Guide to hooking up two guitar amps together

[@jamesflickinger1363]

Very nice. A no BS answer with no bragging and showing off all your equipment. Good video. :)

[@davidsams63]

This is a fantastic video, so many videos on youtube extol the virtues of these setups but fail to adequately explain how to achieve it. This is so clear and well done, thank you so much

[@tysonrinker5958]

True dat. My goal has been a 2 amp rig for the past 2 years and I have finally achieved my goal. Hooking up in 2 days and now I know what I could run into and how to fix

[@Shelscast]

Totally agree. It's so much better than other videos! Well done axescent.

[@Cymanytb]

Hi ! Sorry for replying here but can I hook up any two amps together? I'm thinking of hooking up two katana 100s

[@mindfall82]

@@Cymanytb if you use 2 exact same amps you shouldn't have phase issues

[@Cymanytb]

@@mindfall82 okay, thanks

[@Kristiekambourakis]

By far the best explanation, without a ton of small talk, and with actually useful information.

[@kaneo67]

Best description ever.I finally get it. I tried to watch "that pedal show" version and they were just know-all dorks, with lots of assumed knowledge(and money!) needed. You just break it down and say it plainly and normally

[@Les537]

How did youtube know I've started thinking about running two amps. Get out of my head. Nice vid, dude.

[@paulpugh5315]

Thanks for a great demo.....no faffin around....just straight to the point...( when guys start going off peiste i move on).....👍👍👍👍

[@keithclark486]

KZbin didn't know , You obviously searched this out. It's all in the head The brain is the most powerful thing , the way one thinks.

[@Stevebergeron2000]

About the phase, if you don't have a true ABY box: you can hook an overdrive or a boost before one of the amps. That should reverse the phase. About the ground loop issue, if you don't have a true ABY box: insert a buffer (a non-true bypass pedal) before one of the amps. That will kill the ground loop (without killing you in the process).

[@xebio6]

Congrats! I'd never actually SEEN phasing before!

[@playAgainMe]

thx for posting. i know little about this but the way you explained made more sense to me than the way it jas explained in the past. i'm definitely going the wet dry route for now on.

[@treorross99]

This is the best video on how to running 2 amps. Thanks

[@altonmichaels5081]

Great video with simple technical breakdown. I ran ABY & direct interface back in the 80s & you could piggyback off those as well. Look forward to more from you. Thanks

[@tommoyer4697]

best simple video...watches a few others .did not really understand. Im just starting and this was the basics thanks again

[@ArsOb-DWD-KSC]

Good points about rehearsal vs. gigging in stereo

[@jontangenes9275]

Well, it depend on how many instrumets there are in the band.

[@denismguitar1552]

Dual mono with a tiny delay (4-6ms) on one amp is awesome.

[@shaneam72]

Great video.!. I've been interested in how to run two amps together,along with getting that ping pong effect. Your tutorial was easily understood. I've been playing guitar since a kid.. But running 2 amps is something I've never put much thought into. KZbin.You gotta love it.

[@sullym1867]

Simplest and best video I have saw on the subject.

[@kesiktash]

I was looking for a proper way to go stereo as I plan to trigger soft synths through guitar jam on ipad and not to loose the original guitar signal and sound. I even checked out Parker guitars and other piezo/conventional solutions and was quite close to a needless purchase. So thank you very much! Cheers!

[@JordanEsker]

Great explanation. Two questions though. 1) Say I DID want to run stereo out of my stereo effects pedal into two different amps. What would need to go between my pedal and my two amps in order to avoid ground hum? I think you didn't fully answer that since that's rarely able to be done at a venue, but I'd still like to know! 2) To run a wet/dry signal path: The last three pedals in my chain are chorus > delay > reverb. I'm thinking of ending my dry signal chain after the chorus and ending my wet chain after the reverb. However, this seems it would present the same ground loop issue. So I guess the two questions are really just how do I run two different signals into two different amps without ground loop? Because the Radial BigShot only has one input.

