Guitar through a bass amp.

[el jeffe bass]

I have an Ampeg PF20T that I use for both bass and guitar, it sounds great for both. I tend to play guitar fairly clean and this amp stays pretty clean even when the volume is pushed. Any of you other bass and guitar players using your bass amps for both?

 

[ElectricMessiah]

Most of my amps do well with both.

Off the top of my head...

Marshall 2195 Lead & Bass , Selmer Treble N Bass, Sound City 50 Plus, Laney AOR Pro Tube Lead 50w, Almost all my Peavey solid state's from Peavey Centurion to Peavey Bass 400, Peavey Pacer and Peavey Century(i find the Peavey's generally don't care what you throw at them) Sound City Concord does well too.

For me it depends more on the cabinet & speaker size. One of my favourite small form factor amps for guitar is actually the Marshall Bass 12, has a very dark growling tone with a guitar, ironically i don't even use that amp for bass guitar...

 

[WI Short Scaler]

I played acoustic for the processional of our son's wedding. No PA available at the outdoor spot so I just used my Rumble 500 for my guitar. Sounded nice and made it loud enough for the ceremony.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I've used my Markbass Minimark for guitar; worked a treat.

 

[zontar]

At one time I used a Garnet stencil bass amp for both guitar and bass, but while it was cool for bass, the highs on guitar were muted more than I like.
My Fender Rumble works well.
I still prefer a guitar amp, but it works well.

 

[James Hart]

Early 90s my original project's drummer had a bar band on the side. Some stuff happened that I never cared to ask about, but he fired the second guitarist and the keyboard player the night before and was venting. I jokingly said, "I can play some guitar" and before rehearsal was over I was in a working band with gigs lined up, and I had to fake my way through the guitar parts of a couple sets of classic and alt rock stuff. My bass rig was an AMP BH-250 with a 1x12" and 1x15" Bag End cab. I quickly ended up with a Boss ME-5 multi-pedal and played my 1961 Jazzmaster and 1968 Starfire V through my bass rig. I thought it sounded pretty good for the few gigs I used it for, nobody complained.

 

[MonetBass]

My only amp is a bass amp (1x15), so I play my guitars through it. They sound really good.

 

[Passinwind]

I have an Ampeg PF20T that I use for both bass and guitar, it sounds great for both. I tend to play guitar fairly clean and this amp stays pretty clean even when the volume is pushed. Any of you other bass and guitar players using your bass amps for both?

For amplified acoustic guitar and clean jazz on electric, absolutely. And I'm hoping the tube amp I'm currently building primarily for bass will do well with distorted electric guitar as well.

 

[el jeffe bass]

For amplified acoustic guitar and clean jazz on electric, absolutely. And I'm hoping the tube amp I'm currently building primarily for bass will do well with distorted electric guitar as well.

Please let us know the particulars

 

[Passinwind]

Please let us know the particulars

Current solid state bass rig: AudioKinesis TC112AF v1 cab, Passinwind PW8B v1 amp, which is good for 500 watts@4 ohms, which the AK cab's impedance is.

New tube amp I'm building is 4 X EL34, 1-12SN7 and 2-12AU7 preamp tubes, 100 watts. I'll do a build thread eventually and I intend to use the same AK cab with it.

I also have a smallish 100 watt 110 combo with a Traynor SB200H head built in, which also works OK for acoustic guitar, but if I want something small I have a Spark 2 amp that kills for moderate volume electric and acoustic guitar.

 

[ajkula66]

While I do own "dedicated" guitar amps, I positively love the sound of my Polytone 101 bass combo for guitar applications. No, I wouldn't use it in a Motorhead tribute band but for mellow stuff it sounds absolutely precious IMO.

 

[Bob_Ross]

My very first "good" amp was a silverface Fender Bassman 50 ...I used that equally for guitar and bass in the mid-1970s.

The Polytone MiniBrute III that I've owned since 1980 has gotten slightly more use over the years as a bass amp (simply due to how much more I've played bass than guitar in my career) but until very recently that was my go-to guitar amp for everything.

