Topic: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

Hello, fellow chordians, I'm looking for some advice.

I'm using a Marshall AS100 amp for my acoustic guitars, and I recently got my hands on a semiacoustic bass guitar, an Ibanez AEB 8.
Now I'm wondering if it's safe to use the bass guitar on my rather expensive acoustic amp, or if I had better get a bass amp.

Thanks for your help,

nc

Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

Maybe at low volumes would not do any damage , but I would think a bass amp is the way to go .

Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

Any significant volume level will blow the speaker.

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Ya'll wanna go down to the Guf?

4 (edited by netzcoyote 2009-11-06 19:38:29)

Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

gotya, guys. Juat what I figured.
Thanks

5 (edited by deadstring 2009-11-07 00:38:03)

Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

On a lighter note, if it blows you could always play Marty Robbins "Don't Worry Bout ME"   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVTKeVhN1Bc

Check at 1:26 into song.

When the Power of Love overcomes The Love of Power the world will be a better place.

Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

If you're gonna just use it to practice with, or jam with someone in the living room, you should have no problems putting the bass through the amp. I'd use channel 2 for it though. It's an amp set up for acoustic instruments, and it's got 2 8" speakers, so use it my man. You probably shouldn't play bass for a gig through it just to be on the safe side. I've been playing bass/guitar for 30 years and played lots of gigs through all kinds of weird set-ups in a pinch and the only time an amp ever went out on me was when a girl spilled a beer into my Ampeg SVT. So get plenty of use out of that nice amp you got.
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Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

I would not. Get a bass amp. The 2 are completely different. Your acoustic amp is not designed for the lows that your bass can and will produce. Just MHO

I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.
Elvis Costello

Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

A bass amp will give you better response on those low notes, but it's safe to play through a guitar amp.  The amplifier drives the speaker cone regardless of the input.      Keep your amplifier set up in a reasonable way, and you should be able to play through it just fine. 

I've run my bass (mounted with obnoxious humbuckers) through a 100W Crate guitar amp for months at concert volumes, and I still occasionally run it through a little 12W Kustom tube amp.    An amplifier has two jobs.  1st is to amplify the guitar signal.  2nd is to protect the speaker cabinet from damage.  Bass pickups don't generate any more signal than guitar pickups do.

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Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

jerome.oneil wrote:

A bass amp will give you better response on those low notes, but it's safe to play through a guitar amp.  The amplifier drives the speaker cone regardless of the input.      Keep your amplifier set up in a reasonable way, and you should be able to play through it just fine. 

I've run my bass (mounted with obnoxious humbuckers) through a 100W Crate guitar amp for months at concert volumes, and I still occasionally run it through a little 12W Kustom tube amp.    An amplifier has two jobs.  1st is to amplify the guitar signal.  2nd is to protect the speaker cabinet from damage.  Bass pickups don't generate any more signal than guitar pickups do.

I thought the speaker cones were different? I've been told that the cones on a guitar amp will tear from extended use with a bass....is this a myth?

I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.
Elvis Costello

Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

i just came back to this thread of mine after several months and I find excellent posts here.

Chrodians rule!

Thanks a lot guys.

Btw, I love my AS100 so very much, that I decided not to plug in the bass guitar. I bought a Roland Micro Cube for Bass instead, great little practice thingy. It has built-in drum loops to jam along to, can run on batteries for a few hours and it wasn't even that expensive.

Re: Safe to use acoustic guitar amp with an acoustic bass?

Tried that one time with my short-owned ibanez bass guitar and my Line-6 amp.
Turned up the volume and heard the speaker distort with that "PHBBBBBBBTTTTT" sound.
Promptly turned the volume back down and put it up.
Sold the amp shortly thereafter.
It just never responded to the bass strings on my guitars the same after that day...

Dm

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but mediocrity knows nothing more than itself."

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