Bass through guitar gear...myth?

[NancyJohnson]

I've seen plenty of stuff about bass players using guitar-configured heads and cabinets, but is it really a myth that we should only be using bass-configured gear?  Not purely from a tone perspective, but also from a frequency-centric perspective?

I mean by this, if I stuck my bass into a (for instance) Fender Twin Reverb and played at volume, honestly, would it fry or damage it?

Back in my formulative years, I just remember being steered towards the dusty back end of the shop by a guy in our local music store, who regaled me and my dad with the rhetorical quote, 'Oh no, those are guitar amps, you need a bass amp.'  This comment has stuck with me for 35+ years.

I should hasten to add here that I've never run my basses through anything that's not built or sold for purpose.

[BigRedX]

IME the only real no-no is trying to use guitar speakers, especially ones in open-backed cabs at band volumes. Guitar speakers generally don't have the excursion to handle low frequencies at volume, and open backed cabs add their own problems where the wavelengths generated by the bass tend to lend more readily to cancellation between what is coming out of the front of the cab and the reflected sound coming out of the back. Simply putting a back on the cab damps the sound sufficiently for those reflections to be much less of a problem. 

Thats not to say that guitar amps and cabs can't sound good, it's just that the with certain cabs you are going to struggle to get the frequencies you want being reproduced at band volumes before something fails. You could use guitar gear live with a sympathetic sound man who is prepared to mic up the cab and provided that you are happy with 99% of the bass sound on stage being provided by the foldback. For many years my only amp was a Carlsbro Wasp 10W amp with a single 10" speaker in an open-backed combo. Since all I was doing was practicing, writing and recording and I never had to compete with a full drum kit, it functioned perfectly well so long as I kept the volume levels sensible. The fact that I was mostly playing Peter Hook style bass lines probably helped as well. So it can be done in the right situation.

The other way to go is modelling using something like the Line6 Helix. Because it's all digital there's nothing to break, and the worst that can happen is that your bass won't sound very good, in which case you move on and try a different amp or cab. Right now my favourite amp and cab model for bass is the one derived from the Roland Jazz Chorus combo. I'd never consider using the real thing in a live situation. But the model sounds great, and the FRFR speaker I run it into is perfectly happy to reproduce the sound at any volume.

[leftybassman392]

AFAIK the amplifier circuitry will be fine electronically but may sound a bit odd due to the voicing characteristics. Any problems you might get would likely be due to the speaker cones not coping with very large excursions at very low frequencies.

That said, it is perfectly possible to design systems that work equally well with both - PJB have been doing it for years.

[ribbetingfrog]

I gig through a Hughes and Kettner tubemeister 5 into the bands PA.

i’ve tried Plenty of dedicated bass preamps and amplifiers DI into the mixing desk and never been happy.

thought i’d try my guitar amp just for the hell of it and it is the best i’ve ever sounded!

playing through amps I always use my bass amp but into our PA, my guitar amp rocks.

 

[Lozz196]

I`ve recorded through a guitar amp in  studio and it sounded fantastic. Admittedly it was only low volume but we were trying to get a sound we liked for ages, the producer suggested the guitarists amp, think it was a Roland Jazz Chorus, and away we went.

[jazzyvee]

I recorded Stanley's School days solo and he users a JC120 as party of his bass rig it is fed from the high frequency output of the crossover on Alembic pre-amp. In the past I have seen him live with a small Fender Combo in place of the JC120

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tlmgkAqcGU&feature=youtu.be

Admittedly he uses a tenor tuned bass ADGC so and using PA so less likely to blast heavy bottom end or volume through that guitar combo.

Sounds sweet to me.

Edited November 9, 2018 by jazzyvee
I don't seem able to embed a video.

[operative451]

Some people recommend it for recording:

 

[skankdelvar]

For some years I gigged my old Marshall JMP Mk 2 1987 as a bass head. Though not particularly spellbinding it sounded OK, possibly because it had loads of (fairly) clean headroom. It was also bastard loud even for a 50 watter.

[bjelkeman]

11 hours ago, ribbetingfrog said:

I gig through a Hughes and Kettner tubemeister 5 into the bands PA.

i’ve tried Plenty of dedicated bass preamps and amplifiers DI into the mixing desk and never been happy.

thought i’d try my guitar amp just for the hell of it and it is the best i’ve ever sounded!

playing through amps I always use my bass amp but into our PA, my guitar amp rocks.

 

I have a Tubemeister 18. I need to try this. I suppose I could take the pre-out into the effects loop on the bass amp. 

Edited November 9, 2018 by bjelkeman

[el borracho]

I used an early 70s Marshall Artiste guitar head for a couple of years in the early 90s. It had loads of bottom end. I put it through an old White 4x12 with 25 watt Celestions. They don't seem to have suffered because they live on to this day - now fitted to a friend's Marshall 4x12.