Regular Amp with Bass Guitar?

[crushing]

I've a low-end Crate electric guitar amp. My son is borrowing a bass guitar for an upcoming high school jazz band concert. I thought he could just plug the bass guitar into my amp to practice, but said his friend told him that bass guitars need bass amps and that plugging this bass into my amp could blow it.

Is this true?

I also have a DigiTech RP200 modeling processor, would putting a bass through that prevent damage to the amp, or could I mess up my processor too? The manual for the RP200 doesn't say anything about not using it with bass guitar.

Thanks!

crushing

 

[Kreth]

A guitar amp isn't equipped to handle the low-end like a bass amp. If he does crank it, it may very well blow. It really depends on how much juice he's pushing through it, and what type of EQ setting it has.

 

[crushing]

A guitar amp isn't equipped to handle the low-end like a bass amp. If he does crank it, it may very well blow. It really depends on how much juice he's pushing through it, and what type of EQ setting it has.

I don't think we are going to chance it then. Thank you!

 

[Domo Kun]

Exactly, bass' low frequencies may damage the amp's speaker...

Tough a guitar works fine with a bass amp.

 

[michaeledward]

I disagree.

If your guitar amplifier has a 12" speaker or larger, you shouldn't have a problem if the amplifier is used reasonably.

Guitar amplifiers usually include a pre-amp setting to create the guitar distortion effect. When using a bass guitar, you would want to keep the pre-amplifier set as low as possible. The power amplifier control, often labelled 'main' should be set to the 7-8 range. Do not increase the equilization settings toward the positive, as that, too, will increase distortion; which is generally undesired in bass reproduction.

While, there are specialized amplifiers for bass guitar, it really is not necessary for a one-off situation.

You can damage any amplifier with any instrument if you use it unreasonably.

 

[Carol]

Both Kreth and Mike are correct. Simply running a bass through a guitar amp at reasonable volumes won't damage the amp but it certainly can happen. Part of the way I put myself through music school was repairing pro audio and musical equipment.

We saw amps that were damaged because they were played too loud, with a mismatched load (speaker) or pushed in a way they weren't supposed to go, such as using a Variac.

Running a bass through a guitar amp can cause some problems due to psychoacoustics (the way the ear hears things). The bass needs more amplification than the guitar to be perceived as equally as loud by the human ear.

This means that when a bass gets run through a guitar amp, it won't seem as loud. This means a bass through a guitar amp would need to be turned up louder than a guitar through a guitar am.

The type of distortion seen by the guitar's preamp stage is not enough to tear up a pro quality speaker because the clipped bits of wave forms are very short.

However, if a bass guitar gets turned up to push the whole amp to a stage where it is distorting even slightly, clipping on the longer low-frequency wave forms produces the type of distortion that can damage a speaker.

And, since speakers and amps must be a matched pair, a damaged speaker can result in a damaged amp.

So, yes it is possible. If you're jamming with a guitarist, you should be fine. If you expect to be loud enough to project over a drum set, thats when it gets risky.

Prolly more information than you needed to know

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Hey that is some good information as both of my boy's are into music and one is taking guitar lessons. Thanks.

 

[jim777]

So...what kind of bass were we talking about? I've got a bright orange Music Man Bongo4 (the electric toilet seat), and it is a fantastic bass.
Here's a pic

jim

 

[SFC JeffJ]

It may or may not damage it, depending on how high he cranks it , EQ settings, but most likely it will sound like ****. Hell, for years(like over 20 now) I've just been running mine through a Furman PQ-3 and a Peavy power amp. I've been told that makes me a dinasaur though.

Jeff

 

[SFC JeffJ]

It may or may not damage it as has been said in earlier posts, but chances are it's going to sound like **** going through that amp. I could be wrong though, It's been over 20 years since I've bought an amp and it's still going strong. It's not even what you'd call a bass amp. Furman PQ-3 and a Carvin Poweramp.

Jeff

 

[shrek]

Guys, remember what is going on here, chances are if he tries to use a guitar amp instead of a bass amp to keep up with the rest of the band.....he'll kill it. It would be decent for a home practice amp, but that's about it. Anything more than a low setting could be expensive to daddy's wallet.

WHen I first started playing bass I asked the guy at the store about the differences between regular and bass amps, he demonstrated that the sound quality was quite different by hooking each up and playing a bit. That was enough for me.

Think about this...when we were high schoolers...what did we do?? CRANK IT UP!!! In this case it would lead to a failure of the amp...and I'd hate to see that happen to a borrowed amp. Besides, they probably have no idea what that amp has aleady been throuh in it's life...failure may be immenent for other reasons...

 

[crushing]

So...what kind of bass were we talking about? I've got a bright orange Music Man Bongo4 (the electric toilet seat), and it is a fantastic bass.
Here's a pic

jim

It's just a regular Washburn, black with white plate or whatever the 'scratch protector' under the strings is called.

That is a pretty cool looking bass . . .err. . . Electric toilet seat you got there.