Cheap Hi-Z guitar splitter?

[David MacNeill]

I want to send my guitar output to my pedalboard and to my Apollo’s Hi-Z input. My Radial DI could do it with its Through output and a XLR-to-TS cable from it’s XLR output, but that would convert the latter signal to Lo-Z. And body know of a cheap buffered splitter that sends Hi-Z to both outs?

 

[Joe Porto]

I’ve been down this road…

There are none I know of that will not compromise high end. Lehle P-split is the only passive hi-z splitter I’ve found that retains high end, and that still slightly changes the dynamic response from the isolated side.

Even the Radial Bigshot transformer has noticeable HF rolloff. Of coarse, using a buffer before the split will retain high end, but output will be low-Z.

What is your pedal board feeding? If it’s an amp, you will need transformer isolation to prevent ground loop, but if it’s a modeler pedal, you most likely will not. Easiest way to split in that scenario is a buffer into a y-cable, but as you said, would result in Lo-Z signal to Apollo.

 

[David MacNeill]

I’ve been down this road…

There are none I know of that will not compromise high end. Lehle P-split is the only passive hi-z splitter I’ve found that retains high end, and that still slightly changes the dynamic response from the isolated side.

Even the Radial Bigshot transformer has noticeable HF rolloff. Of coarse, using a buffer before the split will retain high end, but output will be low-Z.

What is your pedal board feeding? If it’s an amp, you will need transformer isolation to prevent ground loop, but if it’s a modeler pedal, you most likely will not. Easiest way to split in that scenario is a buffer into a y-cable, but as you said, would result in Lo-Z signal to Apollo.

My main studio pedalboard feeds in stereo to the rack Apollo silverface. The Donner is a passive A/B splitter to route the signal to a second smaller group of pedals on my desk for ambient stuff which feeds another stereo pair in the silverface. I want to split my mono guitar before the Peterson tuner. So I can track with the pedalboard and a mono Hi-Z on the Apollo as a raw backup of each take.

My guitar signal currently jacks into the Peterson, then flows into the Donner A/B, 1176, Fender tube tremolo, Lion (where it turns into stereo from there on), Ruby, Rotary, MicroPitch, and Del-Verb, then out to the silverface.

 

[David MacNeill]

Looking hard at the Lehle you mentioned. It is more than I want to spend but if it is the only one with minimal effect on tone, then it is worth it.

 

[David MacNeill]

I guess if I sell my never-used mint condition Radial JDI I can get close to the cost of the Lehle. I’ll list it right now here on the forum.

 

[Joe Porto]

My main studio pedalboard feeds in stereo to the rack Apollo silverface. The Donner is a passive A/B splitter to route the signal to a second smaller group of pedals on my desk for ambient stuff which feeds another stereo pair in the silverface. I want to split my mono guitar before the Peterson tuner. So I can track with the pedalboard and a mono Hi-Z on the Apollo as a raw backup of each take.

My guitar signal currently jacks into the Peterson, then flows into the Donner A/B, 1176, Fender tube tremolo, Lion (where it turns into stereo from there on), Ruby, Rotary, MicroPitch, and Del-Verb, then out to the silverface.

Let’s think this through for a minute. You basically want a safety copy. Without anything in the Unison slot, there’s nothing for the high impedance signal to react to. It’s basically going through the non-compensated DI of the Apollo. Once it is recorded, you will either use plugins in the box (signal already recorded, so no impedance interaction) or you’re going to come out of an Apollo out at low impedance and possibly use a reamp that will convert to hi impedance into your pedalboard or amp.

Does that all make sense? I’m not seeing an advantage of keeping the split hi-Z. If you were going to record the split through a Unison preamp, possibly, but not a direct safety copy.

I use the P-split in a live 2-amp setup where I have a fuzz after the split. The fuzz sounds like ass after a buffered split, and the amps clean up better when fed the hi-z pickup signal directly.

In your case, you’re past anything hi-z can do once you’re digital. I would just buffer split to an Apollo DI or use a direct box into mic pre for the safety copy. I don’t think your $200 is going to get much in this use case.

