Wet/Dry/Wet vs. Stereo vs. Mono Guitar Setups | What Do They Actually Sound Like?

[@sweetwater]

It's your pedalboard routing deep dive! What's your favorite kind of setup?

[@jaredheld2672]

Where’s Mason’s famous wah pedal?

[@marcuslewitzki4610]

I'm working on setting up a wet/dry/wet rig myself but my plan was to have the guitar go into the dry effect pedals and then into a splitter where one cable going to the dry amp and the other going through all the wet effects - flanger > chorus and then into the Gig Rigs "Wetter Box" that allows me to mix between stereo reverb and delay, and then continuing out left/right to a Palmer PLI-05 isolation box, continuing into the front of my two wet amps. Is there a reason Mason didn't have the left/right wet effects go into the front of the wet amps? He chose to go to their FX-return input jacks instead.

[@gioevo111]

@@marcuslewitzki4610 because he wanted to bypass the amps preamp section? In the returns, the combo amp just acts as a speaker. Right?

[@daughtersofdivorce6803]

"Yep." Seriously though, fabulous video. Such a simple yet comprehensive breakdown of so many concepts in a lovely, graduated type lesson plan.

[@louderthangod]

I went wet/dry/wet about a year ago and absolutely love it for recording and in the room it’s magical sounding.

[@dialect64]

So, how many bassists here? Ive been following Mason's pedalboard tutorials for insights for a while! Running a stereo rig on bass is way fun, especially if you dont have a guitarist, so all sonic character is dependent on you, and you can get creative!

[@DrMattWalton]

Best explanation yet of the differences between all the rig types…I’ve seen all the videos. Thank you!

[@willharrison]

I agree!

[@hendrixluis9175]

yep.

[@peterschaefer1665]

Best volume pedal ever btw!

[@chesspaws]

Thorough, educational, and cool.

[@nelic182]

thanks lads! just what i was looking for

[@barron267]

Great video! Thank you. I really feel like stereo setups are the most professional sounding rigs for a rock player, especially for the 80’s stuff I play.

[@amdenis]

Really informative and concise. Great job on that board too-- especially without using a midi-controllable switch like a Morning Glory, or a programmable multi-effects unit like a Helix. Mason, you make it look almost easy to do, and great presentation as always Mitch. You guys make EXCELLENT videos together. Thanks guys!

[@howardbwade]

You can definitely do wet/dry or wet/dry/wet into the front of both amps rather than using an effects loop. This allows you to use a somewhat over driven sound from the dry amp and a cleaner amp for the wet effects. This is how my rig is set up. It’s sounds terrific. You can use very different amps tonally to great affect with this method. This works especially well with a harmonic tremolo going only to the wet amp. Totally killer. You can absolutely do this with a couple of Princetons. Or better yet a Princeton and a totally different sounding amp with a 10” speaker like a Vox AC10. I refer you to the numerous episodes of That Pedal Show on the subject.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

You can elect to use the preamps in multiple amps, however it's not an advantage to introduce these separate preamps as the wet processing sounds best if it's somewhat linear and clear relative to the original dry sound. When you start adding multiple preamps into the mix you're going to add noise, you're also adding color as the preamp is where all the EQs are located as well most of the gain stages. The idea in a classic wet/dry/wet rig is that you have one preamp, and multiple power amps being fed by that same preamp section. If you really want the color of all three amps preamp and power amp sections, you might as well run a three way splitter with the effects in front. The Wet/Dry/Wet thing is really a studio application for adding processing effects in parallel as a consequence of must studio gear only running at line level and being return only (100% wet) requiring a mixer to integrate it with typical guitar rigs of the day.

[@howardbwade]

Fair enough. First let me say that it ain’t my first rodeo. I was already aware of all the concepts you mention. It all makes sense. My particular rig uses two amps without effects loops. The wet amp, an Alessandro Boxer, is running quite clean so there’s your relatively linear path for time based effects. Granted it does color things somewhat but it’s really like your first example, ie running everything into the front end of a clean amp. The dry amp is a 5E3 deluxe running at edge of breakup, not really high gain at all for a tweed. This combo sounds fantastic. As I’m sure you’re aware all these so called rules are meant to be broken. Neil Young runs his Fender tube reverb into a heavily distorted Tweed Deluxe. So go figure. I’d love to try the single preamp into effects returns setup at some point. As to the noise problem I use a Gigrig G3 loop switcher. It’s 2 outputs are transformer isolated. The second output is phase reversible. The rig is very quiet.

