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All,
I'm completely ignorant re: electronics as pertaining to guitars, so please help me out.
I've got a small performance coming up next month, the venue is my dad's very small old country church at a very well-attended threshing show site. We'll have a bass guitar and 4 six string guitars, 3 of them amped; I'll be playing a six string acoustic, but have no amp. Will it harm my bass amp to run a six string through it? I certainly don't need any effects, just playing some classic country and 'easy listening' tunes, want to be sure I'll be heard, so merely need a little volume boost.
Many thanks for your input.
Tim

Won't do any harm. Give it a try, tell us how it sounds - my bet is the highs may come out a bit too much.

All,
Thanks, greatly, for the replies and information. You (all four) have put my mind at ease re: running octave higher pitches through the bass amp.
Specific to Mark - I have 2 bass amps, an older Fender Bassman 100W, and a newer compact Fender Rumble 25W. I'll try them both at home. The venue is mighty small, I'm hoping the compact - easier to tote - Rumble will do.
Specific to Joe - re: 'aural mess'. Yeah. Fortunately 1 young lady is a fine lead player, 1 gent plays soft nylon string finger-picking style, that really leaves 2 of us who are mainly steel string flat-pick strummers. We're more than we need, but we're old friends - hard to kick one or two of us out. I may find Dad's old fiddle and see what I can do for our next outing. Would lend some authenticity to our sound, as well. Also, my older Fender dreadnaught does have a built in pick-up and EQ, but if I feel brave I'll break out Dad's '62 ES-335 and play around with it. That axe is much, much too good for me, but it's not something I want to let go of at this point, for sentimental reasons. Also, for this gig, it's sort of like taking a Ferrari to a tractor pull, and I'm no qualified driver.
Again, you are all very helpful, so a big Thank You.
Tim
PS - Answers to un-asked questions are a great way for 'experienced' to help out 'rookie'. No problem.

Mark,
Appreciated!
Tim

You won't hurt a bass amp running a guitar through it. Try the two Bass amps you have and see which one gives you the best results with your guitar. Play with the EQ settings until you get the best sound. From what I remember the old Bassman Tube amps heads with a 4X12 cabinets were popular with some guitarists.

bloke wrote:I like imagining the bass, the fiddle, the lead guitar, the rhythm guitar, and the other rhythm guitar...with a capo installed (on the strings where one would normally strum) .

That's perfect, and a good use for my spare capo.

Seriously - what bloke said. To add a different timbre to the ensemble, consider capo'ing up and using alternate chord positions to fill in the next octave up on the chords. For example, if the song is in G, capo the 3rd fret and play the chord as "E" position, or the 5th fret and play the chord as "D" position, etc. This will help keep the ensemble from devolving into mud. And being higher in pitch you can play softer and the sound will still contribute to the mix.

If it's about how to play the guitar (which is not something I do for public performance, but in the privacy of my home, and once in a while in a practice for one reason or another) - do people play "bar" chords? To my way of thinking, when I'm stopping all the strings, I get a more consistent sound between the strings, and I have an easier time controlling the duration of that sound, for all the strings. For a rhythm instrument, if you think of guitar chording that way, I can't see ever going to an open chord. And then, who needs a capo?

Same goes for ukulele, but I play soprano ukulele and use a pick, so that's a little different from where people tend to go these days.

iiipopes wrote:Seriously - what bloke said. To add a different timbre to the ensemble, consider capo'ing up and using alternate chord positions to fill in the next octave up on the chords. For example, if the song is in G, capo the 3rd fret and play the chord as "E" position, or the 5th fret and play the chord as "D" position, etc. This will help keep the ensemble from devolving into mud. And being higher in pitch you can play softer and the sound will still contribute to the mix.

Pope - Sure thing. At age 61 I'm just getting into a larger group of string players (more than just a rhythm, lead, and bass) and just learning these things. I appreciate the guidance.
Tim

bloke wrote:amplifying acoustic guitars:

I've been to more than one "folk/ethnic" music concert where the acoustic guitarist/leader insisted that the sound engineer WAY "over-treble" the guitar resonance contour. Doing so can EASILY result in every strong guitar chord-strum sounding - to the audience - like repeated cymbal crashes...and yeah, I would walk out of a church service where that was occurring, and - were that the weekly routine - would never return.

Joe - ha! I thought you'd given up on organized services anyway.
To the point, though, I understand what you're saying. Fortunately (maybe), for this little group, we have no sound engineer to mess with our audience. If you happen to be in Nowthen, MN this August, come to the Threshing Show just off of Pickerel Lake, have the pork chop lunch and enjoy the tractor parade. Then sit in with the band. Like all new groups we think we sound 'pretty good' - need to have an unbiased ear to point out a few things.
Tim

bloke wrote:I've only been in Minn/St. P. once...for about five hours.
I need to go visit some other parts of MN...

