Using a bass amp as a guitar amp
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 4:50 am
Hi! I wanted to know if I could play my mustang through a fender bassman tv 15 and still get a good sound. Thanks in advance.
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 6:01 am
Yeah I reckon. It's pretty common to play through amps originally designed for bass. 15 inch speakers can work well too (for me)
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 7:10 am
Absolutely
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 8:44 am
its the secret to great tones
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:43 pm
I'm using a guitar amp as a bass amp 
The only rule: It has to sound good.
The only rule: It has to sound good.
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 1:58 pm
yup! you may not want to use something like a hartke 15' beast, cuz... well it would probly do some damage to the speaker after a while, and it may just sound poopy, but fenders bass stuff generally sounds good with guitar, except the rumble stuff. that whole line just kinda sucked imo.
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:21 pm
I play exclusively through a bass amp these days. My Sovtek hasn't even been turned on in a year... might be time to sell the old boy.
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:23 pm
Yep. Just make sure to check your tone settings. I've used my bass players bassman through a hartke 4x10, and needed to add a treble booster to compensate.
Oh, and it will be LOUD
Oh, and it will be LOUD
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:36 pm
I ran my bass through my mesa and it sounded like total shit. I think if i had a bigger speaker i may have been ok. It's weird how guitar players love old bassmans and bass players aren't fond of them. On the other hand i caught the end of this young punk bands set and the bass player was playing through a little bity orange head with a stack and it sounded fantastic. I only heard one song but it was an outkast cover of Ms. Jackson played really fast and punk. It was dope.
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:50 pm
Would it really damage a bass amp eventually? I thought they were designed to handle much wider frequency ranges than guitar amps. Like keyboards, vocals and the like.
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:52 pm
Funny thing... when MakeWay was still a thing, and he was still alive RIP, my bass player loved the sound of his bass through my Sovtek Mig-60 going into his bass cab. Never did it for shows, but he always fucked around on it in practice/recording. Great bass distortion from that thing.brandonwinmill wrote:I ran my bass through my mesa and it sounded like total shit. I think if i had a bigger speaker i may have been ok. It's weird how guitar players love old bassmans and bass players aren't fond of them. On the other hand i caught the end of this young punk bands set and the bass player was playing through a little bity orange head with a stack and it sounded fantastic. I only heard one song but it was an outkast cover of Ms. Jackson played really fast and punk. It was dope.
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:55 pm
When i complained about how bad it sounded someone told me "you are going to fucking destroy that old Mesa". Sorta like what you said in reverse. He told me a guitar amp isn't made to handle those frequencies.ekwatts wrote:Would it really damage a bass amp eventually? I thought they were designed to handle much wider frequency ranges than guitar amps. Like keyboards, vocals and the like.
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 4:22 pm
The only concern is with the speakers. In my experience, guitar drivers aren't meant to vibrate at low enough frequencies to reproduce bass sounds and will eventually tear themselves apart. Even ones that have a pretty high wattage rating.
Cabs that are optimized for bass can sometimes lack focus on guitar and I find a lot of solidstate bass amplifiers don't really sound good with guitars, even trough a guitar cab.
That said, almost every 50W, non master volume tube head I've ever encountered sounded great with guitars trough 12s and LEMMY AS FUCK, with a bass trough an 8x10.
Cabs that are optimized for bass can sometimes lack focus on guitar and I find a lot of solidstate bass amplifiers don't really sound good with guitars, even trough a guitar cab.
That said, almost every 50W, non master volume tube head I've ever encountered sounded great with guitars trough 12s and LEMMY AS FUCK, with a bass trough an 8x10.
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 8:44 pm
Loud,just the way I love it.mkt3000 wrote:Yep. Just make sure to check your tone settings. I've used my bass players bassman through a hartke 4x10, and needed to add a treble booster to compensate.
Oh, and it will be LOUD
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 9:22 pm
I've got a Sunn 2x15 cabinet, and when I use it with guitar (through a Traynor YSR-1) it doesn't sound good at all until i get it loud and dirty. Sounds good with a baritone or when I'm running my POG2. Best of all possible worlds under any circumstances is when I daisy chain my 2x12 cabinet to my 2x15 cabinet for awesomeness, every single goddamn time.
Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:16 am
Rule of thumb at my buddy's guitar shop: Guitar into bass head/amp is ok (almost encouraged). Bass into guitar head/amp strictly forbidden.
Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:35 am
I have been running an Ampeg micro vr for a few years now. I am a stompbox guy so all I want is loud and clean. The thing is so light I just love it. I bought an Ampeg BA108 combo restock from MF last week for $70. I jammed thru it for a few hours today and dig it big time.
Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 2:27 pm
Best to have one of each simultaneously.
HOWEVER, I do enjoy my guitars into my GK bass amp and an 8x10. It's really different than a guitar amp, though. I just finished (fingers crossed) tracking an album, and even though I play through a bass rig live, I did most of my guitars and baritones through the twin reverb. The original tracks were a simultaneous bass/guitar amp double track combo of doom.
an 8x10 does a better job of replicating your highs and stuff. My 15" cab pushes way more BOOM but kind of shits out on the top end.
HOWEVER, I do enjoy my guitars into my GK bass amp and an 8x10. It's really different than a guitar amp, though. I just finished (fingers crossed) tracking an album, and even though I play through a bass rig live, I did most of my guitars and baritones through the twin reverb. The original tracks were a simultaneous bass/guitar amp double track combo of doom.
an 8x10 does a better job of replicating your highs and stuff. My 15" cab pushes way more BOOM but kind of shits out on the top end.
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:57 am
aen wrote:Best to have one of each simultaneously.
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:20 pm
One of my favorite local bands has a guitarist that plays out of an Ampeg B100R solid state 100 watt bass amp. He sounds really good.