Guitar Amps

Read and learn more about bass guitar amps. For more, visit the Guitar Amp website GuitarAmpUniverse.com

Q: What is the difference between Guitar amps and Bass Guitar amps?
Im getting a bass for Christmas and if not I’m going to buy, I was just wondering what are the main differences between normal guitar amps and bass guitar amps?

Cheers

A: Because of the lower audio range basses have, they are “optimized” to handle the lower notes. Most bass amps don’t have any effects.

Conversely, guitars are more in the mid and high range of audio, so they are optimized to handle mid and high audio qualities. Many guitar amps have some sort of effect.

If used to be that bass amps had speakers with larger diameter than guitar amps, but speaker designs have changed – It is common to see good bass gear running 10 inch speakers because of the way the cone is designed.

Galen-Kruger or Ampeg bass head and either 2-10″ + a 16″ speakers or 4-10s is a great bass rig. Fender or Line-6 with 2 or 4-10″ speakers is a great guitar rig… Then there are keyboard-specific amps from Roland, too…

Q: What are the best amps for bass and guitar? Why?
Having NO idea of technical features, I wanted to know and gather information on the best amps for guitars and bass-guitars. I would appreciate any attempt to teach about their special features or flaws. The use would be to practice, to record and for live presentations. Within a considerable and manageable price, not something only clapton can afford to buy. Thanks a lot.

A: One of the best brands out there for both guitar and bass is Crate. For just guitar, there’s Line 6, Fender, and Marshall (usually overpriced). For bass, there’s Fender again, Ampeg, Hartke, Peavy, and SWR. Those aren’t the only quality manufacturers out there, just the name brands. For affordability, its hard to beat Crate, though Fender isn’t bad. You could also look into Beringer for bass, which is a very decent amp, and isn’t costly at all. Amps don’t have to come new also, you can browse used music shops for good deals, just make sure you play before you buy.

Q: Are bass guitar amps and guitar amps the same?
If so, can you use on for both?

A: NOOOOOO. no. you CAN use a guitar with a bass amp. but! do not use a bass with a guitar amp. It will blow the speaker. And a piece of trivia. THe bassman was made in the 50s as a bass amp but now it is regarded as one of the best guitar amps

Q: Is there a difference between Bass Amps and Guitar amps?
I’m getting a bass guitar [well, most likely] and I don’t want to get a regular guitar amp and blow out the speakers. But then today I was playing bass with my music teacher and he used the same speaker for guitar and bass, so I got confused. Help please.

A: Some amps are optimized for bass and some are optimized more for guitar. Bass amps typically have larger speaker throw and cone area to handle the greater pressure of bass notes, as well as amplifier circuits which are designed to perform best in the lower octaves.

But there are certain amps that are optimized for a wider output range (i.e. highs AND lows). Examples include the Roland Jazz Chorus (JC) and KC series amps. These are typically used for keyboards, but can be used for nearly anything. These amps tend to have a flat response across the whole spectrum, which means they will be less “boomy-bassy” than a bass amp. But it also means you will hear more “details” such as fret and pick noises and harmonics. This can be helpful when you are just learning, because you can more easily hear your mistakes.

If your teacher teaches both guitar and bass, he might use one of these amps. Partly to hear your mistakes better but mostly because he won’t need to change amps when different students come in.

Q: Do you have to have amps with a bass guitar?
I’m thinking about learning how to play the bass guitar. What I want to know is do you have to have amps? I know amps make it louder, but do you absolutely NEED them? Cause I just want to play at home, so it doesnt need to be that loud. Oh, and does and electric have to have them too?

A: yes an electric bass gutiar and electric guitar both need amplifiers otherwise you can only hear them if it’s COMPLETELY silent. if you don’t want to use an amp however, you can get a headphone amp (like this http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Vox-amPlug-Bass-Headphone-Amp?sku=581087 ) or an acoustic bass guitar (like this http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-Victor-Bailey-Signature-AcousticElectric-Bass?sku=511994 )

the acoustic bass guitars aren’t always as expensive as the one at that link though, i got a good one for a few hundred dollars at guitar center. the links are just examples of what i mean

Q: Help regarding electric Bass and Guitar Amps? Electro-Acoustic guitars?
I currently have an electric bass and im buying an electro acoustic guitar (acoustic guitar with a pick-up).
How would it sound if i played this guitar through the bass amp.
Would it sound substantially better if played thorugh a proper guitar amp?
Are there different amps designed specifically for electric,electro-acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars? or are all guitar amps pretty much the same?

