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bass who plays guitar

#61
I went through a bunch of guitars (while I was making my money as a guitar/music teacher for a while) and had picked up a few vintage Guild guitars when they were still the poor man's Gibson.

In lockdown I became part of a songwriting/production cooperation and wrote a few tunes on guitar, and played some rhythm parts here and there in the enveloping sessions. For that I used the one guitar I kept, a Guild F-50 Blonde from the 70ties that I got for $450 on ebay and is one hell of a guitar.
 
#62
Guitar lessons at about 11 and then again at 16 but never really became a bona fide guitar player. Since I was 15 I've been a frontman/singer, though I have played bass and sing in some bands, and some rhythm and acoustic guitar when we needed it. I've had to pick up bass again because our regular bass player had to quit due to medical issues.

As for guitar gear I have a 2013 Les Paul, a 2020 Fender Professional Stratocaster SSS, a MIM Telecaster, a Korean PRS SE, and Seagull acoustic/electric. Amps are a Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb, Marshall DSL 40, a Blues Jr, and a 1990 something Fender Princeton Chorus which is a solid state amp I bought used for about $125.
 
#65
rylie said:
Yes I'm a bass player first but I also started on guitar and never gave it up. Guitar experience transitioned to bass. This is a question to those on this forum who's first instrument is bass but also play guitar:
if you are not gigging and you are a quiet, play at home type, what amp/pedal combo do you use to get low volume/big sound?
My guitar is Fender Strat.
Low volume w/presence/small footprint: Tube amp? D class?
Asking for opinions from real world experience,
Click to expand...

My guitar amp is a Fender Bassbreaker 30R, and despite the wattage it does a passable job at turning down to unobjectionable levels, and it has a mute function that keeps the DI active so if all else fails you run that into a little analog mixer and from there to headphones. The tone of the DI is not ideal, but I'm not planning to record it (at least not without an IR cab sim in the DAW).

However, that's my first honest-to-goodness guitar amp, bought just last year. Before I got it, I spent 10-ish years playing electric guitar through my bass amps. Don't laugh, they do the "pedal platform" thing extremely well, with all the headroom you could ever want to let the pedal impart its own sound, as well as plenty of low and high end for your Fletcher-Munson curve needs. And they do it at much lower volumes than a tube amp will comfortably go without "cheating" with wattage attenuation.

You will probably want to disable any horn on your cab though; most people that make stuff that plug into guitar amps design them to, y'know, be plugged into a guitar amp, and I've been unpleasantly surprised by how much high end some circuit designers send downstream assuming the amp/speaker would attenuate it. Even well-known "boutique-y" guys like Wampler design gain circuits that you do not want to run through a full-range bass cabinet.
 
#66
I play a Les Paul with EMGs and and old modded Melody Maker. I have a couple of small heads and a 2x12, and most recording is either mic’ing that or using the LePou HyBrit amp sim.
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#67
rylie said:
what amp/pedal combo do you use to get low volume/big sound?
Click to expand...

For guitar I currently rotate between three different amplifiers regardless of whether I'm playing at home or gigging, because in both of those situations I want that "low volume/big sound" that OP mentioned:
- a Polytone MiniBrute III combo amp, usually with either a Tech21 SansAmp GT2 or a Line6 POD Pro in front of it (unless I'm playing conventional jazz on my archtop hollowbody, and then straight into the Polytone works fine)
- a Stage Right/Monoprice #611815 tube combo amp ...which tbh hasn't been especially reliable enough for me to trust it on gigs, and also tends to overdrive almost too easily
- an Acoustic Image Focus 1 head into a Flite Sound 1x12" cabinet loaded with an Altec-Lansing driver...again, usually with either a Tech21 SansAmp GT2 or a Line6 POD Pro in front of it unless I'm playing conventional jazz on my archtop hollowbody
 
#68
I've been playing guitar for almost as long as bass (over 50 years, now :eek:).

Nowadays, for the former, it's just various acoustic guitars (6- and 12-string, and 6-string nylon); my last electric guitar and amp setup was a PRS Custom 24 Hybrid Hardware and a Swart STR-Tremolo (Tuxedo version).
 
