Guitar Power amp/preamp for Bass?

tildeslash · #1 11-26-2012, 12:45 PM

I am a guitar player exploring playing bass.
A friend is loaning me a bass cab and amp temporarily.

I know using guitar amp is a no no so I plan on buying a dedicated bass cabinet but don't want to buy a bass amp for the moment. But....I am looking to leverage my current gear for bass. Will this help?

Marshall 9005 Tube Guitar power amp
Mosvalve MV-962 solid state power amp
Tech 21 PSA-1 Guitar Preamp
Digitech Twin Tube Guitar Preamp
Marshall 9001 tube Guitar Preamp

Can I use the above poweramp/preamp combos with a dedicated Bass Cabinet like MarkBass or Hartke etc....

Or I can't really use the Guitar power amp/preamp for anything else other than Guitar.

ntenny · #2 11-26-2012, 01:28 PM

The power amp shouldn't be an issue. It won't hurt a guitar preamp any to use it for bass, but the EQ will probably be voiced funny, and it may or may not push enough bottom end to sound good. I can't speak to the specific preamps you've got, but they're certainly worth a try.

There are some cheap bass preamps around, and actually some active basses are hot enough to drive a power amp directly.

-NT

Bass_Pounder · #3 11-26-2012, 01:40 PM

E.Q. points will be different then a bass preamp, and there will probably be low end roll off.

As far as power amps, it will work no problem, but may not be powerful enough when pushing bass frquencies. Bass amps generally need around 4X the power of guitar to compete.

dincz · #4 11-26-2012, 01:50 PM

As they said, but if it's parametric EQ, you can dial in whatever you need.

bassgod0dmw · #5 11-26-2012, 03:30 PM

A lot of people use the PSA-1 for bass.

PSA-1 + Marshall 9005 = Win

nicoli · #6 11-26-2012, 04:35 PM

IME, all tube Marshall guitar rigs sound great for bass assuming you have the proper cabinet. It's a different sound than you'd get from a system designed for bass but to me it sounds pretty godly. Try it out and switch it up if you need something different.

tildeslash · #7 11-27-2012, 08:10 AM

What about a cabinet Gallien Krueger 212MBE 4 ohm neo cab that is 600 watts and 4 ohms.

My head is 4 ohm compatible but only 100 watts.
Any issues pro/cons of using a low powered head with a higher wattage capacity bass cabinet?