Lehle Dual A/B

The unit is capable of some advanced switching, it is easy to use. Mine came with a manual, and I downloaded the PDF file prior to purchasing it.

I ultimately purchased this pedal for one main reason. I just purchased an Ernie Ball John Petrucci Music Man guitar. It happends to have stereo outputs. I needed to have something to route the guitars stereo outs to a dual rig system. The great thing about this is, When you use the Stereo INPUTS of the Lehle Dual SGOS, it truly separates the two signals and you can switch sounds manually or program the buttons to preset combinations to each footswitch. If you use a mono input, you can A/B/Y like a regular switcher. I use two cables: one regular mono cable and I also have a DiMarzio stereo cable laid out when I play.

The A and B inputs have gain controls, I needed to have them carefullly adjusted for the Stereo outs of my Ernie Ball Musicman JP seven string. I use A for Piezo acoustic tones and B for regular Magnetic pickup tones. I send A to a POD XT and BOSS SE-50 to monitor mixer and B is sent to a rack for my electric tones. I use a SKB pedal board called Stage Five. It is laid out nicely and it has a nice patch board for managing in/outs. I pull out a patch chord that connects the A input out when I use the mono chord. Then if I want I can send the electric to the rack and POD XT simultaneously.
I have noticed that when I turn off A. B gets louder. I have rebalanced the gains and it seems to correct this. However if I where to disengage B and leave A on, my Piezo guitar gets distorted.
I mainly leave both on and just use the switch on the guitar to select Piezo and electric. I only switch them both off to tune. I have Output T go to the tuner.
When I got to a standard guitar chord. I just have B and T on.
The gain controls on A and B are very important to set correctly to get the best use of this pedal.

So, far this is mainly used as a router and for muting. I could use two BOSS TUNERS if this thing broke down on me. It is very well constructed.

I have never dealt with the company other than showing my support for them by joining their guestbook and myspace page. I was thinking of asking them about the situation with the PIEZO sound getting distorted when used I just use A? I did mention above why it really isn't a problem.

This pedal was a wise choice and just looking over at the other products and the fact it is fine German engineering made it a most useful purchase.
I would probably buy another one if someone stole it. I like the programmable features and the quality of the pedal.

Instructions were very simple. Extremely easy to set up. Required a Wall-Wart which was not included.

Deadly silent, no noise or click sounds. I run a Mesa Boogie Road King and a Mesa Boogie Mark IV. Completely Mind Numbing.

Built like a tank.

No reason to contact them yet.

No worries, amp tones are not influenced by switcher. I can now concentrate on my music instead of being troubled by equipment issues. Love it to death!!!!!

It only has a few switches..How difficult can that be?
Manual not very helpful but the local tech was.

Seems to not color the signal at all. However, there was a loud hum when I initially hooked it up and I could only use it by plugging the guitar 1/4 inch jack about half way in.
I looked at the manual and it said to reverse the internal ground loop. So I did. I noticed the transformer inside was not seated properly and took it the local tech and he said the transformer was ground looping and looked as if it had been monkeyed around with....

No I can use it and because I took it to a tech here instead of sending it back to the manufacturer there is no warranty.

Canadian distributor. Rude and not helpful.

I just bought a radial and it works just fine.

Extremely easy to set up and use. The power supply is very simple useing a daisy chain off my Strobostomp. Does not suck.

This is the one key aspect I am disappointed with. I had expected a quieter running rig but it does give a lot of hum which is very noticeable on quiet passages. I use Les Pauls & Telecasters driving mainly Mesa Lonestars and Fender Bassman's. The effects aren't coloured but then I only use OD, delay and chorus. I am going to keep hunting for a switcher that really deals with dual amp noise problems, this doesn't, but it will do for the moment.

It is very robust and reliable and easy to see/use!

I've been playing for 44 years and it's still the blues with a good mix of jazz & rock. All my amps are low powered tube type, 35 - 50 watt. Never found a switcher yet that handles a dual setup successfully. I picked this one up because it seemed the best of a bunch but if it broke or I lost it I would hunt down something quieter (if it exists). It does help split the effects to the two different amps.
If it handled noise/hum better it would get 10's across the board and live in my guitar case

Simple to use.

The creme de la creme of amp switchers. ab/y boxes. The problem with plain splitters is that you will often end up with a ground loop and an ugly buzz. The Lehle contains isolation transformers and eliminates that. I also have a Startouch pedal and it's great and simple but won't fix a ground loop on it's own umless you use it with an EBtech hum eliminator. I usally use 2 amps, one of a variety of tube amps and a motion sound rotary amp or sometimes two tube amps, at both of my practice studio, my home studio and most gigs (unless it's a very small gig). I also have a Radial ToneBone Switchbone shich has more bells and whistles but I prefer the Lehle because it is so simple and easy to switch on the fly.

German Engineering. It's a rock. I never have a backup.

