Can I play a electric guitar through a bass amplifier?Guitar Amplifier (Head versus Combo versus None)Howto:...

Is it wise to focus on putting odd beats on left when playing double bass drums?

Does the average primeness of natural numbers tend to zero?

Was there ever an axiom rendered a theorem?

LWC and complex parameters

Need help identifying/translating a plaque in Tangier, Morocco

How could a lack of term limits lead to a "dictatorship?"

Doomsday-clock for my fantasy planet

Can the Produce Flame cantrip be used to grapple, or as an unarmed strike, in the right circumstances?

What is the offset in a seaplane's hull?

Copycat chess is back

If a centaur druid Wild Shapes into a Giant Elk, do their Charge features stack?

Is it legal to have the "// (c) 2019 John Smith" header in all files when there are hundreds of contributors?

What does 'script /dev/null' do?

Is this food a bread or a loaf?

Check if two datetimes are between two others

What are the advantages and disadvantages of running one shots compared to campaigns?

How is it possible for user's password to be changed after storage was encrypted? (on OS X, Android)

Are objects structures and/or vice versa?

Can I legally use front facing blue light in the UK?

Does a dangling wire really electrocute me if I'm standing in water?

extract characters between two commas?

Could Giant Ground Sloths have been a good pack animal for the ancient Mayans?

What do the Banks children have against barley water?

Why is my log file so massive? 22gb. I am running log backups



Can I play a electric guitar through a bass amplifier?


Guitar Amplifier (Head versus Combo versus None)Howto: Electric Bass Guitar - Home RecordingBass guitar amplifierWill Playing a Guitar Through a Bass Set-Up Damage the Amplifier and/or Speaker?High notes from guitar amplifier hurt my ears, even at low volumeWhat to use for Electric Upright Bass Amplification?Can you play two guitars through the same amp?Using a bass guitar on a guitar amplifier through a bass pre-amplifier?electric guitar gear: amp or interface?How to play electric guitar and bass as a duet













5















I am a bassist and I am looking for an electric guitar, but I don’t want to buy another amplifier. Can I play the guitar through the bass amplifier?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

























    5















    I am a bassist and I am looking for an electric guitar, but I don’t want to buy another amplifier. Can I play the guitar through the bass amplifier?










    share|improve this question









    New contributor




    Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.























      5












      5








      5








      I am a bassist and I am looking for an electric guitar, but I don’t want to buy another amplifier. Can I play the guitar through the bass amplifier?










      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.












      I am a bassist and I am looking for an electric guitar, but I don’t want to buy another amplifier. Can I play the guitar through the bass amplifier?







      guitar amplifiers bass-guitar






      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.











      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.









      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited yesterday









      Peter Mortensen

      1506




      1506






      New contributor




      Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.









      asked 2 days ago









      Kristin LarocqueKristin Larocque

      261




      261




      New contributor




      Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.





      New contributor





      Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






      Kristin Larocque is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






















          4 Answers
          4






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          6














          Bass amps have been used by guitarists for many decades. In some instances, they work better for guitarists than other amps designed for guitars, especially the speakers. If you are going to use effects pedals, they will do just fine, but if you're looking for something that will overdrive and distort, bass amps generally aren't designed with that in mind. If your bass amp is a valve amp, it'll do the job really well. If it is a transistor amp, it'll still work well enough, but you won't really be able to overdrive it as much as you would an amp designed for guitar.






          share|improve this answer





















          • 2





            Normally I see the word “tranny” used to mean “transformer”, not “transistor”. Of course tubes amps almost always have transformers and solid state amps almost never do.

            – Todd Wilcox
            2 days ago






          • 2





            In this situation tranny is meant as transistor. All amps will have transformers regardless.

            – Tim
            2 days ago






          • 2





            False. I’m not aware of a solid state amp, including all digital modeling designs and PA amps, in production today that has an output transformer. That’s one of the main reasons for having a solid state design in the first place. BJT and I believe MOSFET power stages can be built with arbitrarily low output impedances, so there’s no need for a heavy, expensive output transformer. And output transformers have large potential impact on the sound. The presence of an output transformer is one of main differences between tube and solid state designs that affects the sound.

