KEYBOARD VS GUITAR AMP (for multi-instrumentalists/looper musicians) 

Buy a guitar, what are you doing?

I thought I was the only crazy chap around trying to play wind instruments, keyboards an guitars!! You are awesome man!!

Well, Jon Lord got his famous overdriven organ sound/tone in most of Deep Purple's albums, by plugging his Hammond into tube/valve Marshall Stacks. And to be honest, it's one of my favorite Keyboard sounds/tones EVER. Lemmy from Motorhead, also used to plug his Rickenbacker basses into Marshall guitar amps. Also, many Harmonica players and vocalists get a great tone/sound by plugging a small Bullet Mic into a Fender guitar Amp.

Don’t feel too bad. The Marshall code sounds like dog crap with a guitar as well

Not even a minute in and I’m already pausing the video to face palm myself. 0:27

I was playing guitar in an band when I was in my teens. By my early 30's ,the only piece of equipment I still had was my electric guitar. I wanted to get back to playing again, but also was interested in playing Keyboard. So I went on the hunt for a Guitar/ Keyboard Amp. I love Fender Amps, owned a Deluxe Reverb and a Bandmaster at one time, but Fender just didn't have anything that would work with Guitar and equally well with Keyboard. I think it was around 1985 I came across the Roland JC-120. The early JC's had a unique feature, something you won't find on a Modern JC-120, that that is...Stereo Line Inputs in the rear. So not only did I have this great sounding Guitar amp with lush reverb, and a very cool Chorus effect, but a amp I could jack my Ensoniq ESQ-1 in. My piano teacher was blown away how good it sounded. Over time I wanted a Bass guitar, and I traded it in on a Precision Bass. That move is on my list of regrets.

The main thing is the response, guitar amps are expected to work within the range of a guitar and are built accordingly. Low low and highs will not sound good because both the woofer and the circuitry is built to work inside ~80Hz to ~1Khz. A similar issue is mixing bass with guitar or the reverse, a bass amp will want to be between 40Hz and 330Hz. A keyboard amp has a far wider range which is why they sound better, have better woofers (and usually a tweeter on good ones), and also cost significantly more. An 88-key piano/keyboard stretches from near 20Hz all the way up to around 4KHz so amps will be built to operate on pretty much all musical frequencies.

This is both informative and entertaining! You got a sub

I dont even know anything about this shit yet I watched the whole video

"I'm not a genius." - Truer words were never spoken. I would "guess" that Roland KC means keyboard combo. Maybe not. I don't speak Roland. I did like the video.

I use the KC 150 for guitar and mics. Sounds really fine and has bags of power. Remember this amp is mono and most keyboards have stereo outputs so you should consider a stereo amp with separate speakers for quality sound, Alternatively you could buy two KC 150's.

Man you are a genious, dont ever change your personality, thank you for youre fresh review !! Shout out from Madrid!!

I bought a behringer keyboard amp as a practice unit for bass guitar, uke, vox, and a couple other electric instruments, and it's easily the best investment I have made gear wise, even subbing as my go to bass amp for gigs when I don't feel like hauling my 8x10 classic svt cab around, or space doesnt allow for it. If you need an amp that is good all around, keyboard amps can't be beaten. they are made for the instrument with the widest frequency spectrum in mind after all.

keyboards can play a broad spectrum of pitches - as low as 20 or 30 Hz. Keyboard amps, then, are built to reproduce rumbling low end frequencies, all the way up to shimmering high-frequency harmonics. (Most keyboard amps have a built-in horn, and some have a subwoofer, for maximized range). Because guitar amps aren't intended to play below 82 Hz, they can't faithfully reproduce many low-end keyboard frequencies. Attempts to do so may even damage the guitar amp.

Hye, does it sound good with bass guitar too? I need an amp that can play keyboard, bass, and guitar I don't to own 3 amps because it takes too much space

I swear, the way you describe things gives me an ADHD feeling, which, as someone with ADHD, I’m “hear” for it man. lol Great vid!

