Playing Bass through a guitar amp

Fuengi

I was considering a POG to play bass lines at home. It occurred to me that there was no difference between artificially dropping the frequency of your signal and playing bass straight in.

Am I right? If the speaker can handle an octave pedal it should be able to handle a bass. 

For reference, I use a Yerasov GTA15 amp. 

ecc83

There is actually some difference between just a low frequency and the transient wallop of a bass guitar string. If you could see the gymnastics bass amp cones perform you would realize why BG is so damaging to 'ordinary' speakers.

However, so long as you keep the volume low and keep an undistorted sound you should be ok.

Dave.

ICBM

What he said .

At home volume it will be fine - just stop if you hear any distortion, since with such a simple amp that almost certainly means it’s the power stage distorting which is when it will be risky for the speaker.

timmysoft

I’ve recorded bass through my budda! Sounded pretty good too!! 

thermionic

You can get a nice little bass amp from Fender, Ampeg or Orange for a little over £100 which will be great for playing at home. Not as good as a big gigging amp, but loads better than playing through a guitar amp.

JezWynd

I played bass through my Laney Cub 10 for a long time, sounded excellent. I fed the signal out to an Excelsior cabinet with a really wimpy 15" speaker but for playing at home it worked fine.

Phil_aka_Pip

I have a Selmer Treble'n'Bass 50SV. The power stage is the same, the only difference in the guitar and bass preamps is the size of the coupling capacitor on the preamp's output (treble = 0,22µF, bass = 0,47µF); if you put the bass into the guitar i/p it just sounds a bit lightweight. If you put bass into any guitar amp it will probably sound a bit lightweight (I played with a bass player who did that, he had an Orange 120W guitar head), so I think that the guitar amp will by itself take out some of the bass thump, which could otherwise damage your speaker. At volumes low enough not to annoy your neighbours I don't think you will have any problems, as ICBM and ecc83 have said.

blobb

I picked up an Eden wtdi pre amp which I run into the f/x return. The pre-amp has a built in compressor which I find helps tame any unwanted speaker rattlers. Sounds much more like a Bass now, rather than a Bass plugged into a guitar amp.

Fuengi

Thanks for the advice. 

Show of hands: would you go for a bass guitar or a POG pedal? 

midlifecrisis

is it just the speaker that is at risk or can you damage the circuitry with bass: ie if you used any guitar amp but fed it through a bass speaker would that be safe?

ICBM

midlifecrisis said:

is it just the speaker that is at risk or can you damage the circuitry with bass: ie if you used any guitar amp but fed it through a bass speaker would that be safe?

In all but the most marginal cases it’s safe. If there’s any real risk of damage the amp would be unlikely to be reliable for guitar either.

JezWynd

midlifecrisis said:

is it just the speaker that is at risk or can you damage the circuitry with bass: ie if you used any guitar amp but fed it through a bass speaker would that be safe?

The only risk to a guitar combo might be caused by vibration. Sending the output to a separate speaker cabinet cures that possibility. My Ric bass loves the 6V6 valves in the little Cub amp.

flying_pie

thermionic said:

You can get a nice little bass amp from Fender, Ampeg or Orange for a little over £100 which will be great for playing at home. Not as good as a big gigging amp, but loads better than playing through a guitar amp.

Here is the suggestion that for recording heavier bass tones it's better to use a guitar amp 

Rocker

You can hammer a nail into wood using a pair of pliers. Much easier to use a hammer. Same with bass, use a bass amp. That is what they are designed for.

ICBM

Rocker said:

You can hammer a nail into wood using a pair of pliers. Much easier to use a hammer. Same with bass, use a bass amp. That is what they are designed for.

If everyone just stuck to what things were designed for, there would be no Marshall, Soldano, Mesa Rectifier, or many other amps, and no 'Marshall type' guitar sounds.

Because all these are derived from the Fender Bassman, which was discovered to be quite a good guitar amp...

Which also means that using something like a Mesa Rectifier for bass is perfectly appropriate.

flying_pie

Rocker said:

You can hammer a nail into wood using a pair of pliers. Much easier to use a hammer. Same with bass, use a bass amp. That is what they are designed for.

Poor analogy. Amps are for amplifying. Bass/guitar/keyboard amps aren't apples and oranges - they're just slightly different types of apples 

rico

Slightly different approach but our bassist uses a bass amp and guitar amp. He splits the signal (with magic or something) and sends some of it to the bass amp and some of it through a mini POG to a Katana 100 head. It sounds cool as fuck and has all the benefits of a second guitarist, without having a second guitarist. 

pintspiller

I played bass through my 8080 for some gigs

olafgarten

flying_pie said:

Rocker said:

You can hammer a nail into wood using a pair of pliers. Much easier to use a hammer. Same with bass, use a bass amp. That is what they are designed for.

Poor analogy. Amps are for amplifying. Bass/guitar/keyboard amps aren't apples and oranges - they're just slightly different types of apples 

Still a problem, have you ever tried an Apple Crumble made with Granny Smith?

flying_pie

olafgarten said:

flying_pie said:

Rocker said:

You can hammer a nail into wood using a pair of pliers. Much easier to use a hammer. Same with bass, use a bass amp. That is what they are designed for.

Poor analogy. Amps are for amplifying. Bass/guitar/keyboard amps aren't apples and oranges - they're just slightly different types of apples 

Still a problem, have you ever tried an Apple Crumble made with Granny Smith?

Not a crumble but I used to cook apple desserts for the kids with all manner of types. You just adjust the sugar content accordingly. 

There are lots of recipes online for Granny Smith crumble. If you want I could post some... 

Rocker

ICBM said:

Rocker said:

You can hammer a nail into wood using a pair of pliers. Much easier to use a hammer. Same with bass, use a bass amp. That is what they are designed for.

If everyone just stuck to what things were designed for, there would be no Marshall, Soldano, Mesa Rectifier, or many other amps, and no 'Marshall type' guitar sounds.

Because all these are derived from the Fender Bassman, which was discovered to be quite a good guitar amp...

Which also means that using something like a Mesa Rectifier for bass is perfectly appropriate.

My point is that you can use a guitar amp for bass (at low volume) but a bass amp is better for bass. In a similar vein a vice grips will remove a nut but it is easier, and less damaging to the nut, if you use the correct sized spanner.