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) shop.thegigrig.com/collections/essentials/products… • Radial Engineering BigShot ABY www.radialeng.com/product/bigshot-aby • Bright Onion Active Splitter brightonion.co.uk/products/isolated-active-splitte… 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: bit.ly/3zaTX5Z USA: sweetwater.sjv.io/XYAOA4 • TheGigRig Humdinger shop.thegigrig.com/collections/essentials/products… • Jam Pedals Waterfall UK & Europe: bit.ly/3zaTX5Z Australia: bit.ly/3nb8JzN USA: bit.ly/3s9w21c • Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe UK & Europe: bit.ly/3zaTX5Z Australia: bit.ly/3SKyE1p USA: sweetwater.sjv.io/B0Jbax • Walus Audio Mako D1 [original version, links to latest version] UK & Europe: bit.ly/3zaTX5Z Australia: bit.ly/4bA8BlY USA: bit.ly/42HCHA7 • Source Audio Nemesis ADT UK & Europe: bit.ly/3zaTX5Z USA: sweetwater.sjv.io/5gQYE9 • TheGigRig QMX4 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:    • That Pedal Show – Our Guitars & Gear:...   Amps in today’s show • Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb with stock speaker UK & Europe: bit.ly/3zaTX5Z USA: sweetwater.sjv.io/Py94Qz • Two Rock TS1 50-watt 1x12 combo with TR1265 speaker www.two-rock.com/amps/ts1/ We hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to our channel. You can buy TPS merch to support our efforts www.thatpedalshowstore.com/ We are on Patreon – crowdfunding for creatives www.patreon.com/ThatPedalShow Please visit our preferred retailers! UK & Europe: Andertons Music bit.ly/3zaTX5Z Australia: Pedal Empire bit.ly/2mWmJQf