Using my bass head to amp headphones?

Probably not.

Most guitar amps are mono.

Your headphones are stereo.

Though you can build your own amp for about $20; a CMoy. You might also look into the new O2 amp, which (I think) can be built for $60-$70. On a strict budget, I'd probably build the O2. You could probably sell a few old videos or game cartridges to pay for one. DIY isn't that hard and it's fun.

I have a friend who was telling me about a recording studio in LA where they use a tube guitar amp for headphone monitoring when recording. It is mono and sounded pretty good. I guess it helps them play their part recording the song and mono is not an issue. The guitar amp headphone rig has been modified too, so it's not stock in any way.

 

I had a stereo guitar head in the late 1990s called a Fender Dual Showman. It was giant and just the head weighed about 60 lbs if I remember right. It was made for stereo effects or two guitars played on different channels. I had purchased it at a pawn shop and got a great deal as everyone wanted something which played louder. It was covered in white snake skin too which may have been the reason I got a great deal on it. The speakers where huge and when this thing was all put together it was over six feet tall. 

 

 

Edited by Redcarmoose - 10/21/11 at 1:14am

The main reason why you don't want to use instrument amplifiers as amps for home listening is because they're designed to not sound neutral - they're voiced to emphasize certain frequency bands and overreact in particular ways to the signal they're fed. The metallic crunch of a Marshall rig sounds great when amplifying a single guitar, but it is kind of unwelcome when it affects the drums, vocals, violins, choruses, harpsichords, the guitar whose signal is going through somebody else's guitar amp, and so on. 

It's difficult to make solid recommendations without knowing what your budget is, what your existing setup and preferred listening habits are.

 

The Fischer headphones you bought seem reasonably efficient and shouldn't need monstrous power behind them the way some phones do; this means a good portable amp ought to work perfectly well. Many portable amps work quite well as desktop amps too, and even better there are portable DAC/amps available which provide excellent quality for the price (and many of them can draw power from the same USB line that's providing signal, so you don't have to keep buying batteries or scrounging for a wall wart). The FIIO E7, for example, includes both a DAC and headphone amp, costs under $100 and has an avid following hereabouts. If you're on an extremely tight budget, you can look for somebody to build you a CMOY portable amplifier, or try making your own.

 

And, of course, buying used can be a great way to save money.

 

Unfortunately, since you're looking for product recommendations in an area I don't have a lot of experience with, I can't be too helpful but there are plenty of people here in a similar dilemma as you, so reviewing some existing threads about budget amps, both in the full-sized amps forum but also the Portable Amplifiers forum, can be educational.

Edited by ardgedee - 10/22/11 at 7:39pm

If you plug your headphones into the power stage of your amp, you will probably risk damaging your headphones. If your amp was a tube amp, you would fry your output transformer. Most headphone amps have the power equivalent to the preamp section of a guitar amp.