Bass Through a Guitar Amp for a Bedroom Player?

BuddytheReow

BuddytheReow

Moderator
Gonna pull the trigger on a bass in a few days. Without cranking my amp up too loud would it be ok to fool around with a bass on a guitar amp? I've got a 2x12 cab so I'm thinking I'll be ok? Just want to know all your thoughts.

BuddytheReow
 
I say yes, it’ll be loads of fun to noodle around while you decide if you want to buy a “real” bass rig.

I have a very inexpensive garage sale bass. I’ve plugged it into a peavey rage 158, a boss katana head, and a jcm 800. The katana and the Marshall run into a 4x12. The peavey is a tiny open-backed practice amp.

Obviously, I can’t get the rumble of bass cabinet but it works well enough that I’ve lost track of time goofing around with it.

I predict you’ll be smiling when you run it into your 2x12.
 
It’ll be great. A few years ago I was briefly in a band and played bass because we didn’t have a bass player. I didn’t have any money so we all chipped in for a very cheap bass and the drummer let me use his JCM800 to plug it in. It was glorious (not to say I was the first to do so!).
 
It's fine. I have a 15w practice amp next to my bench for testing pedals out. Works great for what it is.
 
The frequency response isn’t quite there but it would work at lower volumes for sure, if you got a head phone set up that might be a little more enjoyable, your guitar speakers don’t really like going below about 70Hrz
 
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I only dabble in Bass, I picked up a Hartke KB15 kickback which more than covers anything I need
 
When I was young in the early 90's I'd play bass through a little Gorilla practice amp. I can't imagine it sounded great, but it worked and never busted. I'm pretty sure that those old Gorilla amps were made to be as indestructible as they were to sound terrible, though 🤣
 
peccary said:
When I was young in the early 90's I'd play bass through a little Gorilla practice amp. I can't imagine it sounded great, but it worked and never busted. I'm pretty sure that those old Gorilla amps were made to be as indestructible as they were to sound terrible, though 🤣
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I read somewhere that that's the amp Joe Satriani used to record a bunch of records back then...
 
giovanni said:
I read somewhere that that's the amp Joe Satriani used to record a bunch of records back then...
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I don't know a thing about Joe Satriani, but I'm sure that if I gave my Acoustic B10 practice amp to Victor Wooten he'd make it sing.

That might explain why everyone and their brother had one. I'd swear they gave them away with a pack of strings back then.
 
Buy a second-hand bass cab, if possible, and pair it with your guitar amp like Mentaltossflycoon did.

I’ve got a Zoom BNx1-something for headphone use, but can also plug headphones into my Roland bass micro-cubit (got it for a strolling-minstrel gig, battery powered; it’s now tethered to its adapter below my solder station hooked up to the breadboard).
 
I think you would hear if the bass was damaging the amp long before any harm occurred. I've played bass through my guitars amps many times over the years. It makes up for all those times guitar players have played through bass amps.
 
I was curious about the same a few weeks ago. I been wanting to build a bass, but didn’t want to do it if it just forces me to get a bass amp. Anyway, all research I did got me to conclude:

Will it break your amp ? No. Of course if you blast is you could overwork the speakers, but the sound to do so would be so bad, that it would have to be intentional.

Will it sound good? At low volume, most guitar speaker will handle it, the louder you get the more it will suck.

Should you get a bass amp ? I believe in the simple formula for gear:

Gn = Go + 1

Where Gn = Gear Neede and Go = Gear owned !

:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
All you need is an Ampeg B-15 flip top circa 64-65……. Only 30w😈. For real though, your guitar amp will suffice for awhile, but as we all know, you will end up wanting a dedicated bass amp. As my friend liked to tell me “just play the damn bass” as in, stop over thinking it.
 
peccary said:
I don't know a thing about Joe Satriani, but I'm sure that if I gave my Acoustic B10 practice amp to Victor Wooten he'd make it sing.

That might explain why everyone and their brother had one. I'd swear they gave them away with a pack of strings back then.
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Victor Wooten would destroy the speaker with all those harmonics and pops :)

I was also young in the early 90s. A glorious time to start playing guitar.
 
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