[@JimCardoza]

WDW Definitely sounds and feels the best

[@tdrake59]

What a great and informative video.

[@Tvaroh]

Very useful and nicely presented, gents. Just the treble frequencies lost somewhere in the recording process. :D

[@albertonunez1616]

yep....yep..... yep... Yeah....yep...ye

[@RobertFisher1969]

My favorite wet/dry/wet-ish setup is using a Roland/Boss VG system where I run the conventional pickups into a mono rig while the VG emulates different pickups, amps, & effects to drive the stereo amps. My mono rig was usually used a multi-effects unit too, so the physical setup wasn’t much more complicated than a regular W/D/W. The only sad part is that not all my guitars have hex-pickups to take advantage of the setup.

[@themanwhostolethetone]

Stereo 5 cables and wey/dry/wet is the same setup. However in all of these setups except Mono/Stereo Front Amp you will have problems using the tremolo style effects.

[@bok2bok333]

That was awesome thank you.

[@shantbajac]

I wish you guys can do an epispde of the same for ampless rigs.

[@gerosinsuan]

On the Vertex Effects channel, Mason already has one uploaded incase you haven't yet checked it out.

[@greenguitarfish]

For wet dry wet….couldn’t you just plug your guitar into a Boss LS2 line selector and split the signal, then run the dry into a dirty center amp, and the wet into a stereo pedal at the end of the time based effects chain, then into 2 clean amps ? 🤔

[@ericrobison4560]

Where can I purchase that interface box?

[@JRP3music]

I do wet/dry/wet with a Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8 sending line out to stereo fx. WAH, overdrive, are before amp. I use either my Mesa Nomad100 or EVH 5150 III EL34 50 watt heads. Stereo fx go to a Stereo pair of Two Notes Torpedo Cab M plus IR boxes. I run 2 Orange Micro Terrors and cabs for stereo. I mic the dry only cab with the stereo.

[@savoirfaire8979]

Your setup with a Captor and two CABs is unnecessary.

[@JRP3music]

@@savoirfaire8979 No it's not. I can use it stereo with or without the use of the dry cab. I use it silent all the time or amplified. At rehearsal I only use a dry cab behind me and send the stereo out to stereo monitors. It sounds awesome and wide. I don't run it the full 100% wet. I don't want my tone overly effected. I try to use minimal fx and have enough choices for stereo imagery. Even when I play at a venue that is mono, I will hear my amps in stereo. I get very consistent results how I use my gear. The Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8 allows me to get the preamp and powersection to drive my fx in parallel to stereo fx. The dual Two Notes Torpedo Cab M plus IR DI boxes allow me to have consistent accurate cab mic blends. I am very happy I discovered this setup. I can use it with any amp. I am glad I didn't follow the Kemper/Fractal digital amp thing. The biggest point is it works for me. I still have mics for running sound. I just prefer this for my set up. I mic the dry cab when I choose to blend a separate dry cab.

[@Lync1111]

Sweet Waters - Can you invite Joe Satriani or Jesse Johnson from "The Time" on one of your shows? Both of these guitar players has such unique sounds out there it would be amazing to hear how they go about rigging up their rigs.

[@dialect64]

On the point of live sound typically being mono, vs studios having more control to create stereo ... My solution is that I basically just have a dry amp and a wet amp, but the signal to my wet has an H9 as last in chain. Live, the wet is mono, yet defined from the dry enough (via eq settings and pitch shifting etc). But I have the option in my studio to have stereo on wet effects. I have even ran my rig to output 5 channels to my mixer, giving me loads of tracks to blend any mixdown I desire. Is this a good way to approach it?

[@dialect64]

ok, it all just clicked for me in the wet/dry/wet section at 44:30... gonna pick up a duplicate of my wet amp and just be stereo always 🤣😂

[@DirtyMikeTM]

I have a question. If I have a wet dry wet setup and I use a line out box goin into and out the speaker input on amp and the speaker cab itself? Also do I need a load box, whatever that is?

[@PuRe_AdDicT]

I feel using line out of dry amp to feed wet(s) is kinda limiting, you can never go full wet.

