Do I need a bass amp?

Devil#20

I bought this Thunderbird bass about 2 years ago and it's spend most of its time on a stand and when I do play it it's only been acoustically. I've now got to the point where I'd like to amplify it but a bit wary of pushing it through a guitar amp and damaging it. What would be a good home bass amp, or will I be OK using a normal guitar amp. I know, for example, that an acoustic doesn't sound that good through a guitar amp and I have a Marshall something or other for that. 

sev112

I bought the Blackstar Fly Bass for the few months when I was playing bass at home. It was suprisingky good, and is quite fun with a guitar too

CE1

I would get a bass amp. At low volume it won’t do my harm through a guitar amp but it won’t sound very nice.

JezWynd

CE1 said:

I would get a bass amp. At low volume it won’t do my harm through a guitar amp but it won’t sound very nice.

For use at home I disagree. I play my bass through a guitar setup, a1W valve head into a Vox 1x12 cab, and it sounds very good.

crunchman

For home use a guitar amp will do.  The right guitar amp can do a bit more than that.  My brother used to use one of those 2x12 HH solid state guitar amps for bass back in the eighties.

I have an active PA cab for my digital amp modelling trickery.  That actually has a bass amp mode in digital menu options.  If you only play bass occasionally that's more versatile than a bass amp.

CE1

JezWynd said:

CE1 said:

I would get a bass amp. At low volume it won’t do my harm through a guitar amp but it won’t sound very nice.

For use at home I disagree. I play my bass through a guitar setup, a1W valve head into a Vox 1x12 cab, and it sounds very good.

If you are happy, that’s great, but a bass amp is a different beast to a guitar amp. My practice amp is a 300w Ashdown, with a 1000w Orange Terror for gigging, through Barefaced cabs. I guess you can argue that anything that makes a sound is ok for home use but for a modest outlay a reasonable bass combo could be had that will give a fullness of sound that a guitar amp just isn’t set up to make. Something like an Ashdown combo can be found 2nd hand for around £100 for some models. It’s horses for courses, I am a bass player first so that perhaps affects what I accept as a good sound. 

EricTheWeary

At low volumes should be okay. Might have to work the eq knobs a bit. 

prowla

I don't think it's a case of damaging the guitar amp/speaker, but rather that they are tuned to achieving a different sound and so you may not get deep bass out of a guitar setup but it may be more prone to distortion.

As far as speakers go, so long as the cones aren't clattering against their end-stops, there shouldn't be any damage involved.

Devil#20

CE1 said:

If you are happy, that’s great, but a bass amp is a different beast to a guitar amp. My practice amp is a 300w Ashdown, with a 1000w Orange Terror for gigging, through Barefaced cabs. I guess you can argue that anything that makes a sound is ok for home use but for a modest outlay a reasonable bass combo could be had that will give a fullness of sound that a guitar amp just isn’t set up to make. Something like an Ashdown combo can be found 2nd hand for around £100 for some models. It’s horses for courses, I am a bass player first so that perhaps affects what I accept as a good sound. 

The Ashdown option seems quite appealing. If I could pick something up for ~£100 second hand that will sound better than a guitar amp then that's a win. What models should I consider that will sound OK for home use for gentle trouser flapping volume?

CE1

Devil#20 said:

CE1 said:

If you are happy, that’s great, but a bass amp is a different beast to a guitar amp. My practice amp is a 300w Ashdown, with a 1000w Orange Terror for gigging, through Barefaced cabs. I guess you can argue that anything that makes a sound is ok for home use but for a modest outlay a reasonable bass combo could be had that will give a fullness of sound that a guitar amp just isn’t set up to make. Something like an Ashdown combo can be found 2nd hand for around £100 for some models. It’s horses for courses, I am a bass player first so that perhaps affects what I accept as a good sound. 

The Ashdown option seems quite appealing. If I could pick something up for ~£100 second hand that will sound better than a guitar amp then that's a win. What models should I consider that will sound OK for home use for gentle trouser flapping volume?

