LukeFRC Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 so I have a bass amp. and now I have a guitar..... and at the moment don't want to spend money on an amp. If I stick the guitar through the bass amp, that will be fine? Cut the bass, cut the treble lots, and turn the horn in the cab off. I also have my clone of a Catlinbread SFT I could put it through to warm it up a bit. or should i just find one of the tiny amps you get with guitar starter kits?
BassBus Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 (edited) I've tried my guitar through my Markbass and Acoustic Image amps. Even with the bass turned off completely it was still a bit bassy for me. It worked perfectly well though. Mind you I'm playing jazzier/folkier stuff so don't need huge amounts of distortion or other effects. I wouldn't bother with these tiny starter amps. From the little experience I've had with them they are awful. Edited January 17, 2012 by BassBus
EdwardHimself Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 It won't do anything bad to your amp, but it doesn't sound particularly great.
gafbass02 Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 Yeah. I was gutted to find my berg ae210's sounded awful looked up to my guitar combo.
chrismuzz Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 Slightly OT, but I plugged an ipod into my markbass rig and it was bloody horrible too!
LukeFRC Posted January 17, 2012 Author Posted January 17, 2012 [quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1326840871' post='1502795'] Slightly OT, but I plugged an ipod into my markbass rig and it was bloody horrible too! [/quote] I plugged a bass into a markbass rig once and it was bloody horrible too. (Joke, MB are not my cuppa but not bad) 1
Samlowe Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 I often use a JCM 800 bass series through a 4x12 guitar cab for guitar and it sounds great. I think it really depends on the amp and cab in question. It does seem that a lot of older valve amps seem to bridge the gap quite well though.
gafbass02 Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 Yeah. The newer hifi sounding bass rigs seem not to do guitar well.
LukeFRC Posted January 17, 2012 Author Posted January 17, 2012 [quote name='gafbass02' timestamp='1326842442' post='1502820'] Yeah. The newer hifi sounding bass rigs seem not to do guitar well. [/quote] poo looks like i will be spending a bob or two then
chrismuzz Posted January 17, 2012 Posted January 17, 2012 [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1326841316' post='1502802'] I plugged a bass into a markbass rig once and it was bloody horrible too. [/quote]
Immo Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I borrowed my Randall practice bass amp to my friend who recently bought 70's Aria Pro II LP guitar and didn't had any amp. A bit (tiny bit!) bluesey, dark sound, but works just fine. It's the other combination (bass+guitar amp) that brings trouble.
mike257 Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I've done it, more out of necessity when teaching guitarists new songs in the practice room. It's passable but not great (and the ODB-3 needed tweaking too!) Did the job for my purposes but wouldn't be particularly satisfied with it as a long term solution. Do you need something for gigging or just playing round the house? You can pick up a used Epiphone Valve Jr for absurdly low prices if you keep an eye on ebay (I got Thomann's rebranded Harley Benton version for buttons) and that is a great little all-valve set up for home/recording use. Sounds ok as it is, and can also be tweaked into oblivion if you're that way inclined. Cheap and cheerful practice amps tend to sound pretty awful, but theres a bit of a trend in recent years for small, low wattage valve amps like the Epi - there's equivalents from Vox, Blackstar and a good few other brands. Worth a look if it fits your needs.
Bassnut62 Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 +1 on small low watt valve amps. If you can stretch to a 70s Fender silver-face Champ you'll be in tone heaven for maybe less than £300 of all valve creamy-ness. Alternatively check out these http://www.vintageandrare.com/product/C.agnew-Tweed-518-2011-Tweed-11851 I just picked one up used for £130 and it was probably best £130 I've spent in a long time.
paul_5 Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Another +1 for the valve junior, really good for the money.
leftybassman392 Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 [quote name='gafbass02' timestamp='1326842442' post='1502820'] Yeah. The newer hifi sounding bass rigs seem not to do guitar well. [/quote] I managed to get a decent sound out of my PJB Briefcase with my Takamine classical. Lots of available eq on both guitar and amp definitely helped. As EH said though, it won't do it any harm but bass rigs are voiced for bass guitars so getting a decent sound with a 6 stringer is always going to be a challenge.
Wil Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I had reasonable results with a Roland Basscube with an EHX Hot Tubes in front of it.
Dave Vader Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I used to gig regularly with a guitar through a bass amp, I liked the feedback you get from the bass speakers, with a bit of judicious eq, it's fine. Don't worry.
LukeFRC Posted January 18, 2012 Author Posted January 18, 2012 [quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1326881637' post='1503065'] I managed to get a decent sound out of my PJB Briefcase with my Takamine classical. Lots of available eq on both guitar and amp definitely helped. As EH said though, it won't do it any harm but bass rigs are voiced for bass guitars so getting a decent sound with a 6 stringer is always going to be a challenge. [/quote] acoustic amps are more similar to bass amps than guitar amps, pretty sure of that.
The Dark Lord Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Play about 1/4 of our set with a Telecaster going through a Line 6 X3 Live and into a TC Electronics RH450 (on a clean setting) with TC RS112 and RS210 speaker stack. Sounds as good as the guitarist's Fender Reverb.
Skybone Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Many moons ago when I was first starting out on guitar, I only had an old Ampeg combo (SVT15T), and no guitar amp. Ran the guitar into the Ampeg with a Zoom multi FX. Needless to say, it sounded awful, though I can't remember whether this was down to the player, the multi FX or the amp. Probably a combination of all 3! Now it's the other way round, don't have a bass amp, but I use a POD if I want to plug the bass in.
shinhoman Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I use my ashdown little bastard on guitar all the time, it sounds excellent. In fact, all the lead guitar parts when we went in the studio over Christmas were recorded through it!
BigRedX Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Don't forget that one of the classic amps for guitarists is the Fender Bassman... 1
gafbass02 Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I got a great sound out of my bass rig at home with the guitar, but once i it at gig volume it sounded awful. Be a proper win if I can get it sound good though.
Darkstrike Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I play my guitars through a Genz Streamliner, sounds mighty.
Bassnut62 Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1326900143' post='1503439'] Don't forget that one of the classic amps for guitarists is the Fender Bassman... [/quote] +1 to that. I use a Bassman135 thru a MusicMan ported cab with 15" speaker for bass and it sounds just as sweet and lovely for guitar through the Normal channel; but it is SOOOOO loud on guitar! 135 all-valve watts is really a lot of power for a guitar amp.
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