Is there any damage in using a guitar amp for bass?

[wangdangdoodle]

Hi all,

I have a ENGL Classic 50 that an electric bassist currently borrows for rehearsals and jams at my place to save bringing his own. He doesn't drive, so it's really possible for him to bring an amp. Heck, if he could drive he'd be bringing his upright! Anyways, was just curious if this can do the amp any damage? We play Jazz and don't have a drummer so we only play at low volumes.... he uses a Fender Japan Jazz Bass...

Thanks.

[fidopunk]

I use my Peavey Classic 30 for bass constantly.
Recently I recorded a few tracks through a Marshall Lead 100 Watt through a 4X12... I'm going to go with no.
Didn't Entwistle and Lemmy do this for the longest time, too?

[fenderslaper]

There won't be any damage to the amp, but a guitar speaker could get damaged. When I was starting out on bass after switching from guitar in the early sixties I played bass thru my blonde Bandmaster. Worked for a while, but eventually I blew the two 12s. If your playing at very low volume you might get away with it.

[jazztele]

if it's pretty low volume, it shouldn't be too big of a deal...guitar speakers don't always handle bass frequencies too good, so sending those frequencies thru at a high volume is usually a recipe for a blown speaker...

i say keep an eye out for a used polytone MB III-- great for guitar or bass--dude can use it when he's over and then you can enjoy it the rest of the time!

[bradpdx]

Low volumes you are OK, but don't push those speakers

[musicalmartin]

In the local early 60's bands in the UK that I played ,as far as I know no-one had a dedicated bass amp ,in fact we used to plug everything into everything ,bass ,vocals ,guitar .Some guys didnt actually own an amp and relied on other members spare jack socket .Amazingly no-ones amp blew up that often and we played as loud as the pub,school hall,scout hut ,church hall fuhrer would allow .We would then turn it up when they left as most hated pop music. We didnt do many pubs as we were all well underage but sometimes that was ignored .Most amps around were Watkins .I really pushed the boat out and owned an Ampeg Reverbrocket.I didnt allow any bass players to plug in to that one though .

[bradpdx]

The real problem is that most guitar cabinets are open-backed, and not properly loaded for low frequencies. In that case, the cones just flap in the breeze and can be damaged. Proper bass cabinets are loaded (e.g. bass reflex, sealed cabinet) so that the cone motion is controlled and excessive motion is resisted.

Again, if you are playing at low volumes this shouldn't be an issue.

[Tim Armstrong]

Back in my misspent youth, I blew out the speaker in an SFDR with my bass and I blew out the 15" Black Widow in my brother's Peavey pedal steel amp as well.

Heck, a month ago an amp malfunction that caused some huge low frequency output (and not in a musically pleasing way!) caused me to blow the Warehouse 15" bass speaker in my bass cab!

Speakers designed for bass can much better handle both the higher wattages AND the cone excursion that the lower frequencies produce. Playing bass at any significant volume can absolutely blow out speakers not designed to do so.

Tim

[SimpleOne]

Blew the Scorpion in my Peavey Bandit also!!

Wish I read this thread first.

[wangdangdoodle]

Thanks for the replies... definatley some food for thought.

I might just get a bass amp. Does anyone have any recommendations for cheap/small bass amps? The cheaper the better, it doesn't need to be loud! I was wondering if there's a micro cube bass amp...

[jazztele]

Originally Posted by wangdangdoodle

Thanks for the replies... definatley some food for thought.

I might just get a bass amp. Does anyone have any recommendations for cheap/small bass amps? The cheaper the better, it doesn't need to be loud! I was wondering if there's a micro cube bass amp...

i have a ten watt acoustic (the brand) that i bought for $99, and we use it for the jazz band rehearsals where i teach...if it survived a year in a high school, i say it's a keeper...

[wangdangdoodle]

Thanks for the recommendation, JT. Now we have a trumpet player with us, we're now using a place down town where amps and there, so it's not really an issue. But, I am still convinced I need a polytone! Your recording of darn that dream doesn't help!

[El Tedesco]

Polytones are great. At least the little combo one of my fellow bass players plugs into.
I couldn't recall the model. Just about knee high and maybe 15" wide. Great tone, nice vibe.

I have a SWR 12" workingman's combo. I love it. It does all I need within the home studio.

[jazztele]

Originally Posted by wangdangdoodle

But, I am still convinced I need a polytone! Your recording of darn that dream doesn't help!

I do really love that amp. Y'know, at the end of the day, i can pretty much sound like me thru anything, but with the polytone, I don't even have to try, really...it's just set it flat, plug it in, and adjust volume to the room...i like that.

[Birdmankustomz]

I played at a gig with a J-bass through a 4x12 marshall, so... I'd say risk is minimal

[Wyzsard]

Originally Posted by wangdangdoodle

Hi all,

I have a ENGL Classic 50 that an electric bassist currently borrows for rehearsals and jams at my place to save bringing his own. He doesn't drive, so it's really possible for him to bring an amp. Heck, if he could drive he'd be bringing his upright! Anyways, was just curious if this can do the amp any damage? We play Jazz and don't have a drummer so we only play at low volumes.... he uses a Fender Japan Jazz Bass...

Thanks.

He could just get a small bass cabinet and run it instead of risking harming the internal speaker(s) of the Engl. I'm not familiar with the ENGL, but on my old Sano amp, I've used it that way. I just put a switch on the neg lead from the power amp speaker out and plug a bass cab in the extension jack on the amp.

Should get better tone that way

[giantslayer]

It is possible to blow a speaker, as everyone else has mentioned. Things I would look at are: how many watts is the head (50 in this case, although it can do a lot more if you push it past its clean headroom), how many watts can the speakers handle, and how loud is it being run? If you've got a 4x12 cab with 100 watt speakers, I wouldn't be worried. If you've got a couple of those 30 watt greenbacks, I would be careful. Another thing is that, when a woofer is being pushed too hard, you can often hear a squeak or plunk type of noise coming from it, and/or it will distort. Blowing a speaker, in my experience, takes a sustained amount of abuse, so if you push it a little, hear a bad sound, and then turn it back down, you're probably fine. Example: one sub we blew at church was after pushing it way too hard for an hour, then the band got down for the sermon, and when they got back up for one more song after, the woofer stopped working after a couple kick drum hits. :(