer should help to spread the sound better even when playing in mono mode. Yours is a huge rig!


Edit: Ok, I just ordered the ISP Stealth Power Amp. My next move is to get my first 1x2 cab, a back/closed convertible cab. No turning back now. It looks like I am gonna get a AMP preamp and maybe the TC Flashback, I hope in the next months I can tell you how it went. Gonna sell old gear and use part of my christmas bonus to gear up!