# Play bass through a guitar head and bass cab



## cerwinthedoc

I'm sure this has been asked before, but what are the actual dangers to running a bass through a guitar head and a bass cab? I tried it out the other day because my bass head was on the fritz, so I had to make due with what I had there. In this case, a 120 watt solid state guitar head (on clean) and ran it into my friend's bass cab. To be honest, I actually liked the tone. I'm not sure why, but it just had more defined mids and did some very Wooten-esque harmonics. It even had a pretty decent low end, but that may have been because I added an equalizer and a RP80 into the equation. Bottom line, I liked it. 

So, has anyone ran into any long term problems doing this? I know you can play guitar through the guitar head into a bass amp, but what's the possiblity of the bass damaging the head? 

Sorry if this is a noob question by the way. I play guitar as a main instrument, although I recently had to start tracking bass for a project. 

Any help will be gratefully appreciated. Thank you.


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## MF_Kitten

i never understood why people would think a bass could damage guitar gear. the only thing it could potentially do is blow guitar speakers, but if you're playing that loud you only have yourself to blame 

it'll be fine, man. a bass is the same thing as a guitar, except with fewer strings, longer scale and different pickups.

just make sure the ohms and watts ratings go along with eachother (head and cab)


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## Bevo

That will work no problem an amp is an amp, guitar is voiced slightly different that a bass amp but that can be a good thing.

As said the speakers are going to be a problem but since your using a bass cab crank it up.
Guitar speakers tend to over travel and either fart out of blow out. If I had to use my guitar cab for bass the volume would have to be low.

Turn up your gain for some cool tones!


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## TemjinStrife

A bass guitar will shred guitar speakers at anything approaching gig volume, but it should be fine to run through a guitar amp. A number of modern bands do that for overdriven sounds actually... the only problem might be a lack of headroom or of 'useful' EQ points.


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## cerwinthedoc

Thanks to everyone who has helped me out so far. 

I'm asking some noob questions I know, but alot of bass purists I know have been complaining to me and saying that bass "will melt guitar inputs" or something vague like that. I just keep getting alot of stupid myths tossed my way from stupid people in real life, I figured I'd just go on here and talk to people that actually know what they're doing.

I'm considering just getting a bass cab of my own for right now. I saw this one on musicians friend:

Buy Acoustic B115 250w 1x15 Bass Cabinet | Amp Cabinets | Musician's Friend

It's a 250 watt cab, but I only have a 120 watt guitar head. Would I be able to play at gig volumes without tuckering the guitar head out?


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## velvetkevorkian

I wouldn't have thought you would get anywhere near enough clean volume from a guitar head, especially if you're needing to keep up with guitarists playing similarly specced amps- their ~100W distorted tones will be a lot louder than your clean bass, unless you have either a LOT of speakers or a good bit more power. You shouldn't do any damage to the head though, as long as impedance etc. is all matched up.


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## troyguitar

TemjinStrife said:


> A bass guitar will shred guitar speakers at anything approaching gig volume



Then how do people tune their guitars down to F#, F, and even E without destroying their speakers?


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## leonardo7

I always hear from my bassist about how Robert Trujillo has a rectifier somewhere in his rig. You might want to look that up.


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## TheHandOfStone

Haha, this reminds me of a story my bass-playing friend told me. He got yelled at for plugging into a guitar amp at GC because one of the employees thought that it would, and I quote, "*blow up the amp*." I kid you not. He might have been thinking of potential speaker damage at high volumes, but that's a lot different than what he said. 



troyguitar said:


> Then how do people tune their guitars down to F#, F, and even E without destroying their speakers?



That's a good question actually. As I'm sure you know, an 8 string (or normal guitar tuned that low) still pushes much more "guitar-like" frequencies than a 34"+ bass with really thick strings. So my guess is that the problem would be more with EQ than pitch...but I don't know, you could be right.


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## GRUNTKOR

Yeah, the low tuned guitar has a lot less actual bass frequencies to the sound, most of what you hear is the overtones of the string rather than the fundemental note


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## leftyguitarjoe

My 12 string has 2 outputs, and my Peavey has 2 inputs, so I play it through my guitar rig all the time. As ling as you are playing at practice volume, you'll be perfectly fine.


