A guitar and a piano amp

[kodacolor]

What will a guitar do to a piano amp?  How can you explain that a guitar should not be run through a piano amp when saying, "it doesn't sound right," and, "it was made for a piano," doesn't work?

[jlynnb1]

actually, when using a multifx or a preamp, a keyboard amp is a great choice. they are usually flat-response type amps that won't color the sounds of the modeler. just a guitar str8 in?? will probably be pretty sterile, although you might get close to jc120 territory in the pristine clean department.

[jivejong]

It really depends on the sound you are going for. Speakers for keyboards tend to be voiced differently and use power differently. Keyboard amp speakers tend to use power less efficiently than guitar amps. That's why a 100W bass or keyboard amp will struggle to keep up with a 30W guitar amp. Guitar speakers tend to require less power for the same amount of volume. Keyboard speakers tend to be similar to PA speakers in that they are more full range, whereas a guitar speaker is voiced for range of a guitar, which is heavy in the midrange. Also, many guitar speakers are designed to break up, while keyboard speakers are not.

A keyboard amp will work OK if you are going for a clean sound or a distortion sound that isn't dependent on speaker breakup. But many times, the sweet overdriven sound (and many "clean" tones) require the speaker to break up a little in order to get the tone the purists love. IMO, a keyboard amp will work in a pinch, but it's not optimal.

These are just generalizations, and there are exceptions, and your mileage may vary.

[Gibby]

I hate playing through keyboard amps...

[Fenix]

Well i only use the keyboard amp when i have to play an acoustic/strummy song cuz like Jay said, the sound comes out very sterile and acousticy

But once i get an acoustic guitar i won't even bother doing that anymore.

[axeman1]

A keyboard has a much greater range than a guitar so playing a keyboard through a guitar amp...not a good idea. Learned this the hard way by allowing the keyboard player to use one of my guitar amps while practicing at my house. He plays way too loud anyway and eventually blew the speaker. 

I bought an inexpensive but adequate keyboard speaker to use after that.  I plugged my acoustic/electric guitar into it and it sounds pretty good but the full electric, not so good.

[jlynnb1]

I hate playing through keyboard amps...

you'd love your pod through it....again, keyboard amps are perfect for modelers.

[crazyguitardude]

I would say if you have an amp modeling pedal, then try then it would work very well through a keyboard amp. I have an RP255 and my setup goes like this. Guitar to pedal, pedal to D.I. box which goes to the mixer. All of the presets that i use have amp modeling and when i run it through the flat response of the church speakers they sound great. they just take a small amount of tweeking to get the sound just right. I even have a button on the back of the pedal called amp/mixer, but i just keep it on amp the whole time, the sound that comes through my amp isn't that far off than the sound coming in through the church speakers.