• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Using a Y cable with the Bass

#6
Could be some loss of volume as there may be an impedance mismatch, the old way was to run a cord from another input in the same channel to the other amp which is easier and only needs another cord, they will be in phase. Out of phase means one signal is 180 degrees out from the other, they cancel each out out, but if the source is in phase as it would be in this case you should have no problems. The most common example of out of phase is when you hook one speaker up backwards eg: neg. to pos, pos to neg. with a stereo or something like that, two speakers in the same cab etc.
 
#8
Go for it, you'll be fine.

Don't worry about the phase thing on a mechanical/electronic level.

What phase refers to is that if the amps put out sound waves where the waves from each amp aren't synching up properly, they can cancel each other out, meaning less volume, but no damage will happen to your gear.

I use a Y-cable into both channels of my amp when playing sometimes.
 
#11
Because of the buffered output that most active basses have, they generally won't suffer any degradation of performance when Y-cabled into two amp inputs. Passive basses, OTOH, have a significant output impedance and could lose signal or some high end when you do that. It might still sound okay to you, though.
 
#12
Bob Lee (QSC) said:
Because of the buffered output that most active basses have, they generally won't suffer any degradation of performance when Y-cabled into two amp inputs. Passive basses, OTOH, have a significant output impedance and could lose signal or some high end when you do that. It might still sound okay to you, though.
Click to expand...


I'm a reggae player.

Any high end loss is just an additional bonus. ;)
 
#13
So in the simplest of terms, you just use a Y cable with the bass into 2 amps and you'll be fine? Because I bought one of those gold splitters from RadioShack to try and use on 2 mini-amps for some loud Marching Band bass player bleacher tunes :bassist:. But when I tried plugging in 1 cable from the bass to the splitter input and 2 cables from the outputs to the 2 amps, one of the amps just overpowered the other.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back