Do Bass Guitars Need Amps? (Here’s Your Answer)

• What is the purpose of an amp? 
• Benefits of using an amp vs going direct (DI) 
• Get a brief overview of bass amps and DI boxes 
• Also consider reading our guide on bass amps vs guitar amps.

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Do Bass Guitars Need Amps?

No, you don’t necessarily need an amp to enjoy playing or recording bass, but there are plenty of situations where an amp makes sense.

The answer to this question really comes down to two important concepts.

The first is about what your intended application is with the bass, and the second is about the kind of tone you are looking for from your bass guitar.

If you’re playing with a loud band in a big venue, you probably want to bring out an amp so you can hear your playing. But if you are in the studio and need to lay down a clean bass track, you have the option to use your headphones and record directly into the audio interface.

Like any electric instrument, an amp can be an integral part of the overall sound, but that doesn’t mean you have to use one to get a great sound.

What Is The Purpose Of A Bass Amp?

The purpose of an amp is to amplify the very quiet signal produced by an electric instrument (like your bass guitar) to louder audible levels.

A great bass amp can absolutely reproduce the sound of your instrument well, and what musicians love about an amp is that they also impart their own sonic character onto the sound.

This is especially evident with tube amplifiers, where you are usually not going to have the ‘cleanest’ tone, but you get a harmonic richness thanks to the added distortion from those tubes to give you a little something extra that just feels and sounds right.

Bass Amps Vs Guitar Amps 

Both bass amps and guitar amps historically sprang from the exact same designs in the 1950s and 60s, with many guitarists and bassists deciding to use bass amps for guitar, and some bassists using guitar amps for bass! Using a bass guitar with a regular guitar amp is a big no-no as you risk damaging the amp and speaker.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the EQ components in a guitar amp are typically designed to sound good on a guitar, but EQs on a bass amp are designed for bass. A quick example:

If you were to plug a Strat into any old bass amp, you’d probably find that the tone is really boomy and lacking the sparkle you might be used to in your guitar amp. Sure, it works, but it might not be the best tone for your application.

There are numerous exceptions to this rule (such as the classic Fender Bassman), but we won’t get into all the details about that amp’s mojo in this article.

Generally speaking, using the properly designed amplifier for your instrument will give you the best results and tone.

Amp Design 101 

Every type of amp, whether it is a PA speaker or a guitar or bass amp, has a wattage rating that determines two things: how loud will it get, and how much headroom it has before distortion.

Generally, the higher the wattage, the louder it will get, but headroom can vary.

Tube amps typically have somewhat less headroom, both by nature of the design, and because we like the harmonic saturation provided by overdriven tubes.

Solid-state clipping, while it has its place and use, is generally not as pleasing to the ear. Due to this, we typically think of solid-state amps as sounding best for clean tones.

Bass guitar has a wide frequency range as a whole, but especially in the lower frequencies. More energy is needed to deliver loud bass tones, and so headroom becomes even more important in the low-end.

(To get the most out of your headroom, check out our roundup of The 7 Best Bass Compressor Pedals With Great Tone!)

Because of this, you often see bassists opting to just run directly into a PA system, or sometimes even using PA speakers as a bass ‘amp’.

Obviously, this isn’t going to give you a particularly cool tone, but if you just want the sound of your bass playing straight to the people you are playing for it’s a good enough method for this.

Bass guitar amps are typically designed to have high headroom and high wattage to efficiently and accurately reproduce low frequencies.

Tube Vs Solid-State Amps

You can read an in-depth look at the difference between tube and solid-state designs here, but here is a quick rundown for now…

A tube bass amp (such as an Ampeg SVT, Orange AD200, or Fender Bassman) will usually impart your bass sound with a more vintage or classic flavor, suitable for playing rock, blues, Americana, country, etc. Anything where you want a more ‘classic’ or ‘dirty’ bass tone.

Solid-state amps (like the Mesa Subway, Aguilar, or Darkglass) will typically give you a clean, crisp, and modern bass tone, and are generally preferred by people playing pop, funk, jazz, RnB, or other genres where you really want to hear the note definition and playing attack of the instrument.

