Tagged As: Vintage Bass Guitar
Question:
I'm involved in a project where I don't know whether I'll be playing bass or guitar in the long term, I just know that I'll be playing one of them, and I'm looking for a rig that's gonna' be versatile without sounding awful. I've come to the conclusion that a Fender Bassman tube head is a natural for the job - I was thinking 100 watts, on the basis that enough bass headroom is essential, I'll guess I'll just survive without that elusive amp overdrive as always. The big thing is what speakers to use. Are the stock issue Fender cabs loaded with bass-capable speakers? And, if I just pick up a head and get the speaker/s seperately, what config/brand/model would be cool, does anybody know? I'm not really into carrying stuff, I was thinking just get a 15 inch with a tweeter or soemthing, but will that be too slow for guitar? I'd appreciate any opinions, or hearing from others who're doing the same thing.
Answer:
Basically you can pretty much forget using the same speakers for guitar and bass unless you're after a vintage bass tone or want to use a pod-like variant for guitar.. The good news is that a 1x12 is enough for guitar so a small enclosure isn't so bad eh? And that's if you absolutely need a valve sound (see pod above) Bass speakers are (and need to be) huge by comparison so no avoiding that. Where you can cut corners is with preamps. If you need a valve amp sound at higher power, you can plug an H&K cream machine and crunch master combination through a PA amp and out to a speaker cab or use the modern POD alternative into fullrange bass cabs- just beware that the PA amp is likely to be too powerful for the 1x12... Still, it's feasible - just take care which bass cabs you buy and either make sure that they can produce a decent sound with a pod or your 1x12 is good enough to go.
Versatile amp set-up for guitar/bass - any ideas peoples?
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Comment #1 (Posted by Frances Nieznay
)
If you want vintage sounds with guitar and bass try the old reliable V-4 by ampeg the linden NJ era. the have approx 100 watts ,all tube with reverb .Ive been using one since the earley 70's with various cabs depending on what and where I play . it also records great . -
Comment #2 (Posted by KC
)
Since we don't see many amps advertised as both a guitar/bass amp, there's a fundamental reason why. Not withstanding that, it really depends on what volume you will play at. The lower the volume, the easier it is to play guitar/bass through the same amp. Maybe a speaker box with a 15" and a separately wired 12" would work. That way you can plug the amp into either one depending on your situation. Maybe it would work if the 12" was limited in bass response by a capacitor. A tech would know how to do that. It also depends on your budget. Maybe getting one head and two speaker boxes would work. Bass speakers get a different freq. range than guitar speakers. Do you already have a bass guitar and a 6 string guitar. Which one are you starting off on? Why would you be switching from guitar to bass or vice versa? Are you practicing both? If you get a solid state head, a tube based stomp box can get you the distortion you need for the guitar. Good luck.