Combining amps

[bassbiscuits]

I found myself alone in the house today with some songs to learn and with a couple of different bass heads and cabs, so I did the decent thing and rigged them all up together to see how they'd sound, out of curiosity more than anything else.

So we've got a Littlemark 3 into an Aguilar GS410, and then a Littlemark 2 into a Schroeder 1210 for a sort of asymmetrical half stack!

I used an old Boss bass chorus pedal (turned off) to split the signal chain into each separate amp and cab set.

It sounds cool - not exactly louder than each individually, but huge and full sounding, and I used the amp EQ to try to make one cab smooth and bassy and the other more punchy.

Started out as a bit of fun but I reckon it could work live. I've got a biggish festival gig later this month and I reckon it could all come along!

Anyone else come up with some odd Frankenstein bass rigs that turned out to sound monster?

[bartelby]

Ashdown JJ-500 into a 4x8" and a 1x15" cab
and, via a high pass filter, Peavey MkIII Standard into a Mesa Boogie (EV loaded) 2x12"

Ahsdown set for a nice, clean low end signal
Peavey, with the bass rolled off at about 250Hz, with a touch of overdrive.

Using a EHX Bass Big Muff to split the signal.

Totally impractical for gigs but nice to drag out for practice occasionally...

Edited July 3, 2015 by bartelby

[LewisK1975]

I've got 2 Barefaced super compacts, a Tecamp PUMA 500 and a TC BH250. All nice and lightweight and could work really well with one set for deep bottom end and the other set for top end / overdrive. Billy Sheehan has been doing it for ever so it cant be that bad an idea?!?!?

[bartelby]

[quote name='LewisK1975' timestamp='1435910850' post='2813444']
Billy Sheehan has been doing it for ever so it cant be that bad an idea?!?!?
[/quote]

That's basically where I got the idea. I used to have a bass with an addition Model One pickup and 2 outputs.

[Lozz196]

May well give this a go myself, Aguilar Tonehammer 500 into Barefaced Super 12T for lows, Aguilar Tonehammer 350 into Barefaced Super 12T for highs. Linking the 500 to both Super 12Ts was just overkill with my regular settings, swamped the sound, but using one amp for each on bigger gigs/stages, hmmmmm, nice thought.

[Bradwell]

Used a Digitech Whammy to split the signals from my bass and feed two seperate rigs a couple of weeks ago. Dry signal into my Eden rig / octave up into my Peavey 6534 guitar amp set to ridiculously high gain.

Loads of fun, sounded pretty good, way too much gear to fit in the car. Think rhythm guitarists in any band situation would be pretty upset if I played that set-up outside my own home anyway.

[72deluxe]

I think Pat Badger from Extreme used to biamp too (as did Entwistle) but Sheehan does it where he sends the raspy midrange (no bass) overdrive signal to a 1x15" and the low deep no treble signal to a 4x10". This is opposite to how most people would think to do it, where they'd send the deep bass signal to the 15" and rasp to the 4x10", but his explanation on a Hartke video is that the single 15" driver will have no phase problems as it is a single point source for the sound compared to the 4x10" where the distortion through there would not be truly in phase, so not as cutting/biting.

It sort of makes sense but I wonder how fast that 15" can move for reproducing high-end distortion. I wonder if he has changed his sound over the years because if you listen to early Mr Big compared to the recent Niacin album, there is much less fizz on his recent sound, typically.

[chris_b]

You can daisy chain amps by running a lead from the send on one to the return on the other. You plug the bass into the "send" amp and that gives you 1 pre amp running 2 power amps and 2 sets of cabs.

That's good for volume, but if you bi amp you'll need both pre amps, so you'll use a split lead or A/B box.


PS. For 2 sererate rigs, I believe the tuner out into the input of the second amp would work. Try it you won't break anything. Start with the volumes very low.

Also the send from one amp into the input on the other might also work, but the signal will have already gone through the first pre amp.

