bass guitar through a guitar amp? and other questions from an ignorant beginner

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I'm off to see a guy about a cheap bass guitar soon, except neither I nor the seller have an amp to test it with. I know you're not supposed to play bass through a guitar amp for fear of blowing the speaker, but how likely is this? Should I take along a 10W practice amp (one of those cheap 90s Park G10R affairs) to play a few notes quietly into just to check it's in working order, or is it too risky?

Also, if I do get it, can I play it (maybe through a Zoom 505 for guitar) directly into my soundcard for recording, or do I need to get an amp before I can do anything else?

Any other beginners' bass tips (never played bass, not too good at guitar but rather more familiar with it) appreciated too. Thanks for your help!

― bassnewb, Monday, 13 March 2006 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

I wouldn't use a guitar amp normally, but you should be fine to just test that the circuit in the bass is okay so long as you keep the volume down and don't go crazy.

For recording, DIing then post processing can work wonders for bass, though an amp will be useful, both for recording and playing... playing straight into your computer is possible but will depend on your speakers, and will probably sound a bit poor without proper compressors/EQing.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Monday, 13 March 2006 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

Thank you. I do plan to buy an amp soonish but it's nice to know whether I should buy one as soon as possible and not touch the bass until then or whether I can wait a week or two and shop around a bit.

What exactly is dangerous about the output of the bass? After I've got it recorded onto the computer, should I EQ it before I listen to it so as not to damage my speakers/headphones? If so, is it a case of filtering out subsonics or rolling off audible bass frequencies?

Sorry if these are all stupid questions (I'm sure they are) but it'd be annoying to wreck the kit I use every day which would cost more than the bass to replace.

― bassnewb, Monday, 13 March 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

I did this for a while back in the day, with no harm done to the amp. Maybe it it had a little light to alert me when it was being overdriven? Actually, now that I think if it, my old roommate used to claim he bought that guitar amp off Bill Evans' widow. Why he had a guitar amp and why my old roommate would have had opportunity to buy it is beyond me. All I know is, I didn't want to upset Bill Evans' ghost by hurting that amp.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 16:37 (nineteen years ago)

It's all to do with how much bass frequencies stress the speaker cone if you think of it in terms of moving it in and out. That and bass frequencies need more power to amplify them to an audible level, which causes the speaker cone to travel more, and stress it.

At low levels you should be fine but it's easy to creep up the volume knob and before you know it you start hearing the tell-tale crackle, which is unfortunately permanent damage.

After I've got it recorded onto the computer, should I EQ it before I listen to it so as not to damage my speakers/headphones? If so, is it a case of filtering out subsonics or rolling off audible bass frequencies?

You should EQ it to make it sound nice (roll off the high frequencies). However, in light of what I said in the first couple of paragraphs, you need to be careful with how much stress you put on your headphones. As a rule, smaller speakers (of which headphone speakers are a type) can take less bass-related punishment before giving up (which is why bass amp speakers are comparatively big).

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Monday, 13 March 2006 17:08 (nineteen years ago)

In my experience, if you've got bass loud enough to actually damage headphone speakers, you should be more concerned about your hearing than your kit.

As stated above, the good news about bass is that it can sound tremendously good recorded direct through just about any preamp (and yes, that little Zoom processor will do) into a computer or to tape. Unlike guitar, where you'll get much better results recording the output of an amp unless you have some really pricey balls-out DI to use.

I regularly use a cheap little guitar practice amp to check basses when I'm setting them up or repairing them. No, it doesn't sound that great, but I can at least tell if the bass is working and staying in tune, etc. Also, it's a cheap 90s Silvertone piece of crap, so if I do blow the speaker, whatever, I'm out $15 to replace the whole amp, and I can use the old amp without the speaker to make a really terrible sounding OD pedal or something. :)

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 13 March 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

How was it that Jamerson recorded? Directly into the board (but a little overdriven) then through a Fairchild limiter and a Pultec EQ? Not that I know what this equipment is, I just read about it in teh books. But yeah, those little boxes really warm up the sound for teh DI.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 18:57 (nineteen years ago)

The truth of the matter is that you don't want to play a bass through a guitar amp becuase it'll sound like shit on a stick (mostly due to cabinet design, also due in some cases to preamp design), not because you'll blow anything up. Meginners should always spend more money on the bass than the amp, 'cause you can practice unplugged, you can always find somebody to borrow off of for gigs, and 'cause most really cheap beginner bass amps sound really really bad. A good bass is more fun to play and will sound acceptable through a bad amp -- vice versa ain't the case.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:11 (nineteen years ago)

For a practice amp that sounds pretty good, is not very heavy and is surprisingly loud for its small size, I recommend the Peavey Microbass.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:19 (nineteen years ago)

ditto the good bass more important than amp vibe. having a bad bass will make you think you're worse than you actually are. there'll be all this looseness and buzziness to your playing that disappears when you play a decent bass.

― Mark Danjer (Danjer), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 17:37 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

I have a question about playing a bass through a guitar amp. If you would play a bass through a guitar amp and you blew the speaker could you just replace the speaker? And instead of using the speakers that come with a guitar amp what if you replaced them right off the bat with ones that were used in for bass amps?

― Lance, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

― am0n, Friday, 19 September 2008 05:58 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

so my favorite thing to do lately is let my octave-tuned bass feed back through a tiny 11 watt practice amp that's cranked all the way up. how long do I have before total speaker meltdown?

― Hungry4Games (crüt), Friday, 23 March 2012 09:59 (thirteen years ago)

it wasn't very long btw

― gimme prizza (crüt), Monday, 2 April 2012 17:20 (thirteen years ago)

: D

― beachville, Monday, 2 April 2012 17:34 (thirteen years ago)

Hahaha

― light dipping assholes (jjjusten), Monday, 2 April 2012 17:34 (thirteen years ago)

\(-_-)/

― beanz meanz lulz (snoball), Monday, 2 April 2012 17:35 (thirteen years ago)

The tiny amp finually succumbed to the damage it sustained through crüt and unusual treatment.

― MIke Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 2 April 2012 18:00 (thirteen years ago)

finally even

― MIke Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 2 April 2012 18:00 (thirteen years ago)

crut is a crul bassmaster

― beachville, Monday, 2 April 2012 18:09 (thirteen years ago)

crüt bomb

― MIke Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 April 2012 01:53 (thirteen years ago)

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