Using a bass amp with guitar?

[DuluthDank]

I've made a resolution to practice guitar pretty much exclusively for a solid year, for the purpose of versatility and songwriting. It's been great fun. Up to this point, I've been playing through my Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0 10t, with an EBS The Drive pedal in front. Overall I think it can sound pretty darn good. But at the same time, do I only think that because I don't have a "real" guitar amp to compare it to? The Genz Benz is pretty uncolored and full range as far as bass amps go, so I'm wondering if it's an over achiever in this regard, and I might not notice the improvement in sound that would justify spending the money? If I were to pick up a guitar amp, i'd look to keep it relatively small and affordable, with a noticiable improvement over my current setup. Any suggestions appreciated!

Edit: people are responding about guitar amps being better with OD. with an external OD pedal, is this due to the piezo tweeter on the bass amp reproducing the high frequencies more harshly? My understanding is that contrary to intuition, many bass amps are intended to go higher than guitar amps.

 

[bholder]

If you like uncolored, you'll be fine. If you want to overdrive the amp or use it's gain sounds, yeah, you'll want a guitar amp. I play virtually all my guitars through bass amps these days, just for convenience...

 

[KevInDaBassment]

Grab a/your guitar, head to a store and try out some guitar amps? EQ and response frequencies will definitely vary, you'll also have more focus on overdrive and distortion character.

I'd just grab a Boss Katana combo if I were you, or get something used like a Fender Super Champ xD or Vox Valvetronix. Peavey Vypyr was also a good guitar combo.

 

[CallMeAl]

I’ve played my guitar through most of my bass amps, and I think that for clean tones it works great. But if you want to add a little dirt I agree guitar amps do it better. Many have built in delay, reverb which is really nice for guitars too. These days I much prefer a true guitar amp for guitars.

I think the best thing to do here is go down to the guitar store, try out as many as you can, and see for yourself!

 

[Lo-E]

The world of guitar amps is vast and everyone’s tonal ideal is different. Without having even an inkling of what you like your guitar to sound like it’s impossible to make a recommendation.

If you live anywhere close to a music store your best bet would be to go and try out as many amps as you can just to get a sense of the range of sounds available.

 

[mikeoso]

If you like uncolored, you'll be fine. If you want to overdrive the amp or use it's gain sounds, yeah, you'll want a guitar amp. I play virtually all my guitars through bass amps these days, just for convenience...

On the few occasions when I need to use an amp, it's a Rumble. Note: like my basses, all my guitars are acoustics. Bass amps are great for acoustic guitars and voice.

 

[Balog]

Since I put together a new rig my wife has been playing guitar through my old Rumble 100, and it sounds good to me. Nothing crazy though in terms of effects or anything.

 

[agedhorse]

I know a few players who use a Shuttle 3.0 for guitar, they usually turn the tweeter switch off and maybe use the mid scoop voicing filter (or scoop a little more precisely using the sweep mid control. That amp plus a pedalboard should work fine if it gets you the tone you are looking for.

 

[GreyBeard]

If it sounds good it IS good.

 

[HelpImaRock]

I think you've got the right approach.

I've played guitar for 34 years and have a pretty nice rig. You'll do pretty well by cutting some bass on your amp and turning off the tweeter if you have one. Adding a SansAmp or other amp in a box pedal will get you most of the way there.

Most guitarists who play baritone or Bass VI do so through guitar amps. I prefer them through my bass rig.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

I decided during lock dawn to revisit my horrible guitar skills and bought myself a Telecaster to see if I could advance to barely acceptable.
Luckily I've got a good little Peavey guitar combo so I'm covered as far as guitar specific amp department.
But, ironically , my bass amp, an old Ampeg B25b, is well regarded as a guitar amp.
Never tried it. Probably should be tryin it with a more guitar specific cab.

 

[Dincrest]

I've known a few metal guitarists who like to play their guitars through bass amps, because bass amps give them that extra clarity in the low end for when they drop tune. Their distortion and effects are through pedal boards.

 

[pfschim]

well, you don't mention budget, so that might help you get a better answer.

Guitar players seem to have the hots for Fender Bassman, Showman heads, and these will work fine for both bass and guitar with the right cabinet.
Sealed or ported with an actual bass speaker for bass, open back with a guitar spec'd cabinet for guitar.
I use a 70's Fender red knob Champ for low volume bass from time to time and with the tone controls adjusted it works fine, and it kills for guitar.
I have heard some folks praise the Mesa Walkabout as a pretty decent guitar amp too. Speaker cab advice above will apply.

good luck!

 

[wompwomp]

i'll play electric guitar through my rumble 150 no prob!

that said my deluxe reverb is god-tier for guitar. really no comparison.

 

[Against Will]

A bass amp works fine for guitar, though it won't behave the same way as a guitar amp: guitarists tend to like to push their amps and overdrive their tone a little (or a lot). It will be harder to achieve this with a bass amp and its exponentially more watts and headroom (compared to an average guitar amp). You can use pedals to achieve this and other effects, it won't be the same, but it'll work fine for most purposes.

