Guitar speakers for bass?

[TheKman76]

I confess to being ignorant of the possibilities and pitfalls of this as it's not something I've explored. Is there any reason I can't use guitar speakers or cabs for a bass?

Perhaps to preface that question, yes, I understand that displacement limitations of a guitar speaker won't suit bass and I need to be very careful about exactly home much power I apply to it. My limited experience with bass cabs indicates they tend to be either a single 15" heavy paper cone affair, or a multi 10" rigid cone arrangement with optionally a horn. Bass cabs with 12" drivers seem to be rare.

I have a larger 1x12 cab with a G12H Creamback in it and a port tuned in the 50Hz region. Just as an experiment I hooked up a bass head and tried it pushing about 30W, just enough for quiet practice. I was quite surprised at how good this sounded. Brightness and articulation on demand, no major resonant issues to speak of, enough thump to be useful... really not bad.

Thoughts?

 

[StingRay85]

A guitar cab with a port tuned to 50 Hz? Seems strange...

 

[6StringMoFo]

Just going to leave this right here.


Fender Blackfaces?

 

[Whizzercone]

Just going to leave this right here.


Fender Blackfaces?

I believe the guitar amps in his setup come out of a pitch shifter.

 

[6StringMoFo]

I believe the guitar amps in his setup come out of a pitch shifter.

Kerr has been pretty tight lipped about his rig, but I'll leave this here as well.

Royal Blood‘s Mike Kerr: “There are videos on how to sound like us on a budget of £1,500. And I’m always thinking, ‘Man, you could do it with £600!’“

“This is a worldwide exclusive!” Kerr tells Total Guitar as he reveals all about his gear – from his preferred bass distortion pedal to signal-splitting and a bespoke baritone guitar that plays “like a giant bagpipe!”

www.guitarworld.com

 

[fitz]

Loud enough & long enough will damage the speaker.

 

[Geeze]

It's about the 'excursion' [the distance the cone travels] that the bass freqs require for those. I remember way back in my HiFi days that a 32hz soundwave is something on the order of 32 feet from peak to peak - lots of movement to make that happen.

Russ

 

[Whizzercone]

A guitar speaker with a guitar amp is generally ok (dUg, Lemmy, Squire). A guitar speaker with a bass amp requires being more careful.

 

[RLW59]

Depends on the speaker to some extent. And the cab -- open back cabs don't control speakers very well.

ElectroVoice has often used EVM12L's and 12S's as woofers in PA speakers. They handle bass guitar just fine, even slapping and popping, in a closed or ported cab.

Plexi Super Bass used 55Hz G12H-30s, which many people like for guitar. Kind of borderline for slapping and popping but they'll handle Jack Bruce muffled, muddy thump ok in a closed cab.

Bass guitar is only 1 octave below a standard-tuned guitar. If you ever use an octave down doubler pedal, you're playing bass guitar frequencies through your speakers. (Octave pedals squash percussive peaks, so not quite as hard on speakers as an actual bass guitar.)

 

[anitoli]

JCM900 1960A G12T75's rated at 300W will take a 100w bass forever!!!! Been doing this forever with no hiccups. And if you plug a guitar head into the cab you will notice after extended bass pounding that it is really smooth.

 

[TheKman76]

A guitar cab with a port tuned to 50 Hz? Seems strange...

I modified a cab with two ports and a resonance frequency of about 80-100Hz for guitar. With one port blocked it's around 50Hz, just to see if it works ok for bass.

JCM900 1960A G12T75's rated at 300W will take a 100w bass forever!!!! Been doing this forever with no hiccups. And if you plug a guitar head into the cab you will notice after extended bass pounding that it is really smooth.

Break it in with bass, I like it!

Thanks for your input all. What I'm hearing is that so long as I'm applying due care there's no reason not to. I don't think slap and pop will be a problem in my case, but perhaps a limiter/compressor isn't a bad idea?

 

[anitoli]

Here's the proof............................

 

[StingRay85]

Will work but just dont expect massive low end from it

 

[anitoli]

Yeah not the best bass tone but not the worst either. And if you need bass and happen to have a spare 1960 kickin around well it's a target. lol.

 

[TheKman76]

Loud enough & long enough will damage the speaker.

I just watched that video, they're abusing it pretty good there! Also looks to be an open back cab which is helping it in no way.
This is a long way from what I'm doing fortunately.

 

[anitoli]

Vid is a joke. A one speaker cab..........lol. Any john q can pull this off. Lets take a 25w jensen speaker from 1965 and hit it with a 100w o' bass. What did you think was gonna happen.

 

[Whatwhatringrang]

Did not the Walrus play bass thru guitar amps on lots of recording in studio. Bass can sound pretty cool as well with shared cathode type Marshall type amps . Jack Bruce also ,many others used similar stuff sounded awesome. Then again using the t1551 Celestions speakers most likely which are great. I wish more used it in some contexts. Noel Redding also had some amazing sounds and I never see guys going for that type of sound anymore.

I love that type of older Bass sound for some stuff. However dig guys with newer bass gear also when done right.

I would say why not if you’re not blowing lots of speakers/amps. It will be harder on them than a guitar will. I like it for certain sounds. Then again I also like ampeg 8x10s. Solid state even big bass rigs like Mike Gordon/Phil Lesh/Bootsy are body shaking compared to old stuff(more like grungy low mid thing I guess).So I like the modern stuff especially for modern ,funk stuff, and 5 string bass. Just plain more bottom and detail (depends on who i guess).

I do agree that you will not get massive low end compared to the modern bass rigs live possibly. The Swedish bass guy in Mule used Marshall majors and guitar amps into what looks like Marshall 4x12s with lower rated speakers. Sounds pretty great here in studio but live did not have the balls in person kinda like here kinda hear what I mean. Nothing like Allen Woody had back in mid 90s with cranked ampeg svt 8x10. Was disappointed with the low end seeing them live with the new guy compared say the earlier ampeg Woody type thundering break up .

I guess it depends on what you and what works for you.

 

[TheKman76]

Then again I also like ampeg 8x10s.

I'm surprised these are still so popular. Was front row at a small gig a couple of weeks ago with one of these not 20 feet away. Certainly rattles some stuff... eye balls, internal organs, life expectancy.

I set the big cab with the Creamback up next to a friends 25W 8" Orange bass amp yesterday just to see if it's worth the bother or risk. I love the mid range and articulation, the immediacy of the 12". Embarrassingly though, the 8" driver with a purpose built bass cab, out thumps it fairly easily.

Certainly worth exploring this more, but in the context of modern expectations it really doesn't cut it.

 

[Nevets]

Physically if you like the sound you can use them.. the guitar speakers are EQed usually with a bass roll off.

 

[TheKman76]

For laughs today I plugged the bass in the DSL40CR clean with a Swamp Thang *and* the G12H Creamback ported extension cab.

While it's not going to keep up with a loud drummer, wow! Really warm, full and articulate. A little bit vintage sounding, sure, but I have to say I'm loving what a 12" guitar speaker or two does for bass. I think the key is simply to have enough of them to get the power down.

There's a question about how much the DSL effects the tone and whether that tone shaping is part of what draws me to it. Not sure how to work out if it's partly the amp or not at the moment.

The take away from me is that this really needs exploring more. Maybe Lemmy was onto something!