Express Bass Amp

[RockNRollDr]

How does an Express sound as a bass amp?

[JamesHealey]

useless.. not intended for that application at all, although some overdriven bass sounds could be fun.

[paulster]

+1. Nothing like enough clean headroom and voiced for a really strong midrange sound to cut through a mix.

Kind of the antithesis of what you'd want in a bass amp.

[benoit]

IME distorted bass really shines when the mids and highs are distorted but the lows and probably some low mids are allowed to pass through relatively unscathed. With the express breaking up first in the power section that's not going to happen unless you ran the express as the dirty rig with the lows pulled out and another clean rig alongside.

[2tone]

The Express can be modded to run as a bass amp...lower power type tube bass sound. The First Express ever built by Ken has a switch to go between guitar and bass. I believe it's a simple preamp change in a cap value.

[roberto]

The starting point I use to convert guitar to bass amps is double preamp coupling caps (if needed, just because of the 82-41Hz lower note). Usually bypass caps are big enought.

What I'd do here is change eq's shape to fit more in the bass amp eq. We developed a baxandall like eq for basses just a few weeks ago. You can try this one.

[hairyandy]

The Express can be modded to run as a bass amp...lower power type tube bass sound. The First Express ever built by Ken has a switch to go between guitar and bass. I believe it's a simple preamp change in a cap value.

Ummm, I think that's the bright switch. I could be wrong here but I don't recall ever hearing anything about Ken building an Express that can also be used for bass...

Andy

[2tone]

No it's not the bright switch. It's a special switch on the chassis for Bass/guitar......I know the amp very well........

[paulster]

The First Express ever built by Ken has a switch to go between guitar and bass. I believe it's a simple preamp change in a cap value.

Probably a 0.1uF then to let the lows through.

I still can't believe that an Express is being touted as a viable bass amp though. It's almost exactly what you wouldn't want in a bass amp IMO.