For years, guitarists have been searching for a real solution for AB-Y amp switching and combining. One would think that in this day of unbelievable technology, building this type of device would be easy. And it is easy…. unless you are intent on retaining the original sound of the guitar!

For those that have tried connecting two amplifiers together using Y-cords or some of the other AB-Y boxes that have come before, you are familiar with the many challenges. A drop in gain, tone change, buzz and hum, just to name a few. The Radial Switchbone is a remarkable device that deals with all of these problems and brings forth a design that is easy to use, musical and truly effective. It has been optimized for stage use and allows a guitar to drive two amps and do it while retaining all the natural sound of the instrument without introducing buzz, hum, distortion or switching noise.

The Switchbone begins with the concept that most ‘tone crazy’ players will generally use two amps on stage. Normally, when the signal from one guitar is split, the signal from the pickup is divided and the sound changes. To get around this problem, the Switchbone employs a unique Class-A buffering circuit that has been optimized for use with guitars. With Radial customers like Eric Johnson, Steve Lukather, Carlos Santana, Steve Stevens and Neal Schon on hand, we are not allowed to alter the sound of their vintage axes – the sound must be real!

Wanna Drag™?
This leads to the next problem: Your guitar has now gone from being passive to essentially becoming active. Your pickup is no longer connected directly to the amplifier. It is being ‘buffered’ (amplified) by the Switchbone. The natural relationship is lost. To compensate for this, we have introduced a feature called Drag™ control to allow you to reintroduce the natural loading that is lost. With load-correction, the instrument goes back to normal. It breathes!

Buzz Eliminator
When you connect your two amplifiers together they can hum, buzz and sometimes even spark with hundreds of volts! This is due to the way that each manufacturer builds their amplifiers. Some use positive ground, others negative. Some use the chassis as a ground plane while old designs from the 50’s and 60’s do not even have proper 3-pin safety U-grounds! To solve these problems, the Radial Switchbone incorporates a transformer-isolated output, a ground lift switch, and a polarity reverse switch. This isolates the electrical current flow of each amplifier and eliminates ground loops.

Boost and Control
Of course, once you get these amps connected together, you have to control them... and this is where the Switchbone really shines! The Switchbone's intuitive footswitch layout and 'ToggleMode™' LED readout follows a ‘common sense’ approach that is very natural. We have also added Radial's great-sounding 'VariBoost™' power booster circuit that allows you to step up the output to both amps simultaneously for solos or extra saturation when playing through a distorted sound. For icing on the cake, we've added a separate 'buffered' output for your tuner. This takes the tuner out of the audio circuit, thus ensuring you get the direct tone of your guitar without coloration or extra pickup loading from the tuner.