Roland JC-120 as a bass amp?

[petejt]

I'm thinking of getting an electric bass guitar- just a cheapy secondhand one from a pawn shop.

I don't really want to buy a a dedicated bass amp & cab.

Would my Roland Jazz Chorus 120 combo amp be ok to use with it? I know it has 120 watts of headroom and is solid-state, but still I'm concerned if it can handle all the low end coming from the bass and won't blow up the speakers.

 

[ke2]

For home practice, you`ll probably be fine, I`ve used my little Peavey Backstage for bass lots of times.

For live, or very loud practice with a drummer.. No.

A Behringer setup with V-amp, power amp and Bugera cab will cost you little money, and then you have something a bass player can borrow in a pinch.

 

[NITROHOLIC]

For home practice, you`ll probably be fine, I`ve used my little Peavey Backstage for bass lots of times.

For live, or very loud practice with a drummer.. No.

A Behringer setup with V-amp, power amp and Bugera cab will cost you little money, and then you have something a bass player can borrow in a pinch.

perfectly worded.
except maybe insted of behringer set up id suggest lookin at used carvin stuff. dirrrrrrt cheap and pretty fucking sweet

 

[petejt]

For home practice, you`ll probably be fine, I`ve used my little Peavey Backstage for bass lots of times.

For live, or very loud practice with a drummer.. No.

A Behringer setup with V-amp, power amp and Bugera cab will cost you little money, and then you have something a bass player can borrow in a pinch.

perfectly worded.
except maybe insted of behringer set up id suggest lookin at used carvin stuff. dirrrrrrt cheap and pretty fucking sweet

Damn.

Well it's mostly for (loud) rehearsing with a band at home- might get a drummer later as one of my housemate's friends has a drumkit. Also I want to use it for recording and don't really want to go DI.

Could I use my Mesa/Boogie 50/50 stereo poweramp? I know I need a preamp in front of it.


I just thought that since the Jazz Chorus is 120 watts, it would have plenty of headroom and be really loud.

 

[corylee]

Two things in response to no one in particular after reading all threads on this post. The lowest frequency of an 88 key keyboard is around 27 hz whereas the lowest frequency for the low E on a bass guitar is around 44 hz. This leads to some confusion as to why some would say it's great for keys but not for bass. I would also like to know how many people are responding to this without ever having played through a JC 120. These things are wake the neighbors up down the street loud at level two. They are not cheap and have two high quality 12 inch speakers. I think they would be totally feasible and sound great as a bass cab if they volume was kept between 2-4 maybe 5 and miked into a PA or direct out into a PA.

 

[university81]

out of interest will the bass be active or passive? makes quite a difference on bass

the JC120 can probably handle the low end if not too loud, not entirely sure if the preamp structure is set/voiced so it can produce enough bass for it to feel like it should if that makes sense

DI solutions on bass especially for recording/live playing make a lot of sense , i use a Sansamp paradriver for my bass needs although it can work as a di for other instruments, for live i run that through a mic tube preamp into a QSC power amp , into various speakers and it works great, get good results for recording as well

it's not really what you want but if you have a great PA, the DI might be the cheapest solution, otherwise i'd suggest looking into some kind of bass combo, local listings might have something fairly cheap that fits the bill

 

[bigdaddyd]

I've owned one of these and since you do too I am not sure what I can tell you that a 2 second Google search couldn't. This question has been answered on various bass websites. I don't know if you asked the question in those threads or not, so I won't post the threads.

As you know this is a guitar amp. It can handle your bass at low volumes. Other than that, it isn't what you want. It will simply not serve your purpose. Is it possible to get it to work? Yes, but not without making some changes. The bottom line is that it is simply not worth the changes. You can buy fairly cheap bass amps that can handle everything you would need at extremely affordable prices, that will have a ton more features than the Roland has. If you were dead set on using the amp, go buy a Sansamp Para Driver DI and take a DI from that and send it to the board and mic the amp. I realize you don't want to go direct, but you won't have much of a choice.

