How To Use Two Guitar Amps Together [Connections, Phase, Polarity & Why Analog Dry-Through Matters]

Using two amps together sounds great, but how do you actually do it?

Welcome to the show. Dan and I pretty much always use two amps on the show, and very often when playing live too. It’s something that countless artists have done down the years… but how do you actually connect them?
In this video we run through the most common and easiest ways to connect two amps together. There are other ways – for example using effects loops, slave/direct outputs and so on – but that’s getting ahead of the scope of this video.
A big part of this video is to do with polarity and phase, which is the most important topic related to using multiple amps. So start by getting your head around that, and move on from there!

Finally, it really doesn't matter what two amps you use! (Erm, just make sure they're both analogue to avoid phase problems, or indeed two of the same or very similar digital amps. Mixing one analogue and one digital will give you phase problems.)

Enjoy the episode!

If you want a specialist device to connect two amps, it MUST have these two features…
-One of the outputs is ground isolated
-One of the outputs has a polarity flip option

Examples of devices we would recommend:
• TheGigRig Humdinger (and AB Baby, G3, G3S)
https://shop.thegigrig.com/collections/essentials/products/humdinger

• Radial Engineering BigShot ABY
https://www.radialeng.com/product/bigshot-aby

• Bright Onion Active Splitter
https://brightonion.co.uk/products/isolated-active-splitter

There are others, just make sure it has an isolated second out AND a polarity flip switch. Good luck!

Pedals & Stuff in this show
• J Rockett Audio Hot Rubber Monkey V2
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
USA: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/XYAOA4

• TheGigRig Humdinger
https://shop.thegigrig.com/collections/essentials/products/humdinger

• Jam Pedals Waterfall
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
Australia: https://bit.ly/3nb8JzN
USA: https://bit.ly/3s9w21c

• Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
Australia: https://bit.ly/3SKyE1p
USA: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/B0Jbax

• Walus Audio Mako D1 [original version, links to latest version]
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
Australia: https://bit.ly/4bA8BlY
USA: https://bit.ly/42HCHA7

• Source Audio Nemesis ADT
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
USA: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/5gQYE9

• TheGigRig QMX4
https://www.thegigrig.com/quartermaster

Interesting bits and go-to sections
0:00 Intro playing 
1:57 Why use two amps?
2:50 Four ways to use two amps
5:00 Way 2: Link The Inputs
6:15 Hum & polarity problems
8:30 Splitting the signal before the amps
9:00 One amp must be earthed/grounded
10:45 A specialist splitter device
11:35 Phase & polarity explained
15:23 Where does the polarity change happen?
15:40 Way 3: Use A Stereo Pedal To Split
17:50 A splitter on the pedalboard 
20:00 Where to split on the board?
21:20 Vibrato in one amp only: chorus!
22:15 Problems with splitting the signal path
22:50 Why Analogue Dry Through Is Crucial
28:00 Polarity & analogue dry through sound examples
30:00 And with the delay sounds
31:35 Why use two amps, again?

Guitars in today’s show
• Fender Custom Shop ’63 Telecaster - Dan’s video here: https://youtu.be/rnQ4OIJFTgY?feature=shared

Amps in today’s show
• Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb with stock speaker
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
USA: sweetwater.sjv.io/Py94Qz

• Two Rock TS1 50-watt 1x12 combo with TR1265 speaker
https://www.two-rock.com/amps/ts1/

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Australia: Pedal Empire http://bit.ly/2mWmJQf