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Guitar through bass amp?
- Thread starter Alfonso Alba
- Start date
I'll put anything through my B-15N.
I've yet to hear anything, from bass or guitar, to harmonica or wind synth that doesn't sound good through that amp.
I've yet to hear anything, from bass or guitar, to harmonica or wind synth that doesn't sound good through that amp.
I just recently started playing guitar through my bass rig. My bass head is Sunn Sorado which a lot of guitar players use because it's 60-70 watts (does sound great with bass, just in need of more speakers to make the big big noise). My cab is an Ampeg SVT-15E and I'm digging the sound of the guitar with effects like reverb through the ported cab. My next cab purchase will likely be a sealed cab and I would expect a well-made sealed bass cab to do nice double duty for bass and guitar (as Steve Dallman noted). Frontman/guitarist for one of my favorite bands, Dylan Carlson of Earth, regularly uses the same little sealed Ampeg SVT-210AV that mapleglo mentioned earlier for his smaller gigs when being accompanied by instrumentation like cello.
Some will tell you need a dedicated bass cab and dedicated guitar cab for the best results. I'm not doubting those people are right in most cases. But, from my experience, if you do your homework, the right cab can shine at both. Quality made and designed sealed cabs are one way, but there are guitarists who use ported cabs which are more bass-centric like the Thiele cabs: TL606 for instance. I tend to see those in genres of heavier music like doom, sludge, and drone, but they can give a real full sound which could made to work irrespective of genre. I make atmospheric music with both bass and guitar so a bass cab lends itself well to my sitch. And it's not surprising jazz guitar players sometimes go for bass cabs, too. For more rock guitar sounds, throw a good overdrive in front of the amp that adds compression and cuts off the lows.
Some will tell you need a dedicated bass cab and dedicated guitar cab for the best results. I'm not doubting those people are right in most cases. But, from my experience, if you do your homework, the right cab can shine at both. Quality made and designed sealed cabs are one way, but there are guitarists who use ported cabs which are more bass-centric like the Thiele cabs: TL606 for instance. I tend to see those in genres of heavier music like doom, sludge, and drone, but they can give a real full sound which could made to work irrespective of genre. I make atmospheric music with both bass and guitar so a bass cab lends itself well to my sitch. And it's not surprising jazz guitar players sometimes go for bass cabs, too. For more rock guitar sounds, throw a good overdrive in front of the amp that adds compression and cuts off the lows.
I never paid too much attention to what an amp was supposed to be for. I approach each amp the same way I approach each bass or guitar or whatever I'm trying to play. I take it at face value and play it as its own thing.
So I'll put a bass through an Acoustic 150 guitar head or my GF's Fender Lead 75 combo, or a my Tele through the B-15N, or my ABG through a Yorkville BLOC40K keyboard combo.
What difference does it make what the manufacturer thinks it should be used for? As long as it sounds good, it works for me.
So I'll put a bass through an Acoustic 150 guitar head or my GF's Fender Lead 75 combo, or a my Tele through the B-15N, or my ABG through a Yorkville BLOC40K keyboard combo.
What difference does it make what the manufacturer thinks it should be used for? As long as it sounds good, it works for me.
- Sep 3, 2006
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- Authorized dealer for Dingwall, Genzler, Phil Jones Bass, Cort, Traynor, Yorkville Sound
Some bass amps, with the cab IMO being the most important, sound killer with guitar. But one needs a pedal board usually. At the price of the small modeling guitar amps one will find them as inexpensive as a pedal board. There are several on the market that sound really good. I have compared many of them and to many of the bass amps/cabs with pedals. IMO best to get a separate guitar amp, but a multifunction pedal can make for a good guitar sound with a bass amp, and with the proper cab can make for a fantastic sound.
Oh....so, I picked something up today. It's tasty. I'll take and post some photos tomorrow, but I'm really going to enjoy it.
What I've been doing since I last posted was testing the 4 amps that I have (one borrowed).