[@joeschlicht]

How would you do a wet/dry/wet with three amps that don't have effects loops? I have recently tried running stereo with two different amps and I'm blown away the difference (in hugeness and tone)... but I have a third amp... so why not, eh? But they are all vintage style amps with no FX loops. Would an A/B/Y box do the trick properly?

[@sweetwater]

Hi, Joe. Sounds like this rig is going to be awesome! You’ll need to run a signal splitter after your last mono pedal and before your first stereo pedal (typically after drive pedals and before any time based effects). One side of the split will go to your center/dry amp. The other side will run into your first stereo effect. From there you can continue through your pedal chain in stereo and then run out to your left and right wet amps. For the splitter, I would recommend either the Lehle P-Split or JHS Buffered Splitter. Thanks for your interest! Charlie Davis, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, [phone] ext. 1320, [e-mail]

[@joeschlicht]

@@sweetwater thanks. Will look into a splitter 👍

[@danielconrad764]

You should really consider a power station PS2 by fryette (one for each of your three amps). This would not only act as a world class attenuator for your vintage amps (first advantage) but would also give each amp its own effects loop (second advantage). Third advantage, you could also connect the three amps to one another to achieve wet dry wet through each of the power stations, and control the levels of each of the three amps from the power stations. Fourth advantage, you now can run your modulation in the effects loops of the two wet amps (via the power stations) rather than through the front of amp. Surprised sweetwater didn't offer this up - it's the better routing option for you while also up-selling three fryette power stations for sweetwater.

[@joeschlicht]

@danielconrad764 got it worked out with a p split and the parallel sw. Thanks for the alt suggestion, though. Maybe down to road...

[@bok2bok333]

For wet dry wet.....can I do it this way? Guitar into distortion pedals then into ABY box. A goes out to my Fender deluxe reverb. The ABY box is running as Both....ie A and B The ABY box (B) then goes into modulation pedals running in stereo. Take two cables out the left and right outputs of the last stereo pedal and go into two channels of a PA. This gives me a dry sound through the fender deluxe.....and two wet Chanel's on the PA to pan. I would also have a mic in front of the fender deluxe going to the PA....giving me three Chanel's. Would this work well?

[@jcromanh]

Finally this topic well explained!! Question about stereo, 5 Cable method. What is the best way to control the volume and eq of the power amp receiving the “main” amp preamp into the return FX. Is it necessary for the amp have a Master Volume? Currently having issues with that thanks!! 👌 Just for reference I am running this method using a Friedman Small box (main amp) into a Peavey 6505 (power amp)

[@sweetwater]

Hi, JC. For your stereo return amps you would want a master volume since you otherwise wouldn't have any control over the amp's level. There aren't many amps that have an FX loop that don't have a master so that shouldn't be an issue. As for the EQ, since you're bypassing the EQ of the amp by using the FX Loop return/power amp in, if you're wanting to EQ the stereo amps, you would need to have a stereo EQ in line before you get to the amps. Thanks for your interest! Charlie Davis, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, [phone] ext. 1320, [e-mail]

[@coopertulip]

@@sweetwater can you please tell us the name of the interface box (which was used on this video or similar product) on Sweetwater?

[@Arthagnou]

What if you had a stereo output jack (which is installed on the guitar in place of the mono jack)...how do you split the stereo in the single cable to a set of amps?

[@TheRealThomasPaine1776]

Where does a stereo guitar, like an ES355 fit in to this? Its complicated enough already!

[@peterschaefer1665]

Great video Mitch and great pedalboard! Two questions if I may; what mini humbucker is in your strat. Secondly when you were demonstrating wet/dry/wet, did you change the settings in the wet effects? I.e. kill dry?

[@VertexEffectsInc]

No, these all had the dry signal in them. There wouldn't be a reason to make them 100% wet (kill dry) unless they were in a mixer in parallel. Really with the wet/dry/wet rigs of old, they were really just trying to creating stereo rigs with the studio gear they had available to them. Running a 5 cable method, if it existed back then, would've really been what they were going for but just didn't have the gear that could accommodate it. Often the Dry amp never had a cabinet, just a load or was a cabinet off stage that then feed the wet effects with the dry mixed into them for a stereo spread.

[@trebleboost7]

I was wondering about this as well.

[@trebleboost7]

That is - the kill-dry aspect.

