Anyone play a guitar amp and a bass amp at the same time?

[cocco]

Hi guys,

I've been listening to Death From Above 1979 and I wondered if many people played a bass amp and a guitar amp simultainiously? If so how does it sound? Is it worth the extra ball ache of carrying 2 amps and cabs everywhere?

[Prime_BASS]

I have done in my room for a mess about. Honestly can't see the point unless you are after a good sound and typically crap and frequency deficient sound. At gigging levels a similar sized guitar amp would not be able to keep up with the bass amp.

I guess it would only be of use if the guitar cab was large and used purely for distortion, and the bass amp for a clean low end sound to make ip for signal lose of the guitar amp.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Chris Squire does, has since 1968.

[Mr. Foxen]

I have/do. It sounds massive done right. You don't need nearly as much power in the guitar amp side, because the lows come from the bass amp. A 4x12 does help by being irectional enough you can move out of the feedback area if you don't want that going on. Pinch harmonics on bass are fun.

Just bear in mind how much amp your guitarist needs to keep up with you volume wise. that shows what you need.

Edited August 13, 2011 by Mr. Foxen

[chrismuzz]

I heard a Fender Precision through a Marshall guitar stack and it sounded immense! Never heard both together but I bet it's amazing and you won't be inaudible in the mix. Id still just use a bass amp and get pedals with a blend knob instead though

[EdwardHimself]

I did this last night actually, sounded well good lol. I first put the preamp of my guitar amp in the effects loop, then decided to tighten things up by shoving the guitar amp into the extension cab which sounded better but lacked the low end of the cab on the bottom unfortunately. I think really for gigs you're better off just getting a distortion pedal. If you have a roadie though you can do whatever you want; I know that Mike Kroeger out of Nickelback uses a peavey XXX guitar amp for his distortion alongside a bass amp of some description.

[waynepunkdude]

Edited August 13, 2011 by waynepunkdude

[Mr. Foxen]

His bass rig dwarfs the guitar stuff rpetty well, but:

[Lozz196]

I`ve seen people do this when they`ve wanted to have gain/overdrive on their sound. I can see the thought process, keep the clean thump on the bass amp, chuck in the ovedrive on the guitar amp. You probably wouldn`t need such a big guitar amp to add in some nice dirt to your sound this way - and probably not that much more costly than a decent Bass OD pedal.

[Prime_BASS]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1339240' date='Aug 14 2011, 12:32 AM']I`ve seen people do this when they`ve wanted to have gain/overdrive on their sound. I can see the thought process, keep the clean thump on the bass amp, chuck in the ovedrive on the guitar amp. You probably wouldn`t need such a big guitar amp to add in some nice dirt to your sound this way - and probably not that much more costly than a decent Bass OD pedal.[/quote]

Just depends if lugging around a whole separate rig for a specific sound is worth it to the user. I know I cancer a fairly good distortion from my guitar stack, but for me I have to be carrying the least amount of gear so it's amp go for.

At one point I was running a Orange HTC120 and 2 orange 4x12s. It was great for what I wanted, but not the ideal "bass" sound, using one and having it slightly clean never had the low end response for a full sound.

[deepbass5]

Some years back, but I only used it for bi amping the top end, Peavey advocated this as a simple way to utilise the bi amp out on their 1x15 combo's.

[Spike Vincent]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1339203' date='Aug 13 2011, 11:16 PM'][/quote]


I actually supported this lot last night.The bassist/shouter is AWESOME.Chords,bassline and lead lines at the same time at 100mph whilst shouting over the top.He had a Trace combo and a Peavey combo on each side of the drumkit and his sound was MASSIVE.He's also a bit greyer than in the video..

[uncle psychosis]

I've seen a two-piece rock band do this with a guitar into a Marshall half stack and bass combo. Sounded immense. Not sure it would work with a bass though.

[waynepunkdude]

[quote name='Spike Vincent' post='1339971' date='Aug 14 2011, 08:07 PM']I actually supported this lot last night.The bassist/shouter is AWESOME.Chords,bassline and lead lines at the same time at 100mph whilst shouting over the top.He had a Trace combo and a Peavey combo on each side of the drumkit and his sound was MASSIVE.He's also a bit greyer than in the video..[/quote]

He used to use the Peavey and a Marshall guitar amp.

