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Hi, I have a 1974 year Superbass head that I usually use with a 2 X 15 inch bass cabinet. However, I've recently acquired a couple of 1980s era Marshall 1936 2 X 12 cabinets. They sound quite nice matched to the Superbass with a guitar. Now I'm intrigued by whether I could play bass through this rig? Would the speakers get harmed by low frequencies at gig level volumes?
thanks

Very unlikely

The best thing to do is sell it to me. But seriously, I run my jtm45/100 in a similar way. I run it into a bass cab. The other day I played the bass into the guitar cabinet, but I only did it at very low volumes. It didn't really sound any better than my bass cabinet, so wouldn't really be worth doing, as you're risking blowing your speakers.

OK, thanks, that's what I thought. To be honest, I didnt think it would sound better, but it would look the business. I might think about changing the speakers to 12 inch bass speakers if I can find any.

I wouldn’t bother . . . You’d be much better off using an actual bass cab. The sound of a bass cab is maybe 10% the speaker, and 90% the design of the cabinet. I doubt putting bass speakers in a guitar cab will give you the result you want . . .

I've always understood playing a guitar thru that rig is fine.

However bass thru guitar speakers, especially at volume is a no-no due to the low frequencies.

I've got two of these '74 Super Bass amps. I've run one as bass amp through A guitar cab a couple times over the years. I don't thing it'll harm your speakers. The amp isn't really very bass-y. It just gets super distorted and tends to push the mids. Much a like very low tuned guitar. But not in a good way.
A bass cab and 15s would sound better for bass I reckon. But still very overdriven.

bbrunskill wrote:I wouldn’t bother . . . You’d be much better off using an actual bass cab. The sound of a bass cab is maybe 10% the speaker, and 90% the design of the cabinet. I doubt putting bass speakers in a guitar cab will give you the result you want . . .

Hmmm I'd say maybe 50/50 there. Cabs are important but having a big fuck off speaker that isn't going to sound farty is equally important. Hence the size of your standard woofer driver compared to a mid range....

I've spoken to my amp tech who can get 12 inch bass speakers that can go right in and install a port. They are birch ply cabinets. I figure that as a bass player With this the bins will get used, whereas won't get much use as guitar cabs. If it doesn't work I can swap the speakers Back. They don't need to deliver super loud volume. My normal 2 x 15 cab will no doubt sound better but it is a heavy beast.

Makes me want to do something really loud looking at that rig.

imo you could remove one of the handles and use that as a port then you wont have to cut the cab and harm the resale.

Great idea about using a handle hole for a port. My techo designs and builds speaker cabs so they may have a view about where the port needs to go.

Shouldn't do damage but it'll sound a bit toilet.

Well I got Weta guitars to install 12 inch bass speakers, and the cabs did not even need a port to be added. The rig with the superbass amp sounds wickedly crunchy, quite different from with my 2X 15 cab. I get to try it out at a gig on Friday ....
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