Do y-cables really work to run two amps at once?

[jessicabass]

My brother is wanting to connect two combo amps together, I saw a y cord at the music store and thought for $10 you cant go wrong.

[CL400Peavey]

Originally Posted by jessicabass

My brother is wanting to connect two combo amps together, I saw a y cord at the music store and thought for $10 you cant go wrong.

What two combos are you trying to run?

[BassmanPaul]

Might work, might not. Two identical combos are almost guaranteed to work as long as they are both plugged into the same outlet. This cuts down the possibility of a ground loop.

Differing combos and you have a crapshoot. The only way to see is to try. Start with both combos turned down. Turn one up to a reasonable volume. Listen carefully as you turn the second one up. If the perceived volume seems to drop then one of the amps is inverting the polarity of the signal and thus cancelling. If the volume increases then you should be good to go. Good luck.

As a side note, it's great when we old fogeys {at least some of us! } are joined by young folk, especially ladies.

Good luck with the experiment. Let us know how you get on.

[DigitalMan]

There are several ways to accomplish this, but a Y-cable is probably not going to give the best results.

Best bet when you want to split the output of the bass before it goes to two amps is to use a buffered splitter box. Of course this blows out the $10 budget completely.

Lehle, Radial, and many others make good boxes for this exact purpose.

The Y-cable might work, but the input signal to either amp will probably not be as strong as when plugged in directly. Herein lies the problem. Most people want to add a second amp to improve their tone, but a y-cable starts the ball rolling by compromising the tone.

Another option is to cascade from the effects out of one to the effects in of another. Here you lose the ability to have a second preamp shape the tone - so you can't do a clean/dirty rig this way. All you get here is double the power potentially. However, since the signal shaping is (in theory) the same and the combos are likely tuned somewhat differently (unless it's the same brand/model) you will be potentially adding some phase response based cancellation at various frequencies - just like mixing different drivers with one amp.

EDIT: If they are both the same amp then running from the effects out of the first amp to the effects in of the second amp is probably going to work - and the only thing you need do to try it is use a regular instrument cable. The Peavey Max series combos do have post-EQ effects loops.


Long winded answer, but I'd spend the $10 on In and Out Burger instead.

[jessicabass]

Originally Posted by CL400Peavey

What two combos are you trying to run?

Peavey max 300w

[giacomini]

If one of the combos have a line output, you don't even need to bother buying a Y cable. A regular mono cable will do.

[tbplayer59]

Wasn't this just a thread here?

[CL400Peavey]

Originally Posted by jessicabass

Peavey max 300w

If they are both the same combo, then run your bass into combo A, then run a cable from A's effect out, to B's effects in. Control the tone and volume from A.

[jessicabass]

Originally Posted by tbplayer59

Wasn't this just a thread here?

My brother was asking how to connect 2 combos but i was wondering if a y cable would do the trick instead of spending more money.

[bigsnaketex]

tell him to buy a Rickenbacker and the stereo thing will work wonders!!

[chaosMK]

Don't go with a cord. You can find ABY pedals for cheap. Even with a pedal I've run into a few problems while going Y into two amps... could have been that ground loop issue that someone mentioned. Essentially I got a lot of feedback.

The other day I was running my Y into two bass amps and had the feedback at first but then it went away on it's own.

There are good ABY switches out there that cost more and arent supposed to be prone to the same problems that say a $30-40 might have.

[Baird6869]

My Radial Bigshot ABY amp switcher works great, has a ground lift and has a 180 polarity switch to ensure both amps are in phase.

Built like a tank and $79.95.

[craig.p]

I would try the Y cord. You have nothing to lose by trying. I've seen it work far more often than not, especially when you don't need lots of treble content. Most basses, even passive ones, can be loaded way down, even sub 100 Kohms, without any noticeable loss of tone.

Plug both amps into the same power strip so the grounds are as close as possible electrically.

My greatest concern is what Paul mentioned about one amp possibly inverting phase and the other not. Another way to check, in addition to what he said, is to see if the sound seems to come from a point directly between the two amps, as opposed to each amp putting out something but there's a null spot in between them. That latter case is a dead giveaway that one amp's polarity is 180 out from the other's.

[RickenBoogie]

As was said in the other thread, an active (buffered) AB/Y splitter is going to give the best results. Using a simple Y-cable will not provide 2 strong signals to the 2 amps. One will be weakened, and ruin your tone and sound. Try it if you like, but you're not the first to try this.

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

If it's an active bass, its output is buffered and a Y cable would probably work fine.