I would look at the MAG range, I picked up a 300w head for £60, combos tend to go for £100-150. Something like the electric blue series are super cheap and can be found below £100. A quick look on eBay brings up a few options https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=ashdown+bass+combo&_sacat=0 But I would put a wanted and up on here personally. The Marshall bass combos are decent as well and very cheap. I would avoid the Behringer ones as I have heard of a few failing.

fretmeister

Used Roland Bass Cube 20xl.

No more than £100 used. It’s a remarkably good sounding thing even if a bit heavy by today’s standards. It has about 6 bass amp sounds of the classic bass amps, a compressor, and a couple of other effects. And a line in for iPod use.

Even though I’ve got a stupid money Barefaced / Ashdown / Markbass rig I will never sell my little Roland. It’s brilliant.

prowla

If you do decide you want a bass rig and aren't going to be moving it about, the vintage Trace Elliot gear is ridiculously cheap at the moment and is proper pro gear as good as anything on the planet.

JayGee

I’ve got an EBS session 30. It’s tiny, didn’t cost very much, and actually sounds like a real bass amp.

Ossyrocks

I use a Fender Rumble 15. Tiny little thing, sits by the TV, sounds great at home and definitely loud enough to jam to tunes at a pretty high volume. I think it cost £95 new.

JCA2550

If you think you'll get the bass bug and gig as a bassist with a drummer, definitely get a decent 200 watts+ bass amp. If you will only ever play at home, these are some great suggestions.

Also, I heartily reccomend treating yourself to a decent bass DI pedal. You can plug it into pretty much anything, PA, guitar amp, keyboard amp, small practice combo, interface for recording and for adding flavour and growl as a pedal in front of a full on bass rig. These days I have a Gallien-Krueger/Bareface rig, but tomorrow I'll be playing on an outdoor festival stage with my trusty Sansamp Bass Driver DI straight into the PA.

hollywoodrox

I used to have a little ashdown tourbus I think it was called it was ideal , I got it from absolute music , guy Pratt was advertising them on YouTube 

ChrisCox1994

any guitar amp at low volumes sound great for learning/practising bass, turn the treble way down, the bass way up and any reverb off

CaseOfAce

Ossyrocks said:

I use a Fender Rumble 15. Tiny little thing, sits by the TV, sounds great at home and definitely loud enough to jam to tunes at a pretty high volume. I think it cost £95 new.

Phil McKnight podcast the other week he stated that the Fender Rumble bass amps have decimated the home bass amp market cos they are so good in terms of sound, quality and price.

Winny_Pooh

Valve amp at low volumes is fine. And a peavey microbass costs peanuts

ICBM

CaseOfAce said:

Phil McKnight podcast the other week he stated that the Fender Rumble bass amps have decimated the home bass amp market cos they are so good in terms of sound, quality and price.

Having tried both together, the Rumble 15 is a nice little amp and sounds pretty good... until you hear the Rumble 25. Admittedly the 25 is literally twice the physical size - although surprisingly it still has an 8" speaker - but the sound is in a totally different league. The 15 is a good bedroom amp, but the 25 is a genuinely good-sounding proper bass amp, which you could use for a recording session or probably even a small jazz gig or something. Even the overdrive setting is decent - it's not over the top, and although there's no control other than the push button for it, it responds well to the instrument volume.

The only reason I didn't buy the 25 is because it's almost exactly the same size and only 1Kg lighter than my - admittedly far more expensive, and fitted with a neodymium speaker which brought the weight down a lot - Ibanez Promethean 5110, which is 500W and a really sophisticated amp. (But still doesn't have an overdrive setting!)

JezWynd

CE1 said:

JezWynd said:

CE1 said:

I would get a bass amp. At low volume it won’t do my harm through a guitar amp but it won’t sound very nice.

For use at home I disagree. I play my bass through a guitar setup, a1W valve head into a Vox 1x12 cab, and it sounds very good.

If you are happy, that’s great, but a bass amp is a different beast to a guitar amp. 

I've found that playing at home there's little difference between a guitar amp and a bass amp. Any difference lies in the speaker cabinet. Originally I was using my Vox 1x12 but eventually I found it struggled when using an octave down pedal. Upgrading to a TC 2x8 cab made a real difference to the handling of low notes, but still using the same 1w head.