Bass vs. Guitar amps

[Ting Ho Dung]

What's the difference? I know the Bassman was originally a bass amp but guitarists liked it better. But what about a bass through a guitar amp. Is it going to blow it up? My friend, Frank, told me that many Mesa amps are actually bass amps. I don't know if it was a day his meds were not in queue or not. My son is thinking of getting a bass. Does that mean he needs a bass amp or can he play it through his 6505+? I know Ampeg was the old standby with the tall cabs full of 8" speakers. Does that mean this little Phaez amp through the Epi 8" speaker will be a good combo for him?

[RobB]

Sure, have him crank a 5-string thru the 6505 at full volume. Same with the Epi. What could possibly go wrong?

[tbonesullivan]

As you stated, back in the old days, there really wasn't a difference.  However that time rapidly passed, and anything since at least the 70s is clearly for a guitar, or a bass.

Differences:

Power handling/ overhead: Bass amps usually have a far higher power dissipation than a guitar amp. Bass frequencies need more OOMPH and the speakers for that frequency are often also less efficient.

EQ: Guitar amps do a lot of tone shaping to the raw guitar sound, which is actually REALLY mid heavy. This is why if you try to put vocals through a guitar amp, you most likely will not like the result. Bass Guitar amps are usually much flatter in frequency response, closer to a PA system, though still with an EQ curve designed to make the bass guitar sound good.

Speakers: Guitar speakers have a pretty limited frequency response range, usually topping out around 4.5 to 5.5 kHz. Bass speakers are usually pretty much the same as PA speakers, and have frequency response going much lower. They also tend to be flatter in response.

A more important difference is cone breakup. Guitar speakers are in general designed to be driven hard, and can sound best when driven that way, as it brings cone breakup into play.  Bass guitar speakers for the most part do not have that kind of overdriven area. You don't want to hit the maximum power.

 

So, in short, get a little 1x10 or 1x12 practice bass amp for the bass, and don't shred your 6505+

[killerteddybear]

Guitar amps are voiced for guitar, bass amps are voiced for bass.
For learning/practice you can get away with bass through a guitar amp as long as you're not pushing the amp too hard.
But if you plan to perform you're going to want what a bass amp brings to the table.

FWIW I've never had an Ampeg (I've played bass for 45 years) nor am I fond of their tone.
These are the days of Class D amps with small efficient cabinets. Enjoy!

Edited to add:
The Ampeg 'big fridge' cabinets actually have eight 10" speakers in them.
I believe pairs of speakers are sealed (no ports) for a tight response. Still didn't like them.
Personally, I'm a fan of 12" speakers in a properly ported cabinet.

[HSB0531]

3 hours ago, Ting Ho Dung said:

What's the difference? I know the Bassman was originally a bass amp but guitarists liked it better. But what about a bass through a guitar amp. Is it going to blow it up? My friend, Frank, told me that many Mesa amps are actually bass amps. I don't know if it was a day his meds were not in queue or not. My son is thinking of getting a bass. Does that mean he needs a bass amp or can he play it through his 6505+? I know Ampeg was the old standby with the tall cabs full of 8" speakers. Does that mean this little Phaez amp through the Epi 8" speaker will be a good combo for him?

There are some differences and some things the same.

The power amp section is not usually guitar or bass specific, only the output wattage and the amps safe operating area.

The preamp section is where you are more likely to see a difference. Gain stages set for overdrive / distortion, or set for clean "drive" ( similar to sustain without distortion.

The Eq section tailored for guitar vs. bass usually has a higher bass frequency than one for a bass guitar, bass amps may even have a graphic Eq compared to a guitar amps bass/mid/treble.

The speakers, ah the speakers....that's where you need to choose wisely.

While guitar speakers may sound great in the upper bass/mid/treble region, they usually can't handle low frequencies for long periods of time.

 

 

[Steve Haynie]

Old Fender Bassman amps never really had good speaker cabinet designs.  Original Bassman amps were open back combos.  The cabinet with the four 12" inverted diamond shaped baffle was just weird.  The power was just way too low, too.  Put those heads together with a cabinet designed for bass and they get better.  They were just amps back then. 

So far I still have not tried any of the Class D micro amps out there.  Having a wall of SVT's would be nice.  Having a small amp that can fill the room with low end without weighing as much as the average bass player would be nicer. 

[Thundersteel]

I've played my bass through my guitar amp & cab, and if I would have had the volume up, I'm sure the speakers would have blown. It seems they couldn't handle the low frequencies very well.

[Armitage]

Many lower gain guitar amps (not including speakers) have a.022 cap where a bass amp has a larger .047 letting more lows pass... and not much else.

[Jakeboy]

I use my Blonde BASSman for bass sometimes...at low recording levels. A Blonde was Macca's bass amp of choice in studio for a long time....in fact, the Blonde Bassman is prolly the most recorded Beatle amp...but I digress.

