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Post subject: Is A Bass Amplifier Necessary?
Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 4:26 am
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Do we really need a Bass Amplifier to power the Guitar Arrangement of our new musical instruments which include some bass guitars?


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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:48 pm
yep


Last edited by 6163asfj on Fri Sep 17, 2010 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:21 pm
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Normal guitar amps and speakers are not designed for the low frequencies a bass makes.

Bass frequencies also needs a lot more power to generate adequate volume.

So yes you need to match the amp and its speakers to the task they are to perform.

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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 8:13 pm
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Agree with all of the above. I would also add this, due to the different voicing of guitar amps, you have to cut so much mid frequency out to make a guitar sound right for bass that in my opinion you wreck a lot of the natural tone qualities of the amp itself. Or so it seems that way any time I plug a bass into a guitar amp.


Last edited by Delta66 on Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:04 pm
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Depends on the sound and volume you are looking for. For my 2 cents, when playing against a classic acoustic guitar type sound, with a low volume, a super reverb makes an excellent bass amp. The sound is really sweet.


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Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 9:00 am
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You can always play thru the PA system, just make sure you have a monitor in front of you so you can hear yourself. If you are not using a PA system, then you will need something that will cut thru those higher frequencies (of the guitar or keys players) and allow the ground to rumble.


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Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:27 am
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Bulldawg wrote:
You can always play thru the PA system, just make sure you have a monitor in front of you so you can hear yourself. If you are not using a PA system, then you will need something that will cut thru those higher frequencies (of the guitar or keys players) and allow the ground to rumble.


+1

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Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:03 am
yep


Last edited by 6163asfj on Fri Sep 17, 2010 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:50 pm
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Guitar amp head might work (lots of bass players used the BF SHowman heads for bass), but you need to use bass cab amd/or speakers. Guitar speakers can't handle it, and will blow out pretty quickly with anything more than living room levels.

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Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 12:44 pm
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Bulldawg wrote:
You can always play thru the PA system, just make sure you have a monitor in front of you so you can hear yourself. If you are not using a PA system, then you will need something that will cut thru those higher frequencies (of the guitar or keys players) and allow the ground to rumble.


If doing this you might want to consider using a Sans Amp Bass Driver or Behringer BDI21 instead of a regular DI box, otherwise you risk a rather colourless, clinical sound. Either one of these tools will give you much more of that warm, vintage sound, especially with a passive bass like most Fenders. I regularly use a BDI21 with my P-Bass running through the church sound system, and it works just fine. But you do need a monitor in order to hear clearly what you are playing!


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Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 4:48 pm
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either a sansamp, or possible a multi effect processor could act as a di or go clean with Countryman Type 85, Avalon U5

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 2:56 am
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eyecandy wrote:
or possible a multi effect processor could act as a di...


That's a point, eyecandy. The Zoom B2.1u for instance has an XLR out. Never tried one myself, but the guitar-players' G2 series are solidly made, quiet, and the amp models sound pretty realistic, so it might be well worth a try. Not expensive, after all.


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Post subject: Is A Bass Amplifier Necessary?
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:18 pm
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We all know bass speakers flucuate at a very low freq. You need sufficient power to move that speaker. Bass guitars are designed to provide the low freq., so they can move the speakers. If you run a bass guitar through a regular guitar amp, you can get away with it at low volumes. I've recorded using a Super Reverb once, just to try it out. But really, you will easily overdrive the guitar amps, and if pushed can blow the cones and rip the speakers. Running a bass through a PA is not wise, unless you have sufficient subs to handle it. Even with that I would still use a decent bass amp to ge the required sound.


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Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2010 4:09 pm
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It's worth noting that running the bass direct to a decent PA (especially the house PA in a church or similar setting) is a common procedure, described in detail on both the Tech21 (SansAmp) and Behringer websites. The house sound, in the hands of an intelligent sound guy/gal, is excellent - the issue from the bassist's point of view, is more one of monitoring. Unless you have the luxury of in-ear monitors, you may want to use a small bass amp as a monitor instead of relying on foldback. Or so I've discovered!


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Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 1:09 pm
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It all depends on the application. There are some guys that run both a bass amp and a guitar amp together. The four major ones I can remember that have done that are dUg Pinnick (Kings X), Stanley Clarke, John Entwistle, and Chris Squire (Yes). What will happen is the limited frequency response in the guitar amp can act like a crossover so that you will have that fuzzy top end while still having a clean fundamental low end. Also since most guitar amps now a days have 2 channels you can have clean and distorted high ends.

Also it depends on the amps. Think about it like this since the Nu-metal thing has started happening there has been a phenomena of guitarists severely detuning and/or playing detuned 7+ stringed guitars leaving that low string the same as the A on your bass. Guitar amps have had to adjust their designs to facilitate this trend.

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