            – Todd Wilcox
            2 days ago













          • A 'tranny amp' has always been one 'not made with valves, but transistors', in the broadest terms. From the early 70's the cry was always 'ooh, don't get a tranny amp, they don't sound as good'. The 2nd part has, of course, changed over the years, as attested by my remarkable Dynacord BS412 [not a valve in sight but I'd defy anyone to know that from the sound].

            – Tetsujin
            yesterday



















          4














          Yes. But the whole point of a guitar amp is to NOT be 'accurate' but to distort in interesting ways. This aspect may be missing.






          share|improve this answer































            2














            The Fender Bassman has famously been many guitarists' amp of choice over the years. A bass amp still needs to produce all the same higher frequencies as a guitar amp, because it's the higher frequencies which give you the "attack" of a note. So there's no problems with the speaker itself.



            As LaurencePayne said already, guitar and bass amps are not intended to have clean, flat responses like a PA amplifier and speaker. Amplifiers are deliberately run into saturation or distortion of various kinds. Speakers are not designed for flat responses. And speaker cabs are pretty much without exception constructed in a shoddy way which would horrify a PA speaker designer, with insufficient bracing all round and no damping or box tuning. But all this is why a guitar or bass amp has a distinct "sound" and a good PA speaker does not.



            Where you are likely to have issues though might be with the EQ. A good bass amp will have 5-band EQ, and you can generally make that work. Others may only have 3-band EQ though, or perhaps even just a "tone" control. On a bass amp, that'll be set up for the kind of frequency range which is most applicable for a bass, and it won't necessarily work so well for a guitar. If there are other FX on the amp, they may also be tuned more for a bass.



            The obvious solution in that case is to get yourself a pedalboard for the guitar. This works best if your amp has an FX loop, because then you can make best use of the amp's preamp, but otherwise an FX unit or pedalboard which includes an overdrive on the way in will still work fine.






            share|improve this answer
























            • ... and the entire Marshall line is based on the Fender Bassman.

              – user207421
              yesterday











            • @user207421 ... which I'm sure they strenuously deny. I suspect the official line is "strongly influenced by". ;)

              – Graham
              yesterday











            • They don't deny it at all. It's well known. A few minor changes, but same thing really.

              – user207421
              17 hours ago



















            1














            The simple answer is of course you can. You won't break the thing. But whether you get a satisfying sound out of it - it really depends of what type of guitar sound you want to use.



            It also depends on what type of bass amp you have. I'd argue that since the Fender Bassman's times when guitar and bass amps design were quite similar we had a substantial evolution and divergence of the two. And while Fender Bassman is definitely a guitar friendly animal, modern amps like Gallien Kruger, SWR or Markbass might be less so.



            Guitar amps are designed for organic multistage distortion. Some of the most iconic rock sounds involve compound effect of preamp distorition, power amp clipping, transformer saturation and the way a really thin almost paper like speaker membranes of guitar amps color the sound.



            One practical solution would be to use the bass amp along with some sort of guitar modelling solution to get a variety of decent sounds.






            share|improve this answer
























              Your Answer








              StackExchange.ready(function() {
              var channelOptions = {
              tags: "".split(" "),
              id: "240"
              };
              initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

              StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
              // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
              if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
              StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
              createEditor();
              });
              }
              else {
              createEditor();
              }
              });

              function createEditor() {
              StackExchange.prepareEditor({
              heartbeatType: 'answer',
              autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
              convertImagesToLinks: false,
              noModals: true,
              showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
              reputationToPostImages: null,
              bindNavPrevention: true,
              postfix: "",
              imageUploader: {
              brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
              contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
              allowUrls: true
              },
              noCode: true, onDemand: true,
              discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
              ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
              });


              }
              });






              Kristin Larocque is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










              draft saved

              draft discarded


















              StackExchange.ready(
              function () {
              StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmusic.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f82463%2fcan-i-play-a-electric-guitar-through-a-bass-amplifier%23new-answer', 'question_page');
              }
              );

              Post as a guest















              Required, but never shown

























              4 Answers
              4






              active

              oldest

              votes








              4 Answers
              4






              active

              oldest

              votes









              active

              oldest

              votes






              active

              oldest

              votes









              6














              Bass amps have been used by guitarists for many decades. In some instances, they work better for guitarists than other amps designed for guitars, especially the speakers. If you are going to use effects pedals, they will do just fine, but if you're looking for something that will overdrive and distort, bass amps generally aren't designed with that in mind. If your bass amp is a valve amp, it'll do the job really well. If it is a transistor amp, it'll still work well enough, but you won't really be able to overdrive it as much as you would an amp designed for guitar.






              share|improve this answer





















              • 2





                Normally I see the word “tranny” used to mean “transformer”, not “transistor”. Of course tubes amps almost always have transformers and solid state amps almost never do.