1) the 90s Fender Solid State guitar amp that I bought new in about '93. It's always been a good amp. Much better clean than overdriven. Overall a bit dry and sterile, but a good amp. I'll sell it locally and someone will enjoy it.
2) A borrowed vintage (50's? early 60's?) Gibson Skylark. It's a 5W tube amp and it sounds great and interesting. It is a model that came with Tremelo and I found it distracting. Fun, but I couldn't live with it being my only guitar amp. Nice of my buddy to loan it to me, though.
3) EA iAmp 500 combo (12" Wizzy). This is an amazing bass amp, especially for doublebass, but also great for electric with a Tech 21 pedal in front of it. Never really got a good sound out of it with the guitar, though. The para-driver pedal didn't really help much. The iAmp already has a powerful parametric eq, so the OD was the only thing that pedal brought to the party and it just wasn't compelling.
4) EA Micro 300 head on a 10" Wizzy cabinet. The guitar actually sounds very good through this rig. VERY good. It reminds me of hearing jazz guitar played through a Polytone, which I have always enjoyed. I did this with and without the paradriver and it's really great. I could probably have lived with this and would offer it as an option to a jazz guitar friend for a gig or a rehearsal here, if he needed it. Quite good. Amazing how different it was with guitar than the iAmp 500. They are different with bass, but not that different.
But, a small tube guitar amp followed me home tonight and I'm keeping it. As good as option 4 was, this is the sound I've been missing and fantasizing about for years of wishing I had a real tube guitar amp. Yeah...I'll wake up and play it hard over coffee and Cheerios and will post some photos of it here as a reveal.
I do appreciate all of the advice.
What I've been doing since I last posted was testing the 4 amps that I have (one borrowed).
1) the 90s Fender Solid State guitar amp that I bought new in about '93. It's always been a good amp. Much better clean than overdriven. Overall a bit dry and sterile, but a good amp. I'll sell it locally and someone will enjoy it.
2) A borrowed vintage (50's? early 60's?) Gibson Skylark. It's a 5W tube amp and it sounds great and interesting. It is a model that came with Tremelo and I found it distracting. Fun, but I couldn't live with it being my only guitar amp. Nice of my buddy to loan it to me, though.
3) EA iAmp 500 combo (12" Wizzy). This is an amazing bass amp, especially for doublebass, but also great for electric with a Tech 21 pedal in front of it. Never really got a good sound out of it with the guitar, though. The para-driver pedal didn't really help much. The iAmp already has a powerful parametric eq, so the OD was the only thing that pedal brought to the party and it just wasn't compelling.
4) EA Micro 300 head on a 10" Wizzy cabinet. The guitar actually sounds very good through this rig. VERY good. It reminds me of hearing jazz guitar played through a Polytone, which I have always enjoyed. I did this with and without the paradriver and it's really great. I could probably have lived with this and would offer it as an option to a jazz guitar friend for a gig or a rehearsal here, if he needed it. Quite good. Amazing how different it was with guitar than the iAmp 500. They are different with bass, but not that different.
But, a small tube guitar amp followed me home tonight and I'm keeping it. As good as option 4 was, this is the sound I've been missing and fantasizing about for years of wishing I had a real tube guitar amp. Yeah...I'll wake up and play it hard over coffee and Cheerios and will post some photos of it here as a reveal.
I do appreciate all of the advice.
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Crate Vintage Club 20
circa ~198x
18W Tube Amp made in St. Louis
It's about 15" x 15" square on the face and I giggle when I play through it because it makes me so happy.
Interesting upgrades: TB Guitar Thread....No Basis Here...
The infamous TB guitar club:
TB Guitar Thread....No Basis Here...
The infamous TB guitar club:
TB Guitar Thread....No Basis Here...
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Yeah, I've followed those mod threads.
The local guy who owned it had everything re-soldered by one of our good local techs, which was a weakness of these. I've got a great platform if I want to play with tube and cap swaps and things. I'm really giddy with how it sounds at the moment, though, so I'm just going to enjoy it and see if I can improve my guitar player a bit.
