Is my amp in danger?

[Ammatt]

I'm playing my tap guitar through an AER domino2 amp. This is rather an acoustic guitar amp (although I'm mainly using it to amplify my flute). I usually play with a clean sound and at a moderate volume.

Some people around me hinted that playing a bass trough such an amp could possibly damage it. Could anybody here tell me more about this? is this true? what could happen? in what conditions?

Thanks,

Matthieu

[qbensis]

Hi Matthieu,

I don't know your AER-amp, but normally you can "hurt" a guitar amp only, if you use your bass at high volume levels.
Technically guitar, bass and acoustic guitar amps are pretty much the same. Normally bass amps will have higher power ratings (200 - 1000W) while guitar amps normally have something between 25 and 100W. This is because the greater amount of power that is needed to amplify low frequencies too high levels without distortion.

This means, that a guitar amp likely would not be as loud as a dedicated bass amp and/or adds a greater amount off distortion. But normally this won't hurt the amp (at least as long as you don't use an all tube amp and constantly crank the volume up too 11).
The only thing that could be damaged is the speaker. Guitar-amp-speakers are normally not suited for low frequencies - and poweramp distortion isn't the best thing for them too.

So, imho, there shouldn't be any problem as long as you keep the volume at "normal" levels (what “normal” means depends mostly on the powerrating off the amp and the speakers), and if you turn the volume down if you are noticing distortions (poweramp or speaker distortions). If you can get rid of the distortion by turning down the gain knob (not "master") it should be preamp-distortion and therefore be no problem.

The only other thing that could harm your amp is heat. But normally if the amp gets too hot (what will not happen at moderate volume) the circuit is broken and you would just have to change the fuse. (and usually you would only get the amp to being too hot after quite a while off playing too loud - with noticeables distortion).

Just my two cents ...
regards hoerli

[Ammatt]

Thanks hoerli, that's very helpful.

Matthieu

[haimeh]

Actually, i think an acoustic amp is ideal for a tapper. it is designed to accomodate the crisp highs and booming lows of an acoustic guitar. i think the only way you could damage the amp is if you were really pushing it too hard, like in a really loud band situation.

[Ammatt]

So I guess my neighbors would stop me before I can do any harm ;)

Matthieu