Can you play a bass through a guitar amp?

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Fender Champion 40

Fender 68 Princeton

The short scale bass strings I use

The long scale bass strings I use

Boss CS-3 compressor pedal

[danielskrivan]

3:43
Me: That's a sick tone.
Phil: The sound becomes unpleasant.

[marksommerville]

Never had a problem. Even with distortion pedals. I realised as you said a detuned 8 string is as low as a bass so yeah never had any issues whatsoever. Guitar shop will say differently so you buy 2 amps.

[montysth]

Lemmy played through Marshall guitar heads and cabs and created the Motörhead sound.

[frankkolton]

"I'm using a shotgun mic so you hear what I hear". Thank you, that is one of the smartest things I've seen on a gear video. We get a more realistic sound of the room. I wish more people would do that for demos.

[AnkerPeet]

When I first started playing bass, all I had was a guitar amp. I practiced on it and would gig with it too. I used it for a couple of years before I bought my first bass amp, a Fender Rumble, which actually blew out the first day I used it. Thankfully the guitar store I bought it at gave me my money back. I ended up using that money to buy a Behringer bass amp which I have had ever since.

[joki]

You're a sick bassist. More bass-videos please!

[Intensecure]

"Oh, by the way, I've got Jennifer Batten's bass"...🙄😁 You show off! 😁😉 Nice!

[randymarsh]

My whole life is a lie your a bassist

[johnnymittens]

I'm in a band with no guitarist but two bassists who both play through bi-amped 100w valve heads and 4x12 cabs, and bass amps

[MelodyBurst]

"This is much louder than you'd practice"
the guy who shows off at Guitar Center: "Oh?"

[SFBGuitar]

Love those old Soundgear basses! One of the best values in a used bass.

[MusicStudent]

The only time I destroyed speakers was with a guitar and a guitar amp. I was using DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers in the bridge position and doing some very cool Hendrix type feedback. The guitar was a Les Paul Copy that was hollow inside (a really cheap light body that helped the feedback effect. Those notes were SCREAMING! I was getting the coolest, most insane sounds. Ace Frehley would’ve been proud. Well, at the height of my guitar screaming session, the voice coils all smoked at once, producing a pretty cool visual effect. The sound quit and I could still hear my strings ringing. ...stunk up the room bad. The cones were not traveling much but that feedback killed the whole 10x4 cabinet, I guess because the voice coils were traveling at light speed causing them to burn out. I seriously doubt playing a bass at low volume through a guitar amp is going to do anything bad. You have to push things like I did...

[JDBlunderbuss]

Running a bass through a guitar rig is actually a cool recording technique - you get some great midrange tones that you can mix in with the dry or DI bass signal!

[couldntbotherr]

In short: ye.. in detail: like be careful

[eisenkeith]

I love that you got to the point within 42 seconds, and without telling me to hit like and subscribe... I am now going to watch the rest of the video

[ChadHargis]

I've seen many guitar players play through a Fender Bassman head. So yeah, amps are amps. The thing to remember about bass is that it's about moving air. You do that in two ways. The diameter of your speaker and the excursion of the speaker. The other thing to be aware of is speaker "loading"...no...not the stress you put on it, but how it's loaded in the cabinet. An open back guitar cab is gonna sound like poop. Sealed enclosures will give you a tighter sound but require more power to achieve the same sound pressure levels. Most bass cabs are ported and tuned to a specific frequency. Another thing to remember is that the bass guitar has low fundamentals, but also harmonics what are even lower. On a five string bass you may not be able to hear the low harmonics because they are below the range of human hearing or the cab can't physically create the note. That's why I run a high pass filter (HPF) called a micro Thumpinator. It cuts everything below 30hz and doesn't send that information to your amp or speaker which allows them to work more efficiently since they aren't trying to produce tones you can't hear anyway.

If you're slapping, like in the video, then you want that crisp, bright top end. But if you want to lay the foundation for the band with some bottom end that shakes the room, I'd suggest using a rig designed for bass or if your PA has great subs, go direct with . I've played in venues that had such good subs I was able to literally shake the building.

[CesarAllGuitar]

Guitar head + bass cabinet is a much more common combination than people think. Now, I have to say I have seen someone ruining the speaker of a1993 Vibroverb 63 reissue while playing a bass plugged into the amp...just be careful as you say

[ericmwolf]

Great explanation! Never had any issues myself playing through guitar amps at practice volumes. Looking forward to more bass videos ;)

[groovydjs]

Come on folks, Lemmy use Marshall Bass Amps, not guitar amps.

[DrDan]

Finally! Was waiting for it since you announced it on Insta. :)