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## Ckackley

I would think that the "speaker shredding" comes from the percussive qualities that a bass has. An 8 string guitar doesn't have the same Oomph and punch in the lower freq's as a bass. Back in the day when I was playing guitar and bass (depending on the project) I'd occasionally practice with my bass plugged into my guitar amp. One day I turned up a little louder and the speaker died a horrible farting death. I plugged my guitar back in and sure enough , the speaker was cooked. The line out on the amp to another cab sounded fine though. So the amp didn't get phased but the speaker couldn't take it.


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## troyguitar

So what about something like a 30" scale instrument, should it be OK through a guitar rig? I'm curious because I intend to build myself a 30" 6-string bass/guitar/thing


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## Ckackley

No clue. My guess would be to see what kind of output you wind up with and what type of pickups and strings you're using. I'd say bass strings+ bass pickups and electronics might get kinda weird. Worst case scenario pick up a bass cab. 
Now that I'm thinking about it , would it be an idea to get a guitar cab and a bass cab and route the lower freqs to the bass cab while the highs go to the guitar cab? Or am I making this WAY to complicated .


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## SargeantVomit

The reason bass will tear a guitar speaker apart at anything about bedroom levels is because MOST (not all) guitar speakers have a very short X-max*. Speakers that are made to handle bass have much higher X-max than speakers that are made specifically for mid frequencies. 

*X-max is the term referring to the maximum excursion of the speaker. The maximum horizontal movement the cone can move before the surround will buckle and crease. It's also referred to as linear excursion.

Here is a speaker.







Imagine the speaker with virtually no surround moving back and forth to produce low frequencies. Then imagine one that was designed specifically with reproducing those frequencies in mind. That's the difference between a guitar speaker and subwoofer. On top of that, most guitar speakers have much thinner cones than bass speakers, allowing for much less abuse. Remember, cones are made out of PAPER.

With that said, it depends on the speaker and depends on how you're playing and your EQ settings, etc etc etc. But generally, the right speaker enclosure for the job is going to save you a lot of time/money/grief. As far as guitar heads go though, go nuts. You're not going to destroy a head with your bass UNLESS you push that little 100w SS thing too hard into clipping and fry it, but that's not the bass that destroyed it, that's you expecting too much from the amp.


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## 8string

and you could always do it the other way around. guitar through bass amps can sound killer


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## signalgrey

ive done it before. i a/b/ab switched between a 5150 and an Ampeg SVT the AB setting was fucking awesome. just get a bass cab and youll be fine. you will definitely need to do some EQing.

some meaning alot.


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## TemjinStrife

troyguitar said:


> Then how do people tune their guitars down to F#, F, and even E without destroying their speakers?



What everyone here has said. Bass guitar pushes WAY more in terms of low-frequency transients, which is what destroys speakers.

This is one reason why a lot of bass rigs are less than foolproof; if I were to boost the low EQ on my Eden and crank the pre gain and master, I could blow up my amp head and destroy my speakers in one go. This is why I hate letting my rig be used as a backline; there's plenty of power there to cause it to self-destruct, and I don't want 'generic musician number 5' playing it unless I know them and they know what the fuck they're doing.


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## Bevo

Just for kicks I plugged my Engle Fireball 60 into my Ampeg 2-10 and had a go.
EQ changes had to be done but overall it was pretty killer, loud as hell too. This set up is easier louder than my 200 watt Hartke SS head.
Its a hoot to use the distortion channel!!

Tube power goes much further than SS.


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## MF_Kitten

so yeah, basically be careful with the speakers.

meshuggah used to play the bass through a dual recto just like the guitars. they used guitar cabs too. they did the "turn down bass before distortion" thing to retain clarity thing too. distorted bass would be less harmful too though, since there aren´t any peaks and stuff.

but you´re talking about using a bass cab, which i´m sure will do just fine as long as the aforementioned ohm and watt ratings are okay with eachother.

the only thing i can tell you is don´t get a bass cab with a tweeter if you want to do dirty bass tones. there´s a reason guitar speakers don´t usually have tweeters.


