Fx send of 1 amp into fx return of another?

Kalcium

Hi guys, Im just looking at a possible option to get a bit more volume from my tube amp and I was wondering if there is any risk of damage to either of my amps if I plug into amp A (tube) and then send a cable from the fx send of A into the fx return of B (Solid state). Both amps have speakers attached and both will be on.

The only reason I'm looking at doing this rather than just using the tube amp is to attemps to get some more volume because the other day at band practise my tube amp was maxed out and reached the end of its headroom and was no longer loud enough, but I assume thats because we were in a larger venue and I think our drummer was really going for it so I may be able to stick with this amp for most places since it was loud enough before that one rehearsal

Psean

Not too sure about the risk, but won't you lose the power amp responsiveness by doing this and negate much of the value of using a tube amp? My understanding is that this would effectively turn your amp into a hybrid - valve pre- and SS power amp.

What wattage is your valve amp? Do you not have a PA to mic through? From what I've gathered, this would be a better option.

Nicholas-L

Your tube amp will still need to have a load on it, which means speaker stays plugged in. You'll get you're tube amps pre amp tone and gain, but no power amp response. What amps do you have? Maybe you need a cab with more efficient speakers.

Kalcium

Our PA inputs are all being used for vocal mics and we don't have any decent instrument mics so unless a place we gig at has mics for micing amps I need to be louder. The idea of losing out of the power amp of the valve is more a case of gaining a tube preamp since if the tube amp isn't loud enough I'd have to use the solid state, this way at least I would get the valve pre amp and then the solid state power amp rather than entirely being solid state. They are both combo amps so both will have their speaker loads attached, as I said in the original post...

Nicholas-L

Sorry man I skip in my reading somewhat sometimes :-[

Does your amps have send return level knobs for adjustments? If so might be a good idea to set the levels down at first and lift them up from there. Other wise see if you can get the input and output levels of your two amps fX loops in the manuals. If you get the opportunity as well check at plugging your tube amp into a external cab like a 4x12 with Celestion speakers. Just an example.

Psean

Nicholas L wrote: What amps do you have?

AlanRatcliffe

Yes you can do that - that's generally the way two amps will be slaved together. Just be aware that what the solid state will put out will likely be a different thing to the valve amp, so you may have to tweak the EQ on the valve amp a bit to compensate.

Kalcium

Nicholas L wrote: Does your amps have send return level knobs for adjustments?

Theres no level control on the effects loop and 1 is sorta a custom job so the levels might be a bit off but at least its the solid state getting the signal from the tube so i figure it'll be less finiky.

Nicholas L wrote: If you get the opportunity as well check at plugging your tube amp into a external cab like a 4x12 with Celestion speakers. Just an example.

A 4x12 would be too big for me to carry around, I did try it with a 2x12 but it only juuuust made it and the clean headroom was still a bit lacking so I had to play with a bit of drive even for parts that should be clean. I think in most cases it would be ok, Im just looking at having an option for if for some reason we end up playing a big gig where we aren't mic'd for whatever reason then I have a fail safe.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: you may have to tweak the EQ on the valve amp a bit to compensate.

Thanks Alan, I will make sure its EQ'd according to how it sounds once its going through the solid state.

Thanks for all the input ?