Guitar amp for bass?

[Dusty89]

I'm not going to lie, I love the sound I get out of many Marshall guitar amps. In fact, I prefer playing from my guitarist's Randall guitar amp much more than many bass amps I've tested out. It gives a thick, punchy tone that's just amazing. For this reason, why not shop for guitar amps as well as bass amps? I feel that many bassists may feel that a certain guitar amp works well for them.

[bosozoku]

Go for it, just keep an eye (or ear) on the speakers. You may find tone adjustments a bit different and not the best overall 'bass' tone, but other than speaker damage...I can't think of a reason not to.

Pros/Electricians/Amp Builders opinions?

[Mark Olson]

Lots of the "guitar amps" that bass players love to play are actually bass amps. Some bass players just think that if some guitar players like playing through a bass amp, that somehow makes it intended for guitar. Well it doesn't. Marshall Superbass? Bass amp. Fender Bassman? Bass amp. Some may whine about headroom and hi fi ultra lows, but those of us who don't want to sound like total weiners know those things are for the birds.

[amos]

I use a 1x12 solid-state guitar combo for midrange distortion, alongside a tube-emulation overdrive coming out of a bass amp.

[Dusty89]

Heck ya Mark Olson, the Marshall Superbass, designed for the guitar, works extremely well with a bass guitar. I would love to pick one of these up.

[Mark Olson]

No, the Superbass is a SuperBASS. It's designed for bass. Just happens to work well for guitar, because lets face it, most good bass amps do. The SuperLEAD was designed for guitar.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Welcome to TalkBass Dusty89

The last discussion about the subject was closed today IIRC.

The previous one a few days ago. IIRC again.

FAQ is Your friend .

As for the "superbass", or any other regular Marshall, while it does sound nice, it won't be what the "bass amplification" stands for today.
Being direct copies of the Fender bassman circuit, one could argue that before JCM series, Marshall had nothing but bass amps in their line-up.

Regards
Sam

[Evil Undead]

Originally Posted by Dusty89

Heck ya Mark Olson, the Marshall Superbass, designed for the guitar, works extremely well with a bass guitar. I would love to pick one of these up.

Yeah... the Marshall Superbass is a bass amp. Designed and intended for bass

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by Evil Undead

Yeah... the Marshall Superbass is a bass amp. Designed and intended for bass

Designed! where oh yeah RCA electron tubes and their uses appears to have got into the hands of a geezer called Leo fender
he lent a copy and one his amps to a bloke called Jim Marshall.
There must be all of a one resistor value change and a cap value between The Super Lead and a Super bass.
The best loud clean tube guitar amps are some of the best sounding bass amps in my opinion. A big beefy output transformer is an absolute must though.

[blackba]

My backup bass amp is actually a guitar amp. My mesa mark IV sounds great through my bass cab with my jazz bass. It has a built in 5 band EQ, so you can easily tweak it to get the most out of it.

Never tried my Marshall 2553 Silver Jubilee for bass, may have to give that a go. Its a pretty growly amp with a guitar w/humbuckers, but my jazz bass has SC's.

Always wanted to try my '66 Vox AC50 with bass, but I have 4ohm cabs and the Vox only has an 8ohm and 16ohm output and I don't want to risk and impedance missmatch on a vintage amp...

[AwkwardLoudness]

As I've said many times before, lots of guitar amps are great for bass and lots of bass amps are great for guitar. Most guitar speaker cabs suck for bass, though, at moderate to high volume.

FWIW, there is very little difference between a Marshall Superlead and Superbass from the same year...one capacitor difference I think.

[Hobobob]

Originally Posted by blackba

My backup bass amp is actually a guitar amp. My mesa mark IV sounds great through my bass cab with my jazz bass. It has a built in 5 band EQ, so you can easily tweak it to get the most out of it.

Never tried my Marshall 2553 Silver Jubilee for bass, may have to give that a go. Its a pretty growly amp with a guitar w/humbuckers, but my jazz bass has SC's.

Always wanted to try my '66 Vox AC50 with bass, but I have 4ohm cabs and the Vox only has an 8ohm and 16ohm output and I don't want to risk and impedance missmatch on a vintage amp...

I put my jubilee through my Powerhouse 2x12 one day just for the hell of it, and I have to say that it was pretty sweet. On the clean 'channel' the gain knob adds a lot of sweet low mids the higher you set it. Pull the gain knob out, and you have a cool Lenmy-esque grit. The overdrive 'channel' was a bit too extreme for my tastes tho.

[Dusty89]

Now I feel like an idiot . I guess I've heard so my guitarist rave about it that I assumed it was originally made for them. Honest mistake I hope.