Using a guitar cab for bass

[abc]

Hi again,

 

Guitar cabs should not be that good for bass, I believe I have read somewhere. But, what do you think about this one,

 

http://carvinworld.com/products/single.php?ItemNumber=412B&CID=GA

 

CLosed back, good enough (for me) power rating.

 

Just wondered.

 

regards/

 

ABC

[Rick Hoffman]

That cab won't work for bass, dude.

Guitar and bass amplifiers and cabinets are two completely different worlds.

 

For one, they occupy different positions in the freq spectrum. Take a look at the specs on the amp your looking at. You want somethin down low, lower than 72 hz, so you can really hear the clarity and voice of your bass, I mean you want to hear good tone, man. And you won't ever use the 5khz with a bass unless you had a 12 string

 

I would recommend you perform a search function on bass cabinets in this forum, read everyone's opinions/reviews then go out and play as many of these cabs as you can.

 

good luck and always ask before you buy!

[_Sweet Willie_]

It might work, but why are you considering that 4x12 guitar cab instead of one of Carvin's 4x10 or 2x12 bass cabs?

 

I recently played my bass through a Roland JC-120 guitar amp and it sounded surprisingly good.

 

Originally posted by Herrrrrrre's Johnny:

For one, they occupy different positions in the freq spectrum. Take a look at the specs on the amp your looking at. You want somethin down low, lower than 72 hz, so you can really hear the clarity and voice of your bass, I mean you want to hear good tone, man. And you won't ever use the 5khz with a bass unless you had a 12 string

 

I would argue that the "clarity" of my bass does not come from sub-72 Hz. I agree that if I want some bass in my bass, I might want a cab that goes lower. However, there are bass cabs with lower freqs at 55-60 Hz -- not that far from 72 Hz.

 

Since the use of two-way and multi-way designs for bass cabs, the frequency extension has gone up to 10 kHz and higher. Many bass amps have treble EQs with centers set at 4 kHz and higher. High frequency horns and tweeters have served to extend the range of bass cabs above 5 kHz.

 

For example, the SWR Goliath Jr. 2x10 cab is rated on SWR's site as going from 45 Hz to 15 kHz. The SWR 12-Stack 4x12 bass cab is rated from 61 Hz to 5 kHz (it doesn't have a tweeter/horn).

 

That Carvin 4x12 guitar cab might work. But I'm curious to know why your investigating a guitar cab rather than a bass cab. The guitar cab might emphasize different frequencies than a bass cab would, and this may or may not be agreeable to "your" sound.

 

Peace.

--SW

[The Bear Jew]

Didn't Geezer Butler (one of "the all-time greatest bassists," or so I've heard) use 4x12 cabs to get his really snotty, rubbery tone in the early days?

 

Guitar cabs can successfully be used for bass, but they don't always have the same amount of bass response as those made specifically for bass frequencies. This might or might not matter to you, depending on what you're looking for in a bass tone.

 

Swapping around cabinets and amps can make for very interesting, individual instrument tones. Let's not forget that the Fender Bassman was originally designed to accompany the Fender P-bass... but it wound up servicing guitars more often and is now generally considered a guitar amp in spite of its name.

 

Our very own ClatterAmy makes use of an entire guitar rig as part of her bass set upa Mesa Rectifier with a 4x12, IIRC. She's doing something interesting and different with bass tones...

 

To make a long post longer, let me say thisgo for it. See what kinda cool noises you can make. If you match up your impedences correctly, everything should be groovy.

[Cup_dup1]

Last week at a badly organised and run venue I played through a Marshall guitar amp. I didn't check to see the model. I worried about blowing the amp, but two bands played through it, and since it was the venues, I didn't really care.

[jeremy c]

You might blow up the speakers.

 

But that might sound cool while it is happening.

 

It seems to me that most people using guitar cabs are splitting their signal and sending the effected stuff to the guitar cabs and the bottom end stuff to the bass cabs.

[Nicklab]

Originally posted by jeremy c:

It seems to me that most people using guitar cabs are splitting their signal and sending the effected stuff to the guitar cabs and the bottom end stuff to the bass cabs.

That's precisely what John Paul Jones was doing when I saw him open for King Crimson. He split the output from his 8, 10 & 12 string basses and sent the lowend to an SWR rig, and the highend, distorted and effected signal to a Marshall guitar stack. It sounded massive!

[Rick Hoffman]

In high school I played in my first metal band. At the time I didn't have a really good bass rig, just a cheap bass and a gorilla practice amp. So the guitar player loaned me a 4x10 guitar cabinet and somehow or other he managed to find me a bass head to use.

 

I don't remember what model the head was, because it really wasn't long before that setup became useless. It sounded really good for about 3 days, until we were jamming one day and all of a sudden I couldn't hear myself play. Everyone else stopped and then when I played I heard these weird noises...

 

Actually, I think half the time I was playing with 2 blown speakers and we all thought it was natural distortion or something because I had the bass amp cranked up to 10 so I could be heard over the guitar player's marshall stack.

 

And yea, thats exactly what Geezer did on the first Sab album. They only had 2 days or something to record it and he was playing through a cabinet with blown speakers I think only one was actually working and thats how he got that sound.

 

So yea, I guess if thats what your looking for then by all means, go for it. But in the long run you might be better served by getting a cabinet intended for the electric bass.

[moot]

Didn't Geezer Butler (one of "the all-time greatest bassists," or so I've heard) use 4x12 cabs to get his really snotty, rubbery tone in the early days? - CMDN

That tone was most likely the by-product of coning material wavin' in the breeze!

I can't see playing a closed box with any other result.

[way2fat]

I think Chris Squire used 4x12's too. abc, don't do it man, buy my Eden 2x12 instead.

[Bass_god_offspring]

It seems to me that most people using guitar cabs are splitting their signal and sending the effected stuff to the guitar cabs and the bottom end stuff to the bass cabs.

this is something that has interested me. i have a Carvin 4x10 and R1000 head, and a Fender 2x12 combo guitar amp. what would be the best and most inexpensive way to split my signal? thanks.

 

[abc]

Thanks all, will look for something else.

 

rgds.