[@CaptainCraigKWMRZ]

On stage, I used to use a splitter to go to my Marshall Bluesbreaker on one side and a Roland 120 Jazz Chorus on the other. I could toggle between them for clean and distorted passages or both on for balls out.

[@theodore738]

If you have problems with ground loop hum I recommend checking out the hum-x. Works wonders for me!

[@thegreatpatsy]

Awesome video, especially the part about being out of phase. I was always wondering what the hell was going on with that! Makes perfect sense now.

[@williamholzman8600]

Thank you man. I enjoyed it. And am glad that learned more than I expected. Really well presentation. If I apply this, man it would be fantastic.

[@dmeemd7787]

I was starting to mention the 'other way' and how to do it safely but stopped since you made a statement about it right because it's too easy to do it unsafely... ALSO, ground loops inside the guitar itself is an issue I've fixed for a lot of people over the years as well (and also don't forget that [cliché example, lol] that strats are noisy, low battery in active setups can make a lot of hissing, etc... aaaaanyway, lol, there are a lot of damn variables and examples...lol. (and this comment is to everyone btw. Great video man!!

[@horstdunoch3546]

Never had such noise wether I used my two Hiwatts or a Hiwatt and Fender. They're all solidstate. I go through tuner, 3 fuzz pedals, a tube distortion and stereo begins with the stereo univibe, then stereo distortion and quadriphonic multifx (2 channels in the amps, 2 channels for the drum machine that goes into mixer).

[@Bkintz32]

My Blackstar has a ground lift. and I also have a Humx. I play in a lot of older buildings. so I just wanted to prepared. but now I want to hook both amps together. cool video

[@robertYTB78g]

Great video, so clearly and well explained. Thanks for posting

[@squirrel7t7]

I totally get it now after you explained how phase is basically polarity and by switching positive and negative wires on the lead you can get around not having a phase switch pedal. Nobody explained it like that before.

[@DoubleBarrelDarrell]

Thank you for this video. It was very informative and helped me figure out the solutions for using two amps.

[@MichaelHuff63]

Thanks for the very good explanation, very nicely done!!

[@andrewkremer8545]

Nice visual of in and out of phase! Thank you!!

[@crispycrunch1077]

Thanks for the info. I'm getting the HOTSHOT

[@jwbookout]

Thanks for your info and experience. Very clear and helpful

[@moimeme7839]

If you use the a/b switch to play over a loop, you can have an orange micro crush or another amp with aux input. You plug a preamp with effect modulator in chain with your looper into the aux input and the A section. You plug B section in your pedalboard into the amp. The looper will play in aux input while you switch directly in the amp for your lead tone. There is many way you can do it you can put your effects before the a/b switch and only a preamp and looper after in section A. And go direct into the amp in section B

[@mattg082]

Great video! I do wonder as some may have access to the speakers…some grill clothes come off and you don’t see much moving. You probably could put something over the speaker that’s thing, to see if it’s sucking in or out. My brain crapped out for a bit figuring it out. But the key was to see what happens when the nite resolves. Here you’re just doing half time type strums. I was just hitting a long E. So I figured when the note resolves, if the speaker pops foward…out of phase. If the speaker pops back when it resolves in phase. I personally just do A/B only one amp at a time. Because running two amps…if you turn one off, volume will drop. However, it can be nice to punch a heavy gain one in and out. That’s how I like to do it! One amp mostly clean and gets the entire board. Dirty amp is dirty, and has no effects. So when switching it’s just a lot tighter sound to get out of say 3 effects pedals stacked…without having to have a Gigrig or scene programmable board. This one helps a lot! As I was having issues in a room figuring it out. I’ll have to get a cloth and stretch it out over the cab to see which way it’s pulling. It’s a bit difficult just looking at the speaker for me sometimes. And some grill clothes are just solid and don’t move at all.

