Moving in STEREO! *** VIDEO ADDED***

[Mailman1971]

Yeah I only messed with it for about 20 minutes....wasnt TOO hard to dial them in to blend. Sorta left my settings alone and then was messing with it. Was more or less setting up the DD3 to make sure it wasnt panning too fast or slow. Thats where the "girth" secret comes in I am finding out.
Just gonna pull the 2 tubes and run the Windsor at 50 watts.

if you pull 2 inner or outer tubes, make sure you bump the ohm setting on the head one down from what you had it at. if you were at 16 then go to 8. if you were 8 go to 4.

try dialing one amp for lows and one for mids and highs....then switching that......then try just blending them with less distortion than you would normally (as was mentioned). there's all sorts of cool stuff you can do with a stereo amp rig or a wdw rig.

Cool thanks Yeti! Yea its set up at 8 ohms....so gonna pull the 2 tubes and run it at 4 ohms. Never hit the Phasing problem that people have mentioned yet...*knock on wood*....
Gonna go out and fool around with it little more in a bit. JUst got back doing sunday shopping wahtnot.

 

[Mailman1971]

Ok....My one power tube died in the Windsor....blew a fuse. Had to go to Home depot to replace the fuse.
Popped it in.....pulled out 2 power tubes......running it at 50 watts in stereo with the Modded Recto...
ok...here is where it gets tricky....
In the room.....fucking INCREDIBLE tone....so damn thick with the mix of the 2 amps. I was an open mouthed slack jaw yokel on how good this tone was!!!
So....flick on the Zoom.....made a quick recording.....just goofing around.....and it sounded "OK" at best...but cant capture that stereo tone. I am sure someone else might get it more 'real' to what it was like....but I was bummed.
Not bummed on the tone in the room....
but bummed on the tone in the video.

Oh well....here is what I got. Just some wanking of the Fja Mesa and the Fja Recto.

 

[Bronco]

Love that tone Danno...nice and fat sounding!

 

[Mailman1971]

Love that tone Danno...nice and fat sounding!

Thanks Eric....I almost didnt post it. That Zoom just cant get the "hugeness??" thats in the room....
simply...SICK SICK tone. Like Slayer meets Metallica meets Lamb OF god...

Need to give ya a call one of these days soon. They have a DDG in Baycity now. Crazy eh?

 

[stephen sawall]

Kick @$$ Dan .....

After you have some time with the rig & try some different stuff you will have full control of it. It is addictive.

 

[Mailman1971]

Kick @$$ Dan .....

After you have some time with the rig & try some different stuff you will have full control of it. It is addictive.

Yeah I felt only touching the surface. But Right now its really really a great tone. As I put....the Video dont capture the "Mix" of the 2 amps that you hear in the room. Its So damn good its scary.

 

[JackBootedThug]

told you so. epic slut bangin metal.

 

[Mailman1971]

told you so. epic slut bangin metal.

Thanks again Brother!
I was having fun with the Delay pedal....switched over to the Chorus...
Just scratching the surface.

 

[JTyson]

Now that Dan has tried out 2 amps at volume he does not need this forum anymore. We might never see him again ?

He's still in there with them CRANKED

 

[Mailman1971]

Now that Dan has tried out 2 amps at volume he does not need this forum anymore. We might never see him again ?

He's still in there with them CRANKED

Actually cant wait to try this out in a Jam setting.
Just played the Recto this weekend. Didnt get the Fuse replacement till the next day.
Sounds so damn wicked.....I know...I am as bad as a Broken record repeating this....but so true.

 

[thiswaythatway]

I was thinking of trying it with 2 combo amps. I don't6 necessarily like the typical chorused out sound that Eddie used on albums like OU812 but other effects sounds SWEET. I once tried my Strymon El Cap in stereo and the modulation on the delays in stereo had me drooling.

 

[Mailman1971]

Yeah.....I tried it with the Delay....just in front of the amp as the splitter....still need to learn how to run them thru the effect loops of both amps. It sounded good with just a Milisecond delay or so....barely noticeable...but made the two 4x12's....sound like four 4X12's.....it was definitely a HOLY CRAP Moment....

Need to dig a little deeper in the set up. But man really really impressive tone. Camera just cant grab that stereo 'effect' of the blended tones that you hear in the room.

 

[JTyson]

I was thinking of trying it with 2 combo amps. I don't6 necessarily like the typical chorused out sound that Eddie used on albums like OU812 but other effects sounds SWEET. I once tried my Strymon El Cap in stereo and the modulation on the delays in stereo had me drooling.

My God man....
Your avatar....
Please

 

[petejt]

So how do you folks EQ these amps so they blend effectively?

I start by setting up the amps the way I usually do .... then I just fine tune them so they sound right. I messed around with trying to make one cover the lows & the other the highs / etc. But to get the fattest sound I do it the other way.

I tend to set up all amps so they kind of sound the same .... no matter what amp I use. Similar amount of distortion. By blending preamp distortion & power overdrive in each amp. Same tonal balance.... usually a bit bass heavy with a lot of midrange. Just enough highs to cut.

To get the best results I usually use a amp that is more poweramp overdrive & the other amp more preamp distortion. The preamp distortion amp will do a better job of covering the highs & lows with more compression. The poweramp overdrive amp gets the thicker midrange & dynamics.

It really isn't any different than using the tone controls on a single amp ..... but you get a lot more control. Finding the right balance is the trick.

I do not mess with any effects till I get the balance right with both amps dry. Then I use whatever effects out in front of both amps ..... but only effects in the loop of one amp ~ this would be the amp with preamp distortion / not poweramp overdrive.

You can run both amps a bit cleaner than normal .... because both will thicken up the sound. This also gives more definition.

The real problem comes when you do a show & you have no control over how the person mixing blends the amps .... good luck with that issue. I did this live most of the time for about 20 years ... So I am pretty familiar with how it works.

Thanks very much for this. I'm always struggling to blend amps together. I have a 50 watt Marshall JCM 800 and a Mesa/Boogie MarkIV. Speakers are in a pair of closed-back 4x12s and are a combination of C90s, EV 12S 200 watters, a Peavey speaker, and two WGS ET-65s. I have to admit they sound fantastic together for clean tones and anything up to a gritty crunch. But when it comes to full-on gain it never sounds quite right to me. I try to do the one amp overdriven/other amp slightly cleaner, and it's like the crunchiness doesn't sound as....crunchy. I must be doing something wrong. I know it's not a phase issue as the bottom end is intact. But it's like they are fighting each other rather than dovetailing together if you know what I mean.

I guess you are right- the trick is finding the right balance.

Although I haven't gigged much over the last year or so- I just forget stereo and use one amp. If I get it going again, I'll probably self-mic it up myself and use a small 4-channel mixing desk to send two blended signals (left & right) to the soundboard FOH. So all they have to do is raise the levels to mix me in with the band.

 

[petejt]

I was thinking of trying it with 2 combo amps. I don't6 necessarily like the typical chorused out sound that Eddie used on albums like OU812 but other effects sounds SWEET. I once tried my Strymon El Cap in stereo and the modulation on the delays in stereo had me drooling.

I know what you mean- he used the Detune micropitch shift effect from the Eventide harmoniser. But to me it sounds really shrill and almost a bit too bright. It's funny- everyone often has a go at the chorus pedals from the early 80s sounding cheesey, but to me it's more often the harmonisers and stuff from the mid to late 1980s that sound even more cheesey (and they were supposed to be escaping that cheesey sound).

I don't mind this particular sound from Simple Minds- a lot warmer sounding than Eddie's late 1980s sound, but it does have a slight corny factor to it. I don't know what gear they are using.

Even Alex Lifeson's sound is warmer-sounding, despite being lusher than the most lush of lush...(wtf haha...)

I don't know if he ran a dry distorted signal along a completely clean modulated signal, or if both were modulated, or what honestly.

 

[Anonymous]

sounds good dude! i can only imagine the tone in the room.

i know the feeling of being let down by a vid of your amp...i made a few the other night of my 5150 that i modded, and it came out less than stellar, but in the room, it's unexplainable how good it sounds.

 

[eljodon]

I would use a rack fx, they are much cleaner. You can get a nice doubling effect using a pitch shifter which is what you hear in many recordings If your amp has a line out and using an eq after the Effect rack and run it into a clean amp or using a mixer into a power amp. You can also use two amps and run a dummy load for each amp and blend the effect into a 3rd cabinet using a mixer and a power amp. You can use the power amp section of a guitar amp the has sends and returns and just plug into the return which will bypass the preamp section and use the Aux of the mixer to blend the effects.

 

[stephen sawall]

Although I haven't gigged much over the last year or so- I just forget stereo and use one amp. If I get it going again, I'll probably self-mic it up myself and use a small 4-channel mixing desk to send two blended signals (left & right) to the soundboard FOH. So all they have to do is raise the levels to mix me in with the band.

This is what I ended up doing .....The last few years I switched back to a single amp because it was so much easier. But I really need to mess more with using my Fryette Deliverance (dry) & Sig X (wet).

With your rig I would probably use the Mesa wet & Marshall dry ..... Using only the Mesa for LEAD playing.
Remember when you add a gain stage it reverses the phase. Skip the GEQ for lead it will cut great with all the midrange. Use the GEQ with RHY2 and blend it with the Marshall for crunch stuff. I would also probably only use the Mesa for CLEAN in most cases.

 

[petejt]

Although I haven't gigged much over the last year or so- I just forget stereo and use one amp. If I get it going again, I'll probably self-mic it up myself and use a small 4-channel mixing desk to send two blended signals (left & right) to the soundboard FOH. So all they have to do is raise the levels to mix me in with the band.

This is what I ended up doing .....The last few years I switched back to a single amp because it was so much easier. But I really need to mess more with using my Fryette Deliverance (dry) & Sig X (wet).

With your rig I would probably use the Mesa wet & Marshall dry ..... Using only the Mesa for LEAD playing.
Remember when you add a gain stage it reverses the phase. Skip the GEQ for lead it will cut great with all the midrange. Use the GEQ with RHY2 and blend it with the Marshall for crunch stuff. I would also probably only use the Mesa for CLEAN in most cases.

Thanks for your advice. The Marshall is actually pretty damn tasty for clean stuff- sounds nice with different effects. Using the Boogie 'dry' helps keep the clarity with the clean sounds.

 

[petejt]

Coming back to this thread- I've got both amps running in stereo and they are blending AWESOMELY! Sounds great- I just need to record it now....