Powercab Plus Combo Jack Input - 2 guitar?

[erickbalan]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the modelling amp world. I'm currently eyeing for the Line 6 powercab 112 plus as FRFR speaker for my POD HD500x. Saw in the manual there's two input/combo jack at the back of the speaker input 1 & input 2 - what happen if i plug in two guitar with multi-fx into it, let say i wanna jam with my buddy, will it work or is it for different purpose?

[cruisinon2]

Don't have a Powercab, so I won't speculate as to the design's purpose... but I do know one thing:

 

Even if it "works", in the sense that sound comes out, piping two guitars though a single 12" speaker is a guaranteed mess. Both instruments occupy the same sonic space and will be constantly fighting with each other.  You'll be lucky if you can distinguish who's who. 

[erickbalan]

Thanks. Indeed. That would make sense tho. I'll better leave it as single. :D

[StringsOnFire]

On 4/29/2019 at 4:49 PM, cruisinon2 said:

Don't have a Powercab, so I won't speculate as to the design's purpose... but I do know one thing:

 

Even if it "works", in the sense that sound comes out, piping two guitars though a single 12" speaker is a guaranteed mess. Both instruments occupy the same sonic space and will be constantly fighting with each other.  You'll be lucky if you can distinguish who's who. 

 

Why should it be a mess? You can play a backing track through the powercab and play to it. That doesn't sound that bad. Of course, two amps would be nicer for your case but it should be fine.

[cruisinon2]

2 hours ago, StringsOnFire said:

 

Why should it be a mess? You can play a backing track through the powercab and play to it. That doesn't sound that bad. Of course, two amps would be nicer for your case but it should be fine.

 

Have you ever seen two guitarists on stage playing through one amp? Me neither. Try it out and see how great it sounds. And I wouldn't waste my time playing to a backing track through a single speaker either...a stereo mix with no stereo separation, a live guitar piled on top, all stuffed through a single speaker isn't exactly what you'd call optimal either. 

[StringsOnFire]

On 5/1/2019 at 3:18 PM, cruisinon2 said:

 

Have you ever seen two guitarists on stage playing through one amp? Me neither. Try it out and see how great it sounds. And I wouldn't waste my time playing to a backing track through a single speaker either...a stereo mix with no stereo separation, a live guitar piled on top, all stuffed through a single speaker isn't exactly what you'd call optimal either. 

 

Of course it is not optimal and I am not encouraging anyone to play a gig with this setting...  but if you have just this one amp at home and want to jam with your friend sometimes, then it won't be a disaster either.

[PierM]

Playing 2 guitars through the same loudspeaker means you have no frequency separation, hence it will sound utterly garbage, because that single speaker can't work for both guitars, unless they are playing exactly the same thing, at the same time, with same amplitude. Typical thing you may get it's one of the two guitarists being buried or totally cancelled as the other one kick in with some distortion or screaming solo. Also not a great move in terms of input saturation, clipping and speaker lifespan. If you both are playing some clean stuff, it can work some way, but you will be still getting that "ping pong" fight between the two signals.

[erickbalan]

Thanks guys! Agree that it is not an ideal setup. Mainly gonna use it for home practice. On stage is a big No-No. Guess i just need to give it a try to see how it works. 

[firehawkkwah]

I've run a keyboard, electronic drums, backing track, vocal mic, and live guitar into a mixer then a looper, then into a guitar amp with a single 12.

Did it sound stellar? No, all of the sounds were crappy. 

Was it fun jamming with a bunch of kids?

Heck yeah it was. (The guitar sounded the best, btw, the drums sounded the absolute worst!)

[amsdenj]

If you run Powercab in FRFR mode, you can easily amplify two different inputs. Guitar inputs will need amp and speaker models, so as long as you do that you should have no problem. Powercab is intended to be run clean, the distortion comes from the amp models, not Powercab. Run this way, the Powercab should be completely linear and will easily amplify whatever signals you put into it. It will be mono, but everything will come through, just in the same pan position.

 

[HonestOpinion]

It really comes down to how well the mix is handled and the ability of the speaker(s), or Powercab in this case, to handle it.  A standard PA/mixing console mixes an entire band, guitars, bass, drums, etc., often to only two speakers at FOH in mono. That works pretty well so mixing two guitars to one speaker can be made to work nicely. With that said my experience with putting two guitars through the same amp has usually yielded less than stellar results. Don't know whether it is phase inversion, lack of two truly separate channels, physical differences between guitar and PA speakers, or what, but many/most guitar amps just don't handle two guitars well. Have no idea how the PC+ would fare. Might be fine, might not. 

 

Even if it sounds good it makes it more difficult to monitor your own guitar when both guitarists are coming out of the same speaker. But hey, for casual jamming why not give it a try.  For me, I think sharing is a fine thing but don't know if I would want another guitarist cranking their own MFX through my PC+ while I was using it. Maybe after I've had it for a few years. :-)