# Guitar Amp as Subwoofer?



## m0b1liz3

I was wondering if guitar amps are any good for using as a subwoofer or would the bass they produce be too loose. The idea was to have a crossover and have the output in mono to my amp to use it as a sub woofer. Seems like it could work. I might need an active crossover for the RCA cables to be split like that though. Anyone try this in the past?


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## amphead

Did you mean guitar amp speaker? Speakers designed for guitar amplifiers usually don't have a wide enough spectrum for reproducing recorded music with good sound quality. You might get away with using one as a subwoofer, because of the limited frequency range. It would not be ideal, but could work. Depending on your circumstances, it would be easier to blow if it was not designed for a bass guitar amplifier.


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## m0b1liz3

Nope, not just a speaker but a full amp. I had wondered about blowing it but guitar amps go pretty loud. A crossover would be needed. I don't think my current amp would be appropriate but some of the ones with 10' or 12" speakers may work. It was just a random thought.


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## amb

Guitar amps will make very poor subwoofers. They are optimized for the range of frequencies that guitars produce, which doesn't go very low! The speaker driver in them are designed for high SPLs at the mid-bass and up, and won't have the necessary excursion needed to reproduce the lowest audible frequencies (e.g., 20-80Hz), nor would the amp be up to the job. The guitar amp's enclosure is also too small to be optimal for low bass.


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## nor_spoon

^ yeah, you will not get the low frequencies a sub provides from a guitar amp.


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## m0b1liz3

If my amp 6 turns out I may build myself a bass amp later based on a different 41hz amp. 

 I never realized how hard bass is to play well until I tried to switch a few years back. Simple 1 note bass lines are ok but jazz and funk/slap bass techniques are harder than you would think. But that is another story.


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## Fitz

You'd have a lot better luck with a bass amp than a guitar amp for using one as a subwoofer, since they're designed to handle much lower frequencies (low B on a 5-string is ~31Hz). Of course, a real subwoofer will do even better


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