A Beginner's Question about Amplifier

[freewheelingvagabond]

Hello everybody, this is my first post in this forum. I am a beginner and have just now bought a new electric bass guitar (Yamaha RBX 374), and a Fender Rumble 30 bass amplifier. I am an absolute beginner on bass guitar. I have been playing the acoustic guitar casually for two years now, and have also recently purchased a Martin DRS2. My question is will sometimes plugging in the Martin dreadnought to this bass amplifier and playing it at not a high volume damage either the bass or the acoustic guitar? The reason I am not buying a separate amplifier for my acoustic guitar is that I plan to play it unplugged 99% of the time. I have been learning and playing Western classical music on the violin for over a decade, but I am brand new to the world of electric instruments, amplifiers and all the paraphernalia. Thank you all for your help.

P.S. The cord that connects the instrument to the amplifier - is it of the same type for electric and acoustic basses and guitars?

 

[KramerDon]

Playing your acoustic guitar thru your bass amp shouldn't damage the guitar or amp but probably won't sound very good.The bass amp is designed for lower tones and won't reproduce the higher harmonics of your guitar very well but it won't hurt to try it.I'm guessing it'll sound bassy/muddy but maybe okay at low volumes?

 

[scottfeldstein]

Welcome, FWV! Your Martin is fine going through your bass amp. In fact, I bet it'll sound pretty good. No harm can come of it. And, yes, the instrument cable is the same for all electric guitars so go ahead and use it for both.

 

[BbbyBld]

My question is will sometimes plugging in the Martin dreadnought to this bass amplifier and playing it at not a high volume damage either the bass or the acoustic guitar?

No. That should be fine.

The cord that connects the instrument to the amplifier - is it of the same type for electric and acoustic basses and guitars?

Yes. Just use a quality shielded instrument cable.

 

[nashvillebill]

The instrument cable is the same!

And an acoustic into a bass amp can work quite well, it will not damage the amp or the guitar. The only problem you may get would be feedback from the acoustic guitar at higher volumes but that's not because it's a bass amp, that's just the general hassle of playing a hollowbody guitar through an amp (which is why they eventually went to solidbody electric guitars).

 

[Dave W]

No, it won't damage anything at all.

 

[Orangeclawhammr]

As a matter of fact, some of the early Fender Bassman amps were popular with electric guitarists.