                – Todd Wilcox
                2 days ago






              • 2





                In this situation tranny is meant as transistor. All amps will have transformers regardless.

                – Tim
                2 days ago






              • 2





                False. I’m not aware of a solid state amp, including all digital modeling designs and PA amps, in production today that has an output transformer. That’s one of the main reasons for having a solid state design in the first place. BJT and I believe MOSFET power stages can be built with arbitrarily low output impedances, so there’s no need for a heavy, expensive output transformer. And output transformers have large potential impact on the sound. The presence of an output transformer is one of main differences between tube and solid state designs that affects the sound.

                – Todd Wilcox
                2 days ago













              • A 'tranny amp' has always been one 'not made with valves, but transistors', in the broadest terms. From the early 70's the cry was always 'ooh, don't get a tranny amp, they don't sound as good'. The 2nd part has, of course, changed over the years, as attested by my remarkable Dynacord BS412 [not a valve in sight but I'd defy anyone to know that from the sound].

                – Tetsujin
                yesterday
















              6














              Bass amps have been used by guitarists for many decades. In some instances, they work better for guitarists than other amps designed for guitars, especially the speakers. If you are going to use effects pedals, they will do just fine, but if you're looking for something that will overdrive and distort, bass amps generally aren't designed with that in mind. If your bass amp is a valve amp, it'll do the job really well. If it is a transistor amp, it'll still work well enough, but you won't really be able to overdrive it as much as you would an amp designed for guitar.






              share|improve this answer





















              • 2





                Normally I see the word “tranny” used to mean “transformer”, not “transistor”. Of course tubes amps almost always have transformers and solid state amps almost never do.

                – Todd Wilcox
                2 days ago






              • 2





                In this situation tranny is meant as transistor. All amps will have transformers regardless.

                – Tim
                2 days ago






              • 2





                False. I’m not aware of a solid state amp, including all digital modeling designs and PA amps, in production today that has an output transformer. That’s one of the main reasons for having a solid state design in the first place. BJT and I believe MOSFET power stages can be built with arbitrarily low output impedances, so there’s no need for a heavy, expensive output transformer. And output transformers have large potential impact on the sound. The presence of an output transformer is one of main differences between tube and solid state designs that affects the sound.

                – Todd Wilcox
                2 days ago













              • A 'tranny amp' has always been one 'not made with valves, but transistors', in the broadest terms. From the early 70's the cry was always 'ooh, don't get a tranny amp, they don't sound as good'. The 2nd part has, of course, changed over the years, as attested by my remarkable Dynacord BS412 [not a valve in sight but I'd defy anyone to know that from the sound].

                – Tetsujin
                yesterday














              6












              6








              6







              Bass amps have been used by guitarists for many decades. In some instances, they work better for guitarists than other amps designed for guitars, especially the speakers. If you are going to use effects pedals, they will do just fine, but if you're looking for something that will overdrive and distort, bass amps generally aren't designed with that in mind. If your bass amp is a valve amp, it'll do the job really well. If it is a transistor amp, it'll still work well enough, but you won't really be able to overdrive it as much as you would an amp designed for guitar.






              share|improve this answer















              Bass amps have been used by guitarists for many decades. In some instances, they work better for guitarists than other amps designed for guitars, especially the speakers. If you are going to use effects pedals, they will do just fine, but if you're looking for something that will overdrive and distort, bass amps generally aren't designed with that in mind. If your bass amp is a valve amp, it'll do the job really well. If it is a transistor amp, it'll still work well enough, but you won't really be able to overdrive it as much as you would an amp designed for guitar.







              share|improve this answer














              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer








              edited 2 days ago









              Your Uncle Bob

              966314




              966314










              answered 2 days ago









              TimTim

              105k10107264




              105k10107264








              • 2





                Normally I see the word “tranny” used to mean “transformer”, not “transistor”. Of course tubes amps almost always have transformers and solid state amps almost never do.

                – Todd Wilcox
                2 days ago






              • 2





                In this situation tranny is meant as transistor. All amps will have transformers regardless.

