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Cheap Bass amp alternative

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(@robbie)
Honorable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 453
Topic starter  

Hi guys;
I have a small practice amp to be specific it is a Peavey Blazer 158. It has 15 W and is a 4 ohm
amp. Can I hook this amp to a 30 W/max 60 W bass reflex speaker 8 ohm designed for a stereo by hooking a mono 1/4 inch plug to it and inserting the plug into the headphone output on the amp? This is to be a short term solution as I want to buy a bass guitar and this would be for immediate use as I cannot afford a new bass amp and the guitar just now. The alternative would be to buy a cheaper bass amp for the time being but I always find I lose out buying stuff I don't really want. Another alternative is to just use my fender 900 deluxe amp but don't really want to take a chance screwing it up. What do you suggest?
Robbie


   
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(@robbie)
Honorable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 453
Topic starter  

Well I got impatient waiting for a reply to the above question and tried the stereo speaker plugged into the small amp. There doesn't appear to be enough jam in the amp to drive this speaker. So I guess the answer is that you can hook it up but it will be a waste of time. So can you tell me if there is any chance of hurting my fender guitar amp if I use it for practice until I can get a proper bass amp. The fender is 90W with 1 celestion 12" speaker. The volume will not be cranked when & if I use it.
Robbie


   
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(@ricochet)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 7833
 

You're unlikely to harm your amp or its speaker by playing your bass through it.

As for playing through a stereo speaker, you can't do it with the headphone jack, it doesn't put out the full power. You'd have to have a jack to plug into the speaker output and disconnect the internal speaker. Many amps have that built in. It's an easy modification to make if you're handy with stuff like drills and soldering irons.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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(@mcdouggy)
Trusted Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 57
 

Just watch out that if your bass has active pickups and you turn up the volume on the bass too much, you're likely to distort or clip the input stage of your guitar amp. You'll know because of the horrible grating noise it makes! If this clipping is going to the speaker all the time, it won't be doing it much good.

Doug

Visit my band's website!


   
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(@ricochet)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 7833
 

Clipping won't hurt a guitar speaker. It hurts a stereo speaker or any speaker with tweeters and a crossover, because it puts a relatively larger percentage of the amp's ouput power into the high frequencies that are being diverted to the tweeter, so the tweeter gets overpowered and fried. In the guitar speaker's case, all the frequencies are going to the amp anyway, and it's only important that the total power including the high frequencies from clipping distortion isn't more than the speaker can handle. That's an issue for acoustic guitar amps with tweeters, though.

A guitar speaker can be damaged by having too much total power applied to it, or if it's driven by a very high powered bass signal so that it damages the speaker from driving it through too wide an excursion, tearing the cone or surround. Most guitar amps won't put out enough bass power to damage a speaker rated to handle the amp's power.

That 15W amp really might damage the 30W stereo speaker, due to that clipping/treble overload effect when pushed hard. I've seen that happen with a low powered stereo pushed into clipping and speakers rated for twice the power of the amp.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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(@hueseph)
Noble Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 1543
 

Are you planning to record with this or are you planning to gig? If all you need to do is record then you can just invest in a DI box. It's not uncommon to record bass via DI. There a tonnes of amp emulator plugins that you can download for free if you have a vst capable software. If you are just using it live a DI isn't a bad option either. You have more control over the level in the mix and frankly, you will be heard. As opposed to using an amp which will be hell to get enough volume in your live mix.

https://soundcloud.com/hue-nery/hue-audio-sampler


   
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(@robbie)
Honorable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 453
Topic starter  

Thanx everyone. This would have been a temporary solution at best. After reading your replies it seems like the best solution is to bite the bullet and buy a bass amp. May look for a used amp for now. I just wanted a small practice setup to get me up and going with my bass which I plan to buy in the next week or so. I really don't want to damage my present guitar amps or my stereo speaker either for that matter. I appreciate the feedback.
Robbie


   
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