ABY pedals

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maddnotez

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Im sure its been asked a million times but anyway.

There are pretty expensive AB pedals. Then there are no name brands or new companies making them for $30.

Is there a difference? I mean its basically a channel switching circuit soooo what could make or warrant the same thing being 10x the price?
 
maddnotez":32vlfbhp said:
Im sure its been asked a million times but anyway.

There are pretty expensive AB pedals. Then there are no name brands or new companies making them for $30.

Is there a difference? I mean its basically a channel switching circuit soooo what could make or warrant the same thing being 10x the price?
I bought one of those cheapos; works just fine with no tone loss that I can tell. I've had Lehle and Radial, and they are great of course but 8x the price.
That said, if I were still gigging out I don't know that I'd take any chances on failure. But so far after 2 yrs it's fine. I use it almost every day.
 
The expensive ones have a load box in them, so that you can run the two amps through the same cab. If you have each amp hooked up to its own cab then you only need a cheap one. Make sure it has something for polarity if you're going to run both amps at the same time. That will likely bump the price up some, but not as much as the options with a built in load.
 
This reminds me that I need to get a Radial head switcher thingy so that I can A/B amps through the same cab with the tap of a toe. Unless there is something else out there that does the same thing for less cash.
 
I got the MXR ABY pedal for $60 and couldn't be happier with it. All metal, nice jacks, and no tone or gain suck. I use practically every day. I wish it had a 'mute' for the 3rd passive jack but it's no big deal.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mxr+aby ... e&ie=UTF-8


The above post was a little confusing as just because an ABY pedal is expensive doesn't mean it has 'load' capability and not all load capable boxes are good. I see that as a different application anyway. If you have 1 head and 2 cabs or more importantly, 2 heads and 1 cab and you want to switch back and forth then get the appropriate load box, like a Radial Headbone. An ABY pedal is not for that - it is for guitar signal splitting.
 
311splawndude":371c4on3 said:
I got the MXR ABY pedal for $60 and couldn't be happier with it. All metal, nice jacks, and no tone or gain suck. I use practically every day. I wish it had a 'mute' for the 3rd passive jack but it's no big deal.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mxr+aby ... e&ie=UTF-8


The above post was a little confusing as just because an ABY pedal is expensive doesn't mean it has 'load' capability and not all load capable boxes are good. I see that as a different application anyway. If you have 1 head and 2 cabs or more importantly, 2 heads and 1 cab and you want to switch back and forth then get the appropriate load box, like a Radial Headbone. An ABY pedal is not for that - it is for guitar signal splitting.
Yep. I use it in my wet/dry/wet setup.
 
Damn I knew it wouldn't be so simple lol.

So what box has a built in load and ABY?

I have 2 cabs and a 2nd amp on the way so I would like all configurations. To be able to use 2 amps and 2 cabs but also 2 amps into the same cab and be able to play together or separate. That tone bone looks like it only had 1 button?
 
I'm not sure what would work for you to be able to blend amps and cabs like you want, but make sure to get something with a transformer isolated second output with options to switch polarity or lift the ground if you need it. I use a Radial Twin City on my board for ABY.
 
mhenson42":2ms3g68z said:
Cheap ABYs always have signal bleed. I’ve tried a bunch Lehle is awesome. Mine recently died though and I bought the Fulltone True Path ABY and it’s on par with the Lehle. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth it

https://www.fulltone.com/products/custo ... -aby-st-v2
Not the one I have. I know all about signal bleed, as the cheaper Radial has that. These cheap clones can and do sound good, with no signal bleed. But they don't have a separate iso transformer like the Lehle or others do. For a simple W/D/W rig they work fine. Not for holding an amp load though, for two amps into one cab. That's a road I've not gone down.
 
Maddnotez - I validated this before posting because I was curious for myself but Radial got back to me with what I suspected.

Headbone VT - for the heads
Cabbone - for the cabs

The Cabbone is discontinued but he said you can find them readily on ebay/reverb.

I thought they had one box that did all of this in one, but apparently not.
 
In my experience, the cheap stuff never works as good as the expensive stuff. It has a higher price tag for a reason folks. I am a bog Radial fan/user myself. Never an issue of any kind.
 
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