Two amps through one cab?

HoraceB

I'm possibly looking to run two heads through one cab and am looking for a good system, have seen the Tonebone  ( http://www.tonebone.com/tb-headbone-vt.htm) but was interested to see if there was a cheaper option,

I currently have a Bigshot ABY switcher which I was wondering if I could utilise?

Cheers

rossyamaha

The Tonebone is great as is all radial stuff. The newer one to check out is the Mesa one. Forget the name. Big advantage of that is it will act as a loop switcher as well so you can have common effects in both amps withought doubling up. 

ICBM

HoraceB said:

I'm possibly looking to run two heads through one cab and am looking for a good system, have seen the Tonebone  ( http://www.tonebone.com/tb-headbone-vt.htm) but was interested to see if there was a cheaper option,

I currently have a Bigshot ABY switcher which I was wondering if I could utilise?

No, not unless you want to risk damaging one or both amps.

You must do it properly with a system that switches both the inputs and outputs to the amps, and loads the one that isn't in use - unless they're both solid-sate, when you can probably get away with it.

markr76

Also with the tonebone head switcher. There is a break in sound when you switch from head to head. A built in safety feature apparently. Stop any damage to either head. So if you wanted to switch mid song it's something to take into account. Also you can't run both heads at the same time. 

Teetonetal

GK Gallien Krüger Amp-O-Rama Switch Matrix

english_bob

Assuming the speakers were appropriately rated, could you use a stereo 2x12 with one head connected to each input effectively as two 1x12s sharing an enclosure? You could then use a regular A/B/Y to switch between the two, or both, right?

ICBM

english_bob said:

Assuming the speakers were appropriately rated, could you use a stereo 2x12 with one head connected to each input effectively as two 1x12s sharing an enclosure? You could then use a regular A/B/Y to switch between the two, or both, right?

Yes. There is a minor problem with a closed, un-divided cabinet in that the undriven speaker tends to act as a bit of a 'passive radiator', which can cause phase issues with the driven speaker, but it's usually not too noticeable.

english_bob

^^^ But that's only a problem if you're alternating between the two amps, not if you have both running simultaneously?

ICBM

english_bob said:

^^^ But that's only a problem if you're alternating between the two amps, not if you have both running simultaneously?

Yes, but if you're running both together you also need to make sure they're in phase, which is far from a certainty. There are even some multi-channel amps where the channels are out of phase with each other...

Reversing the phase to the speaker is easy though, you just need a cross-wired speaker cable.

Cirrus

markr76 said:

Also with the tonebone head switcher. There is a break in sound when you switch from head to head. A built in safety feature apparently. Stop any damage to either head. So if you wanted to switch mid song it's something to take into account. Also you can't run both heads at the same time. 

The gap when switching was enough to make me give up on it after a few months of use, though apart from that it does the job and is really well built.

HoraceB

Cheers for all the replies, some great suggestions, I may look into the tonebone as I would not need to switch mid-song, shame, as there was one for sale here recently.