Greetings metal heads!

When I play and record my keyboard I play it through my guitar amp (clean mode obviously) and it sounds pretty darn good. I didn't want to buy a keyboard amplifier because to me a keyboard amplifier is exactly like a guitar amplifier on clean mode. To me it was a waste of money buying one. Does anybody here see a big difference in keyboard in an guitar amplifier (clean mode) or a keyboard amp? Replies and answers this time would be nice this time.

Thank you!

Believe it or not there is a definite reason to choose keyboard amps over guitar amps, and not just for amplifying keys either. Keyboard amps usually have a flatter EQ than guitar amps since the overall design of them assumes the sound of the keyboard is being totally realized before it hits the speakers. A guitar amp will undoubtedly have it's natural EQ response altered due to the materials and tone bias it inherits. What this basically means is if you buy a keyboard amp, and play your keys through it, it's going to sound more like they are 'supposed' to sound because keyboards amps are designed almost like 'amplified monitors' and don't have tone changing characteristics bulit into them like guitar amps/cabs do.
This is also useful for people who use preamps and digital gear and don't want to shell out money for a seperate power amp and cab. Alot of people I know use keyboard amps for that reason - they have flatter eq's than guitar amps and it helps them get more of the tone they are supposed to get from their preamps/digital gear. So, the same would be true for keyboards.
Now, I was going to ask you, when you're recording your keys, why aren't you putting them straight into your mixing board/recording interface/whatever... this would negate the entire need for any amplification issues [unless you wanted to go live of course.]

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I did that for the previous song "Red Masked Phantom", I ran the keyboard directly into a direct box than into the recorder. I never did like the keyboard sounds in that song, they sounded to dry for me. So after I tried it through my guitar amplifier it sounded much more lively, powerfull, and full; this is the way I'm recording the keyboards to my current final demo song. The other reason I like using the amplifier is because I like to mic my sounds with my microphone.

Now I wanted to ask you or anybody else who wants to answer, is it safe for my guitar amplifiers speakers?

Thank you!

why wouldnt it be? Amps are usually built around the limitations of their speakers... in otherwords, the wattage of the amp wont go over that of the speaker, so it shouldnt be driven into clipping or be damaged in any way.

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Yup yup, The Bleeding is right. I've also done this before just for fun and nothing bad happened. Might I add that I think it's pretty cool you mic your keyboards this way... that's what they used to do years and years ago.

EDIT: Speaking of old school synth tactics, you can also run your keys through guitar effects this way. This should produce some pretty rad and sick sounds.
I personally love the sound of warm strings through a gently-set phaser.

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the thing with effects is that alot of them are built with around the same input impedance... so they shouldnt suck alot of tone from the instrument. This doesn't apply to everything though *cough* crybabys *cough*... but if you get something nice like a moogerfooger, or some electro harmonix effects, all should be good. Basically, anything without a true bypass, or a buffered bypass has the potential to eat tone. One of my favorite effects is a ring modulator... electro harmonix makes one that they call the Frequency analyzer, not as many features as the moog ring mod, but it is like 150$ cheaper and still a fuckload of fun for trippy stuff.

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True, but I'd recommend a power amp and not a cab but full-range speakers for both applications. Guitar cabinets aren't full-ranged, and both keyboards and amp modellers can benefit from FR outputs.

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I can definitely say that I do not know if it's safe or not. I really don't, and I've never bothered to check, because I sent my keyboard direct. I've hooked it up to a guitar amp for just a few minutes at most.

One concern that I have, though, is that speakers chosen for guitar applications are not full-range. They're designed to play the normal guitar frequency range (give or take a good bit). I've also heard that playing a bass guitar through a normal guitar amp, and vice versa, can be bad for the same reasons.

Again, I don't know if this is true or not, but there may be more to consider than the amount of power being sent from the amp to the speakers.

