Anyone ever setup a 3 bass amp configuration?

Bradley Magee

Bradley Magee

Oct 5, 2017
4
1
4,571
Jacksonville, FL
bradleybass.com
#1
I have 3 different pedals I like to use but they don't sound good chained together. Two are tone sharping pedals / Eden WTDI pedal and Tech 21 Sans Amp VT Bass Deluxe and they both sound great individually, but chained together.

The 3rd pedal is a multi-effect pedal that has (Delays, Reverbs, Chorus, etc.), because I really dig working with effects to find new sounds.

An idea I have to get all 3 pedals on at the same time:

from the Bass run it in to the Input of an ABC switch.
A goes to the input of Eden WTDI
B goes to the input of the Tech 21 VT Bass
C goes to the input of the POD HD500

Each pedal has both TS 1/4" out to and XLR out
- TS 1/4" out goes to 3 differnt amps on stage
- XLR out goes straight to the mixing board, the mix engineer can blend them.

This obviously will be a pain to bring 3 amps to every gig, so I'm trying to find 3 compact Combo amps that has at least 500 watts each and has a Tube Pre-amp.
The two pedals WTDI & SansAmp pedal will be the main bass tone. The blend of eh DEEP and DRIVE tones sounds so good. The 3rd pedal will be used occassionally for various songs, but I never have to worry about the low (bottom end) will ever drop out when enablings the Effects pedal.

Has anyone ever done this or worked with using more than one amp for different tones on stage?
 
#5
Bradley Magee said:
I have 3 different pedals I like to use but they don't sound good chained together. Two are tone sharping pedals / Eden WTDI pedal and Tech 21 Sans Amp VT Bass Deluxe and they both sound great individually, but chained together.

The 3rd pedal is a multi-effect pedal that has (Delays, Reverbs, Chorus, etc.), because I really dig working with effects to find new sounds.

An idea I have to get all 3 pedals on at the same time:

from the Bass run it in to the Input of an ABC switch.
A goes to the input of Eden WTDI
B goes to the input of the Tech 21 VT Bass
C goes to the input of the POD HD500

Each pedal has both TS 1/4" out to and XLR out
- TS 1/4" out goes to 3 differnt amps on stage
- XLR out goes straight to the mixing board, the mix engineer can blend them.

This obviously will be a pain to bring 3 amps to every gig, so I'm trying to find 3 compact Combo amps that has at least 500 watts each and has a Tube Pre-amp.
The two pedals WTDI & SansAmp pedal will be the main bass tone. The blend of eh DEEP and DRIVE tones sounds so good. The 3rd pedal will be used occassionally for various songs, but I never have to worry about the low (bottom end) will ever drop out when enablings the Effects pedal.

Has anyone ever done this or worked with using more than one amp for different tones on stage?
Click to expand...

I am sure somebody has used more than two amps in their multi-amp setup.

If the two pedals don't blend well electronically, what makes you think they will blend well acoustically?

If they blend well acoustically, you may be better off figuring out how to use parallel processing. Split signal to each pedal then combine the discrete outputs of each amp back into one signal. Send this signal to one amp.

Switching amps on and off is going to impact the volume. Consider figuring out how to switch the amps from dry to wet, so all three amps are always playing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Al Kraft, agedhorse and Dubious Aa
#6
I ran this for a while. This was a totally in home setup that I could have used for gigs but why the heck would i want to lug it around.
I ran my big muff pedal (it has a clean and dirty out so its a cool y-split). The clean went to a Carvin Redline R1000 in bi-amp mode running a 15 for lows and a 4x10 for mids and highs.
The dirty out of the big muff went to a SWR working mans 300 that ran a 12 cab.

that was THE best blend of fuzz that i have been able to achieve, ever.
It was very nice to have that massive full range clean sound with a sprinkling of fuzz at the just right amount. Very full, very articulate and very awesome.

now i still use the muff but just in line going to 1 amp driving the 4x10 and 15 but not bi-amped and its great, but the tri-amp setup was very nice, I’ll probably re create it for tracking if i ever seriously record my stuff.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wasnex
#8
Sounds like an expensive, unpractical idea. I'm pretty sure you'll run into weird cancellation issues using 3 amps on stage, but don't take my word for it.
It seems you don't want your pedal in series, but in parallel, but you don't need 3 amps to do that, as @abarson just said, just sum the 3 signal paths together.
One of these (or something similar) should work for you :
11960532_800.jpg

https://www.thomann.de/intl/red_panda_mixer_3_input_mixer.htm
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bradley Magee
#11
Bradley Magee said:
I have 3 different pedals I like to use but they don't sound good chained together. Two are tone sharping pedals / Eden WTDI pedal and Tech 21 Sans Amp VT Bass Deluxe and they both sound great individually, but chained together.

The 3rd pedal is a multi-effect pedal that has (Delays, Reverbs, Chorus, etc.), because I really dig working with effects to find new sounds.

An idea I have to get all 3 pedals on at the same time:

from the Bass run it in to the Input of an ABC switch.
A goes to the input of Eden WTDI
B goes to the input of the Tech 21 VT Bass
C goes to the input of the POD HD500

Each pedal has both TS 1/4" out to and XLR out
- TS 1/4" out goes to 3 differnt amps on stage
- XLR out goes straight to the mixing board, the mix engineer can blend them.

This obviously will be a pain to bring 3 amps to every gig, so I'm trying to find 3 compact Combo amps that has at least 500 watts each and has a Tube Pre-amp.
The two pedals WTDI & SansAmp pedal will be the main bass tone. The blend of eh DEEP and DRIVE tones sounds so good. The 3rd pedal will be used occassionally for various songs, but I never have to worry about the low (bottom end) will ever drop out when enablings the Effects pedal.

Has anyone ever done this or worked with using more than one amp for different tones on stage?
Click to expand...

My answer to your last question is yes, but it’s not real useful for what you are trying to accomplish. I had a Rick 4001 that I played in ROS which required 2 rigs which was a Hiwatt custom 100 powering a Hiwatt 412 cab for the bridge pick up, and an SVT powering an Ampeg V4B 2-15 reflex cab for the neck pickup. No effect pedals were used, or needed for that matter.

It was pretty incredible, so I’m pretty excited for what your are doing. Should work out great. Best wishes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bradley Magee
#14
My curiosity is piqued - unless your name is on the marquee, my bet is the FOH person is going to take a DI output, and not mic 3 amps - where do you play that 3 amps will end up in the house mix?
 
#15
micguy said:
My curiosity is piqued - unless your name is on the marquee, my bet is the FOH person is going to take a DI output, and not mic 3 amps - where do you play that 3 amps will end up in the house mix?
Click to expand...


IMHO, the most likely answer is a gig where the amps carry the room without PA support.
 
#19
abarson said:
Take the 3 XLR outputs to a small mixer. Send the mixed sound to a single amp.
Click to expand...

This. While I was reading the OP, all I could think was "how many posts deep in this thread am I gonna get before someone suggests a mixer?"

Thank goodness the answer was only 4.
 
#20
The way I do it is by use of a studio quality midicontrolled programmable equalizer. For me the tone shaping is achieved with the eq, so right now it`s programmed with (only) 4 individual settings:
Clean, Clean Fat, Slap, Fretless. You could easily make a Clean Boost setting if you needed, so it`s really versatile.
The Eq I use are old Klark Teknik 3600. The can be picked up for something around the price in this add. May have to change the internal battery for memory, but that`s a 10 $ 15 minute job.
Klark Teknik DN3600 (v3.0C) Programmable Graphic Equalizer
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back