Beefing Up Bass Guitar With Amplitube

Gear Maniac

Bass Amp or Guitar Amp for Synth and Guitar

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I am not a guitar player, but I have one and like to mess around with it w/ my son. We've always used it through an old Crate bass amp which worked fine for guitar and was a nice way to record a different character of monosynth sound.

I'm setting things up now in the main room of our house so I need a new amp, and want to get the Vox Pathfinder 10, which comes in guitar and bass flavors.

Which version would you get for the purpose of occasional "character" recording of monosynth bass and leads and messing around on guitar? I really don't care about the guitar tone but don't want it to sound terrible.

Gear Guru

Your standard guitar amp is going to be very band limited when compared to the output of a synth. A bass amp, especially modern designs that include tweeters for high frequency response, have a much wider range and will be more suitable for a good synth bass line.

The problem is, the level of synths is going to be pretty different than what a guitar or bass amp is going to expect. It always ends up being a bit of a compromise when you try this, but it can give a good effect, especially if you've got an amp that can sound great when hit really hot. I don't have any experience with the Vox Pathfinders, but frankly I think that you'll do better with a good tube amp than a solid state amp.

My advice to you would be to buy the amp that makes your guitar sound as good as you can for your budget and forget about what it will sound like on your synth. You don't want to compromise your guitar sound for an occasional effect on a synth. Instead, in your DAW, use a cheap or free amp modeler plugin on your synth. I think Amplitube still makes a free version that's got a few amp models to get you started and for a few bucks you can add amp models and effects as you want. The best thing about doing things this way is that the Amplitube interface has a blend effect, so you can get a mix of your amp effect and dry synth. This is really great, because you can keep the clean beef of a synth bass sound and add some midrange growl to taste.

I recommend to also look for a Roland JC22 or JC40!

Lives for gear

Yeah, a Roland Jazz Chorus are nice for that.

Lives for gear

I think bass cabs are best suited to bass synths and guitar cabs are good mostly for lead parts. Most bass amps can make some usable guitar sounds, but few guitar amps can be used for good bass sounds.

The magical bits with playing synths through amps and cabinets are ... unsurprisingly ... the amp, and the cabinet. Wait, let me explain.

The amp is generally sought after for saturation. Saturation adds harmonic content that helps sounds be bigger than they really are as well as spreading their harmonic content which helps with keeping them audible in a mix even if their fundamental has to be turned down in absolute volume, gets masked or can't be reproduced by the playback equipment.

Tubes and transformers being the classic option. But don't rule out nice solid state effects. Regards saturation, there are countless options to achieve it. I particularly like the sansamp hardware units. For guitar and lead synths the original, the GT2 and the TRI-AC are all great. For bass sounds I absolutely love the sansamp VTBASSS DI. Tape saturation emulations are another thing I like a lot - they solve the saturation and compression issues in one hit, in a way that sounds comfortable and familiar.

The magic of a cabinet comes from resonance. It's not something we think about a lot, but some resonance can make a bass sound huuuuuge (closed back or ported cab). A different kind of resonance can add spank, sparkle and shimmer (open back cab, especially with more than one speaker).

Now, resonance. Nothing exactly matches a real speaker in a real room with some real microphones. Real speakers have complex nonlinear and variable characters that can't quite be matched in emulation - hit a physical speaker with the same bass note multiple times and each time it will flex and wobble slightly differently. The problems with real speakers are many though - requires significant physical space, loud volumes to get them resonating at their best can be a serious issue, mic-ing them up can be tricky and acoustics matter.

However, you can get damn close with Impulse Responses. Most DAWs have something that can load IRs and there are heaps of freely available IRs of many guitar and bass cabs around to use. Adding a convolution plugin with a bass cab IR loaded onto a synth bass can really add some weight as well as position it in a mix. Give it a try!

PS: I came to recording and then synths from a background as an occasional guitarist and regular bass player.

Lives for gear

If you use a lot of pedals for the guitar, then guitar amp may not be super important. But as has been said, you probably don't want to run synths through a guitar amp. You are likely to lose a lot of the sound doing that.
In the past we've used bass amps to great success for the entire range of synth sounds.

Lives for gear

the VOX Pathfinder 10 is a $90 amp, so i'm wondering what your budget really is.

quite a bit more expensive, but seeing as people have recommended $400+ Roland amps i'll suggest the Fender GTX100 (or maybe the GTX50 if that's too expensive). i think this is the best value on the market right now. tons of amp models and fx, 12" speaker, footswitch, tuner, 60-second looper w/ overdub, stereo fx send/return, stereo XLR line output, USB, etc... you'd probably never need to think about another amp.

i'll be ordering one next week, if i can hold out that long. i had an older version (Mustang III v2) which i absolutely loved and never should have sold, this new one is way better.

if the GTX is more than you'd like to spend, i'd definitely recommend one of the old Fender Mustang amps.

