IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

[everdrone]

is it a good idea or bad idea to plug a bass-amp into a guitar cab and play guitar through it? (guitar-->basshead-->guitarcab).

Im not sure when Ill buy it but I would like to have a small backup head for gigs for bass and guitar in case a tube blows or amp short circuits. I like the looks of Gallien-Krueger MB200 200-Watt Ultra Light Micro Bass Head.

I might use it at practice too with my Tech 21 Oxford pedal. I just dont want to fry an amp or a cab doing it.

[SlyFoxx]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

It'll work. Just make sure your speaker impedance jives with the head and keep from going bonkers with the volume.

[everdrone]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

ya I am worried about that, sometimes with ohm mismatches I read that it is half the wattage, sometimes twice as much

I wanna get a small backup head that is loud enough for gigs and practice with a loud band.

Here are the amps I am interested in:

GUITAR HEAD: Quilter ToneBlock 200 Guitar Amplifier Head (200 watts)

http://www.zzounds.com/item--QUITB200HEAD?siid=135575&-g_uIl0ERIFPnzSsmaAxoCWjHw_wcB=

BASS HEAD:
Gallien-Krueger MB200 200-Watt Ultra Light Micro Bass Head

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MB200?adpos=1o3&creative=54988012321&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CjwKEAiAi4a2BRCu_eXo3O_k3hUSJABmN9N1X_dkMc8SKUkZGhbCHi48Se6flfvmhzu5VdVqUbPhMhoC7xrw_wcB

each of these heads can take 16ohm or 8ohm though according to their manufacturers


Im thinking I should save up for the quilter cause I am guitarist in a band currently so there are chances of me using it more

[IM4Tone]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

You didn't mention the wattage handling capacity of the cab...it should be around 1.5X the amp's output. And do be sure to match impedance for the sake of the amp. Using 'guitar' speakers should be no problem if you are playing a guitar regardless if the amp is a bass or guitar amp. It's the frequencies of a bass (guitar) that can cause problems for a speaker designed for the frequencies of a guitar. Excursion (in/out movement) is the issue, being greater for lower frequencies.

Perhaps you already knew all this?

[JOLLY]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

Ever heard of a Fender Bassman?

[everdrone]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

You didn't mention the wattage handling capacity of the cab...it should be around 1.5X the amp's output. And do be sure to match impedance for the sake of the amp. Using 'guitar' speakers should be no problem if you are playing a guitar regardless if the amp is a bass or guitar amp. It's the frequencies of a bass (guitar) that can cause problems for a speaker designed for the frequencies of a guitar. Excursion (in/out movement) is the issue, being greater for lower frequencies.

Perhaps you already knew all this?

thanks man, I did not know about the 1.5x handling capacity but I was thinking something like that cause the Orange Thunderverb 200 needs a special cab since its 200 watts. Im gonna put this idea on hold, cheers

I think the Fender Bassman sounds killer for Doom! I use Orange 212PPC cabs and they are 120watt handling capacity, so Ill stay away from playing the high wattage bass-heads through it.

My drummer says that because my Orange Thunderverb 50 head is new and I use Furman P-1800 PF power conditioner which is top of the line, that if a tube goes out the other tube will work, and I should not anticipate any issues otherwise.

Here is my Furman:

http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=P-1800PF

[dystrust]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

+1 to ohm & wattage matching.

A few years ago I remember using my bassist at the time's Mesa Bass 400 as a power amp when i was recording once. I was running both an ADA MP-1 and Mesa Studio Preamp (separate takes) into the effects return, and the thing sounded HUGE through a 4x12. It was a little dark (having no presence control) but nothing that a little EQ couldn't fix.

[Chickenwings]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

Ive done it.
As long as the speakers can handle the wattage and the ohms match you are gold.
just the usual stuff to look out for safety wise.
The only real downside is that guitar speakers dont have the flat frequency response that bass speakers do, so you will never get the big punchy modern bass sound. It will be a much more "vintage" tone.

[everdrone]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

cool guys, the Gallien mb200 bass head and the Quilter guitar head both handle anything you throw at them, i.e. 4ohm, 8ohm, 16ohm. the Quilter scales wattage and I am in one band and play guitar in it so I plan on getting the guitar head over the bass head.

