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Matching amps


Imthere

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So I'm thinking about multi-amp setups as a tone getup. Like paring a bright sounding amp with a darker one for somethine else. Like I have got a SF Champ that I can use with a Peavey Royal 8 or some deadly radio tube amp with 2 prongs. Never done it though. I also have a ABY box and SCP with dual outputs and also a Ibanez DE7 delay that is stereo. I think it's stereo? Or else its the Tone LOK phaser that is. One of them is. I've also got a Y cable.

Does anyone have any favorite pairings that they have ever used?

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Imo it's hard to predict what'll work and what not, it's usually best to forget about the theory and to find out for yourself. On the other hand, I suppose it'll *almost* always sounds interested when pairing two different amps. They each just bring something differenet to the table, and when you balance em out just right, it's hard NOT to sound better than when using using just one of the amps. 

Bottom line: If an amp sounds good on it's own, it'll work good in stereo with something else too. 

Obviously, when shopping for the second amp, it doesn't hurt to look for amps that are too much alike though.

My past little experiments:

-Twin Reverb+Tone-Master = Nice.

-Twin Reverb+JCM800=Really nice.

-Tone-Master+DRRI: Rrrreally nice.

-Tone-Master+AC30= Howly{censored}hallelujah:heart:

I don't play much anymore these days, let alone through a stereo rig. But if you plan on doing the stereo thing on a regular basis, you might want to do yourself a favor and invest in a high end AB box that takes care of hum and grounding issues. Lehle makes good active a/b boxes, but they're not cheap...

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this is the point why i want the axe fx.

playing a few amps at the same time is just great.

maybe i am wrong, but i would not think in colors of tone. i would fill the lack of one amp with an other.


one is very thin and bright and clear... needs a second with more bass and mids... etc. pp. thats my idea of...

 

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I really like the sound of my AC-15 when it's paired with one of my Princetons - either the '71 Princeton Amp, or the '83 Princeton Reverb II.

The DE7 Delay has stereo outputs. The PH7 Phaser does not... so I'd recommend putting the phaser first, and then the delay last in the chain, with each of the delay's outputs feeding a seperate amplifier. 

 

Ibanez DE-7 Delay

 

Ibanez PH7 Phaser

 

However, the thing is, you may run into ground loop hum issues when connecting two amps to one chain of pedals. If so, an isolation transformer is what you need to deal with the situation. Radial makes a Bigshot ABY pedal that has a iso transformer in it that you could put after one "side" of the delay (in "front" of one of the amps) to address this. Another alternative is the Ebtech Hum-X, which is an adapter that plugs into the power plug of one of the two amps and isolates it safely. You should never use a 3 pin to 2 pin "ground lift" plug for this, because it's potentially unsafe.

 

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I run a 1x12 flot a tone tube amp with crazy springing reverb with an acoustic control corp 137 1x15" combo which is a solid state with lots of clean headroom and a choppy trem and more dwelling verb - keeping my eyes open for an 8ohm 2x10 cab or even a 2x8 vox pathfinder bulldog celestion can to run off this to tightening up octave pedals a little... But the acoustic has a ground switch that I flip if I notice hum for shows

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