Slave Out?

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Strangler

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Hello all, New to the board here. I got a question about slave out.

I've noticed over the years mainly "Pro" guitar players using "Multiple" amps and configurations. I never knew why they did it though. I mean, After spending so much money on a rig why use another amp in the chain? I know it's a quest for tone but it only seems like pro players do that. I've never done it or seen anyone do it.


I have a Mesa Triple Recto and wanted to know Why is there a Slave Out?
The manual say's to run another power amp but i'm wondering how and why?

Connect the Slave out connection into what? Most power amps have 2 channels.

How does one learn about this type of thing? and these sorts of configurations? It seems like after playing for 15 + years I am clueless compared to most on these forums.

You look in magazines and see live shows and these guys are using different heads and ****. I guess I dont know what to look for.

Thanks!
 
One use for this kind of setup...

Run your head dry into one cab. Run the slave out to an fx processor connecting that unit's stereo outs to a power amp and more cabs. I used to use a similar setup, and it kept me from getting "washed out" in the mix when using stereo delays and such.
 
When playing indoors, the cab blasts against the back wall, and the sound bounces all over, which makes it sound huge. Outdoors there's nothing to bounce off, and your sound is much, much smaller sounding.

So, lets say you normally play one amp & halfstack in small/medium sized clubs, but you have an outdoor gig to do.....one of the options available is to rent/borrow a couple extra heads and cabs, then run the slave out into the power amps of those extra heads, that way you only need to control one heads preamp...so there's no extra learning curve.
 
Thanks for the response. Can you explain coming out of the Slave Out into another head? Do you plug it into the "input" like you would a guitar?

When you say "into" the power amps of the other heads are you reffering to the effects loop or Guitar input on the front?


Thanks
 
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Strangler said:
Thanks for the response. Can you explain coming out of the Slave Out into another head? Do you plug it into the "input" like you would a guitar?

When you say "into" the power amps of the other heads are you reffering to the effects loop or Guitar input on the front?


Thanks

Basically, the Master amps preamp is the only preamp in use. So all the tone shaping, channel switching, and volumes are set on the master amps preamp. Also, if the Master amp has a slave out, all the effects loop switching is done by the master preamp.

The Slave amps have their preamps bypassed, so they essentially become dumb power amps.

If you look at a rack based amp, the Preamp is always a master, and the power amps are always slaves.
 
when the master amp is cranked up, is it safe the push the slave through an effects device, as i've found as the amp volume goes up, as does the slave and i've been concered with overloading a pedal?
 
Rack type fx are better for this application as they generally can take a hotter signal (+4dB compared to most pedals -10dB), and also usually have an adjustment for input level. With this kind of setup, you would turn the master amp up to the highest level you will be playing at, input level of the fx about half way up, set slave out to give a very strong (but not clipping) signal at the fx, slave power amp all the way up, use fx output level to balance vol between master/slave amps. Now the master vol on main amp is master vol for the whole rig.

If you're using pedal-type fx, it would probably be better to take the signal from the fx loop send, rather than slave out.
 
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