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guitar amp with bass speaker

Baluta Mike

Baluta Mike

Guest
Nov 17, 2015
2
1
41
#1
Hello,

I am new to the forum and I have a question:
Did you guys ever try a tube guitar amp with a bass speaker?
Does it sound like a tube bass amp?
I know there are many tube bass amps but they are either too expensive, or too powerful for small clubs.
I would feel confortable with a tube combo, about 40/50watts with a 12 or 15 inch speaker. But no known company does that.
I don't wanna pay thousands of dollars for a custom combo!
 
#5
an amp is an amp, essentially.
It takes a signal and amplifies it.
What's different between a bass- and guitar amp?
Not overly much. The bass signal is not as steady as a guitar signal and the frequencies are less fancy for the human ear,
so a bass amp has more work to do (that's why you're running out of headroom with your 300W amp when the guitard cranks his 25W amp).
Apart from that, you will most likely find the EQ working not in your favor - so it has to sound good flat.

The bigger difference is in the cabs, so use a bass cab.

And if you want a low wattage combo amp that's all tubes, go and get the Ampeg B-15. Why spend thousands of dollars on a custom amp when you can spend thousands of dollars on a readily available production model?
 
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#6
I have owned a good number of tube guitar amps with different wattages and power sections and power section designs and tested them all with bass. Usually a bass preamp pedal into the FX Return of the amp because I was interested in testing how the power section sounded.

In all cases but one (Ibanez Thermion loaded with 4x6550 tubes with a very nice torroidal transformer power section design) it sucked. Basically guitar power sections are designed with a loose wide open low end and higher power is advisable for bass/low end.

The affordable low wattage guitar tube heads are designed for budget usually and not have enough mojo in the output transformer to do the bass thing. In addition to power tube distortion you may find (unpleasant) clipping. I am pretty sure that you need "big iron" for a tube bass amp.

If you want an awesome tube sound and feel on a budget I highly recommend the Ampeg B100R (designed to sound like the B-15). It's 100w solid state through a 1x15 but the design is really brilliant and there are probably thousands of accolades on TB about this amp at this point.
 
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#7
Baluta Mike said:
Hello,

I am new to the forum and I have a question:
Did you guys ever try a tube guitar amp with a bass speaker?
Does it sound like a tube bass amp?
I know there are many tube bass amps but they are either too expensive, or too powerful for small clubs.
I would feel confortable with a tube combo, about 40/50watts with a 12 or 15 inch speaker. But no known company does that.
I don't wanna pay thousands of dollars for a custom combo!
Click to expand...
Actually, one company DOES do that. Ampeg PF-50T paired up with one of their Portaflex cabs.
 
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#8
Ashdown LB30. Dedicated bass amp. 30W.

By the way, there's no such thing as "too powerful" with regard to amps. As JimmyM has said a thousand times, that volume knob can turn to the left as well as to the right.

You can play a coffee shop with a 10,000W amp and a herd of 15" speakers.

Also, as stated above, the output transformer will be the weak link on a guitar amp. Your cheapest bet would be to snag an old Bassman, a Fender PA100 or something along those lines.

Odds are one day you will need more power, not less. So I would er on the side of headroom this time out.

Welcome to TalkBass! !!!!!!
 
#9
This is what I was using in the late 70's early 80's:

gbu-orange01.jpg


And this was a work horse, you could use it with either a guitar or a bass. I guess it wasn't realy a bass amp because I was going through a lot of fuses, but when the fuses were working, man this sounded sweet. One day I ran out of fuses and the tech used the foil you find in packs of cigarettes to make the amp to run for the rest of the evening so the next day I simply had to get to an electronic shop to get remplament fuses. These were built like a tank. I was using this cabinet (not this particular one but one exactly like this one) with the amp:

OR15f.jpg
 
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#10
Look for a Traynor YBA-4; 50-watts, all-tube, and a 15" speaker.

You'd get more flexibility (and better performance) with a separate head and speaker cabinet.

But generally yes, guitar amp and bass speaker is a safe mix -- it may or may not sound good, but it'll work.

On the other hand, a bass amp into a guitar speaker will make smoke before it makes loud.
 
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#13
As long as you keep it fairly clean and watch your levels, you should be fine.

I run a bass at practice and studio volumes through my GF's Fender Lead 75 amp with its 15" speaker all the time - with no ill effect. Records well too when used that way.

The Q for each of the tone controls is set for guitar rather than bass use. So the number on the dial might look very different than what you'd see on a bass amp to get a similar sound. But some judicious tweaking gets me some very nice old school Bassman mojo out if it.
 
#15
FrenchBassQC said:
This is what I was using in the late 70's early 80's:
And this was a work horse, you could use it with either a guitar or a bass. I guess it wasn't realy a bass amp because I was going through a lot of fuses, but when the fuses were working, man this sounding sweet. One day I ran out of fuses and the tech used the foil you find in packs of cigarettes to make the amp to run for the rest of the evening so the next day I simply had to get to an electronic shop to get remplament fuses. These were built like a tank. I was using this cabinet (not this particular one but one exactly like this one) with the amp:
Click to expand...
A vintage Orange Folded Horn Cabinet. I wouldn't call that a unicorn -unicorns are more common.
 
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#16
Don't know nothing technical about it, but I've tried my Spector in a Marshall JCM800 guitar head paired with a bass cab (don't remember if it was a 4x10 or 4x12). The sound was just... perfect. 100% pure rock'n'roll power!!! :D

From that day I'm looking for a JCM800 to pair with my swr rig...
 
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#17
FrenchBassQC said:
This is what I was using in the late 70's early 80's:

gbu-orange01.jpg


And this was a work horse, you could use it with either a guitar or a bass. I guess it wasn't realy a bass amp because I was going through a lot of fuses, but when the fuses were working, man this sounding sweet. One day I ran out of fuses and the tech used the foil you find in packs of cigarettes to make the amp to run for the rest of the evening so the next day I simply had to get to an electronic shop to get remplament fuses. These were built like a tank. I was using this cabinet (not this particular one but one exactly like this one) with the amp:

OR15f.jpg
Click to expand...

That is all the awesome in the world x 1,000,000,000!!!!!!!
 
#20
I tried this with a couple of tube amps. I thought my Peavey 5150 120W would be a good test... sounded like crap. I also had a Early 70's Fender Bassman with this huge transformer in it, sounded glorious, but loud. I eventually got rid of the bassman because it needed some new pots and was not in the best condition, and I was afraid to use it at a gig because I didn't think a lot of the venues we play at had adequate power. Still kinda wished I still had it.
 

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