Guitar Through a Bass Amp?

[J.B. Lee]

What are your thoughts on playing guitar through a bass amp? Is this commonly done? I've had thoughts of dabbling in bass in the future (largely as an excuse to own a cheap Beatle bass) and I could certainly save space and money by using a single amplifier.

 

Also: what cheap ($150 and under) bass amp would you recommend for the job? Thanks.

[silverkw]

isn't Bassman a bass amp?

[Axhandle]

For the past few years I've used a Fender Bassman 25 as practice amp for bass and guitar. I paid $175 used at GC but MF recently closed them out at somehing like $150 new.

The Bassman 25 has what I think is the minmum acceptable power to use for bass practice. If you get a 15 watt bass amp you will probably need headphones to hear yourself.

The Bassman 25 has a strong Eminence 10" speaker that can handle bass or guitar. Works great with a Jay Turser 7 string that I use to add some bass to solo work. Fender claims the 25 will drive a 4x10 bass cab and it will (barely). I hooked mine to my Avatar 2x10 Neo and was not impressed-- not enough power .

I had more success with an old Yamaha 4x12 guitar cab loaded with Celestions. I usually use this setup for home guitar practice-- my little Bassman 25 is permanently perched on top of the 4x12 like a gargoyle.

As others have noted, it has a great clean sound with guitar. You have to roll off the bass eq to 0 or 1 and keep the mids and highs above 5 to come up with a decent guitar sound.

I also have a Frontman 25 that I only use on rare occaisions to play dirty. Louder than hell but the tone is not there for the melodic stuff I play (roots rock, country rock, classic rock). Prefer to use any of my guitars (Tele, 335 clone. Epi Casino, Agile P90, Strats) with the Bassman 25 at home. I have another type of Bassman ('59 RI) that I use for playing out.

[jerry_picker]

The Bassman is a bass amp that is more widely used as guitar amp. Fantastic tone. The 59 RI is a fine, fine amp that just loves Teles.

The Fender Musicmaster Bass amp is a bass practice amp that is MUCH better with guitars than basses. 10-12 watts output and a 12-inch speaker gives Princeton punch at Champ prices. These silverface amps are real sleepers in the used market (now watch prices jump... ).

[fishfartz]

yeah, those bassmans kick ass with guitars

also, malcom young (rhythm guitar for AC/DC) uses a bass head and has done so for years. i think its actually a marshall bass head if i remember correctly.

anyway, his tone has always been spot on (as well as his playing) for good ol' rock music

[guitar-fish]

Fender's Bassman is one of many Fender innovations that weren't used as intended. Guitarists plugged into the Bassman and WOW. Clapton, others loved them.

[matt_v]

i just posted this in the amp forum in response to a similar question:

i played through a peavey bass amp for a while and used distortion pedals for it. to date, i haven't gotten as good of a recorded metal tone with my fender guitar amp using the same pedals. so it really does depend on the style of music.

[Shocker]

I've started buying pedals, because my baritone sounds a million times better through my bass amp with pedals than it does with my guitar amp and its onboard effects. More room, space and frequency response. If you play in dropped tuning on a regular guitar, even, you might want to give it a shot.

//S

[J.B. Lee]

So is it just the vintage and reissue Bassmans that make good guitar amps, or do the new ones work well too?

[flyguitar]

Roland Cube "tweed" setting acts as a Bassman

Originally posted by Axhandle The Bassman 25 has what I think is the minmum acceptable power to use for bass practice. If you get a 15 watt bass amp you will probably need headphones to hear yourself.

If you get Fender Rumble 15, be shure that whole neighbourhood can hear you;)

[Brian Krashpad]

Generally the old vintage-design "bass" amps work well for guitars, I have this one, a Sunn 200S:



I have been using it exclusively as a guitar amp and it sounds great. Entwhistle used these on the Who's first US tour with 2x15 Sunn bass cabs, while Townsend used the analogous Sunn guitar head and cabs.

Back in the olden days bass amps weren't as powerful as today nor voiced as specifically for bass as opposed to guitar as they are now. Thus the old Bassman and other tube "bass" amps actually were often used for, and sounded great as, guitar amps.

With higher-watt more modern amps a guitar will probably sound a bit muddy through a bass amp, but for what you wanna spend it's gonna be low wattage with a smallish speaker, so you should probably be fine, at least if you can try before you buy. A friend lent me a solid state 1x12 bass amp for years (sorry, can't recall the brand) and it sounded fine as a guitar amp.

BK

[Nighthawkdude]

I played guitar in my high school jazz band. They had a tele and we played it through an Ampeg B-15 Portaflex. The combination was sweeeeeet!!!

[BillyMethany]

Hmmm. Now THIS is an interesting idea! Never thought of trying this.. (since I play bass and guitar)

I've been using pretty much just a Johnson J-station direct into the computer. ...but, I DO own an SWR Working Man's 160 amp head, and an older Rivera 4x10 guitar cabinet. (I'm rather broke at the moment, and have yet to find a nice, simple tube guitar amp head or suitable bass speaker cabinet to use with em)

s'pose I could try the SWR with the Rivera cab (being very careful with the volumn & bass controls) for a guitar amp, just to see how it sounds. I know that many have warned me about the danger of playing a BASS into a BASS AMP into a Guitar speaker...