Can you play a bass through a guitar amp?

[bugo]

I have a little Park 20 watt amp. I'm going to buy a Squier '50s P-Bass in a couple of months. Will it hurt my amp to play the bass through it at low volume? I'm not going to be gigging with it or anything like that, just practicing at my apartment. If it will hurt the amp, why will it hurt it?

[SactoBass]

Originally Posted by bugo

I have a little Park 20 watt amp. I'm going to buy a Squier '50s P-Bass in a couple of months. Will it hurt my amp to play the bass through it at low volume? I'm not going to be gigging with it or anything like that, just practicing at my apartment. If it will hurt the amp, why will it hurt it?

It won't hurt the amplifier section (although it won't sound the greatest), but it will definitely ruin the speaker as guitar speakers are not designed to handle the excursion caused by the lower frequencies that a bass generates.

If you keep the amp on super low volume, you might be okay, but keep your ears peeled for the speaker being pushed beyond its mechanical limits.

[bugo]

Originally Posted by SactoBass

It won't hurt the amplifier section (although it won't sound the greatest), but it will definitely ruin the speaker as guitar speakers are not designed to handle the excursion caused by the lower frequencies that a bass generates.

If you keep the amp on super low volume, you might be okay, but keep your ears peeled for the speaker being pushed beyond its mechanical limits.

Thanks. That's kind of what I thought. I won't be turning it up very loud at all, so I should be ok. If I have to, I'll cut the bass in the EQ so as not to ruin my speaker.

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by bugo

Thanks. That's kind of what I thought. I won't be turning it up very loud at all, so I should be ok. If I have to, I'll cut the bass in the EQ so as not to ruin my speaker.

"Loud" is relative when it comes to bass. Doing this is not as "OK" as you think. Bass takes a LOT of power. It is REAL easy to "turn up" too much. 20 watts is hardly enough power even for a practice amp with a bass speaker. (I've got several and mostly they are only good for driving headphones) In fact, if you do use the amp, I'd suggest headphones or replace the speaker with a bass driver. But even if you replace the speaker, you'll find the open-backed guitar cab is designed to trim all lows and again defeats you since you have no power to make up for the deficiency. A 20 amp will saw down a tree with a guitar but won't even work as a practice amp with a bass.

For a while I used a 100 watt Crate guitar amp as a bass amp. I replaced the speakers (I got it for a song with blown speakers) and built a cover for the open back and it didn't sound TOO bad! BUT, you'll find as I did the EQ is set all wrong for a bass and the knobs do not work well at all for that reason. Yeah, it got me through a no-money time, but really left a LOT to be desired.

I'd suggest you look around for a nice used bass combo amp in the 50-100 watt range. (Like my nice little Laney 75) Makes a Killer practice amp plus works great in small venue gigs too! you'll love it. A great sounding practice amp just makes you want to practice more. A nasty one does the opposite.

[sonic assassin]

so long as you dont push the volume and dont try to cram a bunch of low frequency into it, you should be OK. the sub sonic filter should save the speakers. and of course in using it to practice, you know it wont sound ideal, or your question would have been "would it sound good if..." dont crank the bass EQ knob and dont pump low frequency through it via EQ pedal, and you should be fine.

i record bass through guitar amps all the time. keep a DI or a bass amp signal for the lows and use the guitar amp for overdrive and a better mid tone. i just like the sound of overdrive and mids coming through guitar speakers over bass speakers. its less... rigid? cant really describe it.

anyway, never had an issue. i turn the bass knob off anyway.

[Lonesomedave]

actually, love the sound of bass through a guitar HEAD... just be sure you use a bass cabinet.

for a little combo amp like you describe, wouldn't do it... you'll blow the speaker.

[topo morto]

Originally Posted by SactoBass

If you keep the amp on super low volume, you might be okay, but keep your ears peeled for the speaker being pushed beyond its mechanical limits.

+1. Remember that an E5 power chord starting on the bottom string of a normal electric guitar, and played through distortion, has a component at the same frequency as the bottom E string on a bass, because the distortion creates sum and difference frequencies. So the amp should handle that - quietly. You don't need to be very loud at all just to hear yourself, after all (hell, you don't really even need an amp!).

If you wanna go a slappin' and a poppin', I'm not so sure about that - headphones, as bassbenj suggested, would be the thing.

[Arthur Strand]

Not to be recommended. If you have a guitar amp head but bass speaker/s then it should not present too much of a problem just that the amp will not be able to pump out the lowest frequencies. Marshall guitar head or similar with Bass speakers OK possibly OK with a 4x 12 guitar cab briefly at low volume only.
Combo. use only at low Volume and for a short time. Certainly ruinous to a guitar speaker.
Smaller guitar amps NO GO just speaker will blow.

