Need Same Amp But Bigger

[mistermullens]

After all of these years, I believe I've found my sound. Yes, it surprised me, especially the amp! So my main gigging amp is an Epiphone Valve Junior head through a 1x12 cab loaded with a Weber D12. For me, bandmates, and people who come to our shows, always comment on how much they enjoy the tone. I love this amp, have two of them, and I'm about to pull a trigger on a third to keep at the practice space. Is there something out there comparable in the 15-18 watt range? Should I run two of them on stage? I only ask because it would be useful to have something a bit louder for outdoor gigs and venues larger than the clubs we play now. Let's take the "just run it through the monitors" option out of the equation. I've done that, but I can get swallowed up on stage when we have guests sit in and they're playing a Deluxe Reverb.

I was thinking a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia.

Oh, my main guitar is Gibson Les Paul Junior, and my pedal board is Crybaby>Blues Pro or Super Phat Mod OD>JHS Modded TR2>Topanga Reverb>Amp. I also play a Casino and Tele for open G tunes.

 

[Chart72]

Get it up by your head or at least not blowing at your knees. Huge difference.

I’ve run 2 different amps on stage too which is nice

 

[uriah1]

Ghia more voxy imho
Drri always good.

 

[Wally]

Either build a line out for the amp and use a clean solid state amp to up the power or go direct to the board into FOH. Or…buy something like the Fryette Power Station that has a reamp function among all else it does. There are other attenuators that do a reamping thing. Of course, at some level of reamplfication, that 30 watt Weber is a limitation. Or…mic it.
It is difficult to get the sound of that amp in a bigger amp. It is a single-ended amp, and that is part of how it does what it does.

 

[mistermullens]

Either build a line out for the amp and use a clean solid state amp to up the power or go direct to the board into FOH. Or…buy something like the Fryette Power Station that has a reamp function among all else it does. There are other attenuators that do a reamping thing. Of course, at some level of reamplfication, that 30 watt Weber is a limitation. Or…mic it.
It is difficult to get the sound of that amp in a bigger amp. It is a single-ended amp, and that is part of how it does what it does.

I thought its goodness might have something to do with it being a single-ended amp.

 

[Cosmic Cowboy]

I like the Dr Z amps. I really like the Bad Cat Amps in that range. Might give em a look.

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[sax4blues]

First the fact that people are complimenting your tone/playing may indicate you don’t need to be louder. Since you have two of the amp you like start with running both. Pay attention to phase issues. Try getting one up higher so you can hear it better.

 

[mistermullens]

First the fact that people are complimenting your tone/playing may indicate you don’t need to be louder. Since you have two of the amp you like start with running both. Pay attention to phase issues. Try getting one up higher so you can hear it better.

I've never run two amps at the same time. Not familiar with phasing issues. What do I need to know?

 

[sax4blues]

I've never run two amps at the same time. Not familiar with phasing issues. What do I need to know?

My technical knowledge is very limited. The speaker moves in and out to make sound. Two speakers could be moving in/out at the opposite time, which is out of phase, and produces cancelation which negatively affects the sound. You would hear this as both sounding good individually, but when you run together the sound is typically thin. If this is the case I believe you can switch the speaker wires on one amp and they would now be in phase.

I use a passive A/B/Y box for two amps, there are also A/B/Y boxes with more features to handle electronic grounding issues.

 

[tfarny]

Have you tried running it into a half stack with efficient speakers? Or at least an efficient 2x12, preferably closed back.
In my experience a lot of studio spaces have a half stack somewhere in the corner you could plug into and see how that works for you.

 

[Wally]

I've never run two amps at the same time. Not familiar with phasing issues. What do I need to know?

Since you have more than one of the same amp, there will be no phase issues from the amps. As long as you wire the speakers up properly, there will be no phase issues.
These amps have no way to daisy chain from one to another, so you would need a splitter to send the signal to both…or all three…amps.

 

[TwoBear]

After all of these years, I believe I've found my sound. Yes, it surprised me, especially the amp! So my main gigging amp is an Epiphone Valve Junior head through a 1x12 cab loaded with a Weber D12. For me, bandmates, and people who come to our shows, always comment on how much they enjoy the tone. I love this amp, have two of them, and I'm about to pull a trigger on a third to keep at the practice space. Is there something out there comparable in the 15-18 watt range? Should I run two of them on stage? I only ask because it would be useful to have something a bit louder for outdoor gigs and venues larger than the clubs we play now. Let's take the "just run it through the monitors" option out of the equation. I've done that, but I can get swallowed up on stage when we have guests sit in and they're playing a Deluxe Reverb.

