How does the amp switchers work? Bought a Skydstrup amp switcher cheap

peterc52

Well-known member
I just acquired a Skydstrup amp switched. I got it cheap from a friend but it was very expensive when it was made. He just had no use for it anymore.

But im wondering how the amp switcher knows which ohms the amp needs??
I can’t find anything about it anywhere. Not on the Ampete as well.

How do they work? And how do I make sure it matches my amps so they don't get broken using it?
 

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I don't know anything about that unit but most switchers don't deal with impedance mismatches. Think of it like a simple patch bay - it just connects A to B or C (or whatever) without moving cables around, but there's generally no processing or alteration of the signal.

If you can't work it out yourself or find documentation on the unit, asking your friend for a few tips seems the best solution here.
 
So if understand correctly. Then all the connected amps will se the cab load? Even when not used in a amp switcher?
 
A typical switcher routes one head straight to the cab and has the unused ones on very small internal loads. The trick is that they also mute the inputs of the amps at the same time so they don´t push any output when not used. I guess it´s not critical that the small safety load on a muted amp is the right impedance.
 
Sorry I thought you were talking about the main load, i.e. the cab. So yes as Dave L said the unused amps see a resistive load when not in use for safety.
 
*Edit* I should add that all of this applies to tube amps and the switcher should be made to handle tube amps. It would be the same concept for solid state amps, but the functionality would be different since SS doesn't need to see a load. Best to find out if this switch was made to work with solid state amps, tube amps, or both.

If it's a switcher there should be at least something acting as a load for the unused amp. Considering that it has 3 jacks labeled from amp out I would suspect this is the case.
If it was a glorified A/B/Y box everything would have gotten fried as soon as you plugged in a second amp.

In general way these things work is the they rout the signal from the selected amp to the selected speaker cabinet. That's the from amp out and to cabinet jacks respectively. Signals coming from the unselected amps are put on what is basically a dummy load of some form so that the amp will see a load and not fry itself. This should be how yours works, but I don't know the specifics of how this is achieved on your.

I see yours has 3 from amp input jack and another main input. A setup like this usually allows you to only need to plug your guitar into one place and play all amps connected, instead of having to move the cable around when switching amps. Usually the to amp input is muted for the unselected amps so there no signal bleed or risk of signal from an unselected amp overloading the dummy loads. Most likely yours will mute the signal from the unused amps, but again, not knowing the specifics I can't be certain.

In other switchers, having more than 1 speaker outputs would mean you could connect and select from several cabinets. But there would also be a selector switch for that too. I suspect the two speaker outputs on yours are parallel outputs for running 2 cabs at the same time when desired.

As far as matching impedance of amp and speaker are concerned, looks like you'll have to do that manually; unless there is a built in impedance selector which I do not see. I haven't seen any switchers with a built in impedance selector like that. This means you'll have to treat the selected amp and speaker cab as if they were directly connected and match them appropriately. For the unselected amps you don't need to worry about impedance while they're not active. The dummy load works for whichever impedance your amp is set. But overall all amps connected should have the same impedance as the speaker cab so there are no worries about a mismatch (unless you are purposely mismatching).
 
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you could easily test the presence of a load by probing with a multimeter the three inputs of the amp speaker output at the amp switcher. If you measure something when corresponding amp is out then there's a load.
 
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