Is it me or two amps sound weird ?

[Kelia]

Along with the OP there was this:

"I don't like two amps together either. The sound isn't as tight as I'd like it."

Yes, and a good amount of bottom missing as well. I split my signal for years with an Ibanez chorus after a friend left his amp at my house. After a couple weeks I decided I never wanted to play in mono again. Kind of on accident while playing around one day, I noticed an amp sounded a lot better not being split. I don't know about the Radial or lehle,( looks like they are passive) but an ordinary stereo out pedal is halving the output to each amp, and bass takes a lot of power.
The pedal below is active so you have unity gain. This makes a huge difference. It has a phase switch, and a ground switch.The ground switch helps but adding a Hum-X to the second amp solved most of the hum problem. . Also using separate power supplies for the front of the amp, the effects loop, and high power effects like a Strymon helps even more. The one pictured has one input but you can order one with two.
If you love playing in stereo with a chorus try one of these and you'll be twice as happy. It takes the blanket off two amps.


https://www.brightonion.co.uk/active-aby-pedal-with-isolated-second-output/

Hey thanks for sharing Rick,............I'll check this out for sure !

 

[matttornado]

Orange makes the same type of pedal with the same features. Check that out too.

FWIW: I had the Orange pedal and it worked well but I also thought two amps sounded weird. I was playing a 1959 Superlead and a DSL40CR together.

The Orange pedal, even though it had a phase switch, buffered outputs and isolated with a transformer, it still sounded bad to me.

Now I run a wet/dry setup and could not be happier!

 

[mickeydg5]

If anyone is going to run two amplifiers or a stereo setup it has to be done right or its a waste of time and money.
It is always best to have matching stacks or L/R rig setups. There are no worries in that case. However, added gear to either side/stack needs to be addressed.

Phase issues in any gear, amplifiers or effects, always need addressing.

If your sound is off or loses anything then it is being done wrong.

 

[8bit Barry]

I’ve been using the Radial ABY for a good few years now as the second to last part of my pedal board. I’ve got a Pigtronix looper with independent input channels, which goes out to two amps, 2 x 4x12’s.

Yes the ISOlation transformer switch does suck tone, but once engaged it allows you send the feed to both amps and to experiment with 180 phase reversal - the results are sonically immense! It’s so interesting and creates really unusual dimension to the stereo field. I’ve never had any noise issues whatsoever, but I’m only using it at home.

Most of the time I use it to send different recorded loops to different amps without the ISO switch engaged. Chinese junk my ass.

 

[Valvelust]

Love to run two cabs or stereo.....
My Boss GT-8 of all things works wonderful!
Sounds come from all directions like speakers for the opposite side of the room just filled with sound.

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

In my photo you can see 2 stacks
(not the Orange amp) on the right is an origin 50H, on the left is an origin 50H on top of the bench (with all the clutter) you can see a 3210 lead 100 mosfet, with the MXR10 band eq I run the 2 origin’s the one on the right is feeding the mosfet (FX send instrument in) this rig is very quiet, and as loud as hell.
By standing in front, at center the speakers sound as if they are centered, the mosfet only runs the B cabs, the origin’s run the tops

 

[Kelia]

Great !.......I can't see your Marshall beer fridge though

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

Great !.......I can't see your Marshall beer fridge though

Sadly I do not have one

 

[Kelia]

Sadly I do not have one

Maybe next year for Christmas !........haha!

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

Maybe next year for Christmas !........haha!

I do keep my eye out for one

 

[Kelia]

Wrote this thread a few months ago when I tried two amps together
and really didn't like it ,....at the time ,the mix was a 900 MKIII with a 2205 Split Channel
and something didn't seem right ,..even tried it with a Jubilee-MKIII mix and still didn't like it .
But today ,.I gave it another try with different amps , I did a wet-dry-wet setup with a dry
JCM800 2204 in the middle going thought and early 80's G12-65 cab and a wet 2266 Vintage Modern
going through 4X12 cabs on the left and right,.. it blended so good that I couldn't stop playing !

Awesome tone really !...and both amps didn't collide with each other ,...I know that some of you mentioned
that two amps played together should be of the same kind and this makes sense so now I'm wondering
if all three amps I've tried before made it impossible because they all had diode clipping ?

 

[Stanley8]

maybe the speakers weren't in phase on the amps that didn't sound good, you just flip the wires on one amps speaker when they don't sound right.

 

[Kelia]

maybe the speakers weren't in phase on the amps that didn't sound good, you just flip the wires on one amps speaker when they don't sound right.

I think Doug Aldrich does what you're saying with his cab.

 

[Kelia]

He talks about it here at around 11minutes on the video,

 

[Stanley8]

you can use a 9v battery on the speaker leads and watch which way the speaker cones first move either in or out. You just match both or 3 amps to be the same

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

This is 6 amps at stereo volume.
Please excuse my sloppy playing.
I put away a number of beers...
Thanks

 

[bad565ss]

I've got a Radial Bigshot that I've used to run my 1987 and Supro Black Magick together and it sounds awesome.
I think I'm going to try the 2203 and 1987 just to see how massive that is.

 

[Kelia]

This is 6 amps at stereo volume.
Please excuse my sloppy playing.
I put away a number of beers...
Thanks

Great Mitchell !..........how did you do six amp without having a JD-7 ?

 

[Kelia]

I've got a Radial Bigshot that I've used to run my 1987 and Supro Black Magick together and it sounds awesome.
I think I'm going to try the 2203 and 1987 just to see how massive that is.

Let us know !

 

[Kelia]

you can use a 9v battery on the speaker leads and watch which way the speaker cones first move either in or out. You just match both or 3 amps to be the same

Only had two amps so it may not be wet-dry-wet but it works great ,
VM with loop driving two cabs on each side and center is the dry JCM800 so it's two wet sounding
cabs with one dry cab in the middle.

As for the battery trick ,.I was advise by Mark Huss few years ago on the Hiwatt
Convention Forum to never do this ,........it could damage the coil wire so it stayed
in my mind and won't do it,......rather use my ears ,...two out of phase cabs is easy
to spot just by listening imo.