Using a bass amp with electric guitar?

[Smith357]

I have been playing guitar trough a bass amp for years, I prefer the nice clean big bottom.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Hey guys!

So I have a Fender GT40 for my electric guitar, and a Rumble Studio 40 for my bass guitar. Although both 40 watts, the Rumble Studio is far better, even aside from sound - it's got XLR and 1/4" line outs and FX send/return jacks on the back. It also has 1 10" speaker vs. GT40's 2x 6.5". The rest of the features are pretty much the same - effects, bluetooth, wifi, etc although I'm sure the effects and tones are more geared towards its respective guitar.

But I was thinking...how bad could it be to use my electric guitar on my bass amp? I could also even sell the GT40 and get a pedal or two (thinking a distortion pedal and a wah pedal) to compensate? I've never owned an actual pedal before (just a multi-effects board a long time back, but the built-in effects of the amps are better these days) so a lesson on how it works and comes together may come hand in hand in answering this.

I know not many, if any at all, have both these amps but any insight is appreciated.

Thanks!

Guitarists have been using Fender Bassmans for the last 60 some years, so it’s not that you can’t or shouldn’t as much as will you be happy with the results.

 

[groooooove]

typically it sounds worse than horrible.

especially bass amps with tweeters can be hellish.

On the contrary, a lot of vintage and/or tube bass amps can absolutely rip for guitar. It'll have its own sound (thicker, obviously) and could possibly get muddy.

is it "safe," absolutely yes.

sounding good is another issue and is a case-by-case basis.

 

[OldShark]

I started playing electric guitar some months ago and found that my rather neutral Eich bass combo does sound too sterile for guitar. Therefore I usually use my cheap Zoom multi FX to add some effects, generally with amp modeling (say, a Fender Twin Reverb) and some reverb. This makes a huge difference IMHO. Note, I have not yet gigged with guitar...

 

[coy garcia]

Was a very popular option back in the day....bass amps generally have more capable speakers

 

[MCS4]

My purely anecdotal experience is that it is not too hard to get a decent overdriven sound with some heavy EQing both from the amp itself and at least one pedal. I often bring a guitar to rehearsals with my main band for songwriting purposes and get a serviceable enough sound for that purpose that way... in fact, a lot of the time I leave the bass amp settings alone for simplicity and just dime the drive and tone knobs on my Fuzzrocious Demon (hard rock/metal, obviously). Whether you can get a good clean sound may be more of a matter of luck depending on the specific amp and guitar.

Note that I'm talking specifically about sound in a band mix or otherwise jamming with other instruments. Playing just for practice or fun shouldn't be an issue at all.

The talk of underpowering is weird to me... I find my guitars to be louder then my basses when plugged into the same bass rig more often than vice versa, even though I mainly use active basses (albeit not at high preamp gain settings) and passive guitars.

 

[seamonkey]

There is no consensus on this because “underpowering” an amp does not exist. Neither does “underpowering” a cab. If either of those were true volume knobs would not exist. Overpowering an amp is also not true. If you run a signal too hot into an amp it will clip. Sometimes you can even get the power section to clip, sometimes this is even desirable. There is truth to overpowering a cab though, but you need to listen to know when it’s happening. You can run a 10,000watt amp into a 10 watt cab all day long as long as the volume knob on the amp is low enough. The reason basses do not work in guitar amps at any sizable volume is that the EQ point choices for guitar tend to sound like hot garbage on bass and also the speakers used in guitar cabs are not as robustly constructed and can’t physically handle all the big flapping they need to do to push bass frequencies at the volumes we need. It’s fine at low volumes usually, though generally still not as good as a dedicated bass amp.
To answer OP’s question; guitar into bass amp is fine and has a long celebrated history. The Rolling Stones all used SVTs on at least their 1969 US tour, Hendrix and countless other guitarists love Fender Bassman amps. You’re clear for takeoff.

Mine was a joke - I should have waited until today to post.

 

[BassFalcon]

Mine was a joke - I should have waited until today to post.

Gotcha

 

[2strings2frets]

I play my guitar mostly thru bass amps, just EQ until your happy , no worries. On the other hand I frequently play bass thru my Bugera T-50 hooked to a bass cab, usually my 3/10 or 2/10 cab. Back in the day I didn’t have a bass amp and played out with a Peavey Valve King combo guitar amp. I just kept gain and master around half , no harm done. Guitar thru bass you may miss extreme break the glass highs but you are the only one who will notice .Bass thru guitar keep the volume down or you will blow the speakers , but not harm the amp. There is a thread on low power tube amps, most were made for guitar but were/are used for bass and work quite well. Years ago there was only “amplification “, not bass,guitar,keyboard,drums,(who the heck needs drums amped?) . use what you own and be happy. By the way, has anyone tried the Orange terror 20 watt guitar head with a bass? Just wondering.