Play 2 guitars through a single PA speaker

Question

Before I get into the question, here is the equipment I currently have:

• 1 JBL JRX 212 PA speaker
• 1 Palmer Macht 402 power amp
• 2 Line 6 POD preamps (1 HD500X, 1 XT PRO)

I would like to run both my guitars through different preamps (each guitar having its own desired sound), and merging the two so they can be heard from the same PA speaker.

I tried running a guitar into each preamp. Then routing the Unbalanced Analog Output from each preamp into the Palmer power amp (1 per channel). Then using a Y-Adapter, send the stereo signal into the JBL PA input.

But I can only hear one of the channels.

I guess this question is two-fold.

1. How can I set this up so I can hear both guitars from the same PA?
2. How does this setup compare to a multi-PA setup (1 guitar per PA)?

Answer 1

You do not want to use a Y-Adapter for this. Instead you want a mixer that will let you send both inputs to 1 channel, then send that to the power amp. Small mixers are very cheap these days, so get a 4 channel - that way if you need you can add a vocal channel or more if needed.

Multi-PA is not the preferred approach, instead, what almost everyone does is use a mixer that takes all the inputs, routes them to 2 or more output channels, which each have power amplification and speakers.