                – Tim
                2 days ago






              • 2





                False. I’m not aware of a solid state amp, including all digital modeling designs and PA amps, in production today that has an output transformer. That’s one of the main reasons for having a solid state design in the first place. BJT and I believe MOSFET power stages can be built with arbitrarily low output impedances, so there’s no need for a heavy, expensive output transformer. And output transformers have large potential impact on the sound. The presence of an output transformer is one of main differences between tube and solid state designs that affects the sound.

                – Todd Wilcox
                2 days ago













              • A 'tranny amp' has always been one 'not made with valves, but transistors', in the broadest terms. From the early 70's the cry was always 'ooh, don't get a tranny amp, they don't sound as good'. The 2nd part has, of course, changed over the years, as attested by my remarkable Dynacord BS412 [not a valve in sight but I'd defy anyone to know that from the sound].

                – Tetsujin
                yesterday














              • 2





                Normally I see the word “tranny” used to mean “transformer”, not “transistor”. Of course tubes amps almost always have transformers and solid state amps almost never do.

                – Todd Wilcox
                2 days ago






              • 2





                In this situation tranny is meant as transistor. All amps will have transformers regardless.

                – Tim
                2 days ago






              • 2





                False. I’m not aware of a solid state amp, including all digital modeling designs and PA amps, in production today that has an output transformer. That’s one of the main reasons for having a solid state design in the first place. BJT and I believe MOSFET power stages can be built with arbitrarily low output impedances, so there’s no need for a heavy, expensive output transformer. And output transformers have large potential impact on the sound. The presence of an output transformer is one of main differences between tube and solid state designs that affects the sound.

                – Todd Wilcox
                2 days ago













              • A 'tranny amp' has always been one 'not made with valves, but transistors', in the broadest terms. From the early 70's the cry was always 'ooh, don't get a tranny amp, they don't sound as good'. The 2nd part has, of course, changed over the years, as attested by my remarkable Dynacord BS412 [not a valve in sight but I'd defy anyone to know that from the sound].

                – Tetsujin
                yesterday








              2




              2





              Normally I see the word “tranny” used to mean “transformer”, not “transistor”. Of course tubes amps almost always have transformers and solid state amps almost never do.

              – Todd Wilcox
              2 days ago





              Normally I see the word “tranny” used to mean “transformer”, not “transistor”. Of course tubes amps almost always have transformers and solid state amps almost never do.

              – Todd Wilcox
              2 days ago




              2




              2





              In this situation tranny is meant as transistor. All amps will have transformers regardless.

              – Tim
              2 days ago





              In this situation tranny is meant as transistor. All amps will have transformers regardless.

              – Tim
              2 days ago




              2




              2





              False. I’m not aware of a solid state amp, including all digital modeling designs and PA amps, in production today that has an output transformer. That’s one of the main reasons for having a solid state design in the first place. BJT and I believe MOSFET power stages can be built with arbitrarily low output impedances, so there’s no need for a heavy, expensive output transformer. And output transformers have large potential impact on the sound. The presence of an output transformer is one of main differences between tube and solid state designs that affects the sound.

              – Todd Wilcox
              2 days ago







              False. I’m not aware of a solid state amp, including all digital modeling designs and PA amps, in production today that has an output transformer. That’s one of the main reasons for having a solid state design in the first place. BJT and I believe MOSFET power stages can be built with arbitrarily low output impedances, so there’s no need for a heavy, expensive output transformer. And output transformers have large potential impact on the sound. The presence of an output transformer is one of main differences between tube and solid state designs that affects the sound.

              – Todd Wilcox
              2 days ago















              A 'tranny amp' has always been one 'not made with valves, but transistors', in the broadest terms. From the early 70's the cry was always 'ooh, don't get a tranny amp, they don't sound as good'. The 2nd part has, of course, changed over the years, as attested by my remarkable Dynacord BS412 [not a valve in sight but I'd defy anyone to know that from the sound].

              – Tetsujin
              yesterday





              A 'tranny amp' has always been one 'not made with valves, but transistors', in the broadest terms. From the early 70's the cry was always 'ooh, don't get a tranny amp, they don't sound as good'. The 2nd part has, of course, changed over the years, as attested by my remarkable Dynacord BS412 [not a valve in sight but I'd defy anyone to know that from the sound].

