Topic: Guitar running through a bass amp? (Read 7223 times)

SensoryOssuary · « **on:** 24 Jul 2006, 22:58 »

Okay, when I got my guitar, I didn't have enough money to get a decent amp, so I just have a 10-watt porto-amp. It's fine for practicing, but having also used some of my friend's better amps, I realize that is compromises the tone more then I thought, in addition to not being very loud at all.

Additionally, my brother has a several-hundred dollar 100 watt SWR LA 15 bass amp collecting dust in the basement. I want to buy it from him, but someone has told me that using a guitar with a bass amp for too long would ruin the amp.

(I also realize that the bass amp tends to make the lower strings more prominent, but since my music is just electric guitar and vocals, I could use a little low end anyway.)

I would hate to see the amp somehow get ruined, but I'd also hate to see it go to waste, so I'm asking the forumites a potentionally stupid question: do you think it's okay to use with a guitar?

onewheelwizzard · « **Reply #1 on:** 24 Jul 2006, 23:03 »

Kyuss did it. I think that pretty much answers your question.

timehat · « **Reply #2 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 01:09 »

I believe the Fender Bassman is usually sought by guitarists, although its original purpose was as a bass amp.

GuitarJunkie · « **Reply #3 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 03:49 »

Yeah thats perfectly fine, as previously mentioned, the guys from Kyuss did it and I'm pretty sure Josh Homme does it in Queens of the Stone Age too.

Just don't do it the other way round.

Bass + Guitar Amp = Bad juju.

Aneurhythmia · « **Reply #4 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 03:51 »

I can't see how running a guitar through a bass amp would ruin it. Doing the inverse, in rare cases, can cause problems. The active pickups on some basses can potentially put out enough signal to push the speaker cones unpredictably or possibly even fry electronics in the amp. The latter I've heard tell of but seems unlikely to me.

Thrillho · « **Reply #5 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 05:19 »

The opposite is true, putting a bass through a guitar amp would fuck it over. Putting a guitar through a bass amp is like running something at half capacity.

ASturge · « **Reply #6 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 06:00 »

yeah, everyone's said it, but its all good!

Actually, my old band's bassist used a guitar amp with his bass to get this distorted bass sound not unlike a dog barking. Sounded awesome until the amp got fried and stopped working

JoshH · « **Reply #7 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 06:33 »

Hi long time lurker, first time poster.

Yes a guitar through a bass amp will do it no damage, but it will also sound like turd.
If you do this you will find the eq settings will do little to nothing to improve your sound and mostly it will just be adding things to your sound most guitarist try to get rid of. Plus being a bass amp and only worth a couple hundred, it's probably a solid state amp and they are notoriously bad for guitar tone.

Hope this helps.

bucky_2300 · « **Reply #8 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 09:42 »

Quote from: timehat

I believe the Fender Bassman is usually sought by guitarists, although its original purpose was as a bass amp.

Fender Bassman amps have a "Bass Instrument Input" and a "Normal Instrument Input." (Normal on right in photo.)

They aren't strictly bass amps.

As for just running a guitar through a pure bass amp being bad for it, not so. You will sound like ass, because bass amps are built to deal with the normal ranges of and produce the best sound for...you guessed it, bass guitars. So you will have to do some uber EQing to get those top-end notes heard, because a bass' range is so much lower than a guitar's.

Therein can lie the suspicion that it can be bad for the amp. If you're just using the amp's EQ, you're fine. But sometimes if you're running things like high-gain distortion pedals or EQ pedals to boost your top end, it can feel like you're telling the amp to do something it is not made to do, which is bad for it. It isn't usually, but just pay attention to it, and if it starts making weird noises, stop using it.

However, running a bass into a guitar amp is a bad idea. Basses have a higher output than guitars, which can drive the amp very hard, and then adding the extreme amounts of bass frequencies being shoved into the guitar can do no small amount of harm to the amp. Be careful!