[@iamnoone4046]

Bro great video in teaching us! Learned all about it, thank you so much!!!

[@plantagenant]

Really nice, simple to understand explanation. Cheers.

[@dannyrivers3922]

Just for anyone who doesn't understand why a sound guy, the guy who's suppose to give you your sound to the audience and we'll, doesn't pan...Panning is pointless for live shows. Even if sound guy put you in stereo like you want him to. One amp through left main, other amp through right main. The audience on left main speaker won't hear the right pan on right main speaker, and vice versa. Which is exactly why sound guys don't do it and a lot of time don't even run in stereo. The few people that are exactly in the middle. Literally right in the middle might hear it but that's a very small percentage and the sound guys goal is making you sounds good to everyone not a very small percentage.

[@lotromaster14]

Danny Rivers maybe if you put the cab sideways it might help?

[@tysonrinker5958]

True

[@joeguy6351]

@@lotromaster14 ?

[@meltyboys946]

long speaker cables... You run both amps and use 4 cabs... you have 1 cab for each amp on each side.. seems annoying but honestly it sends your stereo sound to both sides of the house because you're running two amps and 4 cabs amp 1 sends a signal to cab A1 and B1 amp 2 sends a signal to cab B1 and B2 Left side is A1 + B1 and right side is A2 + B2. Seems complicated but you end up with an excellent live sound. Use 2x12's if you don't like 4x12's... Or even 1x12s because you'd be running 4 four cabs so 4 speakers would be enough.

[@jontangenes9275]

The sound guy doesnt have to pan your stereo guitar 100% , right. His job, during the sound test, is also to walk around in the crowd area, and check if the panning is to hard. .

[@angelocos1]

@axescent: You did a fantastic job on this subject

[@johnirizarry5135]

Very informative. Well presented as well. Thanks!!

[@uptownphotography]

Great information, especially about staying safe. Well done. Phil NYC / Jersey Shore Area

[@DaisyHead666]

You can also do this with the Boss tuner pedals. They have a bypass jack aswell as a normal, and they dont do anything to your sound. Plus you get a tuner, so..

[@mickeyphillipsBTC]

What about a DI box? When I re-amp into 2 amplifiers I take my line out of my interface using a 1/4 male - XLR female cable into the xlr side of a DI box. Than I just run guitar cables from the in/out 1/4 jacks from the DI into each amp and lift the ground. Id imagine you could do the same by just plugging a guitar in to the xlr end of the DI... wonder if it would still cause a phase issue 🤔

[@clintonsmith1774]

Awesome video. Great job at keeping it simple and understandable

[@AlexanderSchwend]

This video saved me of making a big mistake. Thanks for sharing!

[@DavidMorisset]

Lehle has a stereo ABY called the little dual with a phase and isolated ground. Its awesome

[@joearlinghaus8497]

Solid info, in plain English. Bravo. Thanks!

[@DeboCox]

Awesome, well-reasoned, thoughtful video. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on the subject. Looks like I need a Radial Big Shot. Seems to do everything I'll need.

[@Spaghetti_policy]

One of the better video lessons. Thx🤘 cheers

[@Marksession]

Had this experimental idea to getting a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 for it's cleans but putting my Peavey VTM 120 on top for the distortion, (using JC-120 as a cab) but afraid of blowing it out

[@davidbuzzin426]

I want to run with that radial aby box with a clean combo amp with its own effect pedals in input A & my main Marshall head /cabs which is my primary main dirty system in input B. are they both isolated from each other & maybe at times when I turn my volume knob on the guitar blend a dirty clean Marshall system with a very clean combo amp system together without their own SEPERATE effect blending in ? what's the best way, please notify thanx.

[@projectmonk9673]

Once you have both amplifiers connected through the ABY pedal, how do you change amplifier channels at the same time???