              – Tetsujin
              yesterday











              4














              Yes. But the whole point of a guitar amp is to NOT be 'accurate' but to distort in interesting ways. This aspect may be missing.






              share|improve this answer




























                4














                Yes. But the whole point of a guitar amp is to NOT be 'accurate' but to distort in interesting ways. This aspect may be missing.






                share|improve this answer


























                  4












                  4








                  4







                  Yes. But the whole point of a guitar amp is to NOT be 'accurate' but to distort in interesting ways. This aspect may be missing.






                  share|improve this answer













                  Yes. But the whole point of a guitar amp is to NOT be 'accurate' but to distort in interesting ways. This aspect may be missing.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 2 days ago









                  Laurence PayneLaurence Payne

                  37.2k1871




                  37.2k1871























                      2














                      The Fender Bassman has famously been many guitarists' amp of choice over the years. A bass amp still needs to produce all the same higher frequencies as a guitar amp, because it's the higher frequencies which give you the "attack" of a note. So there's no problems with the speaker itself.



                      As LaurencePayne said already, guitar and bass amps are not intended to have clean, flat responses like a PA amplifier and speaker. Amplifiers are deliberately run into saturation or distortion of various kinds. Speakers are not designed for flat responses. And speaker cabs are pretty much without exception constructed in a shoddy way which would horrify a PA speaker designer, with insufficient bracing all round and no damping or box tuning. But all this is why a guitar or bass amp has a distinct "sound" and a good PA speaker does not.



                      Where you are likely to have issues though might be with the EQ. A good bass amp will have 5-band EQ, and you can generally make that work. Others may only have 3-band EQ though, or perhaps even just a "tone" control. On a bass amp, that'll be set up for the kind of frequency range which is most applicable for a bass, and it won't necessarily work so well for a guitar. If there are other FX on the amp, they may also be tuned more for a bass.



                      The obvious solution in that case is to get yourself a pedalboard for the guitar. This works best if your amp has an FX loop, because then you can make best use of the amp's preamp, but otherwise an FX unit or pedalboard which includes an overdrive on the way in will still work fine.






                      share|improve this answer
























                      • ... and the entire Marshall line is based on the Fender Bassman.

                        – user207421
                        yesterday











                      • @user207421 ... which I'm sure they strenuously deny. I suspect the official line is "strongly influenced by". ;)

                        – Graham
                        yesterday











                      • They don't deny it at all. It's well known. A few minor changes, but same thing really.

                        – user207421
                        17 hours ago
















                      2














                      The Fender Bassman has famously been many guitarists' amp of choice over the years. A bass amp still needs to produce all the same higher frequencies as a guitar amp, because it's the higher frequencies which give you the "attack" of a note. So there's no problems with the speaker itself.



                      As LaurencePayne said already, guitar and bass amps are not intended to have clean, flat responses like a PA amplifier and speaker. Amplifiers are deliberately run into saturation or distortion of various kinds. Speakers are not designed for flat responses. And speaker cabs are pretty much without exception constructed in a shoddy way which would horrify a PA speaker designer, with insufficient bracing all round and no damping or box tuning. But all this is why a guitar or bass amp has a distinct "sound" and a good PA speaker does not.



                      Where you are likely to have issues though might be with the EQ. A good bass amp will have 5-band EQ, and you can generally make that work. Others may only have 3-band EQ though, or perhaps even just a "tone" control. On a bass amp, that'll be set up for the kind of frequency range which is most applicable for a bass, and it won't necessarily work so well for a guitar. If there are other FX on the amp, they may also be tuned more for a bass.



                      The obvious solution in that case is to get yourself a pedalboard for the guitar. This works best if your amp has an FX loop, because then you can make best use of the amp's preamp, but otherwise an FX unit or pedalboard which includes an overdrive on the way in will still work fine.






                      share|improve this answer
























                      • ... and the entire Marshall line is based on the Fender Bassman.

                        – user207421
                        yesterday











                      • @user207421 ... which I'm sure they strenuously deny. I suspect the official line is "strongly influenced by". ;)

                        – Graham
                        yesterday











                      • They don't deny it at all. It's well known. A few minor changes, but same thing really.

                        – user207421
                        17 hours ago














                      2












                      2








                      2







                      The Fender Bassman has famously been many guitarists' amp of choice over the years. A bass amp still needs to produce all the same higher frequencies as a guitar amp, because it's the higher frequencies which give you the "attack" of a note. So there's no problems with the speaker itself.