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## SargeantVomit

Tweeters are definitely a no-no. Although if you have one, most are attenuated and if not, an attenuator is pretty cheap.


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## TemjinStrife

Yeah, tweeters give a nasty buzz with distortion 

But most cabs have the option to turn them off or attenuate them to nothing.


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## kslight

If anyone is seriously interested in this and wants a good speaker cab (the hardest part about this is finding a good sounding appropriate cab...no tweeters or other bs), talk to Earcandy Cabs. I had an extensive conversation with him about this because my primary instrument is bass VI, which sounds better to my ears through a guitar amp than a bass amp, but I wanted a good bass cab without a tweeter. He is going to make me a 2x12 buzzbomb with 1 "bass" speaker and one full range guitar speaker (which he says I can't blow) and combo inputs so I can do either or both speakers. Any extended range bass player would probably find this useful, and I bet it would kill for 8 string guitar players as well.


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## Cheesebuiscut

Wait wait so srsly whats the difference between a low tuned guitar and a bass? For instance tosins TIL has a low E a 30" scale and a Q-tuner bass pup in the neck but he runs it through an orange cab. Why hasn't that exploded?

I've been wondering this for a while now I'm glad a thread got made


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## kslight

Cheesebuiscut said:


> Wait wait so srsly whats the difference between a low tuned guitar and a bass? For instance tosins TIL has a low E a 30" scale and a Q-tuner bass pup in the neck but he runs it through an orange cab. Why hasn't that exploded?
> 
> I've been wondering this for a while now I'm glad a thread got made



How you play it. 

As far as I'm concerned once you hit a 30" scale with heavy strings and a low E you are more or less a bass. Using guitar pickups or bass pickups is irrelevant because a bass VI traditionally uses guitar pickups (either jaguar single coils if you have a Fender, or Schecter uses mini humbuckers, or Agile you can use strat single coils or filtertrons). All of them are more than capable of sounding just like a bass, just a matter of technique and amp used.

How you play, the volume you play at, and your EQ can make a difference...I cut the bass way out and don't really hit a low E much on my bass VI, and I play through a tweed bassman combo (4x10 guitar speakers). I also don't play incredibly loud through it, never gigged with this setup.


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## Bevo

Interesting, let me know how that Earcandy cab works out!

Looking for the same thing, cab for guitar and bass..


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## Cheesebuiscut

kslight said:


> How you play it.
> 
> As far as I'm concerned once you hit a 30" scale with heavy strings and a low E you are more or less a bass. Using guitar pickups or bass pickups is irrelevant because a bass VI traditionally uses guitar pickups (either jaguar single coils if you have a Fender, or Schecter uses mini humbuckers, or Agile you can use strat single coils or filtertrons). All of them are more than capable of sounding just like a bass, just a matter of technique and amp used.
> 
> How you play, the volume you play at, and your EQ can make a difference...I cut the bass way out and don't really hit a low E much on my bass VI, and I play through a tweed bassman combo (4x10 guitar speakers). I also don't play incredibly loud through it, never gigged with this setup.



That doesn't explain why his speakers haven't exploded at all. Or the guys who tune F# or F or D etc that people have talked about gigging.

The string gauge is there albeit a different kind of string (guitar instead of bass) the scale is there and there is no difference between Q-tuners guitar and bass pups besides size. The only things differen't there from a straight up bass (assuming the same pickup) would be bass strings which are made from a different material and scale length, but would those 2 be enough to go from the speaker being ok to blowing out?


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## kslight

Cheesebuiscut said:


> That doesn't explain why his speakers haven't exploded at all. Or the guys who tune F# or F or D etc that people have talked about gigging.
> 
> The string gauge is there albeit a different kind of string (guitar instead of bass) the scale is there and there is no difference between Q-tuners guitar and bass pups besides size. The only things differen't there from a straight up bass (assuming the same pickup) would be bass strings which are made from a different material and scale length, but would those 2 be enough to go from the speaker being ok to blowing out?