I use it with a heavy duty EV SRO coffee can alnico. It could take it at gig volumes but I will not chance it. But for recording it works fine. On the latest recording, I ran all guitar parts through a 6g3 Brown Deluxe head which I ran to the SRO cab....I thought hmmmmm, and then plugged the bass in and turned the Normal Channel tone down. 

Sounded like a bass. 

These are low volume recording applications. YMMV. 

[crunchee]

I started a similar topic earlier this month:

On my Tweed Bassman clone, I'm thinking that the 4 x 10" speaker setup is as important as the amp circuit is for bass, if not more so.  4 x 10"s make for a tight 'bass' response, or the illusion of one, though it puts out more 'midrange' than 'bass' frequencies IMO, due to the limitations of the speakers (they're Italian-made Jensen Alnico P-10R reissues).  Plus, a set of 4 10" speakers won't fart out on bass like a 1 x 12" speaker will...though I haven't actually set the volume at atomic levels to find out where any the speakers start to or do fail.  I ain't made of money!  

[Disturber]

On 2017-02-21 at 9:50 PM, Ting Ho Dung said:

What's the difference? 

Depends on if you are Lemmy or not. If you are Lemmy, no difference.

[prototype-fan]

1 hour ago, Disturber said:

Depends on if you are Lemmy or not. If you are Lemmy, no difference.

I was thinking that too!

[JohnnyB]

The old tweed Bassman was a bit of a failure as a bass amp. Its tranformer was too wimpy and it sagged easily. So they ended up in pawn shops where (the story goes) that black blues players found them for cheap and used them for guitar work, where those same characteristics (low current, small transformer, open back) were ideal for overdriven guitar blues. The first Marshall guitar amps were based on the tweed Bassman.

OTOH, I've heard a bass plugged into a 1960-ish blonde tolex 100w head (Dual Showman?) plugged into two cabinets, each with twin heavy duty JBL 15" speakers, and that bass sounded great.

It's not so much the name of the model but the circuit topography and component selection that determine whether an amp is better for bass or guitar.

[bigolsparky]

I play a Markbass Momark 500 through a 410 Markbass cab.  My head and cab combined weigh about 40 pounds.  The biggest difference is SPEAKERS.  Bass speakers should be almost full range.  Guitar speakers are much more mid-focused.  

[diablo175]

A friend of mine from college would play his guitar thru a bass head and run it into a 4 x 12 cab. He swore, and I'll attest to, that the bass amp gave his guitar a lot more oomph. I dunno. Maybe it was all psycho-somatic. Maybe we thought it sounded heavier but in fact it was some other aspect.

 

[Caddie]

10 hours ago, JohnnyB said:

The old tweed Bassman was a bit of a failure as a bass amp. Its tranformer was too wimpy and it sagged easily. So they ended up in pawn shops where (the story goes) that black blues players found them for cheap and used them for guitar work, where those same characteristics (low current, small transformer, open back) were ideal for overdriven guitar blues. The first Marshall guitar amps were based on the tweed Bassman.

OTOH, I've heard a bass plugged into a 1960-ish blonde tolex 100w head (Dual Showman?) plugged into two cabinets, each with twin heavy duty JBL 15" speakers, and that bass sounded great.

It's not so much the name of the model but the circuit topography and component selection that determine whether an amp is better for bass or guitar.

Circuit Topography is not an American issue.  It only applies in Canadia.  The Integrated Circuit Topography Act of 1990 legislation passed by the Parliament of Canadia in 1990 regulates the intellectual property of integrated circuit topographies.  The Integrated Circuit Topography Act of 1990?!  Sounds like a crazy thing for government intervention.  But hey,  Canadia invented

• the iceing penalty
• Yukon Jack whiskey
• jelly donuts 

So who am I to judge, eh?

caddie

ps - did that upset somebody?  come on you canucks, bring it, drop the gloves. I'll pull your sweater over yer head ya hoser,

[mc2]

There is a BIG difference on which amp to stick your jack into.

 

 

BASS AMP.....

 

 

 

 

GUITAR AMP....

 

 

 

 

Maybe there was a poster like this at your local music store back in the 1960s and that is why there are now 50 times more guitar players than bass players. 

 

[mc2]

On a less visual explanation.....I would say that old school bass amps are sometimes favored as guitar amps because they can offer that fuller lower range to a guitar, if the speaker cab is using 12s or 10s, but still offer enough highs to satisfy many 6-stringers.

If you are using pedals and just talking about pure sound amplification, a bass amp can double as a guitar amp but a guitar amp cannot double as a bass amp. I would think that might hold even more true with modern 7- and 8-string guitarists who push 6-strings into those lower frequencies.