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hahah dont worry dude. the AMP is built around the speaker, and is what makes the sound before the speaker spits it out. When you play a bass through, the amp isnt going to know how to project the low frequency range, thus it sounds like crap, but it isnt going to damage the speaker at all, its just not guna sound good. Now, if you ran a bass amp into a guitar cabinet, that might damage the speakers, but mostly because bass amps have huge wattage ratings because people cant hear low frequencies very well, so the solution to that is to get the volume of the low freqs up higher, and guitar cabs arent designed for that kind of power. Man, i plug my computer into my amp when i'm watching movies, still sounds the same as ever... DONT WORRY ABOUT IT. The only time you have to worry is when you try and match an amp to its speakers... but combos come already matched and built for you, and most techs arent going to build a combo that is able to destroy itself.

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Is this a valve amp we are talking about here? I wonder how much warmer a good valve amp would make the keys sound.

Good to know

So the amp will clip the lower frequencies (or higher if it's a guitar->bass amp) so that they're not sent to the speaker? I didn't think that they would do that. I figured most of the clipping would happen at the speakers.

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well if an amp isnt designed to project a certain frequency, it will just block it out. Thats why when you look at amp spec's it tells you the frequency range... Its like playing a hiwatt vs an orange, the orange will thunder out low range undertones with thick strings... and hiwatt would probably just get flubby sounding.

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I think it depends what sounds you use. Obviously some synth sounds are extremely bassy and deep, and therefore, detrimental to your amp. My Peavey cab it about toast due to running my keyboard through it.

the only thing that can toast your cab is the amp. And if the amp tries to push out frequency ranges that your cab cannot handle, then yes, you're anally fucking your cab with a barbed wire condom. But if the amp has a frequency range WITHIN the cab's limit, no damage should be done.
One thing you will want to consider is that keyboard amp speakers are OPEN BACK. If you put a keyboard into a closed back cabinet, it can potentially damage the speakers because uniformly projected sound at high volume will make the speaker cone move, but with a closed back, it will create a vaccuum within the cab and suck the speaker back in, making it clip at high volumes. THIS IS A BAD THING. Guitar cabs are closed back because it tightens the sound to make it more natural, keyboards ARE NOT NATURAL, they are SYNTHETIC, so they should be treated differently than guitars.
With this in mind, you can still run a keyboard into a guitar combo, because most of them are openback anyway (except for marshall mg's and peavey 6505/5150's) which allowed for the continuous motion of the cone at high volume with no negative effects due to a vaccum on one side of the cone. Please please PLEASE dont run it into a closed back cab like a 4x12 or something.,.. its just not meant to be.

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Well, regardless, it worked fine prior to using the keyboard through it. I know I will never run a keyboard through a guitar amp again. It is a good thing I have a Marshall full stack, or I would be really pissed. >

what kind of peavey cab is it? and what exactly is the problem...

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I am not sure what model the cab is. I know is was like $400.00 about 5 years ago and has 4 Sheffield speakers.

I ran my Alesis QS8.2 through it for a while, finding out what it can do and such. Doing this, I played it quite loud and there were some patches with extremely low ends which my cab totally didn't like. Anyhow, the distortions that I use now cut out while I am playing anything even remotely fast. This occurs at ANY volume.

The acoustic tones are normal and I have no problems there, but any more than a basic blues distortion does what I described above.

its a 5150 cab... and for distortions... check your keyboard... speakers cant break and magically make distorted tones clean... it usually makes it more distorted...

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It's definately not a 5150 cab. I kinda wished it was.

And it does not add more distortion, just when I play my guitar in distortion, it doesn't work anymore, but when I play my guitar in a clean tone, it plays fine.

I must not have explained very well, sorry.

But trust me, it is toast, and it became toast after using the keyboard through it. If I use that head with my Marshall, everything works fine, and everything worked fine throught the Peavey until I ran the keyboard through it. Maybe it is some weird coincidence, but whatever it was, I attribute it from running the keyboard through it.

crack that bitch open and check all the wiring... usually when cones are damaged it makes some FUCKED UP noises... and from what i gather, it just pooped out on you...

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The wiring of the cab itself? Will I get electrocuted?

Ok how about running a guitar through a keyboard amp? Will it sound good and how safe is it?