Edited July 3, 2015 by chris_b

[Kevin Dean]

I did all that in the 80's , & can't be bothered with all that faffing around

[Ghost_Bass]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1435911860' post='2813459']
May well give this a go myself, Aguilar Tonehammer 500 into Barefaced Super 12T for lows, Aguilar Tonehammer 350 into Barefaced Super 12T for highs. Linking the 500 to both Super 12Ts was just overkill with my regular settings, swamped the sound, but using one amp for each on bigger gigs/stages, hmmmmm, nice thought.
[/quote]

Aren´t your S12T's 4 ohm each? You plugged both to the TH500, will it go down to 2 ohms? Or have you used a series cable to make it an 8 ohm load?



Edit: I can't see myself needing more than a single S12T pushed by the GB STL9.2 (same power stage as yout TH500), all the volume i'll ever need and then some more!

Edited July 3, 2015 by Ghost_Bass

[Lozz196]

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1435935928' post='2813814']
Aren´t your S12T's 4 ohm each? You plugged both to the TH500, will it go down to 2 ohms? Or have you used a series cable to make it an 8 ohm load?



Edit: I can't see myself needing more than a single S12T pushed by the GB STL9.2 (same power stage as yout TH500), all the volume i'll ever need and then some more!
[/quote]

Yes, I used a series cable, the TH500 is a 4ohm amp. In all honesty the extra cab is more for the look, as some of the gigs I do are big stages and bands on the punk scene can get judged/viewed as not being a "real" band if they`ve only got little cabs/amps. Ridiculous we all know, but hey, it happens. I did think that on big stages the extra cab might help hearing myself but the sound projection and dispersion of the single S12T is more than enough. The only cabs I`ve used that made me hear myself better were Ampeg 810s and then I would say that was due to the height more than anything. And I do find that having the cabs that high stop me from hearing the guitar as well as I`d like as well anyway, so my two S12Ts would be sat next to each other, rathet than stacked.

[Merton]

[quote name='72deluxe' timestamp='1435914117' post='2813504']
It sort of makes sense but I wonder how fast that 15" can move for reproducing high-end distortion. I wonder if he has changed his sound over the years because if you listen to early Mr Big compared to the recent Niacin album, there is much less fizz on his recent sound, typically.
[/quote]

That's a bit of overthinking there - there are several threads where people like Alex Barefaced and Bill BFM have discounted the "15s are slower" myth.

The reasons Billy Sheehan gives are basically spot on:)

[Guest bassman7755]

There are some pedals/preamps designed specifically to do separate processing of highs and lows that might be worth a look e.g.

[url="http://www.brimstoneaudio.com/crossover-distortion.html"]http://www.brimstoneaudio.com/crossover-distortion.html[/url]

The zoom b3 is also an interesting proposition as it has a frequency based splitter so it looks like in theory you could run highs and lows into two seperate amp models.

would probably give many of the dual amp sounds people are looking for without the hassle of actually having seperate amps and speakers.

[xgsjx]

I used a Moog Bass Murf to split the frequencies (such an excellent pedal it was too). It has the frequencies split left & right. I'd have everything below 110hz going to one channel & everything above to the other.
I didn't go to 2 separate amps, but sent them through different effects & then back together to the one rig.

[Chienmortbb]

15s are not slower but In general will have a lower output at the top end compared to a 10 from the same range.

[72deluxe]

Thanks about the info on the 15s - I will search for the Barefaced and BFM threads. Must be a myth I had heard about the response times - I don't remember where I heard it!

I heard a bass player this last weekend playing through a 1x15" (or was it a 1x12"?) and a lovely 4 string Spector with Bartolinis in it and sounded incredibly clear (middley, even) so my misconceptions were very definitely cleaned up.

Some of the preamps secondhand will run both clean and overdrive channels (Ampeg SVP Pro I think? And the Ampeg SVP-BSP which uses transistors for the overdrive channel). I have a SWR Interstellar Overdrive and that lets you blend the clean and overdrive sounds, so although you can't run each separately you can get a very versatile sound out of it.