Are you a guitarist or do you play on stage? If yes, then there must be moments when you have no cab available for your amazing electric guitar. What will you do in such a case? Well, there are two options, either stop playing or look for a solution. In such cases, the question might arise in your mind, can I use bass cab with guitar head?
Technically speaking, it is fine to use a bass cab with a guitar head. By doing this, there will be no harm to your instruments, and the music produced is up to the mark. However, it will be hard if you try to use a guitar cab with a bass head. This is where problems begin.
Now, if you are looking to know more about the bass cab and guitar head, this is the article written only for you. Below, we are going to enlist and elaborate on some of the most important things that you must know before working on a bass cab and a guitar head.
Contents
What Is A Bass Cab?
A bass cab or a bass cabinet is nothing but a small cubical box with a speaker attached with a lot of wires. This is what is responsible for allowing your ears, mic, and the audience to hear the final sound produced by a guitarist.
A bass cabinet comes up with an empty enclosure that captures and rightly delivers vibrations and frequency towards the speaker. The enclosure is one of the most important parts of a bass cabinet, and it is essential for an enclosure to be compact and composed.
Most of the bass cabinets come with a sealed enclosure, and the sound is produced by the vibration created by your guitar. However, there are some bass cabs that come with small vents. These vents move air as required by the speaker and offer a compact sound with enough resonance.
Lastly, there are some bass cabinets that come with tweeters. They are small speakers that help to reproduce higher parts of the audible spectrum to make the sound look more solid and offer it more bass.
A Guitar Amp Head: Everything You Need To Know
In simple terms, a guitar head is a normal amplifier that comes without a speaker. Unlike a guitar amp, the guitar amp head needs a cab to produce the sound you want. With a combo or a cab, the amp head of a guitar is of no use and you will not be able to produce any sound with it.
Today, most of guitarists use guitar heads with a separate cab as it allows for more sound quality. So, if you have a guitar head, it is essential to have a compatible cab too. Other than that, there will be no music in the room.
Bass Cab: Merits and Demerits
You know well that it is possible to use a bass cab with a guitar head. But, like any other thing, this combination also comes up with some pros and cons. Below you will find some of the most crucial merits and demerits of using a bass cab with a guitar head.
Merits
If you love to have the bottom-end heavy guitar tone, the bass cab and the guitar head combination is what will suit you the best. It helps you to eliminate almost all high-ends and a vast portion of mids during the mix.
So, if you are one of those who love to enjoy such music, the bass cab and guitar head combination is perfect for you. Also, for a guitarist who prefers a soothing sound with more resonance, this is the combination to follow.
Demerits
One of the main reasons why you should not use the bass cab and guitar head combination is because of its dull tone. Guitarists who prefer a sharp and fresh tone will never like this combination.
Along with it, a bass cab is way bulkier than a guitar cab, so you will have to carry it all along for producing only a certain type of music. Lastly, if your bass cab has tweeters, the sound produced will be a bit scooped, and this is what no guitarist demands.
What Is The Main Difference Between A Bass And Guitar Cab?
The main difference between a bass and a guitar cab is their ability to bear and facilitate lower frequencies. A bass cab comes with a larger speaker than a guitar cab. It allows the bass cab to facilitate lower frequencies with ease, making it one of the most versatile cabs.
On the other hand, a guitar cab cannot facilitate lower frequencies. So, this is the reason why it is fine to use a bass cab with a guitar head but almost impossible to use a guitar cab with a bass head.
Is It Possible To Use Any Cab With Any Guitar?
Until and unless the impedance of the cab is the same, you are good to use any cab with any guitar head. The impedance is what allows you to play music with ease. Without matching impedance, recording, rehearsing, and jamming are going to be quite a hard nut to crack.
However, it is also a good thing that most modern-day cabs come up with similar impedance sockets that allow you to connect any cab with a guitar head easily.
But, it is always suggested to use only those cabs and head combination that helps you produce quality music with no hurdles. This is how you will be able to focus more on music than other things.
Can Connect Your Guitar Affect The Bass Amp?
Well, most guitarists will refrain from using a bass amp for an electric or semi-acoustic guitar, but it is completely fine to use it in case of emergencies. So, if you are thinking of using your guitar with a bass amp, go for it. The guitar tones will not affect the bass amp at all.
Most of the guitars you have come up with have high tones, but they are not capable enough to damage your bass amp. A bass amp is designed and tested to bear the high resonance sound and vibrations of a bass guitar. So, an electric or any other guitar will cause no damage to it no matter how long you play it.
However, it is true that to use a bass amp for your guitar; you will have to make certain settings to help your guitar sound the way you want it. This is how you will be able to produce quality sound while using a bass amp with your guitar.
Will A Guitar Sound Good On A Bass Cab?
If you are thinking of connecting a bass cab with a guitar head, this is going to be a tough but doable task. It is surely possible to connect your guitar with a bass cab. A bass can have a large speaker having a tendency to bear high and low note frequencies that helps your guitar produce the sound you want it to.
Most of the bass cab comes up with a low frequency of 30Hz and a high frequency reaching as much as 30kHz. This is what your guitar notes require to produce sharp, fresh, and quality music. Therefore, what you need to do is get your guitar head and connect it with the bass cab. This will allow you to produce quality music in no time.
Can You Use A Bass Head With A Guitar Cab?
It is possible to use a bass head with a guitar cab, but this is something we will never advise you to do. Using a bass head with a guitar cab will surely damage the cab. A guitar cab is designed to bear the high note frequency of a guitar.
When you connect it to the bass head to play bass, it will surely have to deal with a low frequency; this is what the cab is not designed for.
Therefore if you are thinking of using a bass head with a guitar cab, drop the idea. You might not feel the difference on the spot, but in the long run, the bass guitar will devastate your guitar cab. So, if you have no bass cab, borrow it from your friends but avoid using a guitar cab with a bass head.
Is It Possible To Use A Guitar Head Without A Cab?
Will you ask a guitarist to produce music without strings? Certainly, you would not. So, how can you ask for music from a guitar head when you have no cab available? Without a cab, all the power generated by the head will have no place to go. Thus you will hear no sound, and if you try it continuously, the head will go out of order.
A cabinet is a normal box with speakers attached to it. It is the last part of the chain connecting your guitar, heads, and amps. A cabinet takes electrical energy from your guitar head and converts it into sound energy, and this is how we are able to hear sound through a cab.
So, there is no way that you will be able to produce music with a guitar head having no cable connected.
Conclusion
To conclude, we can say that with this article, you got your answer that you can use a bass cab with a guitar head. Though it is possible to use a bass cab with a guitar head, you will have to keep in mind a lot of things to help you produce music with perfection.
Above, we have listed and elaborated a lot of things that will help you understand everything about a bass cab and guitar head. Whether we talk about connecting the head and cab or it is about the production of sound, we have listed everything in detail. However, if you find anything missing or need any help, let us know. We are here to help you out.
