using bass amp for guitar

i don't think guitar through a 15" bass speaker would sound very good, but i play guitar through my SWR IOD preamp patched into my SWR Goliath Jr 2x10 with the horn turned OFF, and that sounds KILLER. i'd recommend getting something with 10's, and if it has a horn make sure you can turn it off (guitar distortion and tweeters don't mix too well). very few bass units out there have any distortion or effects that would sound good on guitar, so i'd have to rely on pedals for that.



good luck!


jason

 

Do you need an amp to play at home or will you be gigging? Alone or in a band? My suggestions would be to buy a really good amp for the instrument you want to play with a band. If you are playing at home, you can use an SWR 10 or 12, but why? you can get a Fender 15 watt amp with reverb and overdrive new for $100.00. Sounds awsome with my strat.

Yeah, alot of guys are running around with those big, ugly, heavy fender bassman amps and cabinets for guitar, but there are good reasons to stay away from these set-ups.

1) They are WAY overpriced and they sound like **** with your bass. I don't care what anyone says, when it comes to bass, new sounds better than old.
2) They are WAY too heavy
3) They only sound good with your guitar when you crank them up to get the natural overdrive growl. Also, you only get one sound, and one sound only, and have to use digital reverb which sounds like ****. Foot pedals suck too.

 

compression point i'm guessing is where the tubes start to overdrive - which means you won't get the tone you want until you're really loud. if you need somethign quieter, you're out of luck.


i think bass speakers with a dark sounding guitar would lose alot, but the guitar i play is really REALLY bright so it all works out.


this is of course if you HAVE to have one amp that does both. i would say my swr interstellar overdrive has a better guitar sound than 80% of the guitar amps out there, but it cost a bunch more too. my buddy has a fender ultimate chorus amp that kicks ass, and cost 500 bucks. (not the DSP one, the all analog one)

you could get something like a SWR workingman 15, and a fender ultimate chorus, and have only spent 1k. which is less than my IOD plus my goliath jr cost (not even factoring in a power amp!)


jason

 

You might look at the Carvin AG100D. The cabinet is designed for bass. It has an adjustable tweeter. Sounds pretty good for bass. Sounds very good for acoustic guitar. Has XLR input for microphone. Has digital effects. Can get clean sound for electric guitar. For electric guitar, you will need to play with the tweeter control and EQ to get sounds that approximate a regular guitar amp. You would have to use a pedal for distortion sound. Amp has no overdrive capabilities. Because of the full range of this cabinet, a POD or J-Station should accurately emulate other amps. The J-Station has a selection of both guitar and bass amp emulations in one unit.

 

Orange guitar amps... 120 watt guitar amps that are very well suited for bass as well.

 

I'm about to purchase a Line 6 LowDown Studio 110 Combo Bass Amp for my bass, so I should be okay to play my Takamine jasmine accoustic/electric and my Fender Strat 6 strings through it?

Thanks

Q

 

Guitarist in my last band played a variety of Jacksons into a Hartke 5000 thru 2 412 cabinets. It was VERY loud, even at low volume settings, like 1 or 2. He never had it up to 3... I think we would have gone deaf. I think that setup could have filled a stadium.

 

Sound City, Hiwatt, Reeves. All are based on a circuit listed as "AP" (All Purpose) and were designed to amplify any instrument. Any of them will work just fine for guitar or bass.

 

A friend that plays a lot of jazz uses late 60s Ampeg B15. He is playing one of the George Benson Ibanez Guitars and it sounds so smooth and mellow, just like buttttaaa.

 

main difference is the speaker. a guitar speaker will be at risk to blowing due to the low end. a modern bass speaker will probably have a flatter frequency response. power/volume is also a consideration.