bass into guitar amp

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MesaHead

New member
am i going to run into problems if i run a bass through my rect-o-verb 50 watt head?

sie note, how come i saw david bowie's bass player playing through a marshall stack on his BBS dvd?

thanks
 
You won't really run into problems, its not voiced for bass so you won't gett the best results, but who knows until you try! Marshall used to make bass amps, too. Maybe Bowies guy was using old Marshall bass amps? Lots of people take the old bass amps and convert them into guitar amps cause they're pretty similar.

H2H
 
thanks.

i'm not worried about the speakers, i'm more worried about blowing something in my $2,000 head.

i can't remember if i heard correctly that the ohmage from bass pickups are different than a guitar's and can damamge the circutry.

any more help?
 
MesaHead said:
thanks.

i'm not worried about the speakers, i'm more worried about blowing something in my $2,000 head.

i can't remember if i heard correctly that the ohmage from bass pickups are different than a guitar's and can damamge the circutry.

any more help?
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My friend was just starting to play bass at a jam-able level so I asked a guy (who I have the upmost respect for) at Bizzare Guitar here in Phoenix and was told a guitar into a bass amp is kosher, but a bass into a guitar amp is a problem waiting to happen.

I wouldn't do it.


The Marshalls that people used to use back in the early days were actually bassamps that people used to plug guitars into. I am unaware of it being the other way around.
 
I've only heard it was bad news. I'd go direct & use something like amplitube to get some tone if you have to. If not just buy a DI like the SansAmp or that MXR one (forgot the name but I like it more than the sansamp).
 
The only problem will be speakers and a lack of power. Bass amps usually push between 160 - 2400 watts. Blowing guitar amp speakers is a lot fun! Watching those suckers shred under a loud low B is a religious moment. I got one to spit sparks and smoke. (not my amp)
 
Outlaws said:
The Marshalls that people used to use back in the early days were actually bassamps that people used to plug guitars into. I am unaware of it being the other way around.
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That's what I was saying, that maybe what he saw was Marshall bass amps being actually used for bass.

I have used guitar amps for bass on several occasions and never had problems. But I am no expert or anything. I have always thought it was more about the speakers. Considering a guitar pickup can run anywhere from 5 ohm to about 20 ohm output, I can't see most basses being that different. Maybe really hot active basses, but I don't know. I do know I used a Jazz bass with a Fender Blues DeVille 4x10 for about 2 years on a weekly basis and it never hurt the amp.

But maybe Mesas aren't as tough as Fenders ;)

H2H
 
MesaHead said:
am i going to run into problems if i run a bass through my rect-o-verb 50 watt head?
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Are you going to use this for recording? My guess is you will, but I am not sure.................

Perhaps you could see the scenario like this:


Bass----> Guitaramp head-----> try usuing cabinet with bass speakers as you sound will a bit better.


Guitar -----> Bassamp head-----> think opposite way: try using cabinet with guitarspeakers as you will keep the brightness of your guitar.


I guess you do not want to get all these different amps and speakers for all these different kind of set-ups. So in your case you could use a bass going through your gtr. amphead and using the speakers you are already using. Just play at moderate levels and use commone sense.

The Marshall bass amps people where revering to before are probably the Superbass ones, they sound a bit darker than the Superlead ones[ which were designed for guitar]. A lot of people will just use a Superbass through a matching [ohmage !!] guitarspeaker cab. and you will end up with a bit of a darker sound than the Superlead ones.

The fact that many folks convert the Superbass to the Superlead is I think a commercial one: It is guitarplayers who go for the older Marshalls and not really bassplayers, and since older Marshalls get rarer and therefore more expansive, shops will convert their Superbasses to guitaramps with the hope that they can sell them to guitarplayers.

If you ever come across a Superbass, just try them and do not be put off by the fact that it is a bassamp.

A similar story goes for the Fender Bassman, but I have heard less stories about people converting them to guitarversions. Personally I feel, if you get guitarspeakers on a bassamp they will sound fine, but I am talking about using them on recording levels as that is what I do most of the time, so when you start crancking them up they probably will behave in a different way.

Cheers,

Eddie
 
A friend of mine used a jazz bass through an old Marshall 100 watt Super Lead with a vintage 4x12 greenback cab. (He was also a guitar player).The 4 input model with no master vol. It sounded great. and never developed any problems. Perhaps because it had tons of headroom,and he used it for traditional tones(classic rock and pop). Being that the greenbacks were only 25 watts each, you would think it would spell disaster. It worked fine for years. It definitely was no slouch for stage volume, but he used a D.I. to the PA. as well.

You just have to use common sense. Maybe use the low input if it has one?
Don't expect crushing volume or lows from it. Trust you're ears, If it sounds OK, it is. If it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't a good idea.
 
Guitar amps are not set up to deliver those realy low frequency notes. At low vomume this wont be much of a problem, but if you crank it up you will notice a lot of distortion (not exactly the sound a bass should have) and the speakers will definately suffer a real strain, most guitar speakers are not designed to deliver frequencies below 80 cps (low E being 81 cps) also if you use slap licks you send a significant surge through the system to fry something, either in the amp or the speakers. There is a reason why there are guitar amps and bass amps. Like in all things, the right tool for the job will produce the best outcome.
 
thanks for the advice everyone,

I'm not worried about the cab, it's rated for 300 watts, i wanted to know if a non-active pickup bass is safe to run through a 50 watt mesa guitar head, but if possible, can i get an answer from anyone that includes voltages and ohms etc, and the differences between guitar and bass pickups?

thanks.
 
MesaHead said:
thanks for the advice everyone,

I'm not worried about the cab, it's rated for 300 watts, i wanted to know if a non-active pickup bass is safe to run through a 50 watt mesa guitar head, but if possible, can i get an answer from anyone that includes voltages and ohms etc, and the differences between guitar and bass pickups?

thanks.
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I owuldn't do it. Just look at the last post above yours. thats the technical reason right there. Some people might get away with it, but if you can afford to gamble with your Mesa, then you can probably afford to just buy a bass amp. IMO
 
Several years ago, I bought a Fender AmpCan because I'd once played a Fender Precission bass through one, and it sounded pretty decent for a P-bass through a 15W amp like that. I never did get a Fender Precission (got a Squier bass pack instead), and it was a year or two later before I actually bought an AmpCan, but it was that "test drive" of the Precission bass going through the AmpCan that convinced it'd make for a good, and portable practice amp.

I've also played my Squier P-bass through my Line 6 Guitar POD without any ill effects. I was more trying the effects models with the bass, but if I were wanting to record, I'd of course do better with a Bass POD (or another similar modelling box).

Matt
 
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