A: >>How would it sound if i played this guitar through the bass amp.<<

Barely acceptable but not great as there would be a lot of highs missing.

>>Would it sound substantially better if played thorugh a proper guitar amp?<<

Yes.

>>Are there different amps designed specifically for electric,electro-acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars?<<

Yes. Amps designed specifically for acoustic electric guitars have a cleaner sound designed to retain the acoustic quality but simply make it louder. Check out the amps by Fishman, LR Baggs, Schertler, and Genz-Benz.

Q: Can Bass guitars be played through regular guitar amps?
Can Bass guitars be played through regular guitar amps?
Also can bass guitars work with regular guitar pedals?

A: Here are the technical issues: Longer wavelengths (bass) take 3 watts of power per watt of guitar wavelength, and much more surface area on a speaker to produce – also the excursion (distance speaker travels) is greater. Plug into a guitar amp, and it’s working at least 3 times as hard to do a note less effeciently as a speaker designed for bass.
Next there the EQ. Equalization is different because the pitch range is different. Adjusting the bass level of a guitar amp is like adjusting the mid range of a bass amp.
SOME pedals can be used interchangeably – delay, for example. But due mostly to EQ, several can’t, and aren’t worth tweaking.
If you are worried about space, or using too many amps, get a keyboard amp. It’ll handle anything, and can provide a useful powered monitor on stage.

Q: Guitar and Bass amps…?
I currently play electric guitar and I’m looking to play electric bass as well.

I know that I can’t use guitar amps for bass, but is there any kind of amp that I can use for both bass and guitar, whilst producing a sound that is good enough for practicing at home? (I don’t need to worry about live/recording sound because that is done at a friend’s house)

I need to get a new amp anyway and I’m on a budget so I don’t really want to go off buying two sets of amps if possible.

A: You can use a good bass amp for both.

A number of well known guitarists used a bass amp to record guitar parts. Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded the entire “Texas Flood” album playing through a bass amplifier.

The one problem with using a bass amp for guitar is that bass amps are usually dry – the distortion and reverb effects on a guitar amp are not normally used on the bass, and as such, are typically omitted from the amplifier.

So if you do decide to use a bass amp as your main amp, you’ll need to get a pedal board for your guitar with all of the common effects on it.

A small Fender bass amp will probably do nicely to amplify both bass and guitar for you, provided you do have a floor pedal for the guitar. I use a small 15 watt Fender bass amp as my practice amp for both instruments, actually, and mandolin as well.

Q: Are there bass guitars that plug into guitar amps?
I can’t afford another amp. That’s why I’m wondering.

A: A bass guitar will easily blow an electric guitar amp. While it might work for a little bit (and that’s a guess), the amp would blow before you really knew what happened. The frequency of a bass is too low for it to handle.

Q: Bass guitar?
Ok, so I have a few questions about bass guitars because I want to learn how to play one. 1. are electric guitar amps compatible with bass guitars? 2. I found one that I like from ebay and its made by Grand and I dont know anything about this brand and they dont have a website, so I dont know if I can ever get my hands on one ever again so I want to buy it as soon as possible but I dont know if I can trust it. 3. How easy is learning bass compared to learning electric? thanks alot in advance, I hope your answers can help me decide what I want to do.
BTW: The only reason why I want this “grand” guitar is because They make acrylic (clear) guitars so if any of you know of another brand that makes cheaper acrylic basses, please let me know, thanks.

A: you have come to the right place grasshopper: You can play bass through a guitar amp but you won’t get that true bass sound and feel with them. Never heard of the brand Grand- stay with the good brands- Ampeg, fender, Roland, Ashdown etc. Learning bass is like learning Poker: it takes an aftrenoon to learn it and a lifetime to master it. I play guitar occasionally but my main instrument is bass. Guitar has more chords and more strings to learn depending on your instrument. Whatever you decide I hope that you can learn to read music and not rely on tablature.

Q: Connect multiple guitar/bass amps?
I have three guitar and bass amps. I want to wire them all up to my bass (E.g. the sound comes out of all the amps). Is this possible?