Guitar amps don't even sound good with guitars.

what if we put just studio monitors? I have same problem... Roland KC's cool but a bit expensive in Turkey. I think to buy presonus e44. What do you guys think about it?

Would a keyboard amp sound good for vocals via a microphone (e.g., for karaoke)?

I am thinking about plugging a guitar into a keyboard amp but have it run through a guitar amp and cab emulation on the computer.... I want to know your thoughts please? Great video, thanks for making it

What If I play guitar and keyboard? I’m wanting to loop guitar and piano, what do you recommend, a PA system?

6:04 for the actual audio comparison. Thanks for the advice! PS: At 8:22, the keyboard amps aren't mean to be overdriven as (99% of) the guitar amps. You need a "cabsim" to get a good distorted tone from a keyboard amp.

The thing is that i have the same issue, i have guitar, didgeridoo and electronic, like looper, drum machine, synths, backtracks, etc, and i'm seeking for best solution to replace my Roland Cube Street which is really great and portable with a guitar and yes, it's terrible with samples, beats as it don't have enough basses, maybe bigger version like Roland Cube Street EX have, don't know, anyways I wonder should i get maybe some bass amp, but now i will chek out also keyboard amps, thanks for suggestion. P.S. your pedalboard ir dope! :D

Candle wax can be removed with a fold of paper towel and a cloth iron

Is there good mirco amp for keyboard? I was looking at spark go

For multi instrumentalist which amp we can buy ?

out of curiosity, i search checked both speakers for their specifications: Roland kc-150 Output: 65 W Speaker size: 1 x 12 inches, Tweeter x 1 Marshall code 25w Output: 25 W Speaker Size: 1 x 10 inches As such, surely Roland is the winner due to its 2.5 times using 12 inches big woofer plus tweeter, far more power n clarity than the Marshall one. But you re right that guitar amp has diff characteristics than keyboard amp, i guess due to taking diff leading sound frequency requirements. Merry Christmas and Happy New year to you n everyone here. 🙏🎅

Hello there.. looks like i had not enough power in my synth output and distortion pedal does't do a good job, for example my low ends completely disappear and i cant increase it using pedal settings. Should i use addition preamp to boost my signal before it comes into distortion/overdrive pedal?

7:27 bruh the marshall made that sound styling in a good way. I know why you want the clean sound, but you can get some wicked shit recording brass out of that marshall for pieces of a song. Like creepy old timey cartoony, idk I liked how forward it made the lower brass move. Add a deep bass far in the back, and zomg. The next thing you played was already childish but made more like mickey mouse clubhousey.

what a modern pedalboard. Im impressed.

yeah but I run an analogue synthesizer with digital effects pedals modeled after guitars. still using a guitar amp for most the range

I bought the new one marshal guitar amp for my keyboard huhuhu too late

"There I go talking again!" lmao respect man, thanks for uploading!

Very educational! thnak you I have a question im planning to buy a RC-3ls loop station and amplifier(for piano) for my yamaha dgx piano to set up as a looper for jam session would it be possible? thanks.

very helpful, thank you!

It's the speaker itself that sounds like the crap! It's load and frequency range determine the quality of sound product!

eyy thanks for the video. Do u know maybe if its possible to conect keyboard and guitar to a looper at same time? or how could i loop both together?

Amazing. We have a here a music bro with a room brimming with instruments, tuba 'n all, even knowing the difference between a xylophone and a vibrophone. And not a single guitar in sight. 😂

Thank you men for doing your best to compare the difference between keyborad amp and guitar amp. It really makes sense.

as a looper I always prefer keyboard amp. But what about a bass amp?? can you make a video about that?