[@rockyesterline7942]

On my fender hot rod deluxe 40 amp tube Iran's preamp out into the front of my crate amp and burned up my hotrod deluxe rectifier just had it repaired when I run it out of my preamp out into my mixer and through the speakers it was always fine

[@GermanSharp1]

Sonny you just saved one of my amp speakers 😂 sometimes it pays to not experiment and actually look for an answer

[@bjrn-olleolle3141]

I do want the stereo pingpong delay though.

[@gregdavidson5898]

What did they do in the 60's to daisy chain 2 guitar amps together? (Like Mike Bloomfield)

[@vectragt2310]

Great video! Stupid question maybe... is there no signal loss by splitting up the signal?

[@preciseaudioblog]

Hi! Is it possible to set that Boss Chorus in the fx loop of both amps at the same time? Anyone? Thank you

[@avii_jit]

I have a Blackstar Id core(40watt) and a Boss katana (50watt). Can I connect them together and play music from my phone??? I just want to play music from my phone with 2 amps act like one. Not guitar. Please tell..🙏

[@squidwardjtentacles]

If using an aby switch where does it sit in the chain with a pedalboard using a looper as the last pedal

[@underpressureman]

thanks, cool demonstration of the speaker phase!

[@artdecco8617]

nice, easy explanation and helpful. Thanks

[@JohnLaFosse]

I built a guitar cab and after a bit of research bought a Eminence GA-SC64 8ohm with a 40w power rating. As an impulse buy I found a Vox VT50 modeling amp with a tube in it. It is 50w. It also has an external speaker out at 8ohm which turns off the internal speaker. After talking with tech support and reading the manual for the Vox, I realize my "mistake" however Eminence tech is saying the GA-SC64 is really a 50 w speaker. And so I'm going to try it in a day or two seeing the cabinet is not here as it is being re-stained and polyurethaned. On top of all of the confusion, I want to record via Direct box for a dry signal so I can reamp it later after recording is said and done. And so, after hearing the internal speaker and the Eminence, I may decide to build a different cab with a 16ohm and replace the internal with a 16ohm wiring the internal and external as if it were not a 1x12 combo amp but a 2x12 combo amp with an 8ohm impedance. What are your thoughts? A salesman at guitar center suggested just getting a 20w amp head for $179.00 for the cabinet build. He was like just buy a head for the cabinet. Am I making this two confusing. The principal is to have a wide variety of tone choices and reamping with the VT50, seeing it is 22 amps as one, might be very useful for mixing later on. I looked at a greenback 16ohm with perhaps another 16ohm celestron and find this might be what I really want albeit the eminence is a solid speaker as well. Selling the custom cab seems more likely.

[@boddumblues]

Neutrik makes very small transformer isolators that work fine, Palmer makes one as well, and it has jack in/jack out. With Neutrik you need a female XLR - jack for it to work.

[@ruggie.74]

I have a 50w Plexi and a 50w Silver Jubilee hand-wired clone amps. Can I connect both these amps to my 4x12 cabinet and blend the sound together? How exactly would I wire that? Both my amps can do 4/8/16 ohms, and my cabinet has 3 inputs: an 8ohm Left stereo input that is also a 4ohm mono input, an 8ohm Right stereo input, and a 16ohm mono input. I'd like the tones of my two amps to be blended. What about my effects? Would I put my pre-amp effects like overdrive and wah-wah in front of the Plexi, and then all my other effects like reverb and my EQ pedal in the FX loop of the one of the two amps? Thanks!

[@davidbuzzin426]

It's buzz again, I probably have to start with my guitar plugged in the ABY 1st, correct ? to have amp system clean with its own effects A input & than amp system dirty with its own effects B input ? please & thanx to confirm.

[@alexvaldivia1855]

David Buzzin aby should be in first

[@janverduyckt1075]

Thank you, it's a very good informative video! Though I have 2 questions. Can you not put the effect pedals before the ABY switcher? Then it would be possible to use reverb and delay on both amps I would think. Or can you put those effect in the fx loops of the amplifiers and run them stereo this way?

