Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

[ArtieToo]

The Fender Bassman was designed to be a bass amp, that turned out to be a killer guitar amp. Does it work the other way around? Would my Yammy Fifty410 make a good bass amp?

One of these:

[Demanic]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Well, you can try it, but be careful. You won't blow a bass amp's speakers playing guitar through it. The opposite is not necessarily true.

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[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Like he said, be careful, but I'm playing my 8 string through my Super Reverb. The low string is F# or E, same octave as the low E on a 4 string bass. It sounds great, but it is not dimed and the bass is rolled WAY back.

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Guitar amps make great bass amps if you like a trebly, midrangey bass tone with no lows whatsoever. Probably gona blow the speakers eventually.

I plug my bass into my guitar amps often, but my guitar amps are all low-powered bass amps, and I run them in stereo with high-powered bass amps because lows.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Ok. Thanks guys. That's what I kinda thought. This would be only at "bedroom" volume, but still, I don't want to risk messing up that amp. I had a nice little Peavey MAX112, but I traded it to a friend for something. Now, with my new P-Bass, I'm getting back into it. I'll do a bass amp proper.

[ErikH]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

For playing at home I use Amplitube on an unused iPhone and added in the Ampeg SVT model. Running that in to my little desktop mixer gets me all I need. I use the same setup for guitar (with other amp models, naturally). It works for what I need. I don't use the amp at the house until I'm home alone, which is very rare with children.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Funny you should mention this. You reminded me that I purchased the full NI Guitar Rig 5 Pro back in 2014. I only messed with it a few minutes, when I got side tracked. Then that computer hard crashed. I was so busy setting up everything else that I forgot all about it. Fortunately, Native Instruments keeps good records. I went to my portal, and there it was, complete with registration number. Now it's back on my computer and I can start playing with it again.

Thanks Erik.

[zionstrat]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Artie, I had a g110 many moons ago... Litterally the best amp for hyper clean chorus/verb that I ever owned.

Used a fade pedal to go between the Yamaha and my crunch amps and it was amazing ....The incredible sounds I could get in that middle position.

What are you using yours for?

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[ArtieToo]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Right now it's just stored in my shed/workshop. It needs quite a bit of TLC. Jacks replaced, pots cleaned, and maybe some caps replaced. It just one more thing on my big "to-do" list. One of the problems with me getting to it is that it's easily the heaviest amp I've ever lifted. Since my hernia operation, I don't dare lift it. So it's just hard to move around. Most of these that I see online have casters. This one doesn't.

The pic in my first post is from online. That's not mine. But except for the casters, mines identical.

[ItsaBass]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

One of Carol Kaye's primary bass amps during her heyday was a Fender Super Reverb. That's all you need to know to realize that they can sound fantastic.

But remember that she was primarily a studio bassist, so she didn't necessarily need to play it at live levels.

Use your ears and common sense, which I am sure you have based on what you post.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Yup. Right now I'm using my Bogner Alchemist into the Celestion 12" in my H&K amp. I added an external jack to the H&K so that it can be used as a 112 cab. It sounds great. Again, just "bedroom" volume.

[idsnowdog]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

The Fender Bassman was designed to be a bass amp, that turned out to be a killer guitar amp. Does it work the other way around? Would my Yammy Fifty410 make a good bass amp?

One of these:

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I would be willing to wager that was classified as an "instrument amplifier" instead of a guitar amp. Most amplifiers were considered instrument amplifiers until the mid 70's when they became more specialized.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

That would be cool if it was usable as a bass amp. The speakers in it look fairly substantial. I think this is why this beast is so heavy. Unfortunately, there isn't much historical information on line.

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

I suppose you could always put some bass speakers in it & see but as I think was mentioned above, guitar amps are generally EQ’d to be heavy in the mid range & treble but bass not so much? That said, even with good bass speakers in it I think that you would find the sound thin & wimpy?

[ArtieToo]

Re: Does the "Bassman" thang work vice-versa?

Yeah . . . I wouldn't want to swap speakers, mainly because some of these old Yammy's are starting to creep up in value as people realize how good they are. They seem to be especially popular over in one of the jazz forums. I guess they have a particularly good "clean" sound. Funny I should speculate on how they sound, when I have one virtually in front of me. Maybe I should log-off and get off my lazy fat ass and go work on it.


Nah!