Combo Amp Vs Bass Amp For Playing Bass Guitar

One of the factors that should help drive the decision to buy a bass amp is whether it will be used more on the road, in a stationary play space or a combination of both. A traveling amp requires portability features and will need to be configured to making moving the amp more practical.

Novice players may also need to learn more about using the bass amp instead of a combo guitar amp. Some do not see a difference and may stick to the first one that they purchased. This can affect the sound of their guitars negatively, a scenario that musicians should avoid in live performance. Many musicians agree, however, that using a guitar amp to play the bass guitar is fine for practicing.

One of the reasons the standard combo guitar amp does not work well for bass guitars is because it does not have a low enough frequency response to deliver a rich, pure bass sound. The combo amp usually has an open back and never reaches a frequency below 100Hz. Another danger of using the combo amp to play bass is the possibility of burning out the bass coil when trying to play bass at peak volume. The bass guitar overpowers the combo amp because it simply requires more power to produce the notes.

Some musicians compensate for the amount of power required by keeping the volume on low when playing notes. This defeats the purpose of hearing the deep, robust sound of the lower music range. Musicians would rather go big or go with something other than bass.