Anyon run a "Audio switcher" to run multiple amps?

[AK47]

Title is the question. I see this discussed alot in music mags. Apparntley you can run a rack with a audio switcher with multiple power amps at the same time?

Here is one and I think Voodoo labs makes one as well.

http://www.radialeng.com/di-jd7.htm

Is this just for playing huge venues or can you run a Recto and Marshall at the same time and get a unique tone?


Most people I know including myself never ran a "Audio switcher" except there was the one guy I knew who had a Bradshaw switching system. I heard the Bradshaw stuff is expensive compared to what is available right now from Voodoo for example.

I understand the whole channel and audio switching concept I am curious about running multiple amps at the same time and the benefits of that.

[åron]

That's really a reamper, splitter. It's probably the best front end you could use if you plan on running multiple preamps, and routing dry guitar to recording i/o, fx, synths, software, etc. That is better for studio overkill.

Any given amp/speaker combo has it's limitations or holes if you will in it's performance. Different power sections combined with different drivers can be amazing or have phase timing issues.

[Outlander]

Check out the Radial Bigshot ABY. It's a nice passive switcher with a ground lift,isolation transformer and phase reversal switch. It will handle two seperate rigs and output for tuner. A floor unit. Got one in "07" for about $70.00 from GC. It took 3 months to come in as they had to order it, it's not a generally stocked item but maybe you'll get lucky! Before then I was using a morley ABY but it was terrible, tons of noise.

[roodyrocker]

Check out the Radial Bigshot ABY. It's a nice passive switcher with a ground lift,isolation transformer and phase reversal switch. It will handle two seperate rigs and output for tuner. A floor unit. Got one in "07" for about $70.00 from GC. It took 3 months to come in as they had to order it, it's not a generally stocked item but maybe you'll get lucky! Before then I was using a morley ABY but it was terrible, tons of noise.

Sounds like we both went down the same path I had a Morley AB box to run into my electric amp as well as SWR Acoustic amp for my piezzo equipped guitar. The Morley made so much noise even when using just one amp! I got rid of the Morley and went with a Radial Engineering Switchbone. The Switchbone is great! It has all the features you mentioned plus boost switch and an adjustment for sag even. The sound when running both amps simultaneously for clean electric and acoustic was awesome!

[Outlander]

Roody...I looked at the switchbone but went the cheaper route. I run a dry signal to a Recto solo100 3chanel and a all wet signal to a small rack with a pl8, ADA MP1, G-major,BBE 362n and then powered with the Boogie 20/20 through a G-Benze 2x12.
The sound/tone is phenominal. Oh yeah I drive the front of the wet rig with a SD-1 and 535Q. The recto is just there for crushing brutality. Guitar goes straight in. I'm definately spoiled tonewise after runnung through two amps.The 20/20 has EL84's for that sweet melodic tone and the recto well you know!!!!

[Shawn Lutz]

I use a Voodoo Labs amp selector switch that lets me run 4 different amps, all at the same time or any combination of the 4.

The benefit is the ability to mix different amps together for one wall of sound or amps set accordingly for certain sounds for whatever material you are playing.

[roodyrocker]

Roody...I looked at the switchbone but went the cheaper route. I run a dry signal to a Recto solo100 3chanel and a all wet signal to a small rack with a pl8, ADA MP1, G-major,BBE 362n and then powered with the Boogie 20/20 through a G-Benze 2x12.
The sound/tone is phenominal. Oh yeah I drive the front of the wet rig with a SD-1 and 535Q. The recto is just there for crushing brutality. Guitar goes straight in. I'm definately spoiled tonewise after runnung through two amps.The 20/20 has EL84's for that sweet melodic tone and the recto well you know!!!!

Thats too funny, as I also initially ran my setup with a Mesa Dual Recto and the SWR California Blonde acoustic amp. Once I got the Bogner however, the Mesa sat in the road case. Not that the Mesa is bad, I like it but the Bogner just kills! I still have my Mesa though, didn't get rid of it as you can't have enough amps same goes for guitars I also ran it with my Randall RM100 and SWR amp using the Blackface module for clean on the Randall.

[roodyrocker]

I use a Voodoo Labs amp selector switch that lets me run 4 different amps, all at the same time or any combination of the 4.

The benefit is the ability to mix different amps together for one wall of sound or amps set accordingly for certain sounds for whatever material you are playing.

The Switchbone has some features that at first I didn't know I'd use but they quickly came in handy. The ground lift and polarity switches get set differently depending on where we played. Running multiple amps would sometimes cause hum or noise that these switches took care of instantly. You could also run a tuner off it with a button to mute it on stage which was handy too.
4 amps? My band mates give me a hard time about lugging the Bogner 4x12 with road case as it is. They'd really freak out if I wanted to run 4 amps but I like the idea!

[Outlander]

Thats too funny, as I also initially ran my setup with a Mesa Dual Recto and the SWR California Blonde acoustic amp. Once I got the Bogner however, the Mesa sat in the road case. Not that the Mesa is bad, I like it but the Bogner just kills! I still have my Mesa though, didn't get rid of it as you can't have enough amps same goes for guitars I also ran it with my Randall RM100 and SWR amp using the Blackface module for clean on the Randall.

That is funny because I initially ran my set-up with a RG100es Randall solid state before I got the rectifier.

[jgcable]

I used a Whirlwind for a while but sometimes I would suffer with ground loops. It was hit or miss.
You get what you pay for so make sure you get a good one.

[AlexL]

I use a Radial Labs Switchbone.

I pared my amp rig down from 3 to 2, and one of those is mostly just for practicing, so I was going to sell the Switchbone. As I was editing the pics for ebay, I started thinking about what a valuable tool that is, even if you are not doing mid-song switching: tuner out, selectable mute or boost, not having to recable based on what amp I wanted to use...

Consequently, it never made it on to ebay, and I cabled it back into my system today.

And yes, you can run two amps at once with it. Very cool.

Beware of cheaper units; they will be noisy, there will be a drop in level when running both amps at once, there will be a pop when switching, etc.

The Switchbone is expensive, but it is too valuable to be without, IMO.


- E.

[Zabel Zarock]

Another vote here for the Bigshot ABY. Found out about it after searching for a noisless solution to switch between my 5150 and roland as I was using a boss line selector at the time.

Managed to snag one off of the bay for a reasonable price.

[srommes]

I use the Mesa High Gain Amp Switcher. It's a pretty basic unit but it is complete quiet and doesn't color your tone.

[skorb]

doesn't Jerry Cantrell run two amps at once that way, a Mesa and a Marshall together to get his bone-crushing tone? you cover much more of the tonal spectrum that way, it really thickens things up.