Guy in New Jersey is the importing agent and answered some questions via e-mail regarding one of their other products. Look as long as it doesn't break I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's great. I doubt I'll ever need it.

Anybody who wants easy amp switchability on the fly via a stompbox, elimination of ground loop hum problems and a simple but effective switcher should save themselves time and trouble and use this if they can afford it.

Unit takes a wallwart for power, which isn't included with unit, and can't be run with a 9-volt battery instead. Curious, given the price of the unit. It seems you feed two amps without powering it, but you can't do any switching between amps unless you have it plugged into a wallwart. Also, it didn't come with any instructions.

I'm using the unit with THD and Marshall amps. I was using Morley AB/Y boxes, but was getting really frustrated with the noise and loss of tone. My next step was switching over to Evidenced-based Audio cables which helped some, but not enough. A friend suggested the Lehle, so I bit the price bullet and ordered one.

The Lehle is definitely much quieter then the Morley, but I still get some hiss. Good point is that I didn't have any tone loss with the Lehle. Curiously, when I switched A/B outputs with amp inputs, the noise went down some, but still didn't completely go away.

As a side-note, on my journey to eliminate noise while splitting my signal, I discovered Startouch pedals which have totally eliminated my noise problem without tone loss at 1/3 the price....

The unit looks like it's built to survive the end of the world, but suspect the switching pins could have some problems...that's only a guess

Haven't tried to contact them given the company is in Germany and I'm here. Probably I should note that I was told the unit would run off of a battery when I purchased it via the web and was very surprised to learn it didn't when I received it.

Given that it requires a wallwart for any switching and had noise, I'm giving it an overall rating of 7...better buy is a Startouch pedal if you want to completely eliminate noise.

Hmmm. I'm trying to be balanced here. This is a German made product. It does not take a battery. After opening the case, I can understand why. In addition to the op amp and the LED's, the switching is with relays (I assume latching). This thing would probably eat batteries. So, for the $239 paid, why no power supply? I have to guess it's because it's a small German company with nitche market selling to different companies with different power situations. That said, you provide your own wall wart, AC/DC, doesn't matter, 8 - 20 volts, polarity doesn't matter, they provide you with an end you can solder on, and it works great. If this bothers you, then you might want to steer clear of this pedal. If it doesn't, read on because you'll love this pedal.

Past the power supply, the switches are intuitive, big, far enough apart that you don't hit others by mistake, easy to see, the LED's are behind magnifying lens. The 7 rating was for the power, beyond that this pedal warrants a solid "10"

I just recently went to a 2 amp set up. When I first hooked the 2 amps together before this pedal it was unusable. I bought a cheap A/B switch without ground loop protection and it had tons of hum. After the Lehle, the rig is quieter than it was BEFORE I had two amps (my first amp was a Johnson JM-250). I couldn't believe it. I've had other manufactures tell me that these A/B boxes that use audio transformers to isolate ground loops suck tone but I don't hear it, and if there is some tiny difference it isn't anything you can't EQ around and it is more than compensated by the loss of noise and hum...

Just got it, but it's built solid and I'd be real surprised if this thing didn't last a real long time. I like the fact that it came packaged with pedal board mounts (just predrilled holes and screws) - simple, but nice touch...

Haven's had to deal with them.

Compared to other ground loop isolated AB/Y boxes, this appears to be a good value. If ground looping isn't an issue, there are other well made boxes out there that you can get for less money. I would do research on ground loop issues and AB/Y boxes before buying anything. For the adventurous, see http://www.geofex.com for DIY projects (free)

Very Simple. The switching is wired up right. Just step on A or B and that is what you get, A or B, step on A/B you get both, step back on either A or B and you are back to either A or B.

I do not notice any change in signal or tone when using this box. It really does truly cancel the ground loop humm so common is A/B boxes used with two amps. I have had a Morley piece of @*&*=^!!! real primitive switch stay away from it. With the Morley you get exactly what you pay for cheap. I also had a Whirlwind very nice box silent switching very quiet, as nice as Lehle only you have the ground loop humm to still deal with. It worked fine except, I had to lift a ground on one of the amps to cancel the humm sorta scary.

To new to tell however it appears to be very high German quality and craftsmanship.

Don't know

Play mostly rockabilly/surf vintage rock 60's 70's. Setzer, Perkins, Cochran, Horton Heat, Southern Culture etc. Use two amps for the "BIG WALL OF SOUND" only two amps can do. Using MusicMan HD130 head with 2 12 celestion vintage 30's. Second amp is MusicMan 75 112 combo. I really love the sound and so does the crowd when you hit the switch crank out the two amps together. Lehle has very nice large LED's so you can see them, even under bright stage lights. If it holds up it is a winner, we shall see. This pedal is twice the price and then some of the whirlwind and other higher quality a/b boxes, it is worth every penny.