Quote from: ASturge

Actually, my old band's bassist used a guitar amp with his bass to get this distorted bass sound not unlike a dog barking. Sounded awesome until the amp got fried and stopped working

Case in point. The distorted bass sound was the amp saying "STOP DOING THAT TO ME YOU BLOODY STUPID BASSIST." The reason it sounded like a dog barking and not a normal bass was the amp was being driven so hard that it didn't come out as distortion like a normal hard-driven amp, but rather it was driving it so hard that it was actually destroying the amp bit by bit.

ALoveSupreme · « **Reply #9 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 09:56 »

Actually, as far as sounding like "complete ass", I've heard exactly the opposite.

Some jazz guitarists use bass amps because off the deep, blue tone that you get out of them. It has little high end, and that's the draw.

Depending on what you're going for, it may sound like shit for what you want, but if you want a nice, dark tone for your guitar, a bass amp will work great.

bucky_2300 · « **Reply #10 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 09:58 »

^ Eh, the loss of top-end and playing dynamics is just too much for me.

EDIT: Those guys are also using really nice bass amps, not your average solid-state Peavey.

ALoveSupreme · « **Reply #11 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 11:08 »

I'd say if you're doing a gig that's primarily acoustic guitar and little else, and you have an electric guitar for melody, it would work very well.

I guess it does depend on what you're looking for.

Thrillho · « **Reply #12 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 11:45 »

I disagree. A lot of an acoustic's sound is based on the strings, and the bass strings are much louder because they're simply bigger, so having more bass coming through your amp when you're getting more bass anyway might be unhelpful.

SensoryOssuary · « **Reply #13 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 12:28 »

Thanks for the reassurance.

Maybe my ears just aren't as acute as you guys', but frankly, I think the amp sounds fine as long as the mid is about 50% higher then the bass, and the treble is about 50% higher then the mid. I've been doing some lead lines and scales up on the higher frets, and the tone isn't bad. Like you guys said, the lower strings are very robust, too.

However, I've noticed that when playing chords that span the six strings, the highest two or three are a bit drowned out, but they're not totally overpowered. At this point, I'm more or less willing to adapt my playing style to accomodate for this, or just stick to acoustic for chord progression.

Thrillho · « **Reply #14 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 12:42 »

Quote from: SensoryOssuary

However, I've noticed that when playing chords that span the six strings, the highest two or three are a bit drowned out, but they're not totally overpowered. At this point, I'm more or less willing to adapt my playing style to accomodate for this, or just stick to acoustic for chord progression.

Exactly my point.

ALoveSupreme · « **Reply #15 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 15:31 »

Quote from: DynamiteKid

I disagree. A lot of an acoustic's sound is based on the strings, and the bass strings are much louder because they're simply bigger, so having more bass coming through your amp when you're getting more bass anyway might be unhelpful.

yeah, I didn't mean have the acoustic through the bass amp, but the electric one.

Thrillho · « **Reply #16 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 16:13 »

Ohhh, well in that case you should be fine, as long as the amp's decent otherwise it'll sound like crap.

Merkava · « **Reply #17 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 17:53 »

Didn't Pavement use a guitar-bass-amp setup because they couldn't afford a seperate bass or bass player? I think I read it in the liner notes for Slanted & Enchanted.

ALoveSupreme · « **Reply #18 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 21:15 »

I dunno anything about the pavement recording, but (to add unnecessary dynamic to this topic), I have just recently beeing seeing dudes playing a rig that I believe consists of a guitar running through an octave pedal, bringing it down to bass range, through a bass amp. It could be a baritone electric, but I believe it's a standard guitar. Anyone know anything about this?

Thrillho · « **Reply #19 on:** 26 Jul 2006, 06:06 »

Quote from: ALoveSupreme

I dunno anything about the pavement recording, but (to add unnecessary dynamic to this topic), I have just recently beeing seeing dudes playing a rig that I believe consists of a guitar running through an octave pedal, bringing it down to bass range, through a bass amp. It could be a baritone electric, but I believe it's a standard guitar. Anyone know anything about this?

Well the octave pedal will change the signal to a bass frequency, but I'm not sure if that will have any change on its effect on a bass amp than still just playing a guitar through it, because it is still a guitar after all.

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Author Topic: Guitar running through a bass amp? (Read 7223 times)

SensoryOssuary

timehat

GuitarJunkie

ASturge

JoshH

SensoryOssuary

Merkava