Brutal elimination 3 way?

[Mr Davison]

Like something from MasterChef, these tubes may well be cooking for their spot among the winners circle. Not everyone can be a winner.
I hold my '84 Marshall 1987 in high regard, superbly familiar tone, easy to play with great feel. I'm in a very small minority that prefers the 1987 to the infamous 1959. As a result, I have a couple of amps that hardly see any action because I tend to reach straight for the 1987 if I'm going for light grit to rawk kind of tones.
So, it's a head to head to head challenge type day (semi retirement is great for this stuff!).
Scored a lehle 3 into 1 pedal a few weeks ago which will give me the ability to run all 3 heads into the same cabinet with instant, safe switching between them. Amps will be run into a Marshall 1960bhw cabinet (or hopefully 2 of them if the switcher permits?) which is my go to cab for the type of tones mentioned. It's gonna get loud but will be keeping volume in check where possible, not a very stringent test if my ears are ringing from the first amp to be demoed!
Amps in question are of course:
Reinhardt Ampzilla
'77 Marshall JMP 2204
'84 Marshall 1987

Depending on how the JMP goes, it may require a phase 2 alongside the '84 2203.

Have a few things to sort out first, but later this afternoon will be commencing this crack the sky type testing

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[Mr Davison]

Initial problems indicate I had a clear misunderstanding of the amp switcher! Each amp must connect to its own cabinet & then switch between each amp setup. Perhaps I could learn to read & improve comprehension with my new found spare time, probably not!

[wavesofffear]

Glad you spotted this in time!

Those kind of amp switchers are rarer than the Lehle one you have. I'm aware of the Radial Headbone and Metro Headmaster (now discontinued, along with most/all Metro products), both of which only support 2 amps. There are also some very expensive products from Ampete which allow you to switch between 8(!) heads.

Randall Aiken has a schematic for a DIY solution floating around somewhere, if you're comfortable with that.

Excellent collection of amps you have either way!

[calling card]

Reminds of Terry Pratchet writings of copper armour on a mountain top or a fork into the socket of the universe. God speed.

[robthemac]

Sounds like a hell of an afternoon.

Come to gearfest.

[Mr Davison]

Glad you spotted this in time!

Those kind of amp switchers are rarer than the Lehle one you have. I'm aware of the Radial Headbone and Metro Headmaster (now discontinued, along with most/all Metro products), both of which only support 2 amps. There are also some very expensive products from Ampete which allow you to switch between 8(!) heads.

Randall Aiken has a schematic for a DIY solution floating around somewhere, if you're comfortable with that.

Excellent collection of amps you have either way!

I'm such a muppet! When the power to purchase outweighs your ability to contemplate or investigate!!
I remember seeing the add on trade me & just went full assumption on it

[Mr Davison]

Great afternoon of amp testing & comparison. Some questions were answered & more questions raised. Having all 3 amps hooked up thru the Lehle pedal put a bit of hum on the Reinhardt, Marshalls were fine. Confirmed all are great amps. Reinhardt & 1987 really were quite similar through some aspects of the tone range, especially the feel & response when dialling back the guitar volume. 2204 was mostly doing its own thing, will be putting the 2204 vs 2203 together as next part of testing. Couldn't pick a clear winner, just too many aspects to each tone with certain elements overlapping & other complexities breaking away quite differently. All 3 together sounded good but really came to life with one set for a stronger bass response, one set mid heavy & the third set to emphasize the high end. Perhaps set like this there wasn't as much overlap or cancellation of each other? Only had 2 matching cabs so there was an odd one out, mixed & matched cabs through the afternoon to ensure the fairest tone test.
Tone test Tuesdays are great
Poor quality image attached!

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[Slowy]

You wouldn't need reverb in that room!

[higainer]

Amp shootouts are always fun.
Radial Headbone as mentioned does the trick nicely.

Without going down the Ampete route, I’m wondering if you’ be able to do the three head thing by adding a Headbone to one of the cabs with two heads on it.
Then use the Lehle to switch to the 3rd head on the 2nd cab.
Not sure if that would introduce phase/noise issues?

He’ll if that works, run a couple of heads on each cab.
You could potentially have the choice between differently eq’d heads.
Then the ability to run a single cab, or both & switch between the respective heads.
Did Bonamassa do something like this?

The idea of running a head on each cab at the same time is great…..Mad & Pissed ala Cantrell

[Mr Davison]

You wouldn't need reverb in that room!

Needs more rug!
Plenty of bounce around in a 100+ square metre room with wooden floors. However, standing in front of 3 loud quads your just getting pelted with direct signal. Reverb adjustment is made by amount of steps sideways!

[Mr Davison]

Wasn't really looking for a multi amp/single cab switcher, just an impulse buy of something that wasn't one anyway!!
2 rig stereo setups has been my jam tho, have plenty of experience with ABY pedals with my favorite being the Fulltone version with soft touch switches. I found the soft touch switches were good with the 5150 as other types with hard switches would make a pop noise when switching with it (byproduct of the high gain or amps circuit perhaps).
As far as the Cantrell thing, I owned an Uberschall for a while & have happy memories of playing it in stereo with my triple rec. Not much of an AIC fan, but saw them in Melbourne a long time ago & his sound was immense, in fact probably one of the best live tones I've heard.

[higainer]

Yeah, when doing the stereo thing I tend to run a cut & beef formula.
Marshall or Mark circuit with Bogner/Orange etc.
Good times

[chur]

Matching PG guitars? Very cool, but was there a reason for two, outside of.. just cause ya can?

[jeremyb]

This would have been a great title on pornhub, disappointed.

[Mr Davison]

Matching PG guitars? Very cool, but was there a reason for two, outside of.. just cause ya can?

Got the second one cheap. Needed another guitar at the time for a different tuning in a live situation. Found it really comfortable being able to switch to a guitar that was instantly familiar during a set. They're very good guitars; light, resonant & play effortlessly.