Speakers aren't going to "explode"... Totally depends on the efficiency of the cab and the speakers they are using and how loud they are playing (compared to the excursion limits of their speakers), as well as really how they play. If they chugga chugga all day cranked to 11 on a low E through an open back guitar cab for example....they would probably wreck the speakers. 

It also depends on how efficiently they are producing low end...like I read about people that are tuning down to F# with a .72 on a 28" scale...well that's really not an efficient way to do it IMHO, so they aren't producing as much bottom end as I will at low E with a .95 on a 30" scale.


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## Cheesebuiscut

I'm just talking gigging volume. So does it just come down to scale and gauge? I always figured the longer the scale the more treble you were getting or just brightness instead of mud. So I figured there would be a ton more low end coming from someone like the guys on here who use .100 gauge strings for F or F# on a 25.5" scale. The one guy was using an 80 gauge string on a 28.625" scale for B which I would figure would easily produce a ton of low end and as far as I know these guys are still using guitar cabs and amps.

(correct me if I'm wrong if anyone knows) 

So whats stopping that from destroying the speakers?


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## Metal Ken

cerwinthedoc said:


> I'm sure this has been asked before, but what are the actual dangers to running a bass through a guitar head and a bass cab?



the only real danger is that you could not like the tone you get. If (Possibly) shitty tone is of no concern, you're fine 

That said, it could sound good. I dunno. never really messed with it too much.


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## SargeantVomit

Cheesebuiscut said:


> So whats to stop that from destroying the speakers?



It's really simple. If the frequencies being produced at significant volume require the surround of the cone to move farther than it's maximum excursion point it will crease/bend/tear the speaker cone. 

It's a matter of EQ, if you're tuning down to E at 40hz and using a guitar cab, you either are pushing the speakers past their X-max, or you are being smart and not actually getting much fundamental that low and are relying on secondary and tertiary harmonics of the note. If you want low tone and good fundamentals it's important to have speakers with higher X-max.


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## Bevo

Sarg

So just thinking out loud here..
If you were to put a passive crossover blocking out the damaging frequencys would that work?
Going back to that 2-12 with one guitar speaker and one bass speaker. If both were tuned to only play what they were designed for would that not allow them to run flat out with no damage?

Thanks


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## kslight

Bevo said:


> Sarg
> 
> So just thinking out loud here..
> If you were to put a passive crossover blocking out the damaging frequencys would that work?
> Going back to that 2-12 with one guitar speaker and one bass speaker. If both were tuned to only play what they were designed for would that not allow them to run flat out with no damage?
> 
> Thanks



Yes its been done my many before for those that use separate cabinets.

The custom 2x12 I referred to per Earcandy could run without a crossover and neither speaker would get damaged so long as I used an appropriate wattage head with the right impedance.


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## swayman

cerwinthedoc said:


> I'm sure this has been asked before, but what are the actual dangers to running a bass through a guitar head and a bass cab? I tried it out the other day because my bass head was on the fritz, so I had to make due with what I had there. In this case, a 120 watt solid state guitar head (on clean) and ran it into my friend's bass cab. To be honest, I actually liked the tone. I'm not sure why, but it just had more defined mids and did some very Wooten-esque harmonics. It even had a pretty decent low end, but that may have been because I added an equalizer and a RP80 into the equation. Bottom line, I liked it.
> 
> So, has anyone ran into any long term problems doing this? I know you can play guitar through the guitar head into a bass amp, but what's the possiblity of the bass damaging the head?
> 
> Sorry if this is a noob question by the way. I play guitar as a main instrument, although I recently had to start tracking bass for a project.
> 
> Any help will be gratefully appreciated. Thank you.



As everyone else has said, just watch your levels, but it'll be fine.

It's amazing how many myths are out there in the music world. But I guess as somebody who just worked out 2/3 of his life has been involved in music, follow your ears then your eyes.

If dudes didn't experiment with equipment, we wouldn't have amplification.

As long as the speakers aren't distorting or pushing too much, they'll be fine.


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## TemjinStrife

swayman said:


> As long as the speakers aren't distorting or pushing too much, they'll be fine.



In the heat of the gig, though, it's very possible to reach over and turn it up to 'just get a little more volume' and blow something since you might not immediately hear the speaker distress signs.


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