[@axescent]

yes you can totally do what you commented. thanks a bunch for watching

[@janverduyckt1075]

+axescent ok, thanks for answering! though i was wondering again :p i want to use a vox ac30 for my clean playing and my marshall jcm900 for distortion. But if I put like delay and reverb in de fx loop of my Vox and put them in stereo by connecting them witch my fx loop from my marshall, will i still be able to use only my vox ac30 for cleans with those effects? or will my marshall always be part of the sound then even though i have an aby switch in front of the amps. Sorry for all the questions

[@thisdyingsoul76]

I could be wrong, but I would think your marshall would always be part of the sound if you ran an effect into the loops of both amps. Especially if the chorus only has one input. Then I would think you will get the preamp of the AC30 going into your Marshall... The result would include your Marshall's power section at the very least. If you had a pedal that was both stereo in and stereo out, you might be able to have one or the other or both depending if you use an ABY box too and how the pedal can be configured to work.

[@stephenfell4338]

how do you connect your true stereo effects units in stereo using 2 Amps and both send and return loops ?

[@stephenfell4338]

Jan Verduyckt how do you do that but using the send and return loops as i dont want to go through the pre amp

[@777jordan]

The Lehle SGOS also solves the stereo problem because it has stereo ins & outs.

[@ColtraneTaylor]

Is there a way to plug an Marshall MG10 into a Fender Champion 40? I wanted to use the Fender speaker (which is cheaper than most cabinets).

[@martinhmh7]

Excellent video. Is it possible that phasing is reduced with different amps or by applying different effects to different amps?

[@laurimckay3049]

Can I run my digitec RP 10 into two amps..efeects loop return..for stereo sound.. ?

[@deancramer]

Nice video-I was just hearing about the amp phasing yesterday. Go O's!

[@danim5881]

Couldn’t you just use a noise gate to get rid of that hum? Great video btw helped a lot I’m looking into that radial seems like a great product.

[@hdeline]

Great vid for sure......But don't you also need an aby with transformer isolate switch that toggles from isolate to direct for extra safety?

[@jasonarnold5107]

Shocking lesson. Thanks

[@thisdyingsoul76]

Great video. Answered quite a few questions I had. ....but.... With a head and cab, instead of swapping on end of the wires inside your speaker cable; couldn't you technically swap one end of the wires inside the cab that connect the speakers to the Jack? I can't help think that if you are trying to avoid soldering, the inside of the cab might be the way to do this as long as the leads to the speakers are using a coupler or a clip instead of being soldered.

[@vivaldi1954]

It would have been useful if you demonstrated the AB pedal with the ground lift applied. Many times the ground lift does nothing.

[@user-oe9ho7yb5x]

two questions 1. So using a wet/dry setup avoids ground hum and phase? Means i dont need an ABY with phase and ground switches? Would be at least cheaper 2. where do i place my volume pedal when playing wet/dry? At end of all effects would still send a signal to the dry amp wouldnt it?

[@gottagettruth]

You are sooooo good at this. You should make videos!

[@bloodybanner7167]

I had to resolder a stero cable to get my wah pedal to work through my digital effects pedall

[@johnsilver2039]

Would you be able to use an ABY box to connect an amp head to a combo amp to use the speaker as a cab.? If no, how would you do this? Do you know?

[@itsmechris14]

what about hooking up a mini 6505 head into a bigger different head/brand using the effects loop?

[@infiniteandroid]

Thanks man!!!!… very informative!!!!…. I got this thought in my head that I could use a fender bass amp and a fender 2 x 12 at the same time …..I mean …why not. It can’t be that bad but ….I don’t know how to do it so thanks man most likely it’ll be horrible but I’m gonna try it

[@ffs_auggie]

Could you tell me if there would be any problems with this setup? Guitar--->Overdrive--->Morley ABY Pro. One output would go to an amp, the other output would go to a DD20 and the dd20 would then go out to 2 amps. Trying to go for a brian may sort of delay.

