Playing drums through a guitar amp

Steve922

What's the score on this? My grandson has been invited to a jam session playing drums at a friends house. His drum kit is electronic (Yamaha DTX400) drum kit and so far has used a very small amp for practice at home : this would be useless for a jam session. He does have a guitar amp (Katana 50) which he could use. Is it safe? Is the amp likely to be damaged?
   When asking those 'in the know' (mainly in shops) about playing bass through a lead amp, I had various answers like 'will blow the amp immediately', 'will blow the speaker immediately', 'will sound rubbish' and 'will sound ok but the amp won't last long'. Such a variance in answers doesn't inspire confidence!  :-)
   Can anyone tell me the likely result of drumming through the guitar amp?

merlin

I don't know about electronic drums, but slightly off subject, if you want to put a regular drum kit through an amp, use plug-ins and do it post. Much better. I played on an album some years ago with two drummers who were put "through" Marshall Stacks. Sounded great, but probably best to not do it at a jam session! 

Funkfingers

An amp for electric guitar is designed to reproduce the frequencies that flatter the instrument. IMO, drum sounds need the full frequency range reproduction that they would get through either a keyboard amp or a P.A.

A drummer in my area has a double Roland V-Drum kit (yes, folks, a drummer with two brains!) which he amplifies through a mixer and a pair of Mackie powered loudspeaker cabinets. 

viz

Not sure but have you seen this guy? :-O

https://youtu.be/CML3gkL-6N8

Cirrus

The amp electrics will be fine no matter what unless it's badly designed. T|he speaker will risk being blown because drums have much more low end and big volume spikes that will punish the cones beyond what they're designed to take.

ICBM

Cirrus said:

The amp electrics will be fine no matter what unless it's badly designed. T|he speaker will risk being blown because drums have much more low end and big volume spikes that will punish the cones beyond what they're designed to take.

This. The amp is not at risk with drums or bass unless it's really poorly designed and built - the speaker is at risk, if you turn it up beyond low volume. It probably won't sound all that good either way.

If he can get hold of a bass amp of any tolerable quality - ie something a bit bigger than what is effectively a rebadged 8" speaker guitar amp with no distortion control - that will be safe and sound much better.

olafgarten

viz said:

Not sure but have you seen this guy? :-O

https://youtu.be/CML3gkL-6N8

That's amazing!