Half stack used for bass...

[rynomig]

i was just wondering if i could use my crate cab (4-10's)...for bass?...i would hook up a peavey mark 3 (400watts) head to it...would i damage my cab by doing this? i have an 18 inch black widow woofer cab, but for some reason just doesn't cut it for me.

 

[timthetortoise]

I wouldn't recommend it. Guitar speakers are designed for guitar and often don't play nice with bass frequencies. I did it once in a jam and the speakers just haven't sounded the same since.

 

[lbanks]

Isn't a good idea unless you know the cab is rated for bass. I've seen a number of guitar cabs fried that way.

 

[NRS]

It may be okay if you filter out the low frequencies running to the crates speakers with a passive crossover that you install inside the cab then continue to use the 18" cab in conjunction with it to fill out the bottom end. I'd look for a highpower subwoofer designed crossover of the same ohmage that crosses over in about the 100hz-200hz range and wire just the high frequncy out termanels to the speakers. The only shortcoming to this is not being able control the individual volume levels going to each cab but it should at least filter out the lowest of frequencies that will be most harmful to your guitars speakers.

Alternatively, look into just upgrading your amp to a biample one that will better accomplish the same thing or maybie a just a used 2x10 bass cab would be a much better economical add on. The 18" BW equipped cab is definately worth holding onto though, those are really great bass speakers!

 

[jonnyc]

It's totally possible, and not only possible but done. Michael Wagener is running dug of King's X thru a 4x12 randall cab I think. Says it's the way he prefers to record. Just don't go cranking it full blast.

 

[xstatic]

I did have something similar recently. I had a guitar player using an Ampeg svt4pro head through 2 marshall 1960 cabs. Sounded pretty bad though

 

[mixsit]

I wouldn't recommend it. Guitar speakers are designed for guitar and often don't play nice with bass frequencies. I did it once in a jam and the speakers just haven't sounded the same since.

I was going to just say if the speakers are not pushed too far into rolls they are not designed for, no harm. But this could easily include the large excursions from low octaves.
In your case they were not blown, but ended up sounding different?

 

[Minion]

Well if you look at the specs for Bass Speakers (for Bass amps) and Guitar amp speakers there specs are not all that different....

I was recently looking for a Speaker that i could use in my Guitar amp that could also handle Bass and after looking through a bunch of specs for different Guitar and Bass speakers there really didn"t seem to be much differance in frequency responce between a Guitar amp speaker and a Bass amp speaker......

Generally the frequency responce of most Bass speakers that I looked at was "50hz- 4500hz" and most Guitar amp speakers were "80hz -5000hz" but many Bass amp speakers were also 80hz - 4500hz....so the Low end responce is very simular and it is only the high end responce that seems limited in bass speakers.....

I ended up getting a 12in Fender speaker with a FR of 80hz -5000hz which sounds great for both Bass and Guitar, I do get a slight bit of speaker rumble with the bass unless I turn the bass down a bit but other than that it works quite well.....

 

[mixsit]

Yeah but sounding good' and at low volumes is easy. A D-130 and D-140 both do 40hz (or flop back and forth at 10 hz if you like ), but one has a cone assembly scaled for long excursions and in a cab with different loading.

Harvey.. Help..

 

[NRS]

When reading raw speaker specs the excursion range of a speaker is called XMAX and will indeed give you a better idea if that speaker is really going to handle its reported low end frequency well or not. Power handling is also a very important thing to consider because it takes a lot more juice to move low frequncy air at high volumes than it does to move the same mid range ones produced by guitar. So while a typical 10" guitar speaker might handle somewhere between 35 and 80 watts RMS, a good quality bass one of the same size will typically be rated at at least 150 watts RMS or more and can go much higher.