Recording a few guitar amps at the same time!

**noamlev5** · 10-20-2007, 02:21 PM

Hi pepole...whats up?...I was wondering whats your approte for recording a a few guitar amps together...how would you for instnce conect 4 amps from 1 guitar for recording perpose?...whats the best way? d.i? mixer?...
thanks
noam

www.rightway-records.com

**bigdaddybluesman** · 10-20-2007, 05:20 PM

Are you saying you want to connect one guitar into a few amps at the same time and record them?

If that's what you are saying then it's a little more complex then you might think.

A lot of well known guitar players have done that, like Hendrix, Clapton SRV and many others.

The first question would be are they all similar amps?

Just because you might be hooking up a few Fender tube amps doesn't mean it's going to work. They might be out of phase, because of preamp stages. Then there are ground loop problems that might require removing a ground from the input cable.

Once those problems are solved you can get into the whole mic'ing thing.

**noamlev5** · 10-21-2007, 12:29 AM

Hi, thanks for the replay...that was my qustion.
whats the best way to conect the difrent amps...not micing them.
thanks again, and sorry about my bad english...
noam.

**noamlev5** · 10-21-2007, 12:31 AM

Hi, thanks for the replay...that was my qustion.
whats the best way to conect the difrent amps...not micing them.
thanks again, and sorry about my bad english...
noam.

**DrGonz** · 10-21-2007, 03:16 AM

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...Box?sku=180614

What u need is an AB-Y switch box to route the input of the guitar signal into two separate power amps. (edit)There other versions out there w/ other pedals w/ more outputs let me find u a link..... check these babies out
http://www.analogman.com/switchbox/index.htm
(/edit)
What brands of the amps being used?
Once your are recording two amps, it would be wise to isolate the amps in separate rooms. Only once I got a good sound w/ two amps in the same room, and it was a for a part of a song that was meant to be horribly loud.
Or try recording takes w/ separate amps and then mixing the two exact parts. Recording two different amps at the same time is hard to get right, and playing live w/ two amps summed can be beneficial. Its just getting the right amps and the blending of the sounds. The two amps have to mix just right, and u lose some definition and gain more mud...

Experimental Idea: Record Amp A w/ the part u are tracking. Then take Amp A track and reamp it. Figure a way to send the guitar signal back out of the computer(recording device?), and send the output signal into the other amp. This might not be a great idea or might work interestingly. I have never done tried this but I was gonna try it for the hell of it...
I know this had to have been done but has anybody have any stories in regards to this technique of Reamping?

**bigdaddybluesman** · 10-21-2007, 06:07 AM

It's also about the setting of each amp.

Putting all of them on 10 might not work.

You usually line them up as close to each other as possible in a row.

The best way is to build a splitter box with each line out having a ground lift and on/off switch. Use non-conducting washers on all the jacks and 2 conductor wire with a shield, that way when you lift the ground the wire still has a shield on it. Use the second wire as the ground from the jack to the switch. Sometimes lifting one side works. The best way is to star ground all the shields.

One input must be grounded or you will not get a signal. Some people like to boost the signal before it hits the splitter, you can use any overdrive pedal as long as it gets clean when you use it for gain. A Boss bluesdriver has a nice gain without adding any distortion if you set it that way. Most pedals add distortion no matter what you do, so you might want to build a simple gain or line driver or use one of the active DI boxes.

Experiment....a lot.

Never use a 2 prong adapter on the AC line. The chassis has to be grounded to earth.

Stevie Ray Vaughn always used a lot of amps and they had real problems with hum. He used a strat most times with single coil pickups and pedals. They actually built a Faraday shield around his amps with chicken wire to try and cut down on the 60 cycle hum.

I wounder if using an tripplite isobar would have helped or will help you. I use one.

**cfaalm** · 10-21-2007, 10:47 AM

It also depends on the guitarist. Does he listen to all of those amps when he/she is recording?

Some engineers start with micing just one with a DI between the guitar and the amp, sending the balanced sound to tape. That sound on tape can be re-amped with any amp you can lay your hands on afterwards with re-amping DI, so you can still try that Marshall that came in a day late.

If you have them simultaneously in the same room, you might want baffles between them to have optimal separation.

**bigdaddybluesman** · 10-21-2007, 11:31 AM

I don't think you would want separation, I would think you would want the wall of sound and higher SPL levels.

That does a lot for frequency changes and ands sounds that you can never get with one amp or even recording septate.

You'd have to be a guitar player with a lot of years on stage to know what I'm talking about.

The loudest I've ever been not in terms of shear volume but fullness, was a 100 watt Marshall stack and a Fender Twin reverb. WOW...there were things happening that you can't imagine and could never happen with one amp.

Look at SRV, Clapton in his early days and Hendrix, they used those stacks. Even my man Johnny Winter used stacked Twin reverbs and Super reverbs. Some times in a pyramid, 2 on bottom one on top.

**Davedog** · 10-21-2007, 03:54 PM

I have done this in the studio as well as live and BigDaddy has got it right. There has to be an isolation of the grounds in the splitter box or the differing impedances of each amps input jack will cause a hum and other noises. Even an AB/Y splitter wont always work. In my studio I like to split the signal from the guitar to a Gibson Goldtone and a Fender Blues Jr. I put them in different rooms and mic them separately. I use the Morley AB/Y splitters and there is alwys a touch of hum when I use a Strat or other poorly sheilded guitar. My room is properly grounded and there is no phase loop for the electrical system as everything is on the same phase in the panel. So it has to do with the the grounding at the splitter. I think the Radial splitter (active) probably deals with this in a much more professional way and they sell several types that allow several amps to be used together without issues. Google them for info.