Like everything with music, experimentation and trying things out for yourself is always the best move to decide whether or not you like a tube or solid-state amp tone, so don’t think of the above as rules, just suggested applications.

Going Direct (DI) 

There are plenty of instances where you don’t necessarily need to lug a big bass guitar amplifier out to get a great tone for your bass.

Especially in the recording studio, where it’s often much simpler and easier to just plug your bass directly into your recording console or interface.

Most often when you want a super clean tone as well as getting the most accurate sub response, you probably want to go direct in (DI).

The other huge (and obvious) benefit of a DI box is that you don’t have to worry about mic choice or placement, as it goes directly into the recording console.

You also don’t have to worry at all about the room you’re in affecting the sound in any way.

There are plenty of direct boxes that are not ‘bass specific’ but do the job just fine, such as any standard Radial DI box. There are also plenty of bass-designed DI’s that generally feature a more ‘bass tuned’ response or even a preamp.

For Example, the Ampeg Scrambler DI box is essentially an Ampeg Amp in a direct box, so that you can get the flavor of a huge vintage Ampeg stack with the convenience of plugging directly in.

Other examples include the Tech 21 Sansamp, Darkglass Alpha Omega, and Aguilar Tone Hammer.

DI Boxes and Their Importance

What is a DI Box? Well DI stands for direct input, and a DI box is used to help send the proper level signal into your interface or mixer.

The signal that your bass outputs is the instrument level, which means that it is a low-level source with a high impedance. It is also an unbalanced signal, which means it is more susceptible to noise over long cable runs.

It might not feel like it, but in a recording studio, you can very easily run more than 100 ft between where you plug something in and where it actually hits the console, especially if you are in a live room dealing with an isolated control room.

Your DI Box essentially does two things: it converts your instrument-level signal to a mic level signal that you can use on your interface or recording console exactly as if you’d plugged in a microphone, as well as making the signal balanced so that you do not have to worry about long cable runs introducing extra noise to the signal.

DI’s are not only useful for bass guitars, but also acoustic guitars, synthesizers, drum machines, and all sorts of other signals.

But I plugged it in and it worked! So it’s totally fine, right? 

You might be thinking, I’ve plugged my bass cable directly into my mixer or interface without a DI box before and it’s been fine! Why should I buy another thing to complicate the matter?

You certainly can have successful results plugging straight into a 1/4 input on your interface or mixer, and most mixers/interfaces have switches on them now to make the input an ‘instrument’ level input, which essentially acts as a miniature DI.

My only argument for using a separate DI box over plugging directly into the input is that a separate DI box will generally do a better job at converting your signal to the proper level.

Many bass-specific DI’s will use a special transformer that will help impart a better tone than just going straight in. If you’re in a pinch, it definitely works to plug directly into your gear, just make sure it is set to instrument level.

Why not both? 

In my experience as a producer, live sound engineer, and bass player, using a combination of both a DI signal and an amp can produce amazing results.

In a live setting, using the DI to go direct to the subs with a clean signal really gets the bass thumping, but it allows you to have an amp on stage to both hear yourself better and give you the amp tone for your live sound.

A lot of sound engineers might complain about you asking for two channels for the bass, but having the combination almost always sounds better in my opinion, so if you’ve got the channels and the ability to do it, I’m all for it.

In a recording setting, there are a ton of benefits to using both a DI and a bass amp.

Obviously, your direct signal is going to be exactly what you played with no coloration from whatever amp you chose to play on, which means if you want to change the sound up later or re-amp it through a different amp you don’t have to redo the take.

In a similar way to the live situation I described above, it can also be beneficial to blend the two different tones of an amp and the DI.

If the song calls for a more vintage tone, you could make the amp louder in the mix and the DI is just there reinforcing sub frequencies.

If you are playing super crisp modern stuff you have the DI driving the majority of your signal and the amp tone helps give you the growl and punch you need to cut through the mix.

Looking for a unique way to practice bass? Check out our review of the BOSS Waza-Air Headphone Amp System.

Wrapping Up

So, to sum up, do you need to use a bass amp with your bass guitar? Ultimately it’s all up to understanding your application and desired tone to give you the best result.

There are plenty of great bass tone-creating options out on the market, so experiment with your setup and see what works best for you!