Look for an early to mid 70s Fender Bassman head and pair it with a cab of your choice. Sounds good for guitar and old school bass tones tho won't do the subby sub subs as well.

Or some other nice tube gems from the 70s...fender tube 4 channel PA, a Traynor 50 to 100 way tube head, fender showman or bandmaster heads, earth sound research g-1000, kustom and plush heads (tuck and roll covering, some were tube and some solid state), ampeg v4b or vt-22 (I think, can't remember model numbers), Oliver amps....basically big iron and at least 40-50 watts of tube power will sound nice on both instruments in an old school way.

Gear Maniac

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Budget is tight, this is really just a fun purchase and I am limited by the fact that this is going in our living room so it needs to match the decor. That's how I ended up on the Vox Pathfinder.

So I am choosing the amp primarily for its visual aesthetics, and I just want to be able to play some guitar w/ my toddler for fun. I would, however, like to have the potential to run a synth through it for some fun character.

I may just order the guitar and bass version from Amazon and keep the one that sounds better on both.

Lives for gear

If its in the living room, just plug it in to the stereo! You do have a stereo in the living room, right?

Gear Guru

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunnyCatStudio ➡️

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Budget is tight, this is really just a fun purchase and I am limited by the fact that this is going in our living room so it needs to match the decor. That's how I ended up on the Vox Pathfinder.

So I am choosing the amp primarily for its visual aesthetics, and I just want to be able to play some guitar w/ my toddler for fun. I would, however, like to have the potential to run a synth through it for some fun character.

I may just order the guitar and bass version from Amazon and keep the one that sounds better on both.

Can I get the time back I wasted on thinking of a thoughtful answer? Thanks.

Lives for gear

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunnyCatStudio ➡️

... I am limited by the fact that this is going in our living room so it needs to match the decor. That's how I ended up on the Vox Pathfinder.

So I am choosing the amp primarily for its visual aesthetics ...

i'm trying to picture a living room that matches the look of a VOX amplifier. that thing is positively hideous.

Gear Maniac

Quote:

Originally Posted by zerocrossing ➡️

Can I get the time back I wasted on thinking of a thoughtful answer? Thanks.

I found your answer quite helpful actually.

I feel like I was pretty clear in my OP though - I want to get this amp, should I get bass or guitar version.

Gear Guru

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunnyCatStudio ➡️

I found your answer quite helpful actually.

I feel like I was pretty clear in my OP though - I want to get this amp, should I get bass or guitar version.

I think you should find a new hobby.

Gear Maniac

Quote:

Originally Posted by zerocrossing ➡️

I think you should find a new hobby.

Why is that?

Lives for gear

Any amp is fine for your purposes. Just get something that fits your aesthetics need. A 10" speaker is enough to get all the low frequencies you need from the synth. An 8" ok too but that's the smallest you should go.

Lives for gear

Quote:

Originally Posted by zerocrossing ➡️

I think you should find a new hobby.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunnyCatStudio ➡️

Why is that?

Because model trains are AWESOME!!!

The guitar amp 100%. The guitar will sound good, and it will give you more character for the synth. The bass amp will be pretty bland, no point running the synth through it. And the guitar will sound like crap as well.

Gear Guru

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunnyCatStudio ➡️

Why is that?

It is my belief that someone who picks a piece of gear based on it's look is just out to waste their money on something to distract themselves. You could probably do better by taking up furniture refinishing.

Lives for gear

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbuonacc ➡️

i'm trying to picture a living room that matches the look of a VOX amplifier. that thing is positively hideous.

Ah, you must be talking about the plain old Pathfinder. The OP's getting the Union Jack version, which would look smashing or brilliant in any room.

Lives for gear

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyanM ➡️

The guitar amp 100%. The guitar will sound good, and it will give you more character for the synth. The bass amp will be pretty bland, no point running the synth through it. And the guitar will sound like crap as well.

I disagree with the last part. There are lots of recorded examples of guitars sounding great through bass amps. Also, my son plays my guitar through my Rumble 500 and it's one of the most glorious tones I've ever heard.

Gear Guru

Quote:

Originally Posted by PuggaMahone ➡️

Ah, you must be talking about the plain old Pathfinder. The OP's getting the Union Jack version, which would look smashing or brilliant in any room.

of course it would. every embassy should own at least, one.

Gear Maniac

Update: After 30 years of playing and recording music - I have sold all my music gear and am now deep into Model Trains and Furniture Refinishing.

milesseemusting.blogspot.com

Source: https://gearspace.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1312634-bass-amp-guitar-amp-synth-guitar.html

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