[Spike Vincent]

I didn't get a good look at the Trace,but it sounded like a guitar amp.

[jazzyvee]

Stanley Clarke seems to do this as a matter of course. He users a small fender combo. Check out his rig rundown and the discussion on this aspect of his rig happens around 2:33.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FRe4_7wTec"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FRe4_7wTec[/url]
Jazzyvee

[cheddatom]

I use a guitar amp with my peavey combo. Not for amp distortion, just to give me loads more mids and high end.

I tried it once with my pedal board going straight to the guitar amp, and a clean signal going to the bass amp. It just wasn't as punchy. So, I use my pedal board straight into the bass amp, and the take the guitar amp input from that.

[Mr. Foxen]

I know it is different, but what is it that makes the difference between mids from a guitar amp, and bumping mids. Is it just because the mids are mostly distortion products?

[cheddatom]

to be fair, i've never tried to make a bi-amp rig from two bass amps. Maybe the mids from a bass amp would be just as good if you hi-passed it?

[eude]

I used to do this a long long time ago.
I had a DOD Chorus pedal that had two outputs, I'd run one into my bass amp, think it was a Carlsboro Stinger, and the other into a Laney guitar combo.
I used to have a lot of issues with, arguably cheap ass, effects not cutting through well, and being in a 3 piece being able to fill in and get a bit louder during solos was pretty important.
I ended up only using my effects on the line going into the guitar amp, leaving a bass signal untouched and it worked real nice
These days I'm not all the bothered about using all those effects plus I can't be bothered carrying two amps around

Cheers,
Eude

[cocco]

If I was to do this it would be purely in the pursuit of dirty tone, but without loosing low end thump. I've tried using a distortion pedal through my orange gear but to little avail, the low just went home and took it's ball with it.

I'm imagining to get what I'm after I'd probably need a 100w valve amp and a 4x10 to compete with my AD200 and 8x10? Can anyone recommend a guitar rig for bass to bring the dirt? I'd have thought an orange 4x12 would have the right tonal characteristics, a Marshall B cab would probably do too but I wouldn't know where to start with the head? JJ burnels hi watt tone would be great but those old hi watts aren't cheap. Maybe a Marshall JCM or an Orange?

[eude]

[quote name='cocco' post='1340857' date='Aug 15 2011, 04:44 PM']If I was to do this it would be purely in the pursuit of dirty tone, but without loosing low end thump. I've tried using a distortion pedal through my orange gear but to little avail, the low just went home and took it's ball with it.

I'm imagining to get what I'm after I'd probably need a 100w valve amp and a 4x10 to compete with my AD200 and 8x10? Can anyone recommend a guitar rig for bass to bring the dirt? I'd have thought an orange 4x12 would have the right tonal characteristics, a Marshall B cab would probably do too but I wouldn't know where to start with the head? JJ burnels hi watt tone would be great but those old hi watts aren't cheap. Maybe a Marshall JCM or an Orange?[/quote]

I think Cass Lewis from Skunk Anansie and Timmy C from RATM both run a "bass" bass amp and an "effects" bass amp, giving their dirty tone a lot more welly.
Cass was using Eden rigs last time I heard (albeit a while ago) and Tim has bounced between Ashdown and Ampeg for the last few years...

Eude

[scalpy]

John Paul Jones will run a Fender Twin sometimes with his SWR, if I recall from Bassist Magazine Issue 1!

[KingBollock]

I think that if I was tempted to try this I would try to track down a Laney Klipp for the guitar end. From what I gather they were really popular with Bassists back in the day; I owned one as my first 'proper' amp and can see why.

[ern500evo]

[quote name='KingBollock' post='1340877' date='Aug 15 2011, 05:05 PM']I think that if I was tempted to try this I would try to track down a Laney Klipp for the guitar end. From what I gather they were really popular with Bassists back in the day; I owned one as my first 'proper' amp and can see why.[/quote]

Wow, Laney Klipp, now there's a blast from the past! I also had one of these as my first "proper amp" back in about 1988. I listened to some old recordings of it a few years back and it actually sounded really good as a bass amp, wish i'd kept it. I traded it for a marshall which was utter sh*te!