Anyone else play guitar through their bass rig?

[Vin Venal]

I have a guitar amp, just a lil 15 watt all tube affair, but I've been messing about with just playing through what I've already got set up bass wise, and honestly it sounds sick.

 

I even keep all the settings the same on me pedals and everything. I play in D Standard (bass and guitar). For doom/stoner/sludge sounds this would probably be a good setup for a guitarist.

 

It's maybe a bit harsh for some people's tastes, but I dig abrasive guitar sounds, and if you roll off the tone you can still get some vintagey sounds.

 

Anyway, I'm enjoying having one rig to rule them all, was wondering if anyone else did similar?

 

Pic for attention 

[christhammer666]

i read once that josh when in kyuss played through a bass amp .

 

it does sound killer though, heavier then i felt after my christmas dinner

[Cosmo Valdemar]

I do, but only because I don't have a suitable guitar amp at the moment. It's only playing around at home anyway.

20 minutes ago, christhammer666 said:

i read once that josh when in kyuss played through a bass amp .

 

 

I saw Eyehategod a few years ago and I'm sure they were all playing through bass amps, although I could be mistaken. It certainly sounded like they were 😆

[markbunney]

I tried to play my Ibanez RG guitar through my Darkglass AO head (with headphones). It was bearable for a noodle, but nothing compared to a proper guitar amp 

[christhammer666]

3 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I do, but only because I don't have a suitable guitar amp at the moment. It's only playing around at home anyway.

I saw Eyehategod a few years ago and I'm sure they were all playing through bass amps, although I could be mistaken. It certainly sounded like they were 😆

i remember seeing EHG with soilent green and crowbar at the underworld in london . im a seasoned metal head but my head was throbbing for days lol

[Cosmo Valdemar]

39 minutes ago, christhammer666 said:

i remember seeing EHG with soilent green and crowbar at the underworld in london . im a seasoned metal head but my head was throbbing for days lol

Ha! I was there. I've still got the Soilent Green sticker sonewhere 😆

I seem to remember EHG cutting their set short for some reason, dodgy amp I think. 

[nilorius]

Maybe You would enjoy playing your bass through guitar amp, too !!! 😜

[Franticsmurf]

I've just been offered a rhythm guitar role in a mate's band so rather than shell out for a guitar amp for what may only be a few gigs, I've been trying out various combinations using my existing bass gear. Still early days and I haven't been up to war volume yet, but so far I've been using my Warwick 1x10" (with an adjustable horn) and:

 

Zoom B6 with an Ampeg amp simulation to get a valve emulation - it would do at a pinch, the clean sound being better than the driven sound. I'd consider this if I was playing bass for most of the gig with one or two guitar parts just to keep kit to a minimum.

Boss ME80 through my TCE BAM 200 with the bass rolled off, mids cut a bit and treble boosted. The ME80 is made for guitar and the sound through Warwick is quite nice although it doesn't have the clarity and bite I was looking for. I suspect this is due to the BAM200's pre-amp.

Marshall JMP1 rack valve pre-amp into my Peavey Minimax effects return. This is the combination I'll be using. The JMP1 is an ancient relic of my guitarist days and the Minimax amp section doesn't colour the sound. As an added bonus the Minimax master volume still works despite bypassing the pre-amp. I think the variable volume horn on the cab is great for fine tuning and all I've had to do on the JMP1 is reduce the bass a little. To be fair, as rhythm guitarist, I'd probably be doing that anyway to thin the overall sound out a bit.

[Dad3353]

Guitar played through a Fender Bassman sounds very 'right', to me...

 

[nilorius]

I think, the only way, we can get the right answer is - everbody, at your next band rehearsal, ask your main vocalist - leader, connect his/her signal through bass tube amp and 4x10'' cab, and after 3 hour jam, listen carefully the opinion. They are never wrong !

[doomed]

Don't know if it's still the case, but Doyle from the Misfits used SVT's for many years.

[NancyJohnson]

Of the belief that a geetar through a bass rig is ok for low volume practice at home (with some kind of processing in front of the amp), but in a live context it just doesn't work.  Believe me, I have tried.  Several times.  Doesn't really matter if someone goes, 'Well, <insert name here> did it.'

 

Not limited to my current backline (Darkglass AO900, a pair of DG 1x12s, Barefaced Big One, plus a Fender Pugilist dirt pedal), I could put any combination of this up against my old 75w Line 6 Spider IV and the Line 6 will beat it 24/7.  I do recall many years ago, plugging my old Gibson 335 into a huge Trace Elilot rig I was running with the expectation that this would leave my fellow band members lying on the floor with blood coming out of their ears, but the sad reality was that it just sounded ponky and didn't even cut through the mix even at quite low volumes.

 

Someone with a more technical nuance will probably be able to answer as to why, but my feeling is bass cabinet design doesn't help in the slightest and the circuitry sweet-spot in bass amps design is for lower frequencies.  Remember too that until quite recently there was an expectation for bass amps to run a lot cleaner than their guitar-based brethren.  

 

[Vin Venal]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

Of the belief that a geetar through a bass rig is ok for low volume practice at home (with some kind of processing in front of the amp), but in a live context it just doesn't work.  Believe me, I have tried.  Several times.  Doesn't really matter if someone goes, 'Well, <insert name here> did it.'