[@SammyBones]

You can also use two tuners, like a TU2 or TU3 by Boss.

[@JordanEsker]

Does that work with a stereo setup? And does that avoid ground loop hum?

[@PrincePloppy]

Nice video. Essentially all you need is an audio transformer to lift the ground hum. It has to be running as a true ground isolated circuit. then the phase switch is also easy to put in too, as this just switches the output from the transformer. That being said the problem comes if you are running different pedals after the Y switch. Then the phase may be reversed by distortion and overdrive pedals. And will give you a true out of phase between the two amps, or in one amp running in parallel input mode. I've thought about running a transformer with every pedal that flips the phase, through a pedal switching board that i'd have to make. Thoughts..

[@starryeyedgirl87]

Thank for this video! Very helpful.

[@guitarguts666]

Also what about two amps heads into one mono 4x12 cabinet? Mainly as a failsafe, but also if you want to either blend or A/B between heads for tonal reasons? How would one do this?

[@MrSandydillon]

Can you run your pedals after that box the big shot and then into the two different amps

[@findanewgoddd]

im using a Boss dd7's double output to connect my bass amp to my guitar amp, it used to work at the same time, but now only the bass amp has signal and the guitar amp has signal when i stomp on it. and when i stomp on it, it amplifies the all the other effects. no cables or arrangement of pedals has changed, it just randomly stopped working with two outputs.... could the double output on my pedal be broken?

[@_death_3047]

Could you possibly use a noise gate to cancel out the unwanted noise? I could be completely wrong, but it’s just a thought.

[@NinthDensity]

Jarred Alicie Yes but when you’re playing quietly and the gate opens, you will still hear the noise.

[@s4lroachclip]

This is only stereo set up using the amps, how do i connect marshall dsl 401 to a dsl40c using the speaker as an ext cab and not have use both amps, (saving on sets of tubes)?

[@davidbuzzin426]

thanx for the education session, very helpful. Cheers bro !

[@ignoranceisnotablessing615]

someone told me that i could just connect both heads through there effects loops and then connect it to my one cab. thoughts???

[@renatooliveira6727]

Awesome vid man, thanks a lot. Hey, what about using the fx loop to enslave amps? Any tips?

[@tallica8145]

Very good explanation mate, cheers

[@boabglen]

Hi there. Thanks for the video. I'm wanting to run a wet dry setup. I have a Mesa Boogie 2x12 a Peavey classic 30 1x12. I want to use my Mesa as my main amp for drives and use the Peavey to put the delays and reverbs in. I also want to be able to run my delays and reverbs in my Mesa too though when just using the one amp or if I'm using the two amps? Not sure if it's possible to have it switched between a wet dry to stereo with the flick of a button? At least I want the wet dry plus the use of the mesa with the delays (in the fx loop of the mesa) I am new to this kind of setup and it's blowing my tiny mind on how to do it. I've got a sore head with it all. I'd love to be to do a wet dry stereo mix. I thought I'd ask you as you seem to be pretty informative to a lot of the other rack videos. Thanks

[@jacksoncrate]

good work buddy. appreciate that

[@scottpettigrew1304]

my Peavy rage amp has a pre amp out feature! works great,too!

[@Blueguitar007]

On the bigshot what is the difference between the iso tranny and the lift switches? Also, if running a generic morly switch after the bigshot to do three amps, wouldnt the two amps coing out of the morley be prone to ground hum?

[@terrykopec95]

Can you use 2 Different amps or it has to be the same

[@1p618-p3u]

Can you provide a list w/links of all the aby boxes you suggested? Easier than trying to keep pausing the video and trying to visually peel off the screen what brand/model I’m looking at. You could even make a few bucks using Amazon affiliate links. Thx!