How to link up amps?

[51 Relic]

Sadly my days of heavy lifting are a thing of the past, and I've had to sell all my rack gear and 1959 AC15 Roger Allcock special. All have gone to good homes and Gary (The Runaways) will do the amp proud.

I've got a Fender Super Champ XD which I use at rehearsals and not only is it a great sounding amp, it's very light and portable. However, if we have a larger venue, I'd thought about buying another XD if they could be safely linked together. I'm sure others do this (I can only think of Brian May at the moment) and was wondering what the best way to do this would be and also of any dangers that I should be aware. Look forward to any help /advice on the matter.

One way of doing this and i have used this method in the past would be to use say the Zoom G7U with left and right outputs and connect left to one amp and right to another amp

The second method would be to use a spliter box ie one input and two outputs left and right you could also use a mini mixer and then you could control the overal volume with one slider

Hope this helps

[AlanMcKillop]

Just confirming what Robbo has said, there is a line out and the manual states "connect your recording or sound reinforcement equipment here". I just wasn't sure if I could use this 'line out' to an amp input, and being technically ignorant, I didn't want to try it in case there was some sort of mismatch that may have caused damage to one or both amps. It might be common knowledge to some, but not to me, that's why I asked the question.

[John M]

Hi Alan,

Remember that line out signals are at a much greater level than the output from a guitar pickup.. can be as much as 500 millivolts against just a few m/volts from a pickup, so some attenuation will be required. Basically a sort of volume control.
A resistor soldered inline inside a jack plug would work..not sure of the value, but I can check it out.
If you need any help constructing one give me a call.

[peter roest]

I use a 1/4" (6,3mm) mono splitter with 1male and 2 female connections. The male goes into the input of the amp. The guitar cable goes into one of the female busses; from the other female bus you can connect the input of the other amp (also with a guitar cable), costs about 2euro. In case you cannot easy get a mono splitter, you can also use a stereo splitter,

Peter

[alanbakewell]

"One way of doing this and i have used this method in the past would be to use say the Zoom G7U with left and right outputs and connect left to one amp and right to another amp".

I did this with two Fender Blues Juniors via my Zoom RFX 2000. It worked a snip.

Although one effect was to increase the volume, my main reason for doing this was to "spread" the sound P.A. style without the sound being "coloured"
by the P.A.

And, Alan, it also meant lifting two lighter amplifiers rather than one heavy one.

Cheers, Alan.

[roger bayliss]

Simplest thing would be to mic the amp up and into PA surely ...

[alanbakewell]

I refer the honourable gentleman to the comment I made in an earlier post referring to "Colouring" the sound.

I have video evidence of said honourable gentleman with his opera singers
stuck firmly in his lugholes on the night I carried out this experiment with a rendition of "Eye of the Tiger".

[Didier]

Just confirming what Robbo has said, there is a line out and the manual states "connect your recording or sound reinforcement equipment here". I just wasn't sure if I could use this 'line out' to an amp input, and being technically ignorant, I didn't want to try it in case there was some sort of mismatch that may have caused damage to one or both amps. It might be common knowledge to some, but not to me, that's why I asked the question.

The line out level might be a little too high for a guitar amp input, but not enough to cause damages, it might only cause overload distortion, this is why I thought that an attenuator could be needed (to be tested).

Keep in mind that using an external speaker with a 3dB higher sensivity than the internal speaker would be equivalent to double the elecrical amp power (from 15W to 30W). The internal speaker sensivity is not indicated, but on such a budget amp, it can't be very high (probably around 95 dB). A higher speaker sensivity requires a bigger magnet, which increases the speaker cost.
Using a 100 db sensivity speaker such as the one quoted by Jim would certainly do the job.

Another solution, probably the best : replace the Super Champ XD stock 10" speaker with one of higher sensivity, such as the 10" Eminence Ragin Cajun (100 dB sensivity). No need to carry another amp or cabinet. A friend did that on a Harley-Benton GA15 amp with excellent results. The only drawback is that the Ragin Cajun speaker is most probably a few pounds heavier than the stock speaker because of a bigger magnet.

Didier
P.S. Have look here : http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... p?t=384866

[AlanMcKillop]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll try a Y cable in the first instance (the cheapest option) to make sure I get what I'm looking for and as I have two isolating transformers from Orchid Electronics, hum shouldn't be an issue. I also have an AB/Y box, which will give me another option to look at and if these both fail, then a splitter box looks like the last resort.
I also have a 12" Celestion Neodog speaker in the loft, but don't have a spare cabinet, so that's another option as is replacing the stock speaker, but I like the sound as it is. Decisions, decisions decisions.

[Didier]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll try a Y cable in the first instance (the cheapest option)

Unless you already have a second Super Champ XD, it's not the cheapest option !

Didier