If you're looking for an affordable guitar amp, I will second the Boss Katana recommendation: it's got a lot of great features (if you're willing to take the time to get acquainted with Boss' ToneStudio you'll have access to nearly every Boss effects pedal in the amp) but it's still easy to use and it's very reasonably priced.

 

[salmon256]

Jimi Hendrix use to use a Fender bassman as his amp...
Phil Jones designs their amps to work with guitars too...
Go crazy!

 

[Boneless]

If you like the way it sounds... that said, bass amps usually have two "issues":

- bass amps tend to be much flatter in response compared to guitar amps, and are usually designed for clean headroom. Some amps will break up nicely with higher gain (but usually would still be considered "low gain"/clean in the guitar world), others basically won't. Guitar amps tend to break up a lot more (in fact, those very clean funk guitars were often played through a DI), and many "guitar cleans" would be "light overdrive" for bass. (The Twin Reverb is considered to be ultra-clean, but would be kinda hairy with bass, on a bass speaker of course). Furthermore, basically all guitar amps are quite heavily scooped in the mids (an exception would be early Fender amps), they are usually heavily voiced and the tone controls tend to be much broader than with bass.

- guitar speakers respond much differently to bass speakers. Many are open-back cabinets and the speakers themselves are very specialised, and as a general rule they are much brighter and many make little to no attempt at linearity. Sometimes what we might consider mid-bass speakers have been employed with guitar amps (usually as an aftermarket choice) for their darker tone, but this isn't exactly the norm. Basically no guitar cabinet is ported.

The lack of reverb or effects may not be as important as you'd think, a lot of prized guitar amps have none.

 

[Pontiac Thrasher]

I've made a resolution to practice guitar pretty much exclusively for a solid year, for the purpose of versatility and songwriting. It's been great fun. Up to this point, I've been playing through my Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0 10t, with an EBS The Drive pedal in front. Overall I think it can sound pretty darn good. But at the same time, do I only think that because I don't have a "real" guitar amp to compare it to? The Genz Benz is pretty uncolored and full range as far as bass amps go, so I'm wondering if it's an over achiever in this regard, and I might not notice the improvement in sound that would justify spending the money? If I were to pick up a guitar amp, i'd look to keep it relatively small and affordable, with a noticiable improvement over my current setup. Any suggestions appreciated!

Edit: people are responding about guitar amps being better with OD. with an external OD pedal, is this due to the piezo tweeter on the bass amp reproducing the high frequencies more harshly? My understanding is that contrary to intuition, many bass amps are intended to go higher than guitar amps.

Research this amp and then find one in the best condition you can, yes, people will run away from your amp while crying out about how we should all be silent with in ears, but this amp can even do that. I called my drummer and asked him if he knew what a Fender Super Twin Reverb was, and his tacit deadpan response was: F___ You. I'm like, no seriously, do you know about them? He said, "you heard me."

Yes, it is that loud, will blow up most Marshall stacks if you plug into one. I lit one up, cranked it one late night in a 8000 sq ft anodizing shop in an industrial park in Rohnert Park Ca, glorious, did a rock medly for about a half an hour, then went into the glass walled office that had all the lights off, glass wall was covered with dudes trying to see inside!

Was playing this strat:

Ted Nugent used to wire up six of these amps and run his Gibson Byrdland through them. Of course, you could get something wimpy instead, but why, remember, you are a bass player, not a wimp! Buuuuut if you insist on a lesser powered amp get a brand new Mesa Boogie, and you will still be cool, just not Nugent cool.

 

[dmt]

Guitar amps sound and respond differently. Meanwhile, you’re getting a lot of recommendations for solid state amps, which aren’t what most guitarists traditionally go for. Can depend on genre (and possibly budget) though — which brings up an important question: What kind of music do you want to play on guitar? Metal? Folk rock? [non-fusion] Jazz? For me, I’m usually thinking 60s-90s rock, especially the older stuff or modern retro stuff, so that colors my thinking.

Meanwhile, I’ll admit that for convenience sake in my little music room and due to volume restriction in my house (gotta turn a guitar amp up a bit to get the magic), this past year, during which I’ve only been playing at home, I’ve just been plugging my guitar into my SWR professional series (so, has a tube preamp) bass amp. Doesn’t sound the same, but one gets accustomed to it and then it sounds fine. I’m using an ab-y switch to run both my guitar and my bass through my bass pedalboard and amp. I use a compressor to give a bit of tube-like response (not exactly the same, but there’s some correspondence in feel) and sometimes my Catalinbread SVT (Ampeg-style) pedal for distortion. Other pedals that get employed on occasion are a phaser, or, for a Fender "blackface" guitar amp-like clean, a tremolo.

 

[mambo4]

I can't vouch for a Shuttle 3.0 for guitar, but I will vouch for a guitar through GB Streamliner.