Two guitars through a single volume pedal

[Gary Meixner]

In most of the shows I play I use two separate guitars, switching back and forth often. I plug the two guitars into an A/B box and then use a single Goodrich volume pedal and amplifier for both instruments.

The A/B box works fine but I would like to try rewiring the tuner out jack on the volume pedal to be a parallel input so I can plug both guitars directly into the volume pedal and eliminate the A/B box. I would then turn the volume knob down on the guitar not being played.

Even with the volume knob turned all the way down the guitar will still be part of the circuit and I am wondering if it is likely to effect the tone on the guitar being played.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

Gary

[Stew Crookes]

This will not work as well as you'd hope - each guitar will be loaded by the impedance of both the pedal volume pot and the other guitar's volume pot at all times...

[Howard Parker]

I agree with Stew. A/B switch is the "correct" approach.

h

[Mike Auman]

You could use a two-channel mixer like the Morley Gold ABY, without using the foot switches, and leaving it in "Y" mode so that both guitars are connected to the amp, and just turning down the volume knob on the unused guitar. Each guitar input is separately buffered so they won't interfere with each other. As a bonus, you get separate level controls and a second output for another amp. Available at Sweetwater, Guitar Center, etc for around $120. It's still an outboard pedal, but you don't have to mess with it.

Screenshot 2025-02-16 180236.png

[Gary Meixner]

Hey, thanks for the help. Your answers are pretty much what I expected. I will stick with the A/B box for now. A mini mixer is not a bad idea either.

Thanks again,
Gary

[Stew Crookes]

There's also the JHS Summing Amp pedal which is the simplest 2 into 1 active mixer that I'm aware of - I've been considering getting one to replace the A/B box that I use to switch between my Tele and my steel... If I try it out I'll let you know how it goes!