 

Not limited to my current backline (Darkglass AO900, a pair of DG 1x12s, Barefaced Big One, plus a Fender Pugilist dirt pedal), I could put any combination of this up against my old 75w Line 6 Spider IV and the Line 6 will beat it 24/7.  I do recall many years ago, plugging my old Gibson 335 into a huge Trace Elilot rig I was running with the expectation that this would leave my fellow band members lying on the floor with blood coming out of their ears, but the sad reality was that it just sounded ponky and didn't even cut through the mix even at quite low volumes.

 

Someone with a more technical nuance will probably be able to answer as to why, but my feeling is bass cabinet design doesn't help in the slightest and the circuitry sweet-spot in bass amps design is for lower frequencies.  Remember too that until quite recently there was an expectation for bass amps to run a lot cleaner than their guitar-based brethren.  

 

I'll give my rig a try at practice and report back.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you, you may be right, but if so I kinda wanna understand why, cuz in theory it should all work fine, it's all the same stuff, there are plenty of good sounding solid state guitar amps, and any issues with frequencies should be solvable with eq. 10" speakers can't be the problem either, cuz there are some legendary guitar amps that use a 4x10. 

 

Maybe it's partly a taste thing, like direct, abrasive guitar tones are my fave, one of my favourite sounds is a Sunn Beta Lead (King Buzzo) and it's basically exactly the same as the Sunn Beta Bass imo, both just high gain solid state amps. For lower gain stuff, Wilko Johnson on his HH100 springs to mind.

[NancyJohnson]

48 minutes ago, Vin Venal said:

I'll give my rig a try at practice and report back.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you, you may be right, but if so I kinda wanna understand why, cuz in theory it should all work fine, it's all the same stuff, there are plenty of good sounding solid state guitar amps, and any issues with frequencies should be solvable with eq. 10" speakers can't be the problem either, cuz there are some legendary guitar amps that use a 4x10. 

 

Maybe it's partly a taste thing, like direct, abrasive guitar tones are my fave, one of my favourite sounds is a Sunn Beta Lead (King Buzzo) and it's basically exactly the same as the Sunn Beta Bass imo, both just high gain solid state amps. For lower gain stuff, Wilko Johnson on his HH100 springs to mind.

 

My Trace rig was ridiculous; GP12 SMX pre, stereo and mono power amps, three cabinets.  For bass it was somewhat overblown (and great fun), but for guitar it just didn't have any throw whatsoever.

 

Oddly, bass into a guitar amp (fed into bass-centric cabinets) sounds fine, if not a little in the thin side tonally.  Perhaps it's a one way street tonally.

[Vin Venal]

6 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

My Trace rig was ridiculous; GP12 SMX pre, stereo and mono power amps, three cabinets.  For bass it was somewhat overblown (and great fun), but for guitar it just didn't have any throw whatsoever.

 

Oddly, bass into a guitar amp (fed into bass-centric cabinets) sounds fine, if not a little in the thin side tonally.  Perhaps it's a one way street tonally.

Maybe it's just a preference thing? I'm a "there are no wrong answers" kind of girl. Or maybe it's more that there are no right ones lol. 🙃

[Steve Browning]

I can tell you that a 335 through a  Mesa Bass 400 and diesel 2x15 sounds absolutely awesome. 

[Crusoe]

When my guitar amp died a few months ago, i tried playing through my Fender Rumble 25. I'm only a bedroom player, but i soon went and bought an LT25. I really didn't like the sound through the bass amp.

[EssentialTension]

On 27/12/2023 at 15:14, Dad3353 said:

Guitar played through a Fender Bassman sounds very 'right', to me...

 

 

Nice!

 

And didn't Marshall use the Fender Bassman as a model for the development of the early Marshall guitar amps?

[thodrik]

Might hook up my Les Paul to my Trace V6 and Mesa 6x10 and see what happens. Probably an incredible amount of volume, might need an overdrive pedal though.

[nilorius]

3 minutes ago, EssentialTension said:

 

Nice!

 

And didn't Marshall use the Fender Bassman as a model for the development of the early Marshall guitar amps?

Yeah, and Michael Jackson ordered to play thriller bass line with acoustic guitar through bass amp with guitar fuzz effect pedal ?

[knirirr]

I've used my Orange Terror with 1x12 cab for a jazz jam on guitar before (G&L ASAT). The tone wasn't bad at all and nicely clean. 

[MacDaddy]

To answer the OP, yes.

Peavey Vypyr VIP 3. Designed for guitar and bass. I've gigged it with both.

 

 

[nilorius]

57 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

To answer the OP, yes.

Peavey Vypyr VIP 3. Designed for guitar and bass. I've gigged it with both.

 

 

Finally - the Unicorn combo. It must be good for violin and chello, too! Congrats !!!

[Lfalex v1.1]

On 27/12/2023 at 13:50, christhammer666 said:

i read once that josh when in kyuss played through a bass amp .

 

it does sound killer though, heavier then i felt after my christmas dinner

 

When I saw them (The first iteration of QOTSA, though) live in Islington (Many moons ago..) he had his guitar amp provide the front-end, and a power amp was slaved from that to power an Ampeg 8x10. Laying sideways on the floor under 2x Marshall cabs.

Sounded immense.

 

I had a guitarist use my Trace stack once. It was monstrous.

 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by Lfalex v1.1

[Beer of the Bass]

I've tried both playing guitar through a full bass rig, and playing guitar heads through cabs intended for bass. I feel like it can work if you're either going for a clean, warm jazz tone, or conversely if you're stacking up a lot of gain and EQing heavily. It's the stuff in between where I've struggled to get something I like. A tweeterless modern bass cab will be warm but a little polite feeling (lacking the cone breakup of classic guitar drivers) and tweeters just sound odd with electric guitar IMO.