                      As LaurencePayne said already, guitar and bass amps are not intended to have clean, flat responses like a PA amplifier and speaker. Amplifiers are deliberately run into saturation or distortion of various kinds. Speakers are not designed for flat responses. And speaker cabs are pretty much without exception constructed in a shoddy way which would horrify a PA speaker designer, with insufficient bracing all round and no damping or box tuning. But all this is why a guitar or bass amp has a distinct "sound" and a good PA speaker does not.



                      Where you are likely to have issues though might be with the EQ. A good bass amp will have 5-band EQ, and you can generally make that work. Others may only have 3-band EQ though, or perhaps even just a "tone" control. On a bass amp, that'll be set up for the kind of frequency range which is most applicable for a bass, and it won't necessarily work so well for a guitar. If there are other FX on the amp, they may also be tuned more for a bass.



                      The obvious solution in that case is to get yourself a pedalboard for the guitar. This works best if your amp has an FX loop, because then you can make best use of the amp's preamp, but otherwise an FX unit or pedalboard which includes an overdrive on the way in will still work fine.






                      share|improve this answer













                      The Fender Bassman has famously been many guitarists' amp of choice over the years. A bass amp still needs to produce all the same higher frequencies as a guitar amp, because it's the higher frequencies which give you the "attack" of a note. So there's no problems with the speaker itself.



                      As LaurencePayne said already, guitar and bass amps are not intended to have clean, flat responses like a PA amplifier and speaker. Amplifiers are deliberately run into saturation or distortion of various kinds. Speakers are not designed for flat responses. And speaker cabs are pretty much without exception constructed in a shoddy way which would horrify a PA speaker designer, with insufficient bracing all round and no damping or box tuning. But all this is why a guitar or bass amp has a distinct "sound" and a good PA speaker does not.



                      Where you are likely to have issues though might be with the EQ. A good bass amp will have 5-band EQ, and you can generally make that work. Others may only have 3-band EQ though, or perhaps even just a "tone" control. On a bass amp, that'll be set up for the kind of frequency range which is most applicable for a bass, and it won't necessarily work so well for a guitar. If there are other FX on the amp, they may also be tuned more for a bass.



                      The obvious solution in that case is to get yourself a pedalboard for the guitar. This works best if your amp has an FX loop, because then you can make best use of the amp's preamp, but otherwise an FX unit or pedalboard which includes an overdrive on the way in will still work fine.







                      share|improve this answer












                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer










                      answered 2 days ago









                      GrahamGraham

                      1,815413




                      1,815413













                      • ... and the entire Marshall line is based on the Fender Bassman.

                        – user207421
                        yesterday











                      • @user207421 ... which I'm sure they strenuously deny. I suspect the official line is "strongly influenced by". ;)

                        – Graham
                        yesterday











                      • They don't deny it at all. It's well known. A few minor changes, but same thing really.

                        – user207421
                        17 hours ago



















                      • ... and the entire Marshall line is based on the Fender Bassman.

                        – user207421
                        yesterday











                      • @user207421 ... which I'm sure they strenuously deny. I suspect the official line is "strongly influenced by". ;)

                        – Graham
                        yesterday











                      • They don't deny it at all. It's well known. A few minor changes, but same thing really.

                        – user207421
                        17 hours ago

















                      ... and the entire Marshall line is based on the Fender Bassman.

                      – user207421
                      yesterday





                      ... and the entire Marshall line is based on the Fender Bassman.

                      – user207421
                      yesterday













                      @user207421 ... which I'm sure they strenuously deny. I suspect the official line is "strongly influenced by". ;)

                      – Graham
                      yesterday





                      @user207421 ... which I'm sure they strenuously deny. I suspect the official line is "strongly influenced by". ;)

                      – Graham
                      yesterday













                      They don't deny it at all. It's well known. A few minor changes, but same thing really.

                      – user207421
                      17 hours ago





                      They don't deny it at all. It's well known. A few minor changes, but same thing really.

                      – user207421
                      17 hours ago











                      1














                      The simple answer is of course you can. You won't break the thing. But whether you get a satisfying sound out of it - it really depends of what type of guitar sound you want to use.



