Electric guitar through bass amp - a bad idea?

[Al Krow]

Hey BCs,

Having given away my ancient Peavey Special 130 guitar amp to a grateful youth (hmmm...possibly a good band name there?), I'm wondering whether I need to replace it, or could I simply use my bass amps for electric 6 string without damaging the amps?

I'm thinking that the Fender Bassman proved to be really popular with guitarists, so in theory I should be okay?

I've got a couple of great bass amps which I love (Mesa Boogie M6 and Mark Bass 121 Lite) and would be gutted to ruin them simply to avoid finding the cash and space for a decent guitar amp.

Grateful for your thoughts?

Al

(Jukebox City and The Corvids)

[Billy Apple]

I've heard of guitarists playing through Marshall Super Basses and I know Doyle from The Misfits' plays through SVT CL's. I suppose the mismatch could occur with the cab.

[nigec]

I'm doing it the other way a guitar amp with a bass and nothing bad has happened, but its only a Fender Mustang 1 its not the most powerful thing in the world, but loud enough to pee people off

I dunno life's a gamble in my case most people said don't do it, it'll blow up, wreck the speaker etc but up to now its fine, its even survived the granddaughters adjustments.. that is bloody loud lol

[Twincam]

The only real no no is bass through a driver voiced for guitar.
After that anything goes

[chris_b]

Amps don't get damaged by music being played through them.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1467916280' post='3087327']
I'm thinking that the Fender Bassman proved to be really popular with guitarists, so in theory I should be okay?
[/quote]Bassman of 50s-70s vintage were popular as guitar amps. The reason why is that they basically were guitar amps. Other than at very ow levels they were horrid for bass. By the same token a good electric bass rig won't sound good with guitar.

[Dan Dare]

Bill's right. The demands/design parameters are very different. If you're a jazzer who wants a mellow, clean tone, a bass amp may do the job. Otherwise, not.

[JapanAxe]

But no, you won't blow up your bass amp by playing guitar through it. Whether it sounds any good is another matter entirely.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1468180061' post='3089085']
But no, you won't blow up your bass amp by playing guitar through it.
[/quote]You might make it puke, though.

[stega]

I had to stand in on guitar for a gig once - only had my Ampeg Micro VR stack to play through, but when used together with my Line6 Pod HD it actually sounded pretty ok. Not a setup I'd be using if I was a gigging guitarist, but worked fine for me for a one off.

[cheddatom]

I've got some great guitar sounds out of bass rigs, and great bass sounds out of guitar rigs. It all depends what sort of sound you're after

[Al Krow]

Thanks for the feedback. It seems like the consensus is that using an electric guitar through a bass amp shouldn't be a problem at all in terms of damaging the amp. Leon at Grizzly Guitars on Hackney Road E2, who services both electric and bass guitars (and is very good value!), was also pretty chilled about this when I put the question to him.

He additionally mentioned that he has come across plenty of electric guitarists who deliberately choose a bass amp for studio recording because they prefer the warmer tones.

Ok...so it seems that I don't really have an excuse to get a lead guitar amp if my only use for it is going to be messing about at home, when I have a couple of perfectly good bass amps... Shame

[grenadilla]

Just to try it I plugged in a Les Paul gtr. to my Ashdown ABM600 /610 and I liked it with some "tube drive" . Not clean or extra-distorted, it makes a killer rhythm rig. Weighing in at 140 lbs. It may sound like the old Acoustic amps from 1970.

[pintspiller]

It was something like 10 years before I realised my Sound City was the B model. Sounds great for guitar or bass

[Al Krow]

Thanks for sharing that pintspiller - quite an amusing vignette. There's a Sound City SC30B combo for sale on eBay for £60, with description "very convenient and portable bass amp that sounds good with guitar and keyboards too." Not yours by any chance? But, anyway, I guess that further proves the point?!

I'm enjoying strumming a few chords / finger picking a few licks on my Washburn HB35 through both my bass amps and definitely sounds just fine and it's going to save me the clutter (and cost) of getting a third dedicated guitar amp purely for "bedroom" guitar

[vailbass]

the only issue in my mind would be if there's a tweeter in the bass amp, you might want to be able to turn it off or down, at least. Try it, that's the only way to know; specs are less important than whether the listener likes it or not.