The local guy who owned it had everything re-soldered by one of our good local techs, which was a weakness of these. I've got a great platform if I want to play with tube and cap swaps and things. I'm really giddy with how it sounds at the moment, though, so I'm just going to enjoy it and see if I can improve my guitar player a bit.
Yes! I had one of those back in the day when I was more serious about my guitar playing. Lots of fun. Used to run "stereo" with a Fender Blues Jr., the Crate distorted and the Fender clean--adjust relative volume levels to taste for clean/dirty balance.
Now, that I am spending less time with guitar, I find my Rumble 500 combo is perfectly wonderful at amplifying the amp sims from a DigiTech RPX400...I treat it just as if it were a PA...adjust EQ, effects, gain, etc on the pedal and just leave everything flat on the amp. The 500c alone sounds ok for clean guitar, but it sounds so much better with the "Deluxe Reverb" sim from the pedal, and of course, the Marshall and Mesa distortion sims are monstrous!
Perfectly good for my limited purposes--I am not going to be gigging on guitar anytime soon. (Thanks be to God.)
I remain,
Your Obedient Servant,
The Terror.
Jules Meuffels
Commercial User
The difference between a bass driver and guitar driver is presence. If you add a EQ, dial in 1.1>1.3kHz, and turn down the sub lows and high end. It'll sound like a guitarcab, and is ok to start with.
What would you recommend for a one-man-band/looper-pedal based act where I use both the bass and the guitar to construct my loops? In the low/mid budget price range. Guitar is mainly clean with various effects, maybe a bit of tubescreamer, laying a bed for the bass grooves sort of thing. I have line-selector in front of the pedal chain with bass and guitar plugged in and going into the same pedalboard and into the looper. So two amps is not the solution since everything will be coming out of one loop pedal.
I've read this thread but I'm not very amp-savvy as it just so happened that for most of my guitar playing time I was fortunate to not care about the amplification. There was always somebody's rehearsal space with an amp that worked alright or a club with a PA. But now that I plan to play a couple of non-musical venues I need to figure out my own source of sound to bring.
I've read this thread but I'm not very amp-savvy as it just so happened that for most of my guitar playing time I was fortunate to not care about the amplification. There was always somebody's rehearsal space with an amp that worked alright or a club with a PA. But now that I plan to play a couple of non-musical venues I need to figure out my own source of sound to bring.
The dark side of Jimmy H. You know an upside down Hello Kitty is a well known Satanic symbol? I hate to think of him as the Anti-Hello Kitty...
makes me sad 
Yes:
No
I've got a single pedal that I rarely use, The Drop by DigiTech.
My Rumble sounds just fine for guitar IME, w/o any pedals.
It even has enough gain for pinch harmonics, which is something you can't say about a lot of bass amps.
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The dark side of Jimmy H. You know an upside down Hello Kitty is a well known Satanic symbol? I hate to think of him as the Anti-Hello Kitty...
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I think that was Keith Richard's cat.
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It's funny you guys bring back this thread right now. I just got a Squier VM Tele Deluxe last night. Tried it today through mu Rumble 500 and it sounds pretty good. That said... I'm GASsing for a small guitar amp and have been considering the new Mustang GT 40 - it's number 1 in my letter to Santa.
Keep your eye on Musician's Friend's Stupid Deals of the Day & G.C.'s Daily picks:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid
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They often have Blackstar or Jet City amps for sale.
Blackstar has a neat feature on some amps that is stereo.
The effects part of the signal is a separate channel, sounds great!
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid
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They often have Blackstar or Jet City amps for sale.
Blackstar has a neat feature on some amps that is stereo.
The effects part of the signal is a separate channel, sounds great!
I have a buddy who's sworn by his portaflex since the 1960's when he bought it brand new from Manny's.
I saw a an old pic of The Cowsills and they all had 'em.
Great little amps.
A musician friend of mine used to joke my B-15N made any bass played through it sound like it cost at least $300 more than was paid for it. 
