Two instruments, one amp - how to switch?

An A/B box will.work that way.

 

Yeah, it's called an A-B box. They work both ways.

 

AB box

 

Boss LS-2, the switchblade of pedalmania. I used mine to switch from rhythm guitar to lead guitar years ago. It is not intuitive, but you can probably find a configuration diagram to explain it. As I recall, it can do three instruments. A fantastic pedal for switching instruments on the fly, because of the large paddle to hit. Also, you can balance the levels beforehand too. It does a heck of a lot more as well. Cheap, dependable, gig worthy.

 

I have passive Motley A/B/Y that will do it. I'm not sure if the active ones like the Tone Bone work both ways. Might need to do some research. Passive is all you need though since you wouldn't be concerned with phase.

 

Why NOT a mixer? They aren't much bigger than some pedals I've seen, and would give you more control.

 

LS-2.
All kinds of options with one.

 

Not a stupid question! And A/B boxes are cheap and useful to have around anyway - you can use them to:
-route one guitar to two amps or effects boards
-switch between two guitars to one amp
-as an off switch for one guitar
-to switch between guitars or components to diagnose problems, like which crusty old cables still work, and which ones are garbage.

And they’re pretty easy to make, if you just want a cheap and easy project to put together.

 

An AB box, natch.

If you're at all fussy about tone, add a pair of EQ pedals so you get the same volume and frequency range from each instrument without having to adjust your amp every time you switch.

My acoustic rig has an ABCD box and four EQ pedals. I can switch between my flattop, mando, roundneck reso, and squareneck reso without twiddling with knobs. Heaven!

My favorite switch maker is Loop Master. It's the Heinz ketchup of switches: The company is slow, but it's good.

 

Morley A/B box is fine. But you can plug each instrument into a different channel and just turn the volume off when not using it and have no switcher.

 

.

Look up the youtube channel 'Breja Toneworks' and there are two videos on switch boxes, AB and ABY. Use both and you can switch guitars with the AB plus switch/combine amps with the ABY

.

 

A passive ABY will be fine. ABYs like Radial’s offerings - which contain transformers, etc. - wont. Radial and others, make instrument switchers (https://www.radialeng.com/product_category/instrument-switchers) which work well. Not affiliated but a fan of their products.

 

^ This right here. What you are describing is a perfect application for a passive A/B box.

 

$20

 

I've got the unbranded version of this, and one cool thing you can do is send independent chains of effects to each amp after the lines out--I don't use many anyway, but it makes each chain shorter.

 

A Boss LS-2 can do that. It can switch lines and even do output level balancing. Extremely versatile pedal.
https://www.boss.info/us/products/ls-2/