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Anyone Playing Thier Bass Through a Guitar Amp ?

#43
Jeff Berlin is known for pairing up a guitar amp with his bass combo. I believe he used a Peavey with a 12" speaker.

(Although I have to say that I hate Jeff Berlins tone - love his playing, just hate the tone. Probably has more to do with his chorus pedal than the amp though. :))
 
#48
I've used a Marshall combo of some sort for low volumes with bass before, and it was really great sounding. I've also used a Sovtek 50w through a Marhsall 4x12 and a Sunn 2x15, and in both instances it kicked it. Not a universally usable tone, more in the Lemmy-zone of lots of aggressive distorted mids, but still really cool. I once tried my Bassman 300 into a Marshall 412, and if you're careful (don't crank the lows) and don't blast through it, it can get you a REALLY cool sound. Many don't like the sealed 4x12, but personally I dig it a lot.
 
#50
Just about all my bass amps have been guitar amps.

I've used a hiwatt dr103, soundcity 120, a mesa boogie mk111, a little Australian amp called a Vase trendsetter which is 40watts and I currently use an 80s peavey roadmaster rated at 160watts.
I can't speak highly enough of the peavey. It's done a ton of gigs, I love the sound and is a very versatile amp, having two differently voiced channels which can be changed by footswitch. One channel similar to old ampeg and the other like a marshall.
 
#51
My first amp I used for bass was a Sound City 120 with a Marshall 412. It sounded great with both bass and guitar. Heavy as heck though and sadly sold it.

I had an 80's solid state ampeg guitar amp that I blew the speaker on playing bass too loudly.

I currently have a d-lab 5 watt amp that I use for practice. Sounds great.

Mitch Easter has discussed on the Rick forum using guitar amps for recording bass. He likes the fender deluxe I believe.
 
#52
The original post didn't ask if we used a guitar amp intentionally. I did one night back in the 60s because I had to. I was in a six-piece dance band and (don't ask) three of our amps were drowned in beer. The owner of the club was frantic so he pulled out an OLD Sears Silvertone, but a big one - had 6 10" speakers. We ran my P-bass, a telecaster, and a Gibson through it for about 2 hours. We miked it. Obviously the crowd never noticed the difference in quality. So it can be done!
 
#54
Yeah? When I first bought my bass, I also bought a little guitar amp (not knowing it was a guitar amp) this was 10 years ago. Man I feel old. Anyway. I still have that same amp. I don't even think of using it though, it sounds awful
 
#55
twangman said:
Yeah? When I first bought my bass, I also bought a little guitar amp (not knowing it was a guitar amp) this was 10 years ago. Man I feel old. Anyway. I still have that same amp. I don't even think of using it though, it sounds awful
Click to expand...

+1 I bought a Squier starer kit 4 years ago but have since gave the bass + little ****** practice amp away to other aspiring bassists.
 
#58
This is interesting. I need a bass amp and I am on a REALLY tight budget these days. I am wondering if putting an Eminence bass speaker in my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe would allow me to use the amp as loud as I want (well not TOO loud, but as loud as I used to use it with my guitar) without blowing the bass speaker? That would be cheaper than get a combo bass amp and would give me time to gig enough to buy a bigger rig?
 
#60
Doesn't the Hot Rod Deluxe sound pretty ok as is? Those are 50 Watts, ya?

Just dropping a bass speaker into a different box, particularly an open-back, isn't a great bet.

You'd do a lot better using the external speaker jack from it into a bass cab.
 

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