Bass through guitar amps (JTM45)

[Jctanner78]

I own an actual bass head but currently am playing into a JTM 45 style head and really digging the tones. I play country folk rock indie Americana stuff. Fender Pbass with flats. Sounds great. Obviously I use bass cabinets. But I definitely found a winner for a lower wattage tube head it’s surprisingly clean. At least at the volumes I play at (relatively quiet) in small clubs, it’s really a nice bass tone. Anyone else playing through a Marshall guitar head? I’m not talking about Lemme distortion. I’m talking cleanish edge of breakup tasteful stuff. Anyone?

 

[Kindness]

I own an actual bass head but currently am playing into a JTM 45 style head and really digging the tones. I play country folk rock indie Americana stuff. Fender Pbass with flats. Sounds great. Obviously I use bass cabinets. But I definitely found a winner for a lower wattage tube head it’s surprisingly clean. At least at the volumes I play at (relatively quiet) in small clubs, it’s really a nice bass tone. Anyone else playing through a Marshall guitar head? I’m not talking about Lemme distortion. I’m talking cleanish edge of breakup tasteful stuff. Anyone?

I built a JTM45 clone for exactly that use case scenario. I've been using it for about 15 years and love it.

 

[Jim Kernan]

Don't know what amps, but Jorgen Carlsson used guitar amps with Gov't Mule.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Not a JTM45, but when I began playing bass in early 1971 I did not have an amp so a friend long-term loaned me his 1987 and 4-12 cab. What I barely recall from way back then is that I was happy with the sound of it, and I was young enough to have no problem carrying the cab up and down stairs.

 

[Wasnex]

In my experience bass sounds good through most low gain guitar amps Examples I have used: brownface Fender Princeton, JMI era Vox AC30, silverface Fender Showman Reverb, blackface Fender Twin Reverb, Marshall 1959, Marshall 2203, Hiwatt DR103, Matamp GT120.

 

[beans-on-toast]

My Marshall works well with bass. I find that it’s important to optimize the power tube bias for the amp to sound it’s best without distortion.

 

[hbarcat]

I have a '67 Gibson Skylark GA-5T guitar amp (10 watt class A tube 10" combo) and it totally rocks with electric bass.

At only 10 watts, I can crank the gain all the way and get a gorgeous, tube overdrive sound at a modest stage volume. I'd describe it as a "poor man's" Ampeg B-15.

While it sounds amazing in my home studio, it would be a very poor choice for a live show (except for maybe a small coffee house gig where the band is playing at a very low volume).

One caveat: I replaced the stock speaker with an Eminence alnico model that's more appropriate for bass. I suspect the stock speaker wouldn't last too long with low frequencies pumping through it.

 

[fhm555]

I left my bass amp and cabinets at a guys house where we practiced, so I used a Fender Champ to practice with at home until I could afford a second bass rig. It worked but I would have bought the second bass rig sooner if I could have.

 

[toughluck]

There's no risk with guitar amps except for two things:

• tone controls are an octave too high, so they can be useless for a bass guitar—not an issue if you don't use them
• bass cabs are typically lower impedance than guitar cabs—the former are typically 4-8 Ω, the latter are 8-16 Ω, with some bass cab outliers at 2 Ω, while guitar cabs don't typically go below 4 Ω—most guitar heads are not designed to handle loads below 8 Ω. Those that do are designed that way to handle multiple guitar cabs, so they tend to be higher power models.

If you're not using a 4 Ω bass cab with a guitar head, you should be totally fine.

The only real risk is with infinite baffle (open back) guitar cabs where you can accidentally destroy a speaker by hitting and exceeding the excursion limit at resonant frequency and it happens quite quickly.

 

[burgerdj]

My first real amp was a Peavey MACE matched to a sealed Acoustic 610. It was awesome. I learned a lot about gain and eq with that amp. It was so loud and paired with the cabinet, very punchy if not bass-shy.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I own an actual bass head but currently am playing into a JTM 45 style head and really digging the tones. I play country folk rock indie Americana stuff. Fender Pbass with flats. Sounds great. Obviously I use bass cabinets. But I definitely found a winner for a lower wattage tube head it’s surprisingly clean. At least at the volumes I play at (relatively quiet) in small clubs, it’s really a nice bass tone. Anyone else playing through a Marshall guitar head? I’m not talking about Lemme distortion. I’m talking cleanish edge of breakup tasteful stuff. Anyone?

I’ve played through many of guitar amps over the years and agree you can get a good very useable tone from them. Marshall, Hiwatt, Ampeg, and Fender to name a few.

For bass work the wattage output is usually low (100 watts) for commercial work in louder settings like not having FOH support or larger ensembles JMO.

 

[Ostie]

Back in the late seventies, when I switched from guitar to bass, I used my Dual Showman head. It was okay, but I have no desire to go back to it.

 

[Iristone]

Isn't its preamp similar to a Marshall Super Bass?

 

[newfuture]

I would occasionally use a JCM 800 50 watt (2204?) into a trace 1x15 for recording and it sounded amazing

 

[Mr.Fingers]

A whole concert on a JMP I think (with double cabinet)

 

[TBird1958]

I occasionally use the Bugera 1960 which is a 150 watt Marshall 1960 Plexi clone, honestly it sounds really good.

 

[klejst]

While bass amp shopping for a new rig years ago I used my Marshall 1x12 guitar combo to fill in for a couple practices...within reason with volume it worked however I knew I would not want to use it for overly loud gigs or anything. I suppose in a pinch I'd feel comfortable but not long term and within reason. Unless of course you meant using guitar heads with bass cabs?

 

[ole Jason]

I have an old Silverface Twin someone converted to a head. It's a killer bass amp for vintage tubey tones. Even as a head it's stupid heavy though.

 

[logdrum]

I have a 2ohm capable 15 watt single power tube Univalve by THD, It can handle any power tube. Best with KT88 or bigger ,

 

[Jctanner78]

There's no risk with guitar amps except for two things:

• tone controls are an octave too high, so they can be useless for a bass guitar—not an issue if you don't use them
• bass cabs are typically lower impedance than guitar cabs—the former are typically 4-8 Ω, the latter are 8-16 Ω, with some bass cab outliers at 2 Ω, while guitar cabs don't typically go below 4 Ω—most guitar heads are not designed to handle loads below 8 Ω. Those that do are designed that way to handle multiple guitar cabs, so they tend to be higher power models.

If you're not using a 4 Ω bass cab with a guitar head, you should be totally fine.

The only real risk is with infinite baffle (open back) guitar cabs where you can accidentally destroy a speaker by hitting and exceeding the excursion limit at resonant frequency and it happens quite quickly.

Cool. Thanks for these tips. My JTM45 has a 4ohm switch and I run it into two 8ohm 1x12 orange bass cabinets. Sounds fantastic