Patch lead between inputs

[Finbar]

I saw someone with a Hiwatt 400 valve head at a show once, which had 4 inputs. He had a short patch lead connecting two of these. Just wondering what this was in aid of? Sorry if it is painfully obvious, I was just intrigued

[ahpook]

[quote name='Finbar' post='206993' date='May 27 2008, 12:51 AM']I saw someone with a Hiwatt 400 valve head at a show once, which had 4 inputs. He had a short patch lead connecting two of these. Just wondering what this was in aid of? Sorry if it is painfully obvious, I was just intrigued [/quote]

i think on some valve amps with two inputs you can cascade them to get more overdrive.

[Finbar]

Ah, I see.

What's the science behind this then, if all of them are inputs, and none are ouputs?

[Hamster]

I don't know that particular amp, but on the early Marshall non master volume amps it was just a way to use the volume control on each channel to produce a wider range of tone.

Hamster

[Finbar]

As far as I know, the Hiwatt has a master volume, and only one channel.

[Tengu]

Are you sure that they were all inputs?

I have a Peavey CS800S power amp. This has stereo inputs plus an output on each channel. That enables you to patch the input on channel A into channel B, essentially turning it into a mono amp with double the output. I suppose you could also send the signal from both channels to another power amp if you wanted extra stereo power.

[Finbar]

Off the top of my head, the Hiwatt has 2 'normal inputs' and 2 'brilliant inputs'. Someone should be able to confirm that for me?

[BigRedX]

On this kind of amp each pair of inputs has a slightly different tonal characteristic. Using a patch lead in this way is effectively the same as connecting to both with a splitter cable. If the pairs are Normal and Bright running both together gives you both tonal characters together - you get the increased top end of the bright channel with the normal channel adding a bit more body than just running into the bright on its own.