Bi amping with 2 heads for clean and dirty

GilGB · #1 10-30-2010, 03:51 PM

I was always intersted in a sort of Justin Chancellor Bi-amping sort of set-up for clean and dirty.
I want to know if it is possible to do a 312-610 set up,312 for the clean,610 for the dirt and use 2 different amps (right now i got an Aguilar AG500SC,thinking about a Mesa for the dirt).
Is this thing possible?
Anyone here ever experienced with bi-amping?
And what does it require from your basses,pedalboard etc.?

Thanks in advance,
Gil.

BassmanPaul · #2 10-30-2010, 04:11 PM

It's certainly possible, a lot of folks do this. You might run into some polarity problems but they are easy to work around. The other problem you may face is ground loops. Again these are curable.

notrt · #3 10-30-2010, 04:24 PM

...one way or another, I am almost always 'bi-amped' except for the smallest of rooms. It's pretty easy - go into an A/B/Y foot switch, one cord goes through a volume pedal to a pdeal board or multi-effects unit to a smaller amp for the 'dirt' and/or effected sounds, while the second cord goes into a bigger one for the clean bass... the smaller one can be an order of magnitude smaller in wattage and will still get you a nice mix of 'sweet and nasty' in terms of what the room and the audience hears. With the volume pedal, you can vary the mix - what's not to like about that, eh???

Try it! Get yourself a 60 watt or so rig for the dirty side...it's really not that much of a push up at all. Alternatively, same setup w/o the small amp - run the effected stuff into the board, maybe even

(gasp!)

in stereo - give them guitar playaz something to think about!

Richard Collins a/k/a 'notrt'

GilGB · #4 10-30-2010, 04:24 PM

What is best use for the cabs for clean and dirt?
The 312 for the clean or for dirt?

bassgod0dmw · #5 10-30-2010, 04:27 PM

Who makes a 312? Sunn?

notrt · #6 10-30-2010, 04:36 PM

f.w.i.w., the 'dirty side' of the equation, at least for my purposes, is like good tabasco sauce - a little goes a good long way. To my ear, I have to have that uneffected fundamental and strong low mids...and I have found that a lot of guitaristic processing sort of eviscerates all of that...

Listen, what I do is just what works for me...I am old school and just plain old, and I came up in secular music listening to Jack Casady and jonesin' over his tone and timbre real bad...today, when you listen to Mr. Commerford's tone, timbre, and approach, you'll hear something completely different, but still pretty good...

Just try it - you 'll like it...find what works for you. If I am running a 2 x 12 cabinet, I will run a 1 x 12 'dirty' side. At Church, where the clean side of my rig is mos' monstrously big, I use a 2 x 10 or a 4 x 10 on the 'dirty' side and blend it in and out depending on the tune and the feel.

RC

"everything IS but some things are way more than others..."

GilGB · #7 10-30-2010, 04:40 PM

Don't know if Sunn makes a 312 cab,but next month i am ordering an Aguilar DB212 to work with my DB112 cab and Aguilar AG500SC head.

notrt,thanks for the advices man

.

bassgod0dmw · #8 10-30-2010, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GilGB

Don't know if Sunn makes a 312 cab,but next month i am ordering an Aguilar DB212 to work with my DB112 cab and Aguilar AG500SC head.

notrt,thanks for the advices man

.

I'm not trying to be difficult, I promise! So you're asking about using (3) 12" speakers in the form of a 1X12 and a 2X12, as opposed to a 3X12?

I'm not sure why that jumped out at me when I read the OP, it just did...

Personally, if you've got a 1X12 and you're planning on getting a 2X12 I'd use the 2X12 for clean and the 1X12 for dirt just so you can see if you like the sound or not. Buying another amp and a 6X10 isn't exactly cheap. If you like the sound and want to do it bigger, then get the 6X10.

If I had a 6X10 and a 2X12, I'd probably use the 6X10 for the clean stuff. Just my preference. I'd probably also just use the 2X12 and not the additional 1X12. Transporting all of that to a gig would not be fun in the least. If you got the 2X12 in a 4 ohm cab you'd still be able to use all the wattage of the AG500.

notrt · #9 10-30-2010, 05:03 PM

"Don't know if Sunn makes a 312 cab,but next month i am ordering an Aguilar DB212 to work with my DB112 cab and Aguilar AG500SC head.

notrt,thanks for the advices man ."

****************************

You're welcome and no worries - off to the gig - playing a 'wrinkle room' tonight in my home town where most of the people will be my age or older - that's a real change for us!

RC

hachi kid · #10 10-30-2010, 05:28 PM

I do just what you're wanting to do, except I have dual outputs on my bass.

it works like a freakin charm. the top and bottom half of the cab have separate inputs on them, so I can run dual amplifiers simultaneously, and each half is 4 ohms to get full power out of whatever amp I'm using. my SWR is probably gonna be replaced by a Sunn 1200S soon-ish to make use of the big power for a lot of headroom for the lows, and if I need to run the cab mono, it can be ran on a 2ohm load.

MarkMyWordsXx · #11 10-30-2010, 05:43 PM

your being a little bit over ambitious with your cab selection imo. unless your routinely playing stadiums without pa support that is

but anyway, an ab/y box is the answer here. I use the morley

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MLYABY

Ric5 · #12 10-30-2010, 05:54 PM

Use one amp and parallel effects to mix clean and dirty.

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/effects.htm

Gasman · #13 10-30-2010, 06:02 PM

Morley or other ABY pedal will work. So will a Boss Tu-2 or even DD-6 delay- both have stereo outputs. I did the bi-amp thing for a while, but recently got an Xotic blender pedal, which accomplishes what pretty much the same thing but only needs one amp. MUCH easier moving the pedal than another amp and cab (unless you have a road crew).

I agree that a little dirt goes a long way. My experience was that small increases in distortion added, the more it becomes the dominant signal. I found this tough to mix live, but will say you can get a great sound if you put in the effort.