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For years, guitarists have been searching for a real solution for ABY
amp switching and combining. One would think that in this day of unbelievable
technology, that building this type of device would be easy. And of course
it is easy…. unless you are intent on retaining the original sound
of the guitar….
For those that have tried connecting two amplifiers together using Y-cords
or some of the other AB-Y boxes that have come before, you are familiar
with the many challenges: Drop in gain, tone changes, buzz and hum just
to name a few. The Radial Switchbone is a remarkable device that deals
with all of these problems and brings forth a design that is easy to use,
musical and truly effective. The Radial Switchbone has been optimized
for stage use and allows a guitar to drive two amplifiers and do it while
retaining the natural sound of the instrument without introducing buzz,
hum, distortion or switching noise.
The Radial Switchbone begins with the concept that most ‘tone crazy’
players will generally use two amps on stage. When driving two amplifiers
with one guitar, the signal from the pickup is divided in two and the
sound changes. To get around this problem, the Switchbone employs a unique
Class-A amplifier circuit that has been optimized for use with guitars.
With Radial customers like Eric Johnson, Steve Lukather, Carlos Santana,
Steve Stevens and Neal Schon, we are not allowed to alter the sound of
their favorite vintage axe. The sound must be real!
This leads to the next problem: Your guitar has now gone from being passive
to essentially becoming active. Your pickup is no longer connected directly
to the amplifier. It is being ‘buffered’ (amplified) by the
Switchbone. The natural relationship is lost. To compensate for this,
we have introduced a feature called Drag™ control to allow you to
reintroduce the natural loading that is lost. With load-correction, the
instrument goes back to normal. It breathes!
Then, as soon as you connect your two amplifiers together they hum, they
buzz and sometimes even spark with hundreds of volts! This is due to the
way that each manufacturer builds their amplifiers. Some use positive
ground, others negative. Some use the chassis as a ground plane while
old designs from the 50’s and 60’s do not even have proper
3-pin safety U-grounds! To solve these problems, the Radial Switchbone
incorporates a transformer-isolated output, a ground lift switch, and
a polarity reverse switch. This isolates the electrical current flow of
each amplifier and eliminates ground loops.
Of course, once you get these amps connected together, you have to control
them! This is where the Switchbone also shines! The Switchbone is easy
to use. The foot switch layout and LED readout follows a ‘common
sense’ and intuitive approach that is very natural. We have also
added a boost circuit to allow you to ‘step-up’ the output
to both amps simultaneously for a solo or extra saturation when playing
through a distorted sound. For icing on the cake, we added a separate
output for your tuner. This takes the tuner out of the audio circuit,
thus ensuring you get the direct tone of your guitar without extra loading.
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