[topo morto]

Originally Posted by Arthur Strand

Smaller guitar amps NO GO just speaker will blow.

A has been said already, not as long as the volume is kept low enough. It would have to be a seriously poorly engineered speaker to blow at the lowest audible volumes.

[Setebos]

The first couple of months of my learning bass journey where done on a 15 or 20 watts Squier guitar amp. It was not the ideal sound of course but it worked ok for practice and it just held on to the whole process without getting broken.

[tri33]

I actually play through a guitar amp when I play with my banjo player/guitarist friend. He has a Marshall half stack, and it sounds really good! I've always wondered why it sounded so good though. I mean I think it sounds as good if not better than my 100 watt Peavy combo amp!

Can anyone shed some light as to why that might be?

As everyone else has said, just take the nessecary precautions, and you'll be fine.

[TRichardsbass]

Most of the '60s pop hits recorded in LA by Osborne, Kaye, Pohlman, etc were recorded through Fender Twins, which were guitar, not bass specific amps.

In the early days a bass amp was not a lot more then a guitar amp with less efffects and more speakers, maybe a few more watts (25 and 50 versus say 10 and 20). I have to admits though, that was for lower volume and recording.

I have a Lyon by Washburn practice amp for bass that is 8 watts. Its nothing more then a guitar amp. At super low volumes, okay. When I use headphones, best. However, turn the volume up halfway and it starts to distort badly. It also doesn't like active basses much at all. Too much power. I like to maximize my signal in, meaning everything up all the way, and tweak sound with the amp or preamp eq. Can't do that on a lot of smaller amps.

You won't blow the speaker, but you will get tons of distortion turned up.

Truthfully, there are a lot of small amps here on TB or on eBay that you can get for a song and would suit you better.

[1958Bassman]

Originally Posted by bugo

I have a little Park 20 watt amp. I'm going to buy a Squier '50s P-Bass in a couple of months. Will it hurt my amp to play the bass through it at low volume? I'm not going to be gigging with it or anything like that, just practicing at my apartment. If it will hurt the amp, why will it hurt it?

Won't hurt the amp but you'll definitely hear when it needs to be turned down. I wouldn't plan on playing too many chords, though. The speaker can be damaged if the excursion is excessive but a couple of times making bad sounds won't kill it.

[darkstorm]

You might try replacing the speaker with a bass one. In most cases 10" bass speakers also work great for guitar.

[topo morto]

Originally Posted by darkstorm

You might try replacing the speaker with a bass one. In most cases 10" bass speakers also work great for guitar.

Isn't there also the issue of closed back / open back cabinet design though?

[john grey]

The cone on the speaker has to have greater physical range to move as freq goes lower, (remember you have to move more air) so the "surround" of the cone needs to be more flexible. However - there ARE some serious professional vocal speakers that could stand up to perhaps 50-100w as they were designed for 500-1000w. A little practice guitar amp IS likely to take a lickin'.

The amp on many older guitar heads didn't have "cuts" for lower freq (like a modern "bass" design). It's been said that if you can play keyboards through a system & it sounds OK at the low end then a Bass certainly won't hurt it.
I have a 60's Acoustic head (Guitar) that just 150w and have run that with a 18" outdoor big cab and back some distance from it - it sounded OK. It also depends on the Bass-guitar setup. A Bass with a lot of mids, etc like a Ric or a Music Man with the mids and treb boosted will sound a bit better than a p-bass (as a rough generality).

Cab design can actually be a complex issue. Everything from those old Vega folded horns to front port, back port, sealed, and open back have been tried. There's a delicate balance between the freqs, the distance of the listener, the acoustics of the area, Bass design, & wattage that could make a great deal of things possible.

[SurferJoe46]

Can you play a bass through a guitar amp?

Yup. For a little while.

[NOVAX]

OK but I don't have to like it.

[SactoBass]

Originally Posted by TRichardsbass

Most of the '60s pop hits recorded in LA by Osborne, Kaye, Pohlman, etc were recorded through Fender Twins, which were guitar, not bass specific amps.

I remember playing my Ric 4001 back in the late 70's through my guitar player's Fender Twin at a low volume, and the tone was absolutely fantastic. He was plugged into that amp too. I knew, of course, that we could not turn up the volume, but that bass tone was mouth watering! I could see how that would be very desirable for recording purposes.

[Marley's Ghost]

Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD.