Running A/B/Y switch into Kemper powered head, trying to split signal into two cabs. What’s the correct cable chain?

    Hi, looking to get an A/B/Y switch pedal to use 2 cabs at once live. However I’m not sure how it would work going into a Kemper powered head. I’m planning to split the signal into 2 orange 4x12’s. What’s the correct cable path to use here?

    Firstly, be careful of what you connect to the speaker output. Never use instrument cable as it isn’t designed for the high voltages from an amp. The same goes for A/B boxes. Make sure it can handle the voltage first.


    However, if you have the cabinet I think you have it should have two jack sockets on the back. These are wired in Parallel for chaining cabinets. You should be able to just connect a speaker cable from the second socket on the first cabinet to the input on the second cabinet without any other devices. This would lower the impedance from the 16 ohms to 8 ohms.

    In case your cabinets just offer one socket, Palmer offers a Cab Merger, which allows to connect two cabinets with one amp speaker output. And you can choose to run the cabs in series or in parallel. You need three speaker cables for it.

    Wheresthedug I see what you’re saying, I guess I’m just confused on where I’d connect the A/B/Y splitter outputs to in regards to the kemper amp head. I understand now the use of both jack sockets on the cabs to run them together. For example would I run the output of the kemper to the first cab and then the splitter outputs to the other socket on each cab? also not sure where to put the splitter on my pedalboard since I’m using a wireless shure system, since it seems to have to be the last pedal in the signal.

    Wheresthedug would I possibly need this to be able to pull off the splitter/wireless combo? for example kemper input —> first pedal, then use one side of this cable for the last pedal —> shure wireless, then the other side —> input of A/B/Y?

    To split the signal into 2 cabinets the split must come AFTER the power amp (i.e. after the Speaker Out on the Kemper. You definitely DO NOT want to put one of the little Y cables there as you run the risk of melting them and shorting your power amp.


    Are these the speakers you have ? https://orangeamps.com/product…peaker-enclosures/ppc412/


    If so download the manual and it shows how to chain speakers together to use two cabinets at 8 ohms. If not which model are they? Do they have 2 TS inputs on the back? If they have two TS female sockets then you probably only need 2 speaker cables and nothing else.


    If you want to use an A/B splitter you need to look at something like the Palmer that Burkhard mentioned earlier. Radial also do a switchable speaker/amp splitter for people that want to use two amps with one speaker or want to switch between to different sounding speakers. Doesn’t sound like you need that much control though.

    Ah I see, so the speaker out of the powered head goes to the input of the A/B switch, completely seperate from the pedal board. I do have those orange cabs, I’m running both live and would like to switch between them/use both at once. This helped a lot, thank you!