Any knucklehead can figure this thing out! Simply one of the best A/B/Y switches out there. Piece o' cake.

No pops, ground loops, or tone loss--the Lehle Dual does exactly what it should. Silent switching, and there are trim pots which allow you to finely tweak the output levels, if necessary. This isn't the only box out there that works this well (i.e. Framptone, Switchbone, Switch Hazel), but it's simply one of the best. Dig those massive, magnified LED's! Unfortunate that it can't be battery-powered, BUT it will accept almost ANY voltage, so it's very flexible...just pop that sucker into yer Pedal Power or whatever and GO!

YES, very solidly built, has lasted through many gigs thus far and I'm the second owner, no less. No backup necessary for this puppy...

I've never had to deal w/Lehle, but I understand they're a German company with a U.S. distributor located in the northeast.

This box is a great find. Was using that hideous Morley A/B/Y contraption before, but there's no comparison. The Lehle Dual ain't cheap, but it's a serious and simple piece of pro gear does exactly what ya need it to do. The only thing I wish it had were maybe a mute tuner out jack, but whatever...not a problem. At the moment, I use it to split my signal to two different Dr. Z amps which power different types of speakers (210s on one side, small Motion Sound leslie on the other), but I usually have it on the "Y" setting going into both amps at the same time. I've tried splitting my signal up between various other amps as well, and I've attempted this a number of different ways (via a Morley ABY pedal, various stereo effects pedals) but with only ho-hum results. The Lehle Dual is an excellent tool for the preservation of your tone!

Super simple. As reviewed below, 3 large smooth acting buttons, super bright lights (they illuminate smoke beautifully for free stage effects), flexible power input (voltages and polarity), gain trim pots. What else do you want???

I use it for switching between my Blues Junior and TSL601. No noise, no clicks or pops, no vagueness in the switching, and no coloration of the sound.

Brick shithouse by the look of it! Severely doubt you would need a back up but I don't use it live.

Never needed it.

Great product as it does exactly what it says it should. Not cheap but you'll never need another one. I had been using a Boss line switcher but I didn't need so many functions. Love the bright lights, and they go great with the blue Keeley ones!!! A seperate line out for a tuner might be a good idea but it would only complicate things. Basically if you want to switch between two amps seamlessly this is the dope, if you can afford it.

Plug it in and go. Very intelligent mounting system. Remove the top plate screw it directly to your pedalboard. Much, much nicer than velcro.

Absolutely the finest ABY I've ever used, including all attempts at homebrew. The output trim pots allow fine-tuning of levels to the two amps. Again, very intelligent design and perfect performance.

Seems indestructable.

Haven't had to use it.

I'm still giving it a 10, even with the price being over double the nearest comparable device (have not tried the BadCat, which I'm sure is closer to the Lehle's pricepoint). I use the Dual to switch between/combine my DC-30 and a custom Leslie and it has enabled me to realize this elusive sound (those of you who know the horrors of tone loss when combining amps will know what I mean). Simply the best I've used. Period.

This unit is great. It's built super heavy duty. It's a nice size and height. It's got two very bright lights, and three very large switches all a decent bit a part. This is important with my big size 12's. My favorite part is it has three buttons, first for A, second for AB, and the third for B. Which means when I get overzealous and go from A to B I don't go from A to B and then back to A. I only wish that hitting the ABY twice muted it. That would be great. It also has two inset volume pots so you can set the level up or down for A and B.

It doesn't take batteries, AC only. HOWEVER this will accept ANY adapter voltage from 8-20! No need to worry about positive and negative either, it will work with either!

I was looking for a good ABY box for my Bad Cat. I had tried both a Bad Cat ABY and a Morley. The Bad Cat sounded good but I did not like the functionality. The Morley just sounded plan horrible. Tone wise, I can hear no degradation of tone when using it. No pops, no clicks, no delays, no hum, just ABY goodness!

Very strong, on their web site they show it getting run over with a car... but I read another review that said that he got his broken.

Never dealt with them.

I'm very happy. I'm very glad I didn't go with the Framptone. I'm thinking about one of their 1@3's now.

Very easy to use. Just plug and play. It doesn't take batteries, so you'll need a 9v adaptor.

This is the best A/B switcher I've found by far. No pops when you switch from one amp to the next, and there is no drop off in levels either.

I've only had this for a month so I'm not sure how reliable it is. However, judging by the looks, I'd say it's a pretty sturdy device.

Haven't had to use it.

The only reason why I would give this switcher a 9 is because it hasn't been truly tested yet. But I recommend this switcher to anyone who wants a clean and transparent transition from one amp to another. I use this to go from a Roland JC-120 for my clean tones with effects, to my Mesa/Boogie Recto-Verb for my dirty/cruchier sounds. If it were stolen I would defintely run out to the Mesa/Boogie store in Hollywood and pick up another one. It's the only switcher they carry.