I was thinking a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia.

Oh, my main guitar is Gibson Les Paul Junior, and my pedal board is Crybaby>Blues Pro or Super Phat Mod OD>JHS Modded TR2>Topanga Reverb>Amp. I also play a Casino and Tele for open G tunes

Since you have more than one of the same amp, there will be no phase issues from the amps. As long as you wire the speakers up properly, there will be no phase issues.
These amps have no way to daisy chain from one to another, so you would need a splitter to send the signal to both…or all three…amps.

One of the best sounds I ever got was wiring up three Brown Deluxe’s to a SFDR, into the first brown then out of the second jack into the next amp, so forth until I ended up at the SF, with just a touch of a verb, and a TS9 in front. Blooming controllable sustain!

I know it would be easy to add another quarter inch jack next to the original Epi. I know there was a big mod thing going on with those, did they not have one meg on the input resistance? Any reason a couple fender style inputs couldn’t be used that way here?

As far as someone sitting in with a 20 W amp and killing you that’s on the sound people-any wattage anything, including the singer/s Should be at pleasing levels. Edit-loud or otherwise.

That being said Kirk Fletcher has the loudest, Best sounding BlackFace Deluxe that I’ve ever heard in my life, and unrelated, I did a gig a month or two ago where the sound was so hideous, I was unprepared and stuck in a unbelievably boomy corner.
Where usually I relate hearing problems to mids and highs, I think I sustained damage in/from low end content.

I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t want to add a Carmen Ghia to your other “Geah”.

 

[printer2]

Get a 1/4" Y splitter and run both amps at the same time. Best to have them right next to each other. With the speakers next to each other you get a little extra output as the speakers act together and couple to the air better.

 

[Wally]

Get a 1/4" Y splitter and run both amps at the same time. Best to have them right next to each other. With the speakers next to each other you get a little extra output as the speakers act together and couple to the air better.

View attachment 1046541

Even better if they are stacked….better dispersion pattern. .

 

[Sea Devil]

It's true that there would be no phase issues coming from using two of the same amp, but to the human ear, there could be phase issues listening to two sources. More so, I imagine, if they're farther apart. The same could be true of the sound coming from the house, too. It's all about where the speakers are and where the listener is.

 

[mistermullens]

I have an EHX Switchblade, I'm guessing that will be sufficient to run both amps on stage?

 

[Marc Morfei]

I have tried running two amps off a splitter before and always got a bad hum that I assumed was caused by a ground loop. I used the EHX Switchblade mentioned in the post above. Is this just the wrong kind of product? How is the issue to be avoided?

 

[Twang Deluxe]

The Dr. Z amps really sound great.
Unfortunately because of the war in Ukrai e the "Z" has become a problematic symbol (at least here in Europe).

What do you think? Would you gig with an amp with a big Z, which could be misunderstood as a symbol of support of the Russian military action in Ukraine?

 

[schmee]

Run both amps and mic one. It will be difficult to replicate that amp's tone with another amp.

 

[schmee]

I've never run two amps at the same time. Not familiar with phasing issues. What do I need to know?

Speaker phasing can be an issue. But if they are both the same amp and not messed with, you SHOULD be good to go. But you mention a replaced speaker so check the phasing on both speakers with a 9V battery: With the battery oriented the same to the speaker tabs (battery + to speaker + when you test each speaker), they should both go IN or OUT, not one in and one out. This is a momentary contact 9v battery test. Look it up.

Or you can just joinn the amps, play a loud low note and look to see that both speakers move in or out simultaneously.

By the way, if that Weber is a Derek Trucks model speaker, they are very anemic low efficiency speakers. But you like the tone so, I guess you will have to do other things than different speakers.

You can split your signal into the two amps with a splitter as shown in post #13. Or you can patch a guitar cable from amp #1's second input to amp #2's first input.

The next issue could be humming.
If you continue to have noise issues, Tone Bone makes a device for doing this without any humming etc.