Should I play in Stereo?

Using in stereo gives your guitar better sound. It makes your sound feel like it is taking up the room and coming from every direction. Most all recorded guitar sounds are made in stereo to give it a fuller presence for the user and a greater sound. You can hear this effect when you listen to music on your headphones. Here are a few tips for running your guitar in stereo.

For starters, buy a stereo amplifier such as a fender Princeton chorus or any other digital modelling amp that has line 6 designated for stereo.

Secondly, use a modern digital guitar processor. Use any modern digital guitar processor. These units generally have two outputs (left/right). Then run two leads to two channels of a mixing desk or mixer/amp unit as long as the PA system is running in stereo. This is very important. Then you hard pan each channel to each of the left and right outputs.

Mixing boards have TWO stereo channels where you can put both sound outputs into one channel. To hear your guitar separately from the other instruments, you will still need to monitor your sound through some type of amp. Many bands these days choose to run everything into the PA system.

Moreover, you can use two amplifiers and use one of the effect processors mentioned above or any effect unit such as chorus or delay unit that has two outputs. One lead goes to one amp the other lead to the second amp. This way you produce a stereo sound without using the PA system.

The down side of this is the set up is more time consuming, requires double rigging and twice as much actual equipment. It is a lot of work, however, the result is remarkably different from playing through a single mono amplifier. The sound quality is amazing and you get a stereo sound.

Most intelligent harmony machines or pitch shifters will only sound good in a stereo configuration when set up to do complex harmonies. Its important that if you are going to use one of these instruments you set up a stereo speaker system to ensure quality sound control.

Stereo sound systems make your guitar sound better and fill the room. It gives the listening a more complete music experience and should be used all the time.