 

[GregJ]

BUFFERED SPLITTER

BUFFER UTILITY There are so many reasons to add the JHS Pedals Buffered Splitter to your pedalboard. But the most important one is great tone. If you’ve ever split your guitar’s signal with a passive device, adapter, or even certain effects pedals, you know that the results can sometimes be less...

jhspedals.info

ACTIVE A/B/Y

SWITCHING UTILITY The JHS Pedals Active A/B/Y is the perfect solution when you need to send one signal to two outputs with the ability to choose either output (or both) on the fly. Just plug in your instrument cable (or patch cable) into the input, then use the outputs to send signal to any...

jhspedals.info

 

[klasaine]

Not “cheap” but no signal loss or degradation at all.
Radial “Twin City” …

Twin-City - Radial Engineering

The Twin-City is an active ABY switcher that toggles or combines two guitar amplifiers in phase and without noise, with a class-A input buffer to drive both amps without any loss of gain.

www.radialeng.com

I got one second hand for around $150 or so.
Theres a few on Reverb around that price.

 

[Joe Porto]

Not “cheap” but no signal loss or degradation at all.
Radial “Twin City” …

Twin-City - Radial Engineering

The Twin-City is an active ABY switcher that toggles or combines two guitar amplifiers in phase and without noise, with a class-A input buffer to drive both amps without any loss of gain.

www.radialeng.com

I got one second hand for around $150 or so.
Theres a few Reverb around that price.

Just to be clear, Dave is inquiring about a quality passive high impedance splitter, which are very expensive. These have certain use scenarios, but I believe what he is looking to do can in fact be done with an active splitter. In fact, a Y cable after any high quality active buffer will yield transparent results. After reading Dave’s use scenario, I too recommend an active lo-z buffer/splitter.

 

[flandybob]

I’m using a Palmer PGA 03 which is relatively cheap and I can’t say I hear much of a difference between the direct signal and the signal with the Palmer. I used to use it to split my bass before I got a « proper » DI (RNDI in my case).
I’m not sure I get why you don’t just use the DI you already have for the safety clean track, the DI in Apollo is OK but nothing exceptional

 

[David MacNeill]

Let me clarify my scenario a bit more…

Until I got the Lion pedal, I tracked my guitar parts basically raw — plinkety-plinkety — after I worked out the part (I always compose my solo parts these days with a little improvisation within those parts) with the UA Marshall Plexi plugin in a normal insert, not in Console. Yes, I understand the benefits of the impedance matching thing it does, but I found it was much easier for me to edit my parts in raw audio straight from the guitar. I used to be a guitar slinger of some regional renown back in the 70’s and 80’s, but I’m over all that showoff stuff and that’s why I compose my solos now.

The Lion pedal, followed by the Ruby pedal, totally changed my approach to guitar parts. Now I usually just find the right tone and work it out with The pedalboard and pipe it into the Apollo in stereo as described above. I usually commit and lately I’ve had to edit the parts less — maybe I’m becoming a better guitarist? Sure, why not — I’m only 68!

But I have gone back to a song after a few weeks in the can and decided I used too much distortion or Del-Verb or something like that, but the part is printed. If I want to change it, I have to play it again. I don’t know about you, but I never get the exact same feel the second time, hence my desire for an easy way to have the original raw track to process using my Lion or Ruby plugins if I need to.

PS: I just read in another thread here that UA has recommended inserting a UAD distortion plugin in a Unison slow but turn off the effect, thus generating an impedence-matched signal into whatever amp plugin inserts you like to come afterward. This could be a better-sounding alternative to my plinkety-plinkety raw-dog tracking, but I would still need a Hi-Z splitter of some kind to feed my pedalboard’s amp pedals. Some experimentation is in order!

 

[David MacNeill]

I’m using a Palmer PGA 03 which is relatively cheap and I can’t say I hear much of a difference between the direct signal and the signal with the Palmer. I used to use it to split my bass before I got a « proper » DI (RNDI in my case).
I’m not sure I get why you don’t just use the DI you already have for the safety clean track, the DI in Apollo is OK but nothing exceptional

I tried that with a DI using an ancient Carvin impedance matching transformer adapter thingy that is XLR on one end and Hi-Z TS on the other, but it’s very fiddley hanging off the desktop Apollo’s Hi-Z input and is so long it forces me to move my FaderPort. It may seem like a small thing to rearrange my desk to track guitar parts, but it really bugs me to do that when I’d rather have a permanent splitter all patched in and always at the ready when inspiration strikes. It’s worth spending some money to achieve that simplicity and readiness.

 

[klasaine]

If it's any consolation, regarding the price of these things, I have always found multiple utilitarian uses for my higher-end splitters. The Lehle gear is top notch and you can run it over with a car.

 

[Rainflower]

Sorry I did t read th entire post…radial makes this..that might work?