#69
rylie said:
if you are not gigging and you are a quiet, play at home type, what amp/pedal combo do you use to get low volume/big sound?
My guitar is Fender Strat.
Low volume w/presence/small footprint: Tube amp? D class?
Click to expand...
IME, a small TUBE amp is the go. You could also get yourself a power attenuator too, so you can get the amp into the *sweet spot* an then get the volume where you're happy.
I think the Vox AC15 combo would be a good place to start given they're cheap and found everywhere, and sound pretty good with fenders & humbuckers alike.
You can always go smaller than a 15w amp, but I wouldn't, as I would prefer to have an amp that's useful for more than just bedroom practice.

FWIW, my guitar amp for home stuff is a 30w Ulbrick. I find 30w to be the bare minimum for band stuff in terms of volume, but it's such a flexible amp it does low volume pretty well too.
 
#70
I have that 1watt Marshall that I like a lot, I also have a bastard blues Jr, with two English celestions and some other mods, but it got damaged in a move and I haven’t gotten it fixed yet.

but mostly I play through my Ampeg Pf50t.

I also have a 1954 Gretsch Playboy that makes anything sound good.

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#71
rylie said:
Yes I'm a bass player first but I also started on guitar and never gave it up. Guitar experience transitioned to bass. This is a question to those on this forum who's first instrument is bass but also play guitar:
if you are not gigging and you are a quiet, play at home type, what amp/pedal combo do you use to get low volume/big sound?
My guitar is Fender Strat.
Low volume w/presence/small footprint: Tube amp? D class?
Asking for opinions from real world experience,
Click to expand...
This! Orange Crush 35RT. 8" speaker that sounds like a 10". 35 SS watts. Reverb and built in tuner. Clean and overdrive channels. Louder than you would think when you bump it up (if you want that). If not, it gets great saturated OD sounds and really sounds pristine when on the clean channel. I also use it for late night practice with my bass and it sounds great. No brainer here.
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#74
rylie said:
Yes I'm a bass player first but I also started on guitar and never gave it up. Guitar experience transitioned to bass. This is a question to those on this forum who's first instrument is bass but also play guitar:
if you are not gigging and you are a quiet, play at home type, what amp/pedal combo do you use to get low volume/big sound?
My guitar is Fender Strat.
Low volume w/presence/small footprint: Tube amp? D class?
Asking for opinions from real world experience,
Click to expand...
Mesa 112 combo

It's literally all you will ever need. For any situation.
 
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#75
In 1986, long before I started playing bass, I bought a V220T and an X60 12" tube combo amp, both out out of the Carvin catalog.

GREAT bedroom "metal tone," and does a nice clean tone as well. Still have 'em. :bassist:
 
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#76
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I started on guitar in the early 60’s then switched to bass. I’ve also played guitar in an acoustic duo the last 15 years. With the pandemic I’ve kept my mind and fingers active with a goal of learning a new song every day and posting some to YouTube. I still get to play bass in the band about once a month now that things are still slowly reopening, although I’m a bit slower, too, at 71.
 
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#77
Fender Super Champ X2 loaded with Eminence GA10-SC64 speaker, and a Digitech Hardwire series CM-2 Overdrive to punch in and out of crunchiness.
I never never use the built-in british or high-gain voices, but do use the built-in reverb and sometimes chorus.
 
#78
Smaller Mesa 112 combos and Vox AC15 are great options. Having a master volume helps a lot to get things dialed with some saturation. The AC15 with Celestion Blue is also nice at lower volumes. I prefer Alnico speakers at lower volume which add nice qualities and break up giving a more responsive feel as if the amp were being played at higher volume. My AC15 can keep up with the drummer or I run an extension speaker when I need more headroom and spread.
 
#79
I've played guitar for 40 years, and bass for 4. Lately I play a Gretsch Elecromatic through a Roland JC-40 when I'm playing guitar. I've been on a solid state kick lately, but I think it's just cuz I'm contrary. It sounds great in a band mix, though.
 
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