                      It also depends on what type of bass amp you have. I'd argue that since the Fender Bassman's times when guitar and bass amps design were quite similar we had a substantial evolution and divergence of the two. And while Fender Bassman is definitely a guitar friendly animal, modern amps like Gallien Kruger, SWR or Markbass might be less so.



                      Guitar amps are designed for organic multistage distortion. Some of the most iconic rock sounds involve compound effect of preamp distorition, power amp clipping, transformer saturation and the way a really thin almost paper like speaker membranes of guitar amps color the sound.



                      One practical solution would be to use the bass amp along with some sort of guitar modelling solution to get a variety of decent sounds.






                      share|improve this answer




























                        1














                        The simple answer is of course you can. You won't break the thing. But whether you get a satisfying sound out of it - it really depends of what type of guitar sound you want to use.



                        It also depends on what type of bass amp you have. I'd argue that since the Fender Bassman's times when guitar and bass amps design were quite similar we had a substantial evolution and divergence of the two. And while Fender Bassman is definitely a guitar friendly animal, modern amps like Gallien Kruger, SWR or Markbass might be less so.



                        Guitar amps are designed for organic multistage distortion. Some of the most iconic rock sounds involve compound effect of preamp distorition, power amp clipping, transformer saturation and the way a really thin almost paper like speaker membranes of guitar amps color the sound.



                        One practical solution would be to use the bass amp along with some sort of guitar modelling solution to get a variety of decent sounds.






                        share|improve this answer


























                          1












                          1








                          1







                          The simple answer is of course you can. You won't break the thing. But whether you get a satisfying sound out of it - it really depends of what type of guitar sound you want to use.



                          It also depends on what type of bass amp you have. I'd argue that since the Fender Bassman's times when guitar and bass amps design were quite similar we had a substantial evolution and divergence of the two. And while Fender Bassman is definitely a guitar friendly animal, modern amps like Gallien Kruger, SWR or Markbass might be less so.



                          Guitar amps are designed for organic multistage distortion. Some of the most iconic rock sounds involve compound effect of preamp distorition, power amp clipping, transformer saturation and the way a really thin almost paper like speaker membranes of guitar amps color the sound.



                          One practical solution would be to use the bass amp along with some sort of guitar modelling solution to get a variety of decent sounds.






                          share|improve this answer













                          The simple answer is of course you can. You won't break the thing. But whether you get a satisfying sound out of it - it really depends of what type of guitar sound you want to use.



                          It also depends on what type of bass amp you have. I'd argue that since the Fender Bassman's times when guitar and bass amps design were quite similar we had a substantial evolution and divergence of the two. And while Fender Bassman is definitely a guitar friendly animal, modern amps like Gallien Kruger, SWR or Markbass might be less so.



                          Guitar amps are designed for organic multistage distortion. Some of the most iconic rock sounds involve compound effect of preamp distorition, power amp clipping, transformer saturation and the way a really thin almost paper like speaker membranes of guitar amps color the sound.



                          One practical solution would be to use the bass amp along with some sort of guitar modelling solution to get a variety of decent sounds.







                          share|improve this answer












                          share|improve this answer



                          share|improve this answer










                          answered 17 hours ago









                          Jarek.DJarek.D

                          8767




                          8767






















                              Kristin Larocque is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










                              draft saved

                              draft discarded


















                              Kristin Larocque is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













                              Kristin Larocque is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












                              Kristin Larocque is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















                              Thanks for contributing an answer to Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange!


                              • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                              But avoid



                              • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                              • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


                              To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                              draft saved


                              draft discarded














                              StackExchange.ready(
                              function () {
                              StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmusic.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f82463%2fcan-i-play-a-electric-guitar-through-a-bass-amplifier%23new-answer', 'question_page');
                              }
                              );

                              Post as a guest















                              Required, but never shown





















































                              Required, but never shown














                              Required, but never shown












                              Required, but never shown







                              Required, but never shown

































                              Required, but never shown














                              Required, but never shown












                              Required, but never shown







                              Required, but never shown







                              Popular posts from this blog

                              is 'sed' thread safeWhat should someone know about using Python scripts in the shell?Nexenta bash script uses...

                              How do i solve the “ No module named 'mlxtend' ” issue on Jupyter?

                              Pilgersdorf Inhaltsverzeichnis Geografie | Geschichte | Bevölkerungsentwicklung | Politik | Kultur...