anyone use a bass amp for a guitar??

[dmraco]

I am interested in everyones thoughts on this...how would it should playing thru a bass amp...hartke 4x10...or am ampeg stack....?

 

[jerryjg]

I think some of the older bass amps , like an Ampeg B-15 with a simple 15' speaker are going to be very good for guitar. You pronbably know that(   4x10 open backed Bassmans and such). The Hartkes and stuff like that will probably sound very good depending on what you play through them, and your style of music,  however I sincerly doubt they'll sound as good as an amp optimized for guitar frequencies.
Where  you'll get into real trouble is the Bass speakers/cabinet . They just wont give you much high end shimmer and bloom , or get you any of the subtle nuances, cause the frequencies are cut off way below those of a guitar cabinet.
That doesnt mean you can't use it, especially for drone and nu metal and crap like that.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

My first non-practice amp rig was a Peavey 300w solid state guitar head with a 6x10 Sunn Bass Cab.  It sounded about like you think it would.  Great crunch, deep cleans with no sparkle, and no highs.

 

[Soylent]

I used an old Danolectro Nifty 70 or something like that.. little 1x10 or something.. I since blew the speaker and stopped caring. That being said my LP sounded amazing through it clean.  :headbang:

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I think it was Queens of the Stone Age who use all bass amps on their guitars.
I know for awhile Adam Jones used a Marshall bass head w/ a 4/12 cab along with his diezels.

I've found one of the best low end metal sounds I've heard came from my SS guitar amp plugged into a Hartke 8x10.

 

[jerryjg]

I think it was Queens of the Stone Age who use all bass amps on their guitars.
I know for awhile Adam Jones used a Marshall bass head w/ a 4/12 cab along with his diezels.

I've found one of the best low end metal sounds I've heard came from my SS guitar amp plugged into a Hartke 8x10.

I think some of you are waaay missing the point. The Marshall Superlead tube bass amp is now  one of the most coveted tube guitar amps in the world. Its basicaslly an early  guitar Superlead, with a few small insignificant circuit changes. The old small little funky tube bass amps like   the old tube Danos were all early  Fender  tune amp circuit rip-offs, with cheaper parts, and so all of them sound very good through a guitar . Also, all tweed and Blackface Fender Bassmans wrere initially Bass amps , but come to be very expensive and coveted guitar amps these days..NOT becuase  all bass amps are good guitar amps, but because the old circuits sounded great wiht a guitar.
The Hartke stuff and other new stuff will NOT give you a great guitar sound. Maybe it will sound allright  through a decent guitar cabinet, but with a bass cabinet you can forget it.
Now, lots of old tube guitar amps are killer forbass , especially the old 80's 6 tube {Peavey hybrids and stuff like that.

 

[jimh]

I've got a 72 Fender Bassman 100 tube head running through an Orange 2x12 (two Celestion V30s) which sounds killer.

 

[dmraco]

I've got a 72 Fender Bassman 100 tube head running through an Orange 2x12 (two Celestion V30s) which sounds killer.

Thats is the reason I asked...I ran into a guy buying a used Fender Bassman head (not sure of the year) for his guitar setup.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I think some of you are waaay missing the point.

I wasn't making a point. Just sharing an observation.

 

[erogenousjones17]

Doesn't it depend on the sound you're going for? Tone is subjective after all. A friend of mine runs a Dean V with SD Blackouts into a 200w Peavey bass amp. It sounds like you'd expect: bassy, heavy, and kinda dull. But he plays in a stoner metal band, and his tone is perfect for their sound.

Me? I like treble.  :laughing7:

I think it was Queens of the Stone Age who use all bass amps on their guitars.
I know for awhile Adam Jones used a Marshall bass head w/ a 4/12 cab along with his diezels.

I've found one of the best low end metal sounds I've heard came from my SS guitar amp plugged into a Hartke 8x10.

I dunno about QOTSA, but Josh Homme played through bass amps in Kyuss.

