Is this true?

J

JasonJ

New member
I asked another website, "Can I play an electric guitar through a bass amp?" Here is their answer:

Short answer: yes. Long answer: no. The truth is, you can play a guitar through a bass amp but it will not give you the sound that a guitar amp will. Bass amps are engineered for very low wavelengths produced by the bass. After time, the bass amp will actually begin to break down and sound muddier and muddier the longer you play an electric guitar through it. Spend a few extra dollars and get a nice guitar amp. The sound will be superior anyway.

I kinda like the sound of a guitar through a bass amp, so I wanted to get a second opinion from you folks. Do guitars break down bass amps?
 
Re: Is this true?

Adam Jones of Tool includes a Marshall NMV bass head in his live rig, in order to cover some of the low-end frequencies not captured by his Diezel heads (and Mesa Dual Rec, when he used one).

Loads of guitarists have used the Fender Bassman as part of their core rig as well. I've never heard anything about a bass amp breaking down after lots of use, but then I've never used a bass rig consistently for my guitar.

- Keith
 
Re: Is this true?

As mentioned before, all the old blues guys used Fender Bassman amps (those amps were killin' at everything, EXCEPT being used with bass hehe).

Also, guys like Duane Allman and Doyle Bramhall II used 60s Marshall bass heads to get their sounds. Sounded similar to Plexis really
 
Re: Is this true?

I think the only issue you'd have would be with a bass cab not being able to play higher notes accurately, not the actual amp. Look at the orange Thunderverb, it's designed for both, hence the 200 watts on tap.
 
Re: Is this true?

Guitar into bass rig: ok! Doesn't hurt the amp, gets some cool tones. Expect to use external distortion/high gain pedal for clipping.

Bass into guitar rig: not ok! Will damage the circuitry and people will complain about the second-hand smoke.


If you're looking for tons of head-room (i.e. clean from here to Neptune) a bass head with some speaker configuration experiments may be the way to go.
 
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Re: Is this true?

I think as history sees fit Vintage Tube Bass amps can sound good with guitar not so sure about modern solid states though. Maybe for a very clean tone or in some crossover configuration (something I tired with the Guitar Rig 2 demo and sounded interesting).
 
Re: Is this true?

KGMESSIER said:
Gilmour used Hiwatt DR103s.
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Gilmour's amps are DG103s, which are modified two-input DR103s. His amps have a third input that connects the bright and normal channels in parallel, like jumping the channels on a Tweed Bassman or NMV Marshall.
 
Re: Is this true?

Bass guitar thru a guitar amp can cause the amp to break, but guitar won't break bass amp. Just ask any Bassman user, or someone who uses Marshall Super Bass, or Gary Moore, who used JCM 800 bass head.
 
Re: Is this true?

Sanford said:
Guitar into bass rig: ok! Doesn't hurt the amp, gets some cool tones. Expect to use external distortion/high gain pedal for clipping.

Bass into guitar rig: not ok! Will damage the circuitry and people will complain about the second-hand smoke.


If you're looking for tons of head-room (i.e. clean from here to Neptune) a bass head with some speaker configuration experiments may be the way to go.
Click to expand...

If you turn down the bass to zero, and the mids down to at least half, with a good speaker, you can easily use a bass through a guitar amp with no trouble, although you might have trouble coaxing good tones, but it's good for a laugh, especially when you plug in a bass with P or Jazz bass style pickups, because of the annoying buzzy high end you might get.
 
Re: Is this true?

Bass amps are quite popular among the stoner rock/desert rock crowd. Ever Heard a Kyuss record? Chances are you're hearing a bass amp for that mean crunchy low end.
 
Re: Is this true?

Elliot Randall used an SVT for the solo on "Reelin' in the Years".
 
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No!

Jim Marshall started building amps in 1962. He did this together with technical friend Ken Bran. Their first amps were very heavily "inspired" on the 1959 Fender Tweed 4x10" Bassman. Little did they know then that they were at the threshold of a rock 'n roll revolution...
1962 The very first Marshall amps that saw the light of day were called the JTM45 amps. These amps were more or less a copy of the Fender 1959 Tweed Bassman. These amps were built as heads (or tops) separated from the speaker cabinets. The speaker cabinets were closed 4x12" Celestion loaded cabinets.
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Re: Is this true?

I frequently run my electric guitars through my solid state bass amp, and my tube amp is based on the old '59 Bassman. Bass speakers handle lower and higher (with the tweeter) frequencies than guitar speakers. The sound is awesome with clean sounds. Adding and EQ or an amp modeler/speaker simulator for distorted sounds is cool also.
 
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