Playing Bass through a guitar amp, dangerous?

[grado]

I know that playing a Bass through a guitar amp doesn't sound very good but I've also always assumed that it was potentially damaging to the guitar amp, or at least it's speaker.

Is that correct?

[BIGGERSTAFF]

It won't hurt the amp, but the speakers on the other hand may be damaged(if playing through guitar speakers).

[Ishouldbeking]

I think it would depend on a few things, and in some cases could be dangerous, but then again I've known people that do it.

Example: a JC-120 can handle bass just fine. I wouldn't crank it or anything, but I was in a guitar store where they had a jazz chorus with a variety of boss bass pedals set up as a pedal testing station, and i've heard it go pretty loud without a problem.

[2 Loud 4 You]

Well I was nervous about doing it but when I was recording an album on bass the engineer wanted me to play a solo through a 5150. Granted solo means I wasn't playing the low strings but I was still nervous about playing through it. Everything was fine though. Personally though, I would avoid it if possible.

[dillonfiore]

It can burn up inputs/outputs, but I dont think it would like fry the amp forever. I wouldnt put it to the test though

[fyrwyr]

It breaks speakers in pretty good

[The Golden Boy]

Originally Posted by dillonfiore

It can burn up inputs/outputs,

I've never heard that before.

As far as I'm aware, it's completely harmless to the amp- you probably won't get the response (particularly bottom end response) you're looking for. I've known dozens of people that have used Showmans, D-180s and JMP 100w SuperLeads for bass for years.

You do, however, have to be careful about the speakers. Generally speaking, guitar speakers aren't meant to reproduce 40 hz. Doing so at decent volume will do bad things.

[GibsonSGgirl]

I'm glad someone has asked this question on here. As I'm mainly a guitar player, and not a bassist, I play my bass thru my Deluxe Reverb. Granted, I've never turned it up very loud at all, in fact, it never goes beyound 2-3 on the vol, and I use the 'normal' channel and turn the treb/bass knobs all the way down, in case that would cause a problem.

Is it really bad for my amp to play my bass thru it? I know it's a vintage amp, but I'm sure bassists back in the 60s played their basses thru guitar amps like Fenders...

[Lucidology]

Originally Posted by Ishouldbeking

Example: a JC-120 can handle bass just fine... and i've heard it go pretty loud without a problem.

Jaco often used a JC-120 ...:BEER

[lowendgenerator]

I don't see any passive instrument blowing up the actual amplifier or anything. In fact, when my good friend's bass amp had warantee issues, the store gave him an Ampeg 4x10 cabinet and a Crate Powerblock to use in the meantime. He actually gigged with it and it sounded good!

[Jake]

Growing up my bass teacher would have me plug into one input of his '64 Princeton Reverb and he would plug into the other. Always low volume, no slapping or thumbing, never a problem.

The biggest issue you'll have is if you turn the volume up (to what would be considered "normal" for guitar playing) and get aggressive - with the low strings especially. The speaker in a guitar amp likely isn't designed to handle the immediate changes a pop or slap at low frequencies will put it through, so you can cook a speaker fairly easily if you're not careful. At low practice volumes it should be fine, especially if you're just running your flatwound strung P-bass through some old Motown tunes.

[spyrotheleo]

so it would be fine to run a base through a guitar amp head and then use a bass speaker cab? Or could the guitar head powering the bass cab be bad?

[John Phillips]

Some of the most memorable bass sounds were done with guitar amps - usually fairly high-powered ones, admittedly. (The Clash's Should I Stay Or Should I Go is a great example - Marshall 100W guitar amp.)

The only risk is to the speakers - and then only if they're pushed beyond their power handling or excursion limit, so it's perfectly safe at low volumes. As long as you're well below the amp's maximum power and not using a distorted sound (a distorted waveform at the sort of frequencies a bass will produce is very hard on speakers) or severe transients like Jake said, there's no risk at all.

It's absolutely fine to use a guitar head through a bass cabinet, as long as the impedances match and the cab can take more than the power of the amp (which most combinations like this will do, since bass cabs are usually much higher rated). Be careful if the bass cabinet has a tweeter though - they don't usually like distortion (and sound bad, as well as risking blowing them) - turn it off or very low.

[alanbass1]

Originally Posted by dillonfiore

It can burn up inputs/outputs, but I dont think it would like fry the amp forever. I wouldnt put it to the test though

Won't do that.

The biggest issue will be the speakers as these are likely to blow if they are 'wattage' matched to the amp and the amp is cranked up. The sounds will be more upper mid biased through a guitar amp and, even when not pushed, guitar speakers have a habit of 'flapping' on the low notes.

One of the best bass sounds I ever achieved for recording is through a Mesa Boogie MKIII, clean channel, switched to 20 watt class A going into the built in EV200 watt speaker. It sounded awesome, clean and loads of lower mids slam - I was absolutely amazed. Went pretty loud too.

[Rick51]

Originally Posted by GibsonSGgirl

Is it really bad for my amp to play my bass thru it? I know it's a vintage amp, but I'm sure bassists back in the 60s played their basses thru guitar amps like Fenders...

Back in the 60's, playing a bass through a guitar amp was thought to be abusive. None of the players I knew then would allow it. Pretty easy to blow a speaker. Besides, the bass player should just play through his own darn amp! No amp, you're not ready to run with the big dogs.

Of course, a dual Showman with 2 - JBL D140F's would handle anything.

-Rick