2 guitars in one amp?

[magnus0]

Me and my friend plugged our guitars into one amp using this plug:


But we had a problem. If one played, the other one could not be heard so much.

Is there any crcuit that will merge the signals better?

[TD_Madden]

that plug has a stereo output, thus only one guitar will be heard clearly as guitar-amp jacks are mono.

[frank.clarke]

A mixer would be good.

[Chuck H]

Also keep in mind that different amps will do this differently. An amp that is designed to be overdriven will lack clarity for this application. One of the tonal qualities that amp builders try to achieve is "note separation". This is hard enough to do with one guitar plugged in, let alone two. Also, with two guitars plugged in you will have two volume controls in parallel. This will reduce impedance and the volume of either instrument. So the tone of either guitar will not be the same as if the other guitar was not plugged in. Also, if one player turns down his/her guitar, the other will also be turned down, because most guitar volume controls shunt the input to ground as a means of volume reduction.

The best solution would be to use separate preamps. It could be something like a Line6 POD or similar thing.

The best compromise would be to run the amp clean and use separate distortion pedals for gain and don't turn down your guitars volume controls. Some distortion pedals will resolve the volume shunting from either guitar too.

Oh, and you do need a 2mono to 1mono jack. The one in the pic has a stereo male end. It may work if it's a stereo to stereo jack. But if it's made to run two mono signals to two separate stereo signals (as most of them do) then it shouldn't work.

HTH

Chuck