Keyboard amp, Strat, and making the most of your gear...

[Nedmundo]

Went to a wedding last weekend that featured an excellent band with drums, bass, and a guy who alternated between keys and guitar. He was a decent keyboardist, and an outstanding guitarist. He played a Strat that seemed to have noiseless pickups, probably DiMarzios, and he sounded freakin' fantastic. The cleans were gorgeous, and the rippin' rock sounds were among the best I've heard from a live Strat.

Thing is, he was playing solely through his KEYBOARD amp, a big Roland with 1x15" and a tweeter! He was running the Strat through a Tube Screamer, OCD pedal, and a POD. If I had heard it blindfolded, I would have guessed a good tube amp of some sort. The groom played a couple of tracks using an Epiphone Les Paul, and it sounded comparatively weak, which makes me think the main player spent considerable effort dialing things in just right.

I was impressed with his ability to make the most of his gear, as opposed to trying to have specific pieces of gear to cover each and every situation. (Made me wonder why I have three speaker cabs! Well, there's GAS...)

I mentioned this to some of my musician friends, and we all agreed a keyboard amp would be inherently full range, and thus ideal for use with several types of instruments.

Anybody here use alternate amps, or see any other players use similar resourcefulness?

[bassybill]

A few years back it was quite common for bass players to use KB amps for just the reasons you describe - full range, powerful and clean (if that's what you're into, of course).

I seem to remember that there weren't really as many choices as there are now for bass players who wanted a combo, so maybe that was part of it. If you did want a combo, considering a KB amp gave you a much bigger range to choose from. Nowadays there's so much gear around, the problem isn't finding something that will do the job, it's more about choosing the right thing for you from an enormous number of options. Lucky us!

[steve21]

I gotta agree with Bill. There's enough great stuff nowadays that I don't think we as bassists really need it.

Personally, I've had better sounds with my inexpensive bass amp + guitar than other people's relatively expensive guitar amps + guitar.

My 15" GK backline combo managed to make a strat sound beautiful, even when using a Whammy pedal on 2+ octaves on the 20th fret.

[Petebass]

I've always thought the whole concept of live speaker/amp modeling was pointless unless you had a fairly full-range and flat amplification setup. Why? Because how does the pod know what coloration you amp has? What's the point of selecting a classic 4x10 bassman guitar sound when your cab is always going to make it sound like a 4x12 marshall?

Keys amps and PA's are perfect IMO, more so that a guitar cab.

[keb]

On the guitar-through-bass-amp side: my Strat sounds great - and freakin' LOUD! - through my Hartke 3500 head and 4x10 cabinet.

And yeah, with the modeling stuff, it's absolutely best to run it through a clean, flat, full-range system, be it a keyboard amp or just the PA.

[Petebass]

Originally Posted by keb

On the guitar-through-bass-amp side: my Strat sounds great - and freakin' LOUD! - through my Hartke 3500 head and 4x10 cabinet.
.

What it won't have is that elusive "speaker breakup" you often hear guitarists talking about for hours on end. Bass, PA, Keys and Hi-Fi speakers are designed with a large X-max (limit of speaker suspension, the point at which speakers start to distort) but relatively small X-mech (point at which the speaker is physically damaged). The idea is of course that the sound remains clean for as long as possible, and the distortion warns you that speaker is in danger of being damaged

Guitar cabs are a rare breed in that they're designed to do the exact opposite. The X-max is short, so the speakers distort much sooner. But with all that deliberate distortion going on, you often won't get a warning before the speaker blows, so give guitar speakers a comparatively large X-mech.

[tycobb73]

We auditioned a guy on Fri who brought his keyboard amp and speakers because they were the most portable. His sound was amazing. Unfortunately, he had other plans for my band so we had to say no.