Bypassing Between Two Heads Live?

[DayLewis]

I own a Mesa M-pulse 600 head and an Ampeg Svt-3 head. My cabs are a Svt 115 and a Mesa 410. I'm using a power conditioner in my rackmount and also play through two pedals, a sansamp and a fulltone bass driver.

I was wondering if it would be possible to bypass between both heads with a footswitch live? Right now I'm just playing through the Svt-3 but have a completely different tone with the M-pulse and I'd like to find a way to utilize both of them live. Is this possible and if so what all do I need to do to get it set up?

Thanks guys,

Jim

[JimmyM]

split your signal and run each head and cab separately, then use an aby switch to go between them. you can't run two heads into the same cab.

[AwkwardLoudness]

Yeah you want an ABY splitter.

I sometimes run two amps and two cabs when feel like hauling the extra gear.

[Coke Kane]

Radial Headbone will switch between two heads into one cab. I just had mine modded to accept a 350 watt load to switch between the SVT-CL and SVT-VR!

[JimmyM]

oops, wasn't clear... you can use the aby to split your signal.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Coke Kane

Radial Headbone will switch between two heads into one cab. I just had mine modded to accept a 350 watt load to switch between the SVT-CL and SVT-VR!

wow, what the heck will they think of next? never knew that existed. wild!

[IvanMike]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

wow, what the heck will they think of next? never knew that existed. wild!

I didn't realize radial had one either. The only unit I ever saw that would switch two heads into one cabinet was the rackmount ampeg unit which was only available to dealers so customers could try an amp through many different cabinets, or try many heads through one cab, or a combination of all that. The switch for the amplifier's speaker outs in particular has to be a "break before make" type - so you don't have two heads with their power outs connected, even for a fraction of a second.

Also, keep in mind that if you use tube amplifiers, you need to disconnect any signal to the input of the amplifier before disconnecting the switch on the speaker out. I'd contact your amp manufacturers about this first to make sure you aren't voiding your warranty or endangering the amp by having it on (even with no input signal), but not connected to a speaker load.

[jgroh]

Its a cool idea, and with having a Ric, I do my fair share of splitting and mixing, but are you playing out alot? I have simplified my signal chain because I found that most of what I was going for with two amps or mixing two signals was buried in the mix once everyone started playing. If I was playing larger more high profile venues I think I might be more inclined, but it sounds like alot of work schleppin around two heads.

[AwkwardLoudness]

I assumed that he wanted to use both amp and both cabs, but I guess that wasn't clear in the opening post. An ABY splitter works for two separate rigs. A Headbone or certain attenuator type boxes can switch among multiple heads in one cabinet.

[Coke Kane]

The Headbone does mute the input to the amp that is not in use. But rememebr to get it modded to accept anything higher than 100 watts.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Coke Kane

The Headbone does mute the input to the amp that is not in use. But rememebr to get it modded to accept anything higher than 100 watts.

does that go for the solid state version, too?

[Coke Kane]

There is a separate model for tube amps, a separate model for solid state amps, and a model to switch between tube/solidstate. I just read their faq, yes you can have the SS version modded too, but the max wattage is 350. They only charged me $50 plus shipping for the mod.

[JimmyM]

not a bad price, but sounds more like a guitar thing since bass amps routinely operate at more than 350w. i guess if your amps aren't over 350 it would work out, though.