If you’re into playing guitars or any other type of musical instruments, chances are pretty high that you also like to listen to music. That’s me in a nutshell.
I’m usually the type of person that likes to listen to music through normal speakers that were designed for such use.
However, there always comes a time when I end up blowing my speakers. I like to play my music loud, after all. And it gets me wondering every time if I could play regular music through a guitar amp.
And since I happen to own a few guitar amps, I decided to try out this theory that I could play regular music through an amp.
In this article, we will discuss whether or not you can and should play regular music through your guitar amp. And if it is possible, how to go about doing that the right way.
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Can I Play Regular Music Through a Guitar Amplifier?
This simple and quick answer to this common question is that, yes you can play music through your guitar amp. It should be stated, however, that the sound quality coming through the amplifier’s speaker will be less than stellar.
It’s definitely not going to be a high-fidelity sound. It will sound more like an average-quality radio. Basically, it will sound fine at low to medium levels of volume, but once you turn it up higher, the quality suffers greatly.
I have an old Fender Mustang modeling amp, and I used it for about a month because my old stereo broke. The amp did fine at medium levels, but the higher I turned it up, the worse it sounded.
And I noticed that this was especially true for any hard rock and metal music that I played through it. My all-time favorite genre of music is metal, so needless to say, I bought a replacement stereo as soon as I had the funds for it.
So, can you play music through a guitar amp? Yes, but you’re not going to get the same quality of music that you would get if you played it through regular speakers that were made for playing regular music.
Can a Guitar Amp Be Damaged If Used as a Speaker?
If you use your guitar amp for things like podcasts or light music with little bass, then you could get away with using the amp as a speaker for a longer period of time.
However, if you play music that has a ton of bass or distortion, you could damage certain parts of the amp’s speaker such as the cone. It will most likely rip if your bass is too high.
The reason for this is because guitar waves and regular music waves form in different frequencies. So if you turn the volume up on a song that features a ton of bass, you could definitely damage your guitar amp.
How To Play Music Through Your Guitar Amp Correctly
The best way to play music through your guitar amp is with either your mp3 player or your phone. You can do this if your amp has an aux input.
The aux input on your amp is usually used for jamming along with whatever track you’re playing with your guitar or for backing tracks.
Played at lower to medium volumes, however, and you could get away with using the amp as a speaker. Just know that it’s not going to sound as great as if you were using a regular music speaker.
The one thing that you should avoid when it comes to using your guitar amp as a speaker is hooking up your computer to it. The reason for this has to do with voltages.
Guitar amps are made to receive lower voltages from the pickups on a guitar. Computers do not have the same type of voltage as a little pickup on your guitar.
Computers average about 110 volts, and a single guitar pickup can average about 100 to 200 millivolts (mV). Quite a difference!!
So you’ll definitely want to avoid hooking up your guitar amp to your computer. If you must do so, make sure the volume on your computer is turned way down at first. Otherwise, your amp could be damaged.
