Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

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Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by fyrbyrd »

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?
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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by rickenbackerkid »

Very unlikely

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Post by AiRdAd »

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.

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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by fyrbyrd »

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.

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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by rickenbackerkid »

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 . . .

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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by higainer »

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.

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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by Capt. Black »

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.

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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by Bg »

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....
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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by fyrbyrd »

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.

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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by calling card »

Makes me want to do something really loud looking at that rig.
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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by mrmofo »

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.
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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by fyrbyrd »

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.

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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by Single coil »

Shouldn't do damage but it'll sound a bit toilet.
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Re: Vintage Superbass rig - will it harm speakers to play bass through them?

Post by fyrbyrd »

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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