Do you double your pleasure? - Use of 2 amps

[Katastrophe]

I've never run two amphs together by myself, but a bandmate and I used to do the same thing, essentially.

His distortion tones emphasized the lower end of the spectrum, and mine had a touch less gain and emphasized the mids and highs. By ourselves, it sounded crappy. But played together, the sound was huge!

[sunvalleylaw]

I run both my Marshall and my Vox at the same time, using a stereo chorus. It's a very full, wide sound with the chorus on. Sounds good with it off, too.

I guess I could try that off my Boss CE-5 and not buy anything.

[MAXIFUNK]

The things I learn here just a wealth of info.

[markb]

I guess I could try that off my Boss CE-5 and not buy anything.

You didn't say about the CE-5, Steve or I'd have told you to use that to split your signal, just move it to the end of the chain.

[sunvalleylaw]

Ya, I didn't think of that before. I was thinking, if I was not going to use the chorus (edit, not use the effect but still use the pedal to split), maybe I could split at the beginning, and then have separate dirt set ups too, the Rodent and ZYS on one side, and the DS-1 and Bad Monkey on the other, throw the Little Big Muff in there somewhere, and Hah! Might be fun to play around with.

[FrankenFretter***]

Ya, I didn't think of that before. I was thinking, if I was not going to use the chorus, maybe I could split at the beginning, and then have separate dirt set ups too, the Rodent and ZYS on one side, and the DS-1 and Bad Monkey on the other, throw the Little Big Muff in there somewhere, and Hah! Might be fun to play around with.

I never considered doing that; might have to experiment this weekend. Thanks Steve.

Tell us how your experiment turns out!

[oldguy]

Ya, I didn't think of that before. I was thinking, if I was not going to use the chorus, maybe I could split at the beginning, and then have separate dirt set ups too, the Rodent and ZYS on one side, and the DS-1 and Bad Monkey on the other, throw the Little Big Muff in there somewhere, and Hah! Might be fun to play around with.

You might want to try adding reverb/delay to one side and grit/dirt to the other, then tweak the volume levels to taste. You can get a full fat sound doing that.

[deeaa*]

I have sometimes experimented w/two amps - well in recording I pretty much always do it, at least by re-amping and duplicating tracks - but in 'real life' I find it gives not enough added value compared to the trouble.

Aside from the haulage & more gear, I find it's hard to match the two amps so it won't distract me when playing. I mean, if I have two amps with quite different tonality, it can be great for some part such as a wide, strong rhythm like doubled, but for another part like a lead riff etc. it may sound downright weird, like there was an octover tracking it or something. You don't want a cleanish twang underneath a weeping solo for instance.

And that translates to a lot of problems for switching channels etc...

But I do like to for instance mix&match speakers and mike them differently and run that in stereo for instance. Or insert a D/I line with emulation & mix with the miked tone and so on.

But two actual amps live...I'd need a robot with a logistics program to adjust them amps to my liking from part to part. Something like Neil Young's Whizzer and so on. So it'd be feasible only if I had roadies and other crew etc...

[Brian Krashpad]

I recently used 2 amphs in a gigging sitch for the first time in about 10 years. Wanted to use the sounds available (especially the delay for one song in particular) on my Super Champ XD, but also wanted more oomph than a 15W 1x10 on a big stage.

So I used the SC XD up close to me, where I could change the effects between songs, with the pedal for clean and drive channels, then lined that out to a 60W Sunn head with a 2x12 cab in the backline. Worked a charm.

Here's the rig, SC XD off to the right, Sunn rig back behind me:

[sunvalleylaw]

You might want to try adding reverb/delay to one side and grit/dirt to the other, then tweak the volume levels to taste. You can get a full fat sound doing that.

Thanks all for the input. As I am not playing out electrically at this time, this will be just for fun. It will be fun to experiment a little and try all that out. OG, I went back and watched your recent vid to try to see how to do it. That was a good, full, fat sound you had going there. Part of what was inspiring me to figure out how to try it.

[tunghaichuan***]

About 15 years ago, I got two RSA 1x12" cabs, which are carpet-covered versions of Mesa/Boogie's Thiele cabs which in turn are copies of an EVM-designed cab for their 12L speakers.

I've run a stereo setup since then. First it was stereo using a power amp, preamp and FX rackmount units. Sounded okay, but rather generic.

Then a while back I got a Boss Digital Reverb pedal and run that into two Valve Jr. amps and the RSA cabs which are loaded with Celestion speakers.

I've also experimented with running a Blackheart Little Giant Head into a 1x12" cab and a Valve Jr. into a Valve Junior cab at the same time using the stereo Boss Reverb pedal. I bought the BH cab empty and threw an old Carvin speaker in it which is scooped in the mids. The VJ cab has the stock speaker which is pretty middy, so the two balance each other out very well.

I have used to use a CE-5 chorus with both of the aforementioned setups, but I didn't like the tone when it was on.