I play an Orange thunderverb 50 (50 watter) into 2 of the Orange 212PPC cabs. If one tube blows, does my entire amp shut down? I dont know how to change tubes or trouble shoot to find detect this problem, so maybe it is crucial that I have a backup amp. other backup amps I am considering: Orange Micro Terror, EHX Magnum .44, Orange CR120(maybe too big), maybe a Hovercraft Dwarvenaut but that is an expensive fragile tube amp.

I might make another thread out of this when I try to take a photo of the guts of the amp.

I plan to stay away from plugging in a bass amp and I might get that quilter if I save up in a month or two. I need more power than an orange micro terror. bass amps seem to be a bad idea, I am concerned about my guitar cab rated at 120 watts

I think that with my 16 ohm cab, there may be issues with the Gallien mb200 bass amp. The quilter definitely is not intuitive and DOUBLES power with 16 ohms. I am worried about the quilter 100 watt setting now...Ill call quilter with my concerns. Here is what folks on the forum reported back:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/quilter-tone-block-with-16-ohm-cab.1632580/

i recently purchased a Quilter Tone Block 200 as an experiment in SS, and as a lightweight backup head in case one of my precious tube amps dies at a gig. The TB wants to run into 8 or 4 ohms, but most of my cabinets are 16 ohm. I contacted the company, and they informed me that running 16 ohms is fine but that the power wattage out to the speaker will be about double from running an 8 ohm cab. So that means that you'll be seeing about 80 watts out when you set the master on the 40 watt setting IF you are using a 16 ohm cabinet.


Ok, it does make sense to me .
Earlier I wrote the standard answer, which applies to 98% SS amps out there (the "normal" ones).

There is one SS amp design when Quilter answer is true, and that is that they limit power amp output by limiting power amp *current* to a preset maximum level, instead of conventional *voltage* limiting/clipping.

Or: they limit voltage, (say, a couple clipping diodes), then they feed that to a constant current power amp.
Both amount to the same end result.

Which is easy to calculate:
P=I squared * R so I=sqrt(P/R)
I=sqrt (40W/8 ohms)= sqrt 5 A = 2.24 A RMS which in practice means setting the limiter to 3.16A which would be the current peak .
Call it 3.2A limit and we're fine

That very same current setting will provide exactly twice that power into 16 ohms:
2.24A*2.24A*16ohms=5*16W=80W <-- in this case we used RMS values

Same result if we used peak values , we'd get 160W peak, which again translates to 80W RMS .

That said, the "power doubling with impedance doubling" effect will stay while we are still *within* the rated amp power, which seems to be 200W into 8 ohms (or 100W into 16 ohms) .

So the 40W setting will translate into effective 80W into 16 ohms, but, say, a 120W setting (into 8 ohms) will not translate into 240W into 16 ohms and so on.
Not a defect, quite the contrary, simply that load would be asking for a peak voltage beyond what is available at the Power Supply.

That said, a very clever design.
And I bet there must be a dozen other cool design tricks under the hood, that's for sure

[dystrust]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

Your Thunderverb has a pair of EL-34s in class A/B, so you're dead in the water if one of them fails.

[everdrone]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

thanks man, Ill look into these backup options then

[ItsaBass]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

There is absolutely no problem with that. You are, after all, playing guitar through guitar speakers; what instrument the amp was designed for is irrelevant, as long as the ratings are compatible with your cab. FWIW, an SVT makes a bit-chin' guitar amp IMO.

[Benr08]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

As long as the impedance is compatible with your cab and that you don't max out the amp and play bass through it intro less than 15" speakers, it'll be ok.

[devastone]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

That is interesting about the Quilter, most SS amps would cut the power in half going from 8 ohms to 16 ohms.

[everdrone]

Re: IS THIS OK: plug a guitar through a bass head, into a guitar cab.

thanks guys, this amp killer, I will save up for it

Ill look into figuring out how to replace tubes if one fails at a gig

I called Quilter and they confirmed they have a super awesome amp!

it matches whatever ohm you throw at it automatically. so it can handle my orange 212PPC or both of my 212PPC cabs.

also, the wattage is variable at any watt! so if you want 20 watts, it does that. or 40, or 50 or 55 or 56... he said that it does not double power or go down in power, it just matches power to the attenuator knob automatically. so if I dial in 20 watts at my 16ohms then it gives me 20 watts and so on.

pure genius! WANT