Headlight - Radial Engineering

The Headlight is a guitar amp selector designed to easily fit on a pedalboard and allow seamless switching between as many as four amps using a single footswitch.

www.radialeng.com

edit: This basically splits a single guitar into 4 outputs, that can be either switched with the buttons or used in an ‘all on’ setting so all outputs can be used at the same time.

 

[Nyoak34]

Let me clarify my scenario a bit more…

Until I got the Lion pedal, I tracked my guitar parts basically raw — plinkety-plinkety — after I worked out the part (I always compose my solo parts these days with a little improvisation within those parts) with the UA Marshall Plexi plugin in a normal insert, not in Console. Yes, I understand the benefits of the impedance matching thing it does, but I found it was much easier for me to edit my parts in raw audio straight from the guitar. I used to be a guitar slinger of some regional renown back in the 70’s and 80’s, but I’m over all that showoff stuff and that’s why I compose my solos now.

The Lion pedal, followed by the Ruby pedal, totally changed my approach to guitar parts. Now I usually just find the right tone and work it out with The pedalboard and pipe it into the Apollo in stereo as described above. I usually commit and lately I’ve had to edit the parts less — maybe I’m becoming a better guitarist? Sure, why not — I’m only 68!

But I have gone back to a song after a few weeks in the can and decided I used too much distortion or Del-Verb or something like that, but the part is printed. If I want to change it, I have to play it again. I don’t know about you, but I never get the exact same feel the second time, hence my desire for an easy way to have the original raw track to process using my Lion or Ruby plugins if I need to.

PS: I just read in another thread here that UA has recommended inserting a UAD distortion plugin in a Unison slow but turn off the effect, thus generating an impedence-matched signal into whatever amp plugin inserts you like to come afterward. This could be a better-sounding alternative to my plinkety-plinkety raw-dog tracking, but I would still need a Hi-Z splitter of some kind to feed my pedalboard’s amp pedals. Some experimentation is in order!

I would just take a straight DI plus your processed pedals on the thru... and then get a reamp box to reamp back through the gear you normally like to use if you need to.

 

[David MacNeill]

If it's any consolation, regarding the price of these things, I have always found multiple utilitarian uses for my higher-end splitters. The Lehle gear is top notch and you can run it over with a car.

That’s good since I already ordered it!

 

[David MacNeill]

I would just take a straight DI plus your processed pedals on the thru... and then get a reamp box to reamp back through the gear you normally like to use if you need to.

Good suggestion, but I rarely use my amps anymore so I won’t need a reamp box. My JDI would do this but I’d rather keep it Hi-Z if I can.

 

[klong]

I have a buffered splitter mini-pedal made by Saturnworks which I have never had any problem with. Splits one guitar signal into two. I use it to make a dry backup recording for re-amping etc. This is the one, $69 , takes normal 9v pedal cable.

Saturnworks Buffered Splitter Pedal w Neutrik Jacks - Handcrafted in California | eBay

The Saturnworks buffered splitter is the best way to keep your tone strong and clear and to eliminate signal interaction between channels. The Saturnworks buffered splitter isn't just a single buffer followed by a signal split.

www.ebay.com

 

[David MacNeill]

I have a buffered splitter mini-pedal made by Saturnworks which I have never had any problem with. Splits one guitar signal into two. I use it to make a dry backup recording for re-amping etc. This is the one, $69 , takes normal 9v pedal cable.

Saturnworks Buffered Splitter Pedal w Neutrik Jacks - Handcrafted in California | eBay

The Saturnworks buffered splitter is the best way to keep your tone strong and clear and to eliminate signal interaction between channels. The Saturnworks buffered splitter isn't just a single buffer followed by a signal split.

www.ebay.com

Interesting! I think I will get one to try.

 

[Rainflower]

I have a buffered splitter mini-pedal made by Saturnworks which I have never had any problem with. Splits one guitar signal into two. I use it to make a dry backup recording for re-amping etc. This is the one, $69 , takes normal 9v pedal cable.

Saturnworks Buffered Splitter Pedal w Neutrik Jacks - Handcrafted in California | eBay

The Saturnworks buffered splitter is the best way to keep your tone strong and clear and to eliminate signal interaction between channels. The Saturnworks buffered splitter isn't just a single buffer followed by a signal split.

www.ebay.com

I have a few Saturnworks pedals, these pedals are well built. They can make custom pedals as well…pretty much any splitter, mixer, blender, a/b…tap tempo…good stuff!