Two-Amp Set-Ups - Who Uses One - Tips/Tricks/Patching

[MannequinRaces]

Who on here uses a two-amplifier set-up? And I don't mean occasionally use but you use this set-up the majority of the time. The reason I ask is because I finally got my Epi Valve Junior Half Stack and I'm pairing that with my Vox AC4T combo. The sonic possibilities are almost unlimited. I'm using a Loop-Master ABY box to switch between the two amps and to split my signal for full out sonic madness.

My questions for those of you that use two-amps at once:

1) How do you route your pedals (ex. do you put some pedals after the signal is split, all pedals before the signal is split, do you have any pedals in effects loops, etc..)?
2) For recording purposes how do you mic your set-up (how far away are your amps from each other, how far away are your mics, do you use an additional room mic, do you only use a room mic, etc..)?
3) Is having a two-amp set-up too much of a pain in the ass (have you ever abandoned the two-amp set-up to go back to only using one amp at a time)?
4) Does having a two-amp set-up make your electric bill spike wildly out of control?

Thanks as always for your great insights and discussion ILF community!

[theavondon]

Who on here uses a two-amplifier set-up? And I don't mean occasionally use but you use this set-up the majority of the time. The reason I ask is because I finally got my Epi Valve Junior Half Stack and I'm pairing that with my Vox AC4T combo. The sonic possibilities are almost unlimited. I'm using a Loop-Master ABY box to switch between the two amps and to split my signal for full out sonic madness.

My questions for those of you that use two-amps at once:

1) How do you route your pedals (ex. do you put some pedals after the signal is split, all pedals before the signal is split, do you have any pedals in effects loops, etc..)?
2) For recording purposes how do you mic your set-up (how far away are your amps from each other, how far away are your mics, do you use an additional room mic, do you only use a room mic, etc..)?
3) Is having a two-amp set-up too much of a pain in the ass (have you ever abandoned the two-amp set-up to go back to only using one amp at a time)?
4) Does having a two-amp set-up make your electric bill spike wildly out of control?

Thanks as always for your great insights and discussion ILF community!

The guitar player in my band uses an Acoustic 2X12 combo into another 4X12 AND a Bogen Challenger CHB100 into a 4X12.
1)Pedals go straight into the Acoustic, and the Bogen is daisy chained from that.
2)We prefer to use lots of room micing to get a good blend of the sounds.
3)It's a lot of shit to lug for us, but it's so loud and thick and totally worth it.
4)Surprisingly, no. Our electricity bill is lowest when we're practicing, somehow.

[MannequinRaces]

Who on here uses a two-amplifier set-up? And I don't mean occasionally use but you use this set-up the majority of the time. The reason I ask is because I finally got my Epi Valve Junior Half Stack and I'm pairing that with my Vox AC4T combo. The sonic possibilities are almost unlimited. I'm using a Loop-Master ABY box to switch between the two amps and to split my signal for full out sonic madness.

My questions for those of you that use two-amps at once:

1) How do you route your pedals (ex. do you put some pedals after the signal is split, all pedals before the signal is split, do you have any pedals in effects loops, etc..)?
2) For recording purposes how do you mic your set-up (how far away are your amps from each other, how far away are your mics, do you use an additional room mic, do you only use a room mic, etc..)?
3) Is having a two-amp set-up too much of a pain in the ass (have you ever abandoned the two-amp set-up to go back to only using one amp at a time)?
4) Does having a two-amp set-up make your electric bill spike wildly out of control?

Thanks as always for your great insights and discussion ILF community!

The guitar player in my band uses an Acoustic 2X12 combo into another 4X12 AND a Bogen Challenger CHB100 into a 4X12.
1)Pedals go straight into the Acoustic, and the Bogen is daisy chained from that.
2)We prefer to use lots of room micing to get a good blend of the sounds.
3)It's a lot of shit to lug for us, but it's so loud and thick and totally worth it.
4)Surprisingly, no. Our electricity bill is lowest when we're practicing, somehow.

Awesome answers. I'll definitely have to look into room micing. Everything I've done has been nothing but close micing.

[cheesecats]

I always use 2 amps in my basement studio/jam room. I've grown addicted to the full sound. Here's how I do it:

1) How do you route your pedals (ex. do you put some pedals after the signal is split, all pedals before the signal is split, do you have any pedals in effects loops, etc..)?

I have a very simple routing system--my last pedal is a Boss PN-2, which is on a BCB-60. I just send the 2 outputs to the amps. You can use any pedal that has a stereo output (delay, chorus) as the last in the chain to get the split output.

A very cool result from having 2 amps split wide is that the frequencies often dance around in the stereo field.

2) For recording purposes how do you mic your set-up (how far away are your amps from each other, how far away are your mics, do you use an additional room mic, do you only use a room mic, etc..)?