Joe - For your sake, I hope it was not in the October thru April 'season'.

...hopefully where they vote different.

Re: 'different' - You said a mouthful, brother!

Minnesota is absolutely beautiful, in my opinion. Of course, I like bodies
.
.
.
of water, and MN is replete with them.

Big Toot wrote:Minnesota is absolutely beautiful, in my opinion. Of course, I like bodies
.
.
.
of water, and MN is replete with them.

Throw in hundreds of tractors (this year featuring Massey Harris/Ferguson tractors) on the shore and you've really got a thing of beauty!

MN_TimTuba wrote:

Big Toot wrote:Minnesota is absolutely beautiful, in my opinion. Of course, I like bodies
.
.
.
of water, and MN is replete with them.

Throw in hundreds of tractors (this year featuring Massey Harris/Ferguson tractors) on the shore and you've really got a thing of beauty!

I live in rural Ohio, so I'm used to a road's worth of tractors.

Toot,
We visited Ohio in 2017 (35th anniversary of our Honeymoon) in the Atwater area. Took some country drives; it's a pretty area for sure.

MN_TimTuba wrote:Toot,
We visited Ohio in 2017 (35th anniversary of our Honeymoon) in the Atwater area. Took some country drives; it's a pretty area for sure.

There are some areas of Ohio that are definitely worth the drive through. Atwater being one of them.

Donn wrote:If it's about how to play the guitar (which is not something I do for public performance, but in the privacy of my home, and once in a while in a practice for one reason or another) - do people play "bar" chords? To my way of thinking, when I'm stopping all the strings, I get a more consistent sound between the strings, and I have an easier time controlling the duration of that sound, for all the strings. For a rhythm instrument, if you think of guitar chording that way, I can't see ever going to an open chord. And then, who needs a capo?

Same goes for ukulele, but I play soprano ukulele and use a pick, so that's a little different from where people tend to go these days.

Capos are necessary accessories for certain guitar styles, including fingerpicking in different registers to facilitate the melody over the chords and if part of the genre, individual bass notes.

As for chords up the neck, it depends on the genre and the person playing. Some players facilitate the chords well, others need the capo for a variety of reasons, including hand strength, knowledge of the chords for the song, and other reasons. And the technical spelling is "barre" chords.

Not really that I have anything to say about capos, just suggesting that for chords - if you haven't tried it, move up the neck and play those "barre" chords or whatever they're called, where all the strings are stopped and you have full control of the sustain, and then do some rhythmic stuff and see what I'm talking about. Or not, it's not like I'm a guitar player.

To be honest, my guitar is probably different from what you all play, as it's a bright sounding nylon string cheapie with some flamenco reinforcements added before I got it, and extra high tension strings. I like it, the sound is a lot more bass/midrange. Steel strings aren't louder, they're just more strident.

nworbekim wrote:

MN_TimTuba wrote:

Big Toot wrote:Minnesota is absolutely beautiful, in my opinion. Of course, I like bodies
.
.
.
of water, and MN is replete with them.

Throw in hundreds of tractors (this year featuring Massey Harris/Ferguson tractors) on the shore and you've really got a thing of beauty!

i love old tractors. my grampa had old John Deere and Case when i was growing up. the JD was a huge tricycle putt-putt... it had a huge pulley on the side that we used to put a belt on and power all kinds of machines like grinders, mixers, escalators...

when we bought this farm, i bought 2 old/vintage masseys... a circa 52/53 TO-35 and a circa 56 massey 35 with intentions of using them on my farm... i did for several years and did a good deal of restoration... i finally traded them to a new 35 hp 4X4 tractor.

the TO-35 was evidently produced during a transitional period, it had factory gray, red, and green paint on it... i was told that at one time massey, harris, and ford were combining and the parts were interchangeable...

My grandpa and my dad were/are Farmall men through and through. While I'm not into them, I still know way more about tractors than I need to. They are pretty cool, though. I once got to help splitting a tractor *in half* for repair. Cool stuff.

nworbekim wrote:

iiipopes wrote:Seriously - what bloke said. To add a different timbre to the ensemble, consider capo'ing up and using alternate chord positions to fill in the next octave up on the chords. For example, if the song is in G, capo the 3rd fret and play the chord as "E" position, or the 5th fret and play the chord as "D" position, etc. This will help keep the ensemble from devolving into mud. And being higher in pitch you can play softer and the sound will still contribute to the mix.

the guys here take the high strings from a 12 string set and string their acoustics... it gives a jangly sound without being over powering. i hear similar sounds in recordings. on some of the old les paul recordings i've searched out from the yard sale circuits it sounds like he's doing that. like a piccolo guitar

Now, that sounds interesting. I was recently given an old small-bodied (parlor?) flat top with a damaged bridge; I may consider trying this idea. Thanks!