 

[blackba]

The main issue with using any guitar amp as a bass amp is the speakers. When I have used my tube guitars amps with my passive jazz bass, I used a bass cab. As long as you are willing to risk the speakers on the jc120, got for it, they will probably be fine, but it is a risk. A to how it sounds, I would think pretty good.

I like the DI option too. I love my Eden WTDI.

 

[bigdaddyd]

This amp has 2 60watt ss amp in stereo if I am not mistaken. So not ideal for bass. Yes, a small low home rig will work, but not what op wants. Just google those threads and see what can be done if are determined, but I would really look at other options.

 

[59Bassman]

I've gigged with a JC-120 as a bass amp before, for a couple years. I played in a band with 2 other guitar players, and we swapped out one set each playing bass. The bass was an old headless Hohner, and the amp was a JC-120. It kept up with a drummer that had light hands well enough for bar gigs. I would not call the tone "inspiring", but it filled the bottom end and drove the songs along.

 

[petejt]

Hah I just came across this thread again. Thanks everyone for the newer replies.

I've actually cheaped out on buying a hi-fi stereo amp for my media player, by using the Jazz Chorus! I'm really low on money at the moment, and since my housemates moved out (bought a house) and they owned the stereo.........I thought at least for my in my bedroom I can use the amp, and also not worry about hooking my speakers up, or drag the mixing desk and PA speakers from the music room.

And it works fine! I haven't got it set too loud. It's not hi-fi but fairly close. Slightly warmer which is nice. Works great actually.

And being a sucker for chorus I have the Chorus switch ON so it choruses EVERYTHING I play through it!

Strangely, only songs with very 'dry' sounds become really chorusey. For instance any Creedence stuff instantly gets super lush. Anything that has a bit of chorus effect on it already, doesn't really get more chorusey through the Jazz Chorus amp- e.g. Rush songs sound nearly the same, just a tiny bit 'wider' and spacier. I tried playing some songs from Metallica's ...And Justice For All album and strangely that didn't become lush either. You'd think a bit more guts would be added to it with that modulation. A tricky egg indeed.

 

[Skrapmetal]

Two things in response to no one in particular after reading all threads on this post. The lowest frequency of an 88 key keyboard is around 27 hz whereas the lowest frequency for the low E on a bass guitar is around 44 hz. This leads to some confusion as to why some would say it's great for keys but not for bass. I would also like to know how many people are responding to this without ever having played through a JC 120. These things are wake the neighbors up down the street loud at level two. They are not cheap and have two high quality 12 inch speakers. I think they would be totally feasible and sound great as a bass cab if they volume was kept between 2-4 maybe 5 and miked into a PA or direct out into a PA.

Did you register just to bump a three-year-old post?

 

[petejt]

Two things in response to no one in particular after reading all threads on this post. The lowest frequency of an 88 key keyboard is around 27 hz whereas the lowest frequency for the low E on a bass guitar is around 44 hz. This leads to some confusion as to why some would say it's great for keys but not for bass. I would also like to know how many people are responding to this without ever having played through a JC 120. These things are wake the neighbors up down the street loud at level two. They are not cheap and have two high quality 12 inch speakers. I think they would be totally feasible and sound great as a bass cab if they volume was kept between 2-4 maybe 5 and miked into a PA or direct out into a PA.

Did you register just to bump a three-year-old post?

What's wrong with that?

 

[Skrapmetal]

Two things in response to no one in particular after reading all threads on this post. The lowest frequency of an 88 key keyboard is around 27 hz whereas the lowest frequency for the low E on a bass guitar is around 44 hz. This leads to some confusion as to why some would say it's great for keys but not for bass. I would also like to know how many people are responding to this without ever having played through a JC 120. These things are wake the neighbors up down the street loud at level two. They are not cheap and have two high quality 12 inch speakers. I think they would be totally feasible and sound great as a bass cab if they volume was kept between 2-4 maybe 5 and miked into a PA or direct out into a PA.

Did you register just to bump a three-year-old post?

What's wrong with that?

Nothing really, I just thought it was funny. I would assume that after three years you've answered the question that you asked.