Hooking two amps up for stereo?

M

Mwening

New member
I have a 30 watt Crate and I want to get another amp and hook them up for stereo.

What should I get and how do you hook/set them up?

Any stereo amp junkies here? :)
 
Mwening said:
How does it work?
Click to expand...

it switches between amps (A and B) or the third option (y) gives you both at the same time (what your trying to do)

its a pedal that goes in your chain

very useful tool
 
I want to set up two amps for stereo sound just for personal use, nothing live, just set them up in my room to mess around with.

I just recently started messing around with pedals and I have a Digitech RP100, it has rotary and delay effects and I wandered what it would sound like with two mono amps hooked up together.

I am just curious about how to set it up and what amps should be used. Is it possible two use a Crate and a Marshall amp (30 watt amps) together or would this not work right?
 
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The easiest way is to use a stereo effects box. A stereo Chorus or stereo reverb or digital delay and use the box to split your signal and pan the signal from left to right. Sounds HUGE!

Lew
 
Just use the left and right outs of a pedal, preferably one with batteries, to avoid ground loop hum. You can't damage anything by running a stereo rig, but sometimes a bit more hum is introduced through a powered pedalboard.

About amps. You can use two amps with a real similar tone,
but I like to run one amp gainier than the other, so it makes the
spectrum sound bigger. That way, you have the benefit of one amp complimenting the other.

Another thing that sounds great is to take a two channel amp
with the gain being pretty hot, and it's clean channel very clean.
Mate it with a single channel amp that's set right inbetween
the two tones. Edgy gain.
When you step on the gain channel, the other amp
has a little more cleanliness in it's gain.
When you step on the clean channel, the other amp introduces
a little "bite" in your tone.

This formula for stereo sounds absolutely huge and is touch
responsiveness "heaven"
 
Gearjoneser said:
Just use the left and right outs of a pedal, preferably one with batteries, to avoid ground loop hum. You can't damage anything by running a stereo rig, but sometimes a bit more hum is introduced through a powered pedalboard.

About amps. You can use two amps with a real similar tone,
but I like to run one amp gainier than the other, so it makes the
spectrum sound bigger. That way, you have the benefit of one amp complimenting the other.

Another thing that sounds great is to take a two channel amp
with the gain being pretty hot, and it's clean channel very clean.
Mate it with a single channel amp that's set right inbetween
the two tones. Edgy gain.
When you step on the gain channel, the other amp
has a little more cleanliness in it's gain.
When you step on the clean channel, the other amp introduces
a little "bite" in your tone.

This formula for stereo sounds absolutely huge and is touch
responsiveness "heaven"
Click to expand...

EXACTLY what I plan to do with my 2-channel Tech21 Trademark 60 & my single channel THD UniValve............and I've also got the PSA-1 at my disposal........

WHENEVER I CAN FINALLY GET AROUND TO FIXING MY "MUSIC ROOM" UP THE WAY I WANT IT!!!!:rolleyes:
 
It is better to have similar amps running together as they will have the same tone characteristics and you can then link them together via an ABY box. I use either my Blues Juniors or sometimes my Juniors in this way but have one of them set for clean and the other with more overdrive and it is a very full sound, when they are on together. I also have a tube screamer pedal which I bring in whenever I feel that I need to boost the signal. I have been given one of these multi effects processor but I don't use it live and only experiment with it at home/studio (still can't read the manual!)

You can use two different amps so that you can get different voicings and some guys do this and use an acoustic amp in their set up particularly if they have piezo pups in their guitars- think Variax.
 
I seem to remember hearing that you need to 'raise the earth' on one of the amps. Don't know what that means, but it's a warning I've heard.

I seem to remember hearing that it isn't necessary with some junction boxes though??
 
southadc said:
I seem to remember hearing that you need to 'raise the earth' on one of the amps. Don't know what that means, but it's a warning I've heard.

I seem to remember hearing that it isn't necessary with some junction boxes though??
Click to expand...

In the old days, when all amps came with a two prong power cord, if your amp hummed alot you could just pull the plug out of the wall and reverse it to quiet the amp down. Then Fender started making amps with ground switches that did the same thing without having to pull the plug out of the wall and reverse it to reverse the ground.

Now all amps come with three prong power cords and reversing the ground is much more difficult.

If you're using two amps in stereo with your guitar plugged into a stereo effects device and using the left and right outputs of that device to split the signal and drive your two amps and you notice alot of hum, you might have a "ground loop".

Sometimes you can correct this ground loop and quiet down the hum by taking one guitar cord and if it has a 1/4 plug that will allow you to unscrew the metal cover, DISCONNECT the shielded cable part of the cord from the plug and tape it off on ONE END of the cord only.

Use that altered cord to feed one of your amps.

Sometimes it works....sometimes it doesn't. Usually it does.

The other way to do it is the way I do it and that's to keep my 50's and 60's amps stock and NOT install 3 prong power cords. Then I can reverse the ground...like they do in the recording studio when they need to.

This does increase the shock hazzard when playing live...but it's the way ALL vintage amps were made up until a couple of decades ago.

Lew
 
You never know what kind of ground loop problems you might have till you assemble it. When you have several things being powered up, AND two amps hooked together, you have a potential "loop" being made with electricity, which causes hum.
All you can do is try it, with your existing equipment, and see if that occurs. Often times, there's no problem at all.
It is best if the splitter pedal/AB box is run by a battery, I've noticed.
 
Gearjoneser said:
You never know what kind of ground loop problems you might have till you assemble it. When you have several things being powered up, AND two amps hooked together, you have a potential "loop" being made with electricity, which causes hum.
All you can do is try it, with your existing equipment, and see if that occurs. Often times, there's no problem at all.
It is best if the splitter pedal/AB box is run by a battery, I've noticed.
Click to expand...

You need to have a ABY box with what is called isolated grounds for the out puts, that way your signal goes to the amps without either amp having a connection to the other through guitar cable in the ground lead. That will help alot with the hum.
 
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