Question About Electronic Drum Set

[2bhumble (Dave)]

I have had my Crate BT100 Amp up for sale. Had a guy look at it tonight wanting to use it with a Roland electronic drum set.

This guy is a newbie to the drums and has very little knowledge of any type of music gear.

Does anyone have any experience with electronic drums run through bass amps and can answer such questions as,

Will the drums sound good? Would the drums be considered passive or active? Would the drums work through the effects loop?

I have no experience with this and I don't want to sell this guy something he will not be satisfied with.
Thats for your input.

Dave 

[Eddy]

My experience has been that full range instruments (drums, keys etc) do NOT sound good through a bass amp. Most bass amps are tuned such that full range instruments sound 'muffled' without extreme EQ, and sometimes even with extreme EQ.

A keyboard amp, or powered PA enclosure would be a MUCH better solution IMHO.

However, you could try it. If sounds good then there's no argument against success.

[chuckzee90]

You can make it WORK... I mean, if he just wants to practice with it, then shoot, who cares.  If it makes noise, you're good to go.  But... as far as using it for a service I agree with dave. 

ever run an electric/acoustic through a bass amp?  haha I got a 50's junk surf electric guitar sound out of it.

[CRBMoA]

The electronic drums are active, and any signal can be run through a loop, with varied results. But I echo the sentiment above. A bass cab is designed to bring out the lows, with some sizzle. The kick and maybe the snare could be made to sound good, but the rest of the kit will be comprimised.

For a bedroom warrior, this would be fine. If he gets serious, he will need to get more appropriate gear.

However, there are no P.A. Police that I am aware of. Let him try it. If he likes it, sell it to him.

Seriously, he plays electronic drums.

[2bhumble (Dave)]

Thank you for the feedback and for sharing your wisdom.

I know that any experience I have had with electronic drums was powered through the PA so I had no idea how it might work or sound with a bass amp.

I am going to share your comments with him and then let him make up his own mind. The amp is in mint condition with all the owner manual, the original sells reciept and priced at $150 so if he doesn't buy it someone will.

I did suggest trying it with the drum set before buying it but for some reason he didn't seem to want to do that. 

Thanks again

Dave

[mousekillaz]

  The reason most bass amps sound really flat is the lack of a true HF driver. I currently use a SWR WP-12 that has the LeSon piezo in it and my Tak 12 string sounds unbelievable through it . Almost all amps can reproduce the entire range of frequencies we can hear easily   what limits there capabilities are the drivers. A typical 12 rolls off starting around 1000Hz give or take  and is pretty much all done by 2500Hz which leaves a huge hole in the high end for any other instrument. A 15's response is even more severe and 10's slightly better. Your Crate doesn't have a tweeter built into it as far as I know but you could easily add one. They are available on Ebay quite readily. Just find a spot to add it in you cabinet that doesn't interfere with the ports or driver cut a hole and wire it in parallel with the LF driver. I would use a Piezo as they don't really need a crossover  and if its to bright a high current sand bar style resistor can be added. I have a BT-50 that went up in flames awhile back I was going to add a tweeter to it to wake it up for slap style but ...