A: Theoretically you can… but use caution. Here is why I say that:

1) If you mean that you have one amp, three guitar speaker cabinets, and one bass speaker cabinet then simply make sure that the total impedance of the three speakers is not a lower number than the impedance rated on the amplifier (or the amplifier may blow). The impedance number can be found on the back of each device. Bass and Guitar Speakers and Amplifiers tend to run at either 4 or 8 ohms (the impedance measurement). You can change the combination ohms rating higher or lower depending on the technique you use to connect them. If you connect your speakers in series, the ohms go up. If you connect the speakers in parallel, the ohms go down. The three websites I listed below should help figure this out. I have run an 8ohms bass speaker cab on a 4ohms bass amplifier for years with no issues. Reversing that amp / speaker ohms would be disastrous though…

2) If each device you have has its own built in speaker/amp combo (i.e. plug it in and you play it) then your best bet is to get a device called a Direct Box. This would allow you to plug in your instrument cable from your bass into the direct box and from there using 2-3 more instrument cables into the various speaker/amps. This would act kind of like a headphones splitter. Then you would adjust each amp for sound level, etc.

WARNING: Guitar speakers are not rated for the same sound decibels (sound pressure level) and frequencies ( the low ones) as bass speakers are so be careful.

Q: does ampeg make guitar amps or only bass?
i got an old one on trade the guy i got it from played guitar on it but other people have told me ampeg only makes bass amps

A: Currently, there is the Ampeg “Diamond Blue” series of guitar combo amps (they look like the “Diamond Blue” bass amps)… But mostly bass amps.

http://www.ampeg.com/products/index.html

They started as “Ampeg Bass Amp company” in the 1940s. The first Ampeg guitar (and accordion) amps came out in 1956 and the company name changed to “The Ampeg Company”.

Q: Best guitar and bass amps for bedroom recording?
Whats the best small (10-20 watt) guitar and bass amplifiers to buy for practicing cabbing and recording techniques? Am I better off with a combo or seperate guitar and bass amps?
Im not looking for loud amplifiers as I have to keep my recording relatively low, but what I do need is a very high quality magnet and cone. Wisdom please people..

A: I’ll start with bass. One of the most common methods of recording bass guitar is Direct to the board, typically through a direct box. On some boards, one or more channes may have seperate Hi-z inputs just for this. A compressor is also an essential tool for this method. You can mic the bass amp, and it’s neccessary to do that under a few circumstances, but in general, direct is the way to do it. It’s also the most quiet. To get a good bass sound using a mic usually requires a decent amount of spl (sound pressure level) to get a really good sound, so were talking about more power than you’ve mentioned.

As far as guitar, it just depends on what sound you want. Are you using pedals or do you want effect on the amp, or do you use any effects at all. The absolute smallest speaker I would use would be an 8″, and some suggest no less than 10″. If you bump up the wattage a little you can use a dual speaker combo. Each speaker can have a unique “signature” so two just doubles your options, but it’s not absolutely necessary. For effects on the amp, I’d recommend Behringer on the low end. They have several nice small affordable amps that have suprisingly good effects. On the high end, there aren’t many amps in the 10-20 w range. Some of the nicer Line 6 Spider and Fender GDEC amps start at 30W. For a basic small amp with no effects in the 10-20 w range, I like the Peavey Rage 158. It’s cheap, it can get loud, and it’s pretty tough. The only problem is that it has a thin sound from the 8″ speaker and you’ll have to really work the mic to get a sweet spot, but thats mostly an issue of speaker size. I know peavy earned a bad name back years ago, but they’ve come back with some really nice products. I gotten some good results from the 158, and even I was pesimistic. All of the amps I’ve listed are the small ones I have experience with, and that’s a limited list. It looks like Behringer, Crate, and Line 6 are making some pretty nice small amps. I haven’t tried or even heard the small Marshalls so I don’t know about them. Just try a bunch. If it sounds good to the ear, it’s probably what your looking for. If your going to use a small amp, and are worried about volume, I have to reccomend a accoustic blanket from markertek or someone simillar. It can be used for isolation, noise reduction, and all sorts of other things. Just a versitile tool, and cheap too.

Q: Bass/Guitar amps/guitars?
Can you use a guitar with a bass amp?
I know that they’re different frequencies,and that bass with a guitar amp would sound weird,but what about that?

I’ve played guitar for about a year and a half,and I had just bought a bass guitar earlier today,like just a side thing,just to teach myself.
So any tips for me too?
Or any free helpful websites/exercises?
Thanks

A: yeah, like the other guy said, a guitar can go in a bass amp, actually, my friend really likes the sound of his guitar through my bass amp, but there is a very high possibility of a bass blowing out a guitar amp, ive seen it done at guitarcenter, don’t try it

Q: Can the drummer hear 150w guitar and 100w bass amps?
Can drummer clearly hear guitar which connected to to 150watt combo and a bass which connected to 100watt combo in a medium practice room?

P.S. ….playing Metal music

A: Yeah, he can hear it fine until he goes deaf.