TONE STACKING WITH TWO AMPS BY PAUL “TFO” ALLEN
You have two amps and you like them both for different reasons. While you’ve
tried using pedals to get all your clean,
crunchy, and overdriven sounds with just
one amp, you can’t seem to dial up a crunch
sound that’s as good as what you can get
from your second amp. So you say to yourself, “Hey, I’ll just go out of the left and right
outputs of one of my pedals, plug one of
these outputs into each amp, and have the
best of both worlds, right?” Not exactly. If
you want to use two amps simultaneously,
there are some things you need to know
before you flip on those power switches.
When you plug into two amps, you’ll often
hear a strong humming sound that vibrates
out of your speakers. One of the reasons this
happens is due to ground hum. You may be
thinking that picking up one of those little
adaptors and turning your amp’s 3-prong
plug into a 2-prong plug could be the answer,
right? Though it will lift the ground and get
rid of the hum, you might get the shock of
your life if you touch your lips to a microphone onstage while playing your guitar.
Being the recipient of a shock due to improper grounding feels about as good as receiving
a squarely landed hook from a heavyweight
champion. I learned this lesson the hard way!
So how do you safely use two amps without getting ground hum? My favorite way
to play through a pair of amps is via a Little
Lehle, which is a dual-mono box. To help
explain how a dual-mono signal is different
from a stereo signal, I called “Rooster” at
Trailer Trash Pedalboards.
“A stereo signal is where your effects have
a stereo image, like a ‘ping-pong’ delay or
a rotary pedal’s spinning horn. There are
also tremolos that work in stereo, so they
will ping-pong the tremolo back and forth
between the two amps,” explains Rooster. “A
dual-mono signal has both amps receiving
the exact same signal at all times, so tremolos
will throb at the same rate through both
amps. And if a delay is set to, say, 500 ms,
both amps will repeat at 500 ms, etc.”
The most obvious application for using
a box to route your signal into two different
amps is when you want to use one amp for
your clean sound and the other for over-
driven tones. The Little Lehle allows me to
use each amp independently, while giving
me the option to play through both amps
at the same time. This is also known as an
A/B/Y configuration.
A Soldano Lucky 13 head and cab join forces with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe to create a massive
guitar tone.
The two isolated transformers inside the
Little Lehle take care of the ground hum
normally caused by using two amps. If you’re
not planning on using the amplifiers simultaneously, you could also just use an A/B box,
since you wouldn’t need the “Y” capability.
With that in mind, going with a cheaper A/B
box may be appealing to your wallet, but be
sure to try them out in the store before you
make your purchase. That way you can be
sure the box doesn’t have any hum issues.
Another interesting aspect of using two
completely different amps at the same time
is how they respond differently. Let’s say playing a note is like jumping off of a building.
You strike the note (the jumping point) and
the way the note comes out of the amp (the
landing) is like the type of material it lands
on. My Soldano Lucky 13 makes the note
feel like it’s getting cradled by a giant trampoline before getting flung back into the air
on the rebound. Conversely, my Fender Hot
Rod Deluxe feels more like the note is landing on a large block of foam. One sound
is not necessarily superior to the other, but
when you have the same note landing on
two different surfaces (amps), your tone gets
a massive, spread-out feeling. That’s because
you have two different responses partnering
up to create one huge stack of tone.
Using several different speakers further
expands that feeling of being spread out.
Something I like to do with the Little Lehle
Being the recipient of a shock
due to improper grounding
feels about as good as receiving
a squarely landed hook from a
heavyweight champion.
during a song is use a single amp for verses,
and then kick on both amps for choruses. For
instance, I’ll use my Hot Rod Deluxe alone
for a verse, and when it comes time for the
chorus, I’ll engage the Soldano that I’ll have
plugged into two different cabs on opposite
sides of the stage. This configuration really
thickens up the sound and is a great way to
give choruses that added boost of energy.
Beefing up your tone doesn’t always mean
that you have to buy a new pedal, swap
out your pickups, or replace some other
tone-changing apparatus. Sometimes the
best way to add muscle to your sound is by
simply combining a couple of amps that
you already own. Experiment with stacking
several sounds together until you find the
combination that best suits your playing
style. See you next month!
PAUL “TFO” ALLEN
is a multi-instrumentalist who has worked
with Big & Rich, Adele, Sebastian Bach,
112, Jake Owen, Larry The Cable Guy, and
many others. He also has his own project
called Ten Finger Orchestra. Reach him at
tenfingerorchestra@yahoo.com.