I use a cheap AT9400 that I've had for ages, set up in the sweet spot, to record directly into SoundForge (stereo waveform editor). There's also a lot of bleed with the vocal and drum mics that go into the PA. I like the bleed-it makes the sound breathe. The amps are about 25 feet apart, about 15 feet from the mic Everything is recorded live.

3) Is having a two-amp set-up too much of a pain in the ass (have you ever abandoned the two-amp set-up to go back to only using one amp at a time)?

Absolutely not!

4) Does having a two-amp set-up make your electric bill spike wildly out of control?

Nope.

Here's an example of the sound:

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/cheesecats/humberside[/soundcloud]

And the pedal setup and room:

[MannequinRaces]

Oh man that's awesome! Such a great lush sound. Sweet basement music room. Thanks for sharing your set-up. I guess I just need to embrace using two amps because I definitely love the fuller sound. Do you have any solution for running multiple stereo outputs to the two different amps? For example I want to take the left output from my delay and the left output from my tremolo pedal and run them into the same amp and do the same for the right outputs to the other amp. How would you patch that? I've gotten advice to use a powered mixer and I've gotten advice to use two Boss LS-2. Any suggestions on how you would do it? Thanks (insert high five here)!

[cheesecats]

Oh man that's awesome! Such a great lush sound. Sweet basement music room. Thanks for sharing your set-up. I guess I just need to embrace using two amps because I definitely love the fuller sound. Do you have any solution for running multiple stereo outputs to the two different amps? For example I want to take the left output from my delay and the left output from my tremolo pedal and run them into the same amp and do the same for the right outputs to the other amp. How would you patch that? I've gotten advice to use a powered mixer and I've gotten advice to use two Boss LS-2. Any suggestions on how you would do it? Thanks (insert high five here)!

Thanks! I haven't tried anything fancy. I just use the 2 outputs from the BCB-60. Once I did run an additional stereo output from a DD-2 to a third amp, but I got strange phasing problems that buried the sound. I find that the differences in the amps (you can tweak the tone controls) usually is enough to fill in the stereo sound field. Extreme panning gets old very quickly. Just my opinion.

[bobloblah]

1) i just got a bassman 2x15 cab with 2 inputs on it, one for each speaker. i'm working on placement of the aby switch but right now i'm running drit and delay into my sunn 200s and chorus into my bassman. then everything goes into the 2x15. obviously i don't get any of the true stereo sound that i think most people look for with a 2 amp set up, but it's easy to gig with and i can get the blended sound i've been looking for for a long time.
2) i haven't recorded with it yet, but now i'm going to find a cab i can borrow for teh stereos
3) this set up is reallllllly simple to lug around
4) nope

[MannequinRaces]

1) i just got a bassman 2x15 cab with 2 inputs on it, one for each speaker. i'm working on placement of the aby switch but right now i'm running drit and delay into my sunn 200s and chorus into my bassman. then everything goes into the 2x15. obviously i don't get any of the true stereo sound that i think most people look for with a 2 amp set up, but it's easy to gig with and i can get the blended sound i've been looking for for a long time.
2) i haven't recorded with it yet, but now i'm going to find a cab i can borrow for teh stereos
3) this set up is reallllllly simple to lug around
4) nope

Cool. That sounds like an awesome rig. Blended sounds are the shizzle.

[The4455]

I use two amps when i play (Bass), I just use a delay pedal and set the delay time all the way down, as in off and the level all teh way up

[MannequinRaces]

I use two amps when i play (Bass), I just use a delay pedal and set the delay time all the way down, as in off and the level all teh way up

Do you use this for a live or recording set-up or just for jamming out?

[Gearmond]

for bass I split the signal into a 12" Hartke Kickback and bump the treble and mids, and a behringer head into a 15" ampeg classic with bass and low mids cranked which not only fills up the sound, but gives it an interesting chorus-y effect due to how each amp alters the sound of my bass ever so slightly.

future plans involve running a good bass fuzz through the paper cab, and a mild chorus to the 12"

it isn't much of a hassle because all in all, its smaller than if i were to haul atound an 8x10.

[MannequinRaces]

Crazy bass players and their two-amp rigs. I was thinking this was the realm of only guitarists! Boy was I wrong.

[Gearmond]

haha, yeah. while guitarists were busy with pedals, we were busy fiddling with crazy amp setups

i'm pretty sure the dude from Lightning Bolt has a pretty crazy setup, and Percy Jones

[MannequinRaces]

haha, yeah. while guitarists were busy with pedals, we were busy fiddling with crazy amp setups

I think guitarists are finally catching up to the bass players and now the bass players are getting into pedals more!

[Gearmond]

yup!

now if only we'd have more effects that work with lower frequencies better...

we got fuzz, envelope, compression, and chorus. but pitch shift leaves something to be desired, and flange, phase, etc. etc.