 

[MUYFUE]

Sometimes I play guitar through my Ampeg SS head into a Trace 4X10 and get a GREAT clean sound. Clean, it gives me LOTS of dynamics/headroom, reminds me of slap'n'pop bass. It makes my V sound like a Tele.
When I throw a pedal on there, it lacks the "whomp" of the 4X12 I usually use for guitar.

On the Flip Flop, For a long time I used that same SS Ampeg into my Mesa 4X12 with a dist pedal.  THAT gave me a really crisp and noisless Metal sound. Very clean, I guess due to the Ampeg.

I totally agree that the Bassman is a great guitar head!

 

[dbw]

As jerry said, the only difference between most old guitar and bass amps is a couple of capacitor values.  Modern bass amps are mostly solid-state or hybrid and I can't vouch for those.

Josh Homme plays through 70's Ampegs.

 

[MUYFUE]

OOOOOH, Joshy Homie! (rolls eyes)
It's all in the hips, you know. :cool01:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Frusciante (RHCP) has a few unconventional rigs that involve bass cabs.

 

[DangerousR6]

I've got a 72 Fender Bassman 100 tube head running through an Orange 2x12 (two Celestion V30s) which sounds killer.

Thats is the reason I asked...I ran into a guy buying a used Fender Bassman head (not sure of the year) for his guitar setup.

SRV used to use Bassman heads....

 

[jerryjg]

Doesn't it depend on the sound you're going for? Tone is subjective after all.

Tone is NOT subjective. A guitar or amp that sounds  like ass just plain sucks, unless your an complete idiot.
Whats subjective is different sounds of GOOD tone.

I'm really sick of this idea that there is no benchmark for an absolute sound in guitar, and that anybodies sound is legitimate .
If there wasn't a paramter for good tone, I wouldn't be here. If you like some crazy butt suck-tone, then you either have no class, or your stupid as hell.

 

[callaway]

Doesn't it depend on the sound you're going for? Tone is subjective after all.

Tone is NOT subjective. A guitar or amp that sounds  like ass just plain sucks, unless your an complete idiot.
Whats subjective is different sounds of GOOD tone.

I'm really sick of this idea that there is no benchmark for an absolute sound in guitar, and that anybodies sound is legitimate .
If there wasn't a paramter for good tone, I wouldn't be here. If you like some crazy butt suck-tone, then you either have no class, or your stupid as hell.

First, you're making an argument that someone else has "no class" and then proceed to call them "stupid as hell".  (Hello, this is the pot... I know there's a black kettle out there somewhere!) Then you manage to not know how to use contractions ("you're" is the word you're looking for) all in one shot!

Seriously though, there are a lot of good sounds that sound bad with a full band and there are a lot of bad sounds that work for a particular style. There are quite a few Beatles songs where I think, "gosh, Harrison's guitar should sound awful... but it sounds really, really good in context."

The '59 Bassman was a terrible bass amp that was accidentally really great for rock guitar. That legend carried to all Bassmans being hallowed ground for guitarists, so you see many people playing through blackface or silverface Bassmans. I think they don't sound as good as the '59 model, but running 2x 6L6 output tubes won't do much to produce that great of a bass tone these days and they end up sounding pretty good for guitar.

Oh, and tone is subjective. I know several guys that absolutely love their crunch sound through their Crate or Marshall tube amps, while I think it sounds hideous. But I still respect their musicianship---because they are pretty good musicians---and I don't let it bother me that we have different ideas of "good tone".

 

[jerryjg]

B.S> Good tone is good tone and bad tone sucks. period.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

Seeing as how Les Paul invented the Electric Guitar and basically always had what I would consider to be Bad Tone. I"m going to put my vote on the side of tone being completely subjective. Because I"m not going to argue with Les.

 

[Steve_Karl]

I used to use one of these :
http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/images/130U/130U-8192_front.jpg

... with a ' 59 Les Paul Special with p 90s or sometimes a '57 Les Paul TV Junior ... 1 p90.

It was nice. The presence knob was interesting.