Fun Fact: When The Rolling Stones were on their 1972 American tour Keith Richards and Mick Taylor were playing guitar through Ampeg SVTs!

 

[ET777]

Millions of guitarists have played guitar through various vintage Bassmen heads, Traynors and Ampegs over the years among others. In my studio, I have 4 vintage Fender Bassmen, which I primarily use for guitar but they sound great for that "vintage bass tone" too. This includes a mint, very late 1963 6G6-B Blonde Bassman 2x12 which is exactly like the one that McCartney used for bass and guitar, and Townshend used for guitar. Its the "Blonde tuxedo" with black faceplate, raised Fender logo and sparkle-wheat cloth. I also have a late 1964 AA864 Bassman head, a mint 1966 AB165 Bassman 2x12, and a 1967 black faceplate AB165 Bassman head which I did a couple of circuit tweaks on to make it a little more midrangey for guitar on the Bass channel. Interestingly out of all of my vintage amps, my favorite to play Bass through is my 1963 blonde 6G9-B Tremolux head, which has great bump in the low mids which sounds awesome on bass.

 

[EastDakota]

I really want to get one of those all-tube PF20T or 50T just for that dual-purpose reason. I really like my SVTIII-Pro for guitar; the preamp into an IR loader/interface works great for recording. The most surprising part of it is that I really prefer the Ultra-Lo on for guitar. Here's a quick guitar demo through an EVM-12L:

 

[el jeffe bass]

I really want to get one of those all-tube PF20T or 50T just for that dual-purpose reason. I really like my SVTIII-Pro for guitar; the preamp into an IR loader/interface works great for recording. The most surprising part of it is that I really prefer the Ultra-Lo on for guitar. Here's a quick guitar demo through an EVM-12L:

You get great tone from that setup.

 

[Fondsdale]

Anyone use their bass amp as a FRFR for guitar? A clean amp with tweeter'd cab should somewhat be full range (more than a guitar speaker anyway), any experience?

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I have an Ampeg PF20T that I use for both bass and guitar, it sounds great for both. I tend to play guitar fairly clean and this amp stays pretty clean even when the volume is pushed. Any of you other bass and guitar players using your bass amps for both?

The problem isn’t so much my issue with the amp itself, the speaker(s)/cab voiced for bass is a whole ‘nother can of beans.

 

[thrashingbass]

Anyone use their bass amp as a FRFR for guitar? A clean amp with tweeter'd cab should somewhat be full range (more than a guitar speaker anyway), any experience?

Yes, I posted recently in another thread and example in this sub forum. Some people do. Using my Markbass rig without any issues, using guitar preamps through the effects return. Big, bold, but not muddy at all, and also without harshness. IMHO, can work great, as long as you like what you hear, of course.

Definitely "FRFR" in practice, though these cabs do have their own voicing (I love them.)

 

[el jeffe bass]

Anyone use their bass amp as a FRFR for guitar? A clean amp with tweeter'd cab should somewhat be full range (more than a guitar speaker anyway), any experience?

I use my Rumble 100 as a PA speaker of sorts. It does a decent job for acoustic guitar, vocals and keyboards.

 

[Passinwind]

Anyone use their bass amp as a FRFR for guitar? A clean amp with tweeter'd cab should somewhat be full range (more than a guitar speaker anyway), any experience?

Yes, my AudoKinesis TC112AF is quite good for acoustic guitar and vocals, and OK for electric guitar given the right front end preamp/modeler/IR loader etc. My DIY bass amp has a front end more like a channel strip than an old school bass amp config, and the facility to easily bypass the whole front end, so it can also work fine for guitar or even general basic PA duty.

But for guitar I get better results with a sealed 8" + horn cab I built, using a bit more uptown compression driver/horn than the AK cab uses. I plan to get the matching one back soon and make them both powered eventually, as stereo rigs just work much better for guitar synth and guitar in general for my use cases.