can elec. guitar amp be used for bass?

[jjrubin]

I want to try out playing with a young talented bassist -- he is a student with limited means and his amp is currently on the blink. I'm sure it's less than ideal, but in a pinch is it feasible to play bass (Fender P-Bass or similar I think) thru a Carr Hammerhead Mk I (tube, 12" speaker, lots of clean power)?

If not for performance (why?) then how about just for rehearsal?

Thanks in advance for help.

[trpullen]

I wouldn't let someone play bass through my Carr amp (if I had one).

Best bet for something like that is a really cheap little Peavey practice bass amp or something. The hundred bux you spend on that is great insurance that you won't trash the Carr.

[jjrubin]

Originally Posted by trpullen

I wouldn't let someone play bass through my Carr amp (if I had one).

Best bet for something like that is a really cheap little Peavey practice bass amp or something. The hundred bux you spend on that is great insurance that you won't trash the Carr.

Thanks Tom but I still don't get what would be happening to pose a threat to the Carr. Can the pre-amp/amp actually produce frequencies that are too low for its own speaker to handle? Seems to me if anything it would just clip off those frequencies before they got to the speaker... Is the risk to the speaker or to the tubes?

The thing is, what is a cheap alternative to you or me is not so cheap to a kid in school....

[rolleiguy54]

I was told you could blow out a guitar amp by playing a bass tough it. Why try?

[trpullen]

The risk is to the speaker. However, if the speaker goes in the right way (basically providing a short back to the amp), it will take the amp out too.

[Herb Hunter]

In high school back in the late '60s, the bass guitarist in my band didn't have a bass amplifier and we ran his bass guitar along with the lead guitar into a Silvertone Twin Twelve for months until we got him an amp by fixing up an Altec Lansing tube amplifier with a 12-inch Magnavox movie projector speaker. So I'm here to say that as long as you don't turn up the volume to the point of audible distortion, as long as you don't cause the cone of the speaker to reach the limits of its excursion capability, running a bass guitar through your amp should not damage your amplifier.

I also know someone that used a Fender Showman amp as a bass amp, the model with a single D130 guitar speaker. (The D140 speaker was designed for bass.)

My first good guitar amplifier was a used Guyatone 30 watt amp with a single 12-inch speaker whose previous owner had used it to amplify a six-string bass guitar and guitar at the same time. I used that amp for two years before replacing it with an Oliver Powerflex 500 and there was never any evidence that it had been adversely affected by having been used to amplify a bass guitar.

[Tahitijack]

Logic would tell us that if an electric guitar amp was designed to handle a Bass or acoustic guitar they would be advertised and marketed as such......

Don't do it.

[donh]

Originally Posted by jjrubin

I still don't get what would be happening to pose a threat to the Carr. Can the pre-amp/amp actually produce frequencies that are too low for its own speaker to handle?

Yes, it can.

Guitar speakers are most specifically NOT made for low-frequency cone excursion. Nor is the speaker enclosure in a combo amp in any way helpful in this area.

At and extremely low (think whisper) volume *I* couild play bass thru your combo amp w/o damage, but I'd not trust anyone else to be able to accomplish this. And never with anyone else playing - it would be wayyyy too easy to lean in and shred your speaker.

[M.D.Smith]

Originally Posted by donh

Yes, it can.

Guitar speakers are most specifically NOT made for low-frequency cone excursion. Nor is the speaker enclosure in a combo amp in any way helpful in this area.

At and extremely low (think whisper) volume *I* couild play bass thru your combo amp w/o damage, but I'd not trust anyone else to be able to accomplish this. And never with anyone else playing - it would be wayyyy too easy to lean in and shred your speaker.

Good advise.

For not too much money, you could get this-----> http://cgi.ebay.com/Warwick-60-Watt-...item3c9d6c81d2


I own one and it sounds really great with my Warwick double buck $$.

[jjrubin]

I stand warned. Thanks for the advice guys.

[JoeCharter]

I'd plug my bass into my guitar amp at home just for the heck of it. But I wouldn't pump up the volume or anything.

I most definitely wouldn't let another kid play bass through my Carr amp, regardless of what others think. It's a valuable piece of equipment that should be handled with care (unless you can afford a dozen of them, in which case go nuts).

[Minotaur]

Don't do it. You will either lose sound or your amp. At low volume to preserve your amp, it won't sound right. If you turn up the volume, you risk blowing your amp.

[Herb Hunter]

I have mentioned three guitar amplifiers all with speakers not intended for bass, two with open-back cabinets, that held up when amplifying bass at performance levels. While I wouldn't recommend that a bass guitarist make do with a guitar amplifier, it should be obvious that temporarily plugging a bass guitar into a guitar amplifier is not going to cause damage if one is careful not to overdrive the speaker.

A short-term, mind-easing solution could be to plug a bass speaker cabinet into the Carr amplifier. The other day, I say a used Carvin bass cabinet with a single, 15-inch speaker on sale for $150 at the local Guitar Center.

[vbf]

I'm gratified to read the consensus "no, don't do it".

[Herb Hunter]

Originally Posted by vbf

I'm gratified to read the consensus "no, don't do it".

The issue is whether the consensus is based on evidence and experience or simply trepidation.