In this guide, let’s look at whether you can use your guitar amp to play bass guitar or whether you need to buy a dedicated bass amp.
If you have guitar pedals and are interested in using them with a bass, find out if you can use your guitar pedals for bass in this guide.
An alternative to playing bass through a guitar amp is to make your guitar sound like a bass. Find out how you can make your guitar sound like a bass in this guide.
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Yes, you can plug a bass into a guitar amp. While guitar amps aren’t designed to handle bass input, it will work. But there is a risk you can damage your guitar amp with a bass at a high volume.
But before you plug a bass into your guitar amp, let’s look at the potential risk and how to make sure you don’t blow up your amp.
The main differences between a bass amp and a guitar amp are the speaker size, the power output, the amp features, and the frequency range.
The Difference Between Bass & Guitar Amps
Bass guitars use very low frequencies that move a lot of air. When you hear a bass at a gig, you’ll feel the air move more than you hear it.
To do this, bass guitar amps tend to use larger speakers (eg: 15 inch) and use a lot of power to move the speaker.
Guitars use a higher frequency range compared to bass guitars, so guitar amps are designed to use smaller speakers (eg: 8-12 inch) and drive those speakers in different ways.
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This is why there is a potential risk to your guitar amp when you plug a bass into it. Guitar amps aren’t designed to drive the speaker in the same way a bass amp is designed to push it.
If you were to crank your guitar amp with a bass plugged in, the low frequencies of the bass guitar can quickly become an issue for your guitar amp’s speaker.
While small bass practice amps use small speakers (eg: 8 inch), they’re still designed to drive the speaker in different ways than a guitar amp with the same size speaker.
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Now imagine a guitar amp trying to vibrate as far as this. Guitar amps don’t need to handle super-low frequencies, so they’re not designed to move very far when they vibrate.
If a guitar amp has the volume cranked up and you try to play a bass through it, the sound will clip (bad sounding distortion) and it may damage the speaker.
You can tell a bass amp from a guitar amp by the size of the speaker and the features on the amp. Bass amps usually have larger speakers and less controls than guitar amps.
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A lot of bass amps will have Bass written somewhere on it or will use a ‘B’ in the model number (eg: Vox Pathfinder 10B).
If you look at the number of knobs on the two above amps, you’ll notice that the guitar amp (on the right) has far more knobs and controls. This is common as small bass amps tend to only use a few knobs for volume and EQ.
The amp on the left is a Ampeg BA-210 450-watt combo bass amp. Even from the name of the amp it should be obvious it is a bass amp.
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450-watts is a ridiculous amount for a guitar amp, but very common for bass amps. The guitar amp on the right is 100w, which is common (and very loud) for a large guitar combo amp.
Notice the strange speaker layout in the bass amp (look closely to see the diagonal layout and port holes)? The height and arrangement of the speakers in the bass cabinet are designed to move as much air as possible. That’s why bass amps tend to be tall like this one.
You might notice some strange features on the front panel such as the line out jack. This is a common feature on bass amps where they can plug directly into a mixer.
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Guitar amps use a maximum of 12 inch speakers (usually 4×12 as shown above), while bass stack amps can use massive speakers.
Even at this size, you can see that the bass amp panel still has a very limited number of knobs. This one includes EQ sliders, but the other features remain basic compared to a typical guitar amp.
When you plug a bass into a guitar amp, don’t expect it to sound as good as a real bass amp. Guitar amps are designed to make guitars sound good, which doesn’t work very well with bass.
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If you listen to this with headphones, you’ll hear how the bass sounds thick and rich in tone. The amp gives the bass plenty of clarity for a nice clean tone.
You might be able to tweak the tone with the amp’s EQ knobs and get something closer to a decent bass tone, but it will never sound as good as a real bass amp.
For at home practice on the cheap, this will work. But if you want to get serious about playing bass, you’ll need to find something that works with bass as explained below.
Is Bass Amp Different Than Guitar Amp?
While you could use almost any amp as explained above, there are some amps that are designed to be used for both bass and guitar.
A guitar and bass hybrid amp (or a combined amp) can accept input from either bass or guitar. These amps are designed to play both instruments with good quality tone.
When you plug your guitar in, you can set up presets suitable for guitar tones. When you plug your bass in, you can set up different presets that suit bass.
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If you wanted to play bass at gigs, this amp won’t be suitable. You would need a dedicated bass amp or plug directly into the mixer (known as DI: Direct Input).
Let’s say you have a small guitar amp you want to use with a bass guitar. Let’s look at how to get the best bass tone possible out of it.
First, make sure your amp is set to a clean channel. If your amp doesn’t have multiple channels, make sure the gain is set low to prevent any overdrive or distortion.
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Remove any inbuilt effects from your tone such as reverb, chorus, or delay. While bass guitarists do use effects on occasion, start with a dry tone.
Next, plug your bass in with the master volume set low. Play around with the volume and see how high it will go before you start hearing the tone start to break up or it sounds like the speaker is struggling.
To get the best tone possible, adjust the EQ knobs. The most important EQ knob is the bass knob. Adjust that to see how much bass frequencies you can squeeze out of your amp.
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The mid knob will change the overall shape of your tone. You will probably want to lower it to avoid your bass sounding boxy.
The treble knob will affect the higher frequencies. Depending on your amp, you may want to lower this to focus the attention on the lower frequencies.
The key to a good bass tone when using a guitar amp is to adjust the EQ and keep the tone as clean as possible. Every guitar amp is different, so play around with the EQ until you find the best settings to suit your bass.
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So keep this in mind if you start taking bass seriously. A good quality bass amp can make bass incredibly fun to play.
If you use decent speakers with your computer, they will give you a great bass tone. The tone will be far better than what your guitar amp can produce.
If you do want to learn bass and want a better bass tone than what your guitar amp can produce, you might want to buy a cheap bass amp.
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A cheap bass amp will sound better than an expensive guitar amp and you won’t risk damaging your guitar amp’s speakers if you want to raise the volume.
But if you’re looking for a really cheap option, the VOX amPlug 2 is about as cheap as it gets and can produce a good bass tone – as long as you’re happy to use headphones.
The amPlug range are mini headphone amplifiers you plug into your guitar or bass and can hear good quality amp tones through headphones.
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The good news is that any guitarist can quickly learn the basics of playing bass. A lot of the techniques and fretboard knowledge carry over from guitar to bass.
This doesn’t mean bass is easy to learn, but if you already know the basics of playing guitar, you can get a head start on learning how to play bass.
Other techniques such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides also carry over when you pick up a bass. You can even use a pick to play bass, so you could very quickly learn how to play a lot of riffs and bass lines the first time you pick up a bass.
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If you are a guitarist and are interested in learning bass, I highly recommend it. Not only will you get a head-start from your guitar knowledge, but bass can
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