Dual amping Vox AC30 & Marshall MG

Denalihighway

Hi folks.

It's not necessarily MP related but if it's cool I wanted to point some of the MP heads to this thread

I'm sure some of you would have some good advice on it and I haven't had much response over in Instruments...maybe its still a bit early for musicians..:pac:

Mods...feel free to lock or whatever.
thanks

fitz

I've found that mixing clean signal with distorted signal can sound really nasty. It seems like a lot of trouble to go to when the Vox sound infintely better for your distorted tone than the MG will. The MG is likely to muddy things up on stage too.
But at the end of the day, it's your call. If you're getting the sound you want...work away.

Denalihighway

to be honest, I was happy enough with running everything through the Vox. But we're a 3-piece and I was strongly advised to at least try the set up and see what happened. Thought it made sense to have a look see, we'll be gigging a new album in a few months and just trying to sort out the live thing

They're did seem to be a good bump of power, which is hardly surprising but yes, the MG struggles to match it and I found that I've topped it out completely to get the rasp I need due to the different sound.

Still not sure...but what I am definitely sure of is that I may have my chain arseways - any thoughts on that?

Seziertisch

You might want to watch out for phase issues between the two amps, but ultimately I really don't know if a bi-amping approach is worth it using a MG.

if6was9

To be perfectly honest I wouldn't bother doing that with the mg, I've done lots of live gigs and a few recordings where guys have showed up with all variations of the mg series and I've never heard any of them sound good.

The idea is grand- more amps= bigger sound, I think you'd be better off sending a really short delayed signal to one of the amps, to kinda emulate 2 guitars being played at once together rather than 1 guitar being played through 2 amps, a single, very short delayed signal to the other amp could help you get what you're looking for.

fitz

if6was9 wrote: »

The idea is grand- more amps= bigger sound, I think you'd be better off sending a really short delayed signal to one of the amps, to kinda emulate 2 guitars being played at once together rather than 1 guitar being played through 2 amps, a single, very short delayed signal to the other amp could help you get what you're looking for.

Yup.
The idea isn't a bad one necessarily, I've heard it produce a massive sound for the likes of Muse back in the days of Showbiz.
But I'd be looking for two different amps that sound good clean, and I'd do the send post-distortion pedal, so you're driving both amps from clean to distorted.
Either that or have one amp for your distorted tone (cranked into distortion using an attenuator or something) and one for your clean, but you have to match them very well.

Given the choice of the second amp you have available, I'd keep it simple and stick with everything through the Vox.

PaulBrewer

Seziertisch wrote: »

You might want to watch out for phase issues between the two amps, but ultimately I really don't know if a bi-amping approach is worth it using a MG.

I worked on a Crowded House tour once and Neil Finn ran two amps, an AC30 and maybe a Fender Twin if I recall right.

As reversed polarity as reverse polarity could be.

Didn't seem to bother anyone .... which I found confusing!

I guess it's a case of whatever works for you. I've found the 3 CCs I've heard to have a pronounced midrangy bark that wasn't the most pleasant but perhaps the MG might balance that out a bit.

SeanHurley

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I've found the 3 CCs I've heard to have a pronounced midrangy bark that wasn't the most pleasant but perhaps the MG might balance that out a bit.

We have a CC2 in the studio and I've found that the switches on the back of the CCs can really change the sound of them. Personal preference is to run them as "Warm" rather than "Hot" as it is closer to the classic AC30 sound (Warm runs the amp at 30W rather than 50-ishW with Hot).

The "Normal"/"Modern" setting can be useful in smoothing things out.

Sorry off point on bi-amping but on that subject and from a gigging point of view an extra amp to cart around is gonna be a bit of a pain especially if the results are not going to be stellar.

Lovin my new Hiwatt combo at the minute.:cool:

Seziertisch

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I worked on a Crowded House tour once and Neil Finn ran two amps, an AC30 and maybe a Fender Twin if I recall right.

As reversed polarity as reverse polarity could be.

Didn't seem to bother anyone .... which I found confusing!

I guess it's a case of whatever works for you. I've found the 3 CCs I've heard to have a pronounced midrangy bark that wasn't the most pleasant but perhaps the MG might balance that out a bit.

Interesting, maybe they were panned hard right and left or something.

Otherwise a change of speaker for the CC might be a good idea. Firstly a more efficient speaker will increase the volume quite significantly. Secondly, a better speaker will give you a far more usable tone. And if you were to go the whole hog (like a Celestion Alnico Blue or something) you would have a speaker that you could own for a lifetime (as you traded up it would just be a matter of taking it out of the old amp and putting it into the new).

PaulBrewer

SeanHurley wrote: »

Lovin my new Hiwatt combo at the minute.:cool:

That yer Missus bought you .... that's not very rock and roll is it?

PaulBrewer

Seziertisch wrote: »

Interesting, maybe they were panned hard right and left or something.

Possibly but that would leave two very different tones .... and he was running them simultaneously .

mulphisto

SeanHurley wrote: »

We have a CC2 in the studio and I've found that the switches on the back of the CCs can really change the sound of them. Personal preference is to run them as "Warm" rather than "Hot" as it is closer to the classic AC30 sound (Warm runs the amp at 30W rather than 50-ishW with Hot).

The "Normal"/"Modern" setting can be useful in smoothing things out.

Which switches on the back do you mean?

SeanHurley

PaulBrewer wrote: »

That yer Missus bought you .... that's not very rock and roll is it?

indeed, way to shatter the illusion

SeanHurley

mulphisto wrote: »

Which switches on the back do you mean?

they are on the back panel where the ext cabinet o/ps and FX loops connections are:

mulphisto

Cheers,
Must have another look at these when I get home.
Any recomendations for settings for a warmer tone from the amp itself?

SeanHurley

mulphisto wrote: »

Cheers,
Must have another look at these when I get home.
Any recomendations for settings for a warmer tone from the amp itself?

Depends on the guitar. What are you pluggin into it? And what pedals if any are you using?

Denalihighway

thanks for that. Given the amount of varied advice/suggestions I'm not very clear on where to go from here thought to be honest.

the 'sending a slight delay to the other amp' interests me...but that would mean having the MG at a level where its very discernable rather than using it primarily as a low back up clean (so as to show off the AC30) and the main effects amp by bolstering the effects volumes. (I think), so not sure if that's where I'd want to be.

I know its a crap amp compared to the AC30 but for the amount of people who might be able to discern tonal quality well (which includes you guys) at one of our show over the next while, maybe I shouldn't be worrying too much about it? I know I certainly should for any big shows. I won't be changing the AC30 speakers or anything like that either at the moment as I'm happy enough.

So if we are to assume that I'll either just go ahead and use the MG (as misguided as that might be) OR
use something better (which I can get fairly easy for gigs) but still not quite as good as the AC30 for clean backup and the dirty stuff, then I'm more concerned with the practicalities than tone for now. Just to get me head round em like.

I guess there's many ways to skin a cat, probably the best thing to do is go down to the studio again and with your suggestions in mind just tinker around with the set up for a couple of hours.

would love to hear more if anyone else has first hand experience with it. Apologies bout my uninformed ramblings...
cheers