[@sweetwater]

Thanks for watching and for your questions! There is a Seymour Duncan Little ’59 neck pickup in the bridge of my Strat. I find the neck version balances better with the single-coils in the neck and middle positions than the bridge version - but that’s just me. As for the effects, ideally, you’d run them 100% wet. It won’t hurt to leave the dry on, but you won’t get quite the separation of the L/R wet amps and the center dry amp. Hope this helps! Mitch

[@peterschaefer1665]

@@sweetwater Thanks Mitch!

[@daviddixon7326]

Does Sweetwater sell that Vertex interface? Couldn’t find it on your website.

[@coopertulip]

I have that same question. I don't know where to get that interface. They mentioned it's prototype but also mentioned that Sweetwater is selling it.. Or something like it. I didn't find that product or something like it on Sweetwater.

[@Shadboltification]

If you're running wet/dry/wet would you run into any phasing issues?

[@sweetwater]

Hi and thanks for your question, JC. The only phasing issue I’m aware of with w/d/w rigs is when you don’t have the wet effects mix at 100%. Since there’s a digital effect in the wet cabs, a “dry” signal could have a negative phase relationship with the signal in the center DRY cab due to a/d-d/a conversion. Typically it’s not an issue. Please contact us direct with other questions as you have them! Robert Williams, Senior Sweetwater Sales Engineer, [phone] ext. 2371, [e-mail]

[@darksidebilly]

On the wet dry setup, if you use a chorus pedal, it only goes to the wet amp, but when you use a drive pedal, does it go to both amps, or just the dry one?

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Chorus in this set up is going to the wet amps after the dry preamp. Drive pedals are before the preamp.

[@darksidebilly]

@@VertexEffectsInc I know, I was just curious if you had chorus on and the tube screamer on, would the tube screamer be on both amps? Or does it just play on the dry one and chorus only plays on the wet amp

[@pigboypunk]

so many questions...this should be divided into separate hour-long videos for each type... basically, i have distortion, chorus and a flanger/phaser - can i connect both the chorus and flanger/phaser in stereo(to make the sound wobble from one side to the other of both effects)? going into a marshall with a 4x12 and a roland jazz chorus. oh, also, i have a boss volume pedal at the end of the pedalboard(2xin , 2xout). can anyone help, please?

[@sweetwater]

Hi, thanks for your interest! Assuming your chorus and flanger both have stereo I/O, you can absolutely connect them both in stereo. From your last mono pedal, you would go into the mono input of your first stereo pedal - then connect the left and right outputs to the left and right inputs of the next stereo pedal - and so on until you go out from your stereo volume pedal into both amps. I hope this helps a bit - feel free to contact me directly with any further questions, and thanks again! Caleb Lowrey, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, [phone] ext. 1620, [e-mail]

[@pigboypunk]

@@sweetwater thanks! for some weird reason i thought the chorus would go through only one amp but, of course, it goes through both...and the flanger is panning from one side to the other...sweet as! thanks for your help. let's make some fukking noise!!!

[@ZigbertD]

Hey Mason of Mitch, question for you. I have a Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe delay (purchased from Sweetwater, natch) , and one of it's great features is its completely faithful analog recreation of the EP3 preamp section, which has a very distinctive tone when hitting the input of an amp's preamp section. In fact I have the internal dip switch set to always have the pedal preamp on. Do you think it will have the same kind of tone if I use it in the effects loop?

[@sweetwater]

Thanks for watching! If signal passing through the pedal is being colored by the preamp, then I would assume that the coloration would be present in both a guitar-level and an effects-loop-level signal. I haven’t tried that particular pedal in this application, but my question would be, with the preamp, will the level in the effects loop work out properly? The good news is, you won’t hurt anything by connecting it in front of the amp or in the loop. Try both and see which you prefer! All best, Mitch

[@matthiashubler3401]

Hi, where and how can I buy this beautiful Vertex Buffer Interface, when I live in Europe - Germany ??

[@yuhuuuu3180]

I don't understand 😔

[@tomsawyer60]

Young Jack Black is good at explaining

[@Bushprowler]

Still promoting this scam artist from Vertex.. shame on you.

[@rubentrevino6288]

To much just get a headrush mx5 and be done

[@TheBoondoggler]

Is anybody actually playing real, live GIGS anymore - or are they just twiddling about at home with multiple cable methods, dozens of stompboxes and speakers galore chasing their "dream tone" in order to play the same SRV lick for the millionth time?

[@whatskraken3886]

We got it the first time, you don’t need to say the same thing 15 times in a row