Guitar amplifiers help amplify a guitar’s notes, making them clear and loud enough to hear.
In that case, guitar amps are essential to a guitar system, especially for professionals playing electric drums.
So, can you use a guitar amp for electronic drums?
No! It is a terrible idea, despite how practical it looks to use a guitar amp on electronic drums.
For people who play electronic drums and electric guitars, using the extra guitar amp on your drums may look like a money-saving move.
However, the sound effects of a guitar amp on an electronic drum are terrible since they aren’t designed to hold the drums’ sounds.
Other than the sound, using a guitar amp on electronic drums can permanently destroy the amplifier.
What are the Issues of Using Guitar Amps On E-Drums?
As mentioned above, it is a terrible idea to repurpose guitar amps to perform the work of e-drums amplifiers.
After all, there are a few issues that may arise, including:
The Sound Quality is Low Level
Generally, guitar amplifiers are designed to amplify the guitar notes to make the guitar sound louder and easily understood.
Also, e-drums amplifiers undertake the same job.
Unfortunately, electric guitars possess a frequency of between 80 to 1,200 Hz.
It sounds like a wide frequency range, but it is nowhere close to what electronic drums work with to produce sounds.
After all, the bass drum can go as low as 30 Hz and as high as 18,000 Hz.
These numbers show that the lows in the electronic drums are impossible to handle with a guitar amp and will produce low-quality sound.
Destroy the Guitar Amplifier
The bass drum frequency is too high, going over the electric guitar frequency, meaning that a guitar amplifier will have difficulty handling the e-drums sounds.
When the frequency of the sound goes up to 30 Hz, it also means that the guitar amplifier won’t be able to handle it.
The result is that delivering the right sound on an electronic drum with a guitar amp is impossible.
After all, the guitar amps aren’t designed to amplify an electronic drum’s sounds.
These e-drum sound frequency changes will destroy the guitar amps in extreme cases.
A few experts would point out that you can lower the amp’s bass setting to avoid these damages.
But a guitar amp isn’t designed to handle e-drums and is not a worthy risk.
What Amps Work with Electronic Drums?
There are several options you can use when you need to amplify your electronic drums instead of using electric guitar amps, including:
PA Systems
They are suitable to handle the wide range of frequencies that e-drums often produce and amplify them to clear sound.
The only con is that PA systems are costly, especially if you are looking for an extensive high-quality system.
E-Drum Amplifiers
Like electric guitars, electronic drums also have amplifiers.
These devices are designed to help you amplify the sound produced by the electronic drums and can handle the ever-changing sound frequencies.
E-drum amplifiers are cost-effective, and settling for a high-quality product is easy.
Also, it is easy to use and delivers the services an electronic drummer would need.
Keyboard Amplifiers
The keyboard amplifiers aren’t the best choice since they aren’t designed for electronic drums.
But if you only have them and guitar amps, then the former is the best choice.
Keyboard amplifiers can handle a wide range of e-drum frequencies and sound better than guitar amps.
Also, the chances of damage are pretty low.
The best choice would be the e-drum amplifiers since they are designed to do the job and have the features to handle electronic drum sounds.
Headphones
If your only option is a guitar amp, it would be best to use your headphones.
All the electronic drums feature a headphone input jack making it easy to connect.
With that, it can save you too much trouble in destroying your guitar amplifiers.
Plus, they produce better sounds than guitar amplifiers since they can handle the wide range of bass drum frequencies better.
What Is the Difference Between a Drum Amp and a Guitar Amp?
Drum amps and guitar amps do the same but with two different instruments.
The drum amps are specific to electronic drums, amplifying the e-drum sound, while the guitar amp serves the guitar best by making the notes loud and clear.
Drum amplifiers have a wide range of fundamental frequencies between 30 Hz and 18,000 Hz, while guitar amps have a frequency between 80 Hz and 1200 Hz.
With that, it makes it difficult for guitar amps to perform the job of e-drum amplifiers and vice-versa is also true.
It means that guitar amps won’t help electronic drums produce the sound they should, but it can result to sound distortion.
Can You Use a Bass Guitar Amp for Electronic Drums?
Naturally, electronic drums are more sensitive than acoustic drums since you need to amplify the sound.
So, one of the main questions is whether you can use a bass amp for e-drums.
Yes! After adjusting the bass frequency, you can use a bass guitar amp on electronic drums.
However, there isn’t an ideal way to manipulate the bass guitar amp to ensure no damage or to produce good quality sound.
In that case, it is advisable to go for other options compared to the bass guitar amplifiers- for example, using your headphones.
Plus, bass amps are specifically designed to handle bass guitars and the sound it produces.
Thus, it is hard for the amps to handle the e-drums.
Do Professional Drummers Use Electronic Drums?
Yes! Many professional drummers use electronic drums since they are powerful and produce the best sounds when best operated.
Professional drummers have used e-drums for years with the best e-drums amplifies and PA systems to improve sound quality.
So, to become a professional drummer, it would be best to understand electronic drums and how to operate them.
Also, it would help to become sensitive to the amplifiers you use to avoid producing terrible sounds and destroying them.
References
https://www.roland.com/uk/blog/how-to-monitor-your-electronic-drums
https://drummingbase.com/can-you-use-a-guitar-amp-for-electronic-drums
https://drumhelper.com/electronic-drums/can-a-bass-amp-be-used-for-electronic-drums
