Can I connect a bass guitar directly to my mixer?

Question

Is it possible to play a bass guitar through one of the stereo channels (L/mono) for example, on Behringer ZENYX 1823 sound mixer?

Answer 1

That the channel is "stereo" is really not important as long as you use the L/mono input. But there are other things to consider:

The load impedance (mixer input impedance) should be higher than the source/output impedance (mic/strument). The usual rule-of-thumb is a 1:10 impedance ratio between instrument/mic and preamp.

A typical passive bass impedance is around 10K - which means your mixer channel input impedance should be around 100K for an optimal load ratio. Active bass pickups vary alot in impedance, but are generally lower and the output louder, which is good for this case.

According to the manual (p. 16), your mixers line inputs are 10K unbalanced and 20K balanced (this requires an anapter) :

So in general this does not look good. With a standard passive bass @ 10K connected to the unbalanced input of 10K you have a 1:1 ratio. Thats bad. You will get a weak and thin sound.

If you have an active bass it may work out better, but still not optimal - try it out (don't worry about damaging anything here - it is mainly a question about the sound quality).

So in the end it really depends on the type of Bass - In any case I'd use a DI box (line driver) or a dedicated bass preamp (or amp DI out) to get around the problem.