That trombone / tuba part was killer!

just turn off the amp, cabinet and power simulations and you'll have a really cool sound. Or you have the option to buy an amplifier simulator pedal and turn it on only when using distortion, and your keyboard amp doesn't gonna sound like crap. Examples of pedals: Mooer 004 Day Tripper, Joyo American Sound or Actone, Behringer GDI-21, Zoom MS-50g. They are all very cheap and have a very decent sound

Great video, I nearly wasted cash on a pa and 4x12 guitar cab, which would be no good for my Boss DR-880, even my Digitec trio sounds crap through the guitar amp. and that is because the speakers can't handle anything outside the guitar scale.... So looking for a keyboard drum amp with speaker as seen here :)

I'm surprised my Orange CR6 sounds reasonable with an Aux in. I took it with me to clean an empty library and it made a decent sound for a guitar amp. It's a bit light on bass and crisp clean treble to be expected. My Marshall MG15 sounded worse (more muffled and shrieky with not much top end). A bass with tweeter cab or keyboard/pa cab will do a lot better. Money no object a Barefaced Big Twin 2. I remember as a kid blasting house music through a stack of 2 x 15 HH Electronic Pro 150 speakers with blown tweeters (all bass and muffled mids, one had a dustcap missing and both had a slight rub in the voice coil) on a Custom Sound Keyboard Mixer with the bass controls up and treble down. And on top of the stack, a Marshall 8020 open back combo with the bass down and the treble on about "3" (way too much treble on that thing). It sounded very loud but about as bad as you'd imagine till my mum asked me to turn it down. Kid me thought it was great but my Bill Fitzmaurice PA system and DSP make a much nicer sound.

🤙🏼

Which amp is good for korg pa series keyboards Which give me some options or a perfects models of amplifiers speakers for high bass for chords playings High clears sounds Which one i choose for my keyboards Reply me

Great vid dude!

Funny!

I still don't know to get an amp or studio monitors. I just want a good sound for playing at home, don't care about producing music, which sound's better? toss up between a KC220 and monitors for around the same price

entertaining chap.

How loud can you play the Roland with the low set on max or middle; the same with high eq: without having distortion if you use any of the channels with an mp3?

Hindsight 20/20 ... guitar amps only for guitars...good job

Thank you for the heads up as I almost made error of buying a guitar amp - I currently use a 5 watt 9 volt DC op-amp. I had a Laney combo mdf cab/spkr multi input amp which is neutral sound as for various instruments. I took apart and saw it uses a 50 cent transistor amp on a circuit board. I built a wooden cabinet for that and gave it a Eminence guitar speaker. The guitar synths GR55 and SY1000 work okay with it. The guitar sound comes out a bit clean. Pls feel free to listen to my looped instrumental with the GR55. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3RLe7Dcnntg.html

Which marker do you recommend to write on my keyboard. 😂

Such an Un-Scientific Comparison...LOL...

Thank you bro, I may buy one with more watts for gigs...

8:40 Was that the keyboard running through a distortion pedal?

I suggest getting something like a Roland cube street EX as it has separate subwoofers and tweeters which sound great with keyboards and drums, it also has amp simulators for guitars too.

I'm going to run my Roland GR-55 through this.

Wow those keyboard effects take me way back! Haha! Awesome 🤘🏼💀🎹🎛

Hey, I really liked your review. Good job bro.

And like that, you saved me money. Thank you.

thanks man I was about to make this mistake lol

Sick doom riff at the end!!

I wonder how a keyboard amp would work with a guitar modeler like Helix that has amp/cab modeling? Any experience with that?

Thanks bro. Very useful info for me.

KC= keyboard combo at a guess.

I'm looking for a bass amp/ keyboard amplifier. Do you have a reccomendation? I could pay 650 USD max

Great personality..entertaining

Well done...thanks.

KC mean Kaiba Corp XD

vs bass gtr amp

You could use a guitar amp for a keyboard but you have to turn down the treble fully and turn up the bass fully

Thanks for this! I am looking to get an electric guitar again soon and need an amp, and was hoping I could get one for it and my Yamaha S90. Maybe I should go for a decent keyboard amp and let it force me to improve my guitar playing. 😅 For now.