The worst amp I've ever owned

[JKT]

It hit me. I'd forgotten all about this amp. I must have blocked it out as a defense mechanism. I couldn't even remember the name at first but in researching it came to me. The mfg timeline doesn't fit though so I wonder if it was a prototype I go stuck with. It turns out it was mfg in my home town. I have yet to find any images on the web. If anyone can, I'm strong enough now to confront it.

In the late 70's moog music built a line of amps called SG. I got suckered into one of the bass amps. It was the size of a small fridge and weighed as much as a big one. It had to be the worlds largest combo amp I think it had a 15 and 2 10's for speakers. It was like, two thirds the size of an Ampeg 810Black tolex covering a particle board cab. Cheesy aluminum trim and giant oven dials that didn't do much.
Terrible sounding amp. And the best part- it kept quitting on me and I would have to haul it in to the mfg to have them fix it. Anyone ever see one?

JKT

[lbanks]

I remember SGs. They sold a guitar amp I lusted after, till I play a Roland.

[krall]

My ex-drummer has one..Found this info online:

"The SG Systems amps were made at the old Standel plant in El Monte, California in 1974 when Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) purchased Standel. I believe SG stands for Standel Gibson."

[TrooperFarva]

Originally Posted by JKT

It had to be the worlds largest combo amp

The Ashdown "King Combo" was a signature Combo amp for Mark King, and was an ABM500 head with an 810, all in one box. It's the largest production combo that I remember. It weighed 220lbs.

[senorblues]

1960's Lectrolab. My blond 2-12s Fender Bassman wasn't a big step up. Somebody today might pay big bucks for that junk.

[Bassflute]

Hands down. Bad sound, bad design, faulty workmanship, poorly made right out of the box, along with nasty, rude, condescending and out and out lying customer service. Oh, and did I mention it was the most expensive amp I've bought?

Worst soundwise: Fender Bassman 50

Worst reliability: original Ampeg SVT

Cheers,
Cameron

[basswave]

I remember having a Randall amp in the late 80's it was afforable and I was getting away from Ampeg and I think I returned in something like 2 weeks. It was awful. Worse amp I have ever heard.

I jumped to GK and used them for something like 10 years.

[Fawkes007]

Worst amp I ever had was an AMP-220 (I believe). I bought it brand new, took it out of the box at rehearsal, hooked it up to my rig, hit two notes and it died on the spot. Returned it the next day for a GK400RB. I didn't want to know from AMP ever again. Funny how I bought a Thunderfunk two years ago and it the most solid build quality I have ever seen with no problems what so ever...

[BigOldHarry]

my first amp: A Kustom Casino 4x10 combo. Sounded like a giant, weak mud-fart. AND it was heavy. And ugly. But it was cheap!

[martyman5000]

Worst Amp was some giant rolling combo I had back in the 80's I remember it being either a Roland or Peavey (could be wrong)...it was atleast 5' tall and sounded like A@#

[RTL]

Worst sounding: Peavey TNT130 (It sure was loud though)
Worst amp reliability-wise: Fender BXR 300C (It sounded marginally better than the Peavey)

[megadan]

My worst amp:
I had this old Yamaha combo, I have no idea if it was supposed to be for bass or guitar. It had 2 10 inch speakers and a hole for a third. It was ugly as sin and it sounded awful, but it was really loud. It always farted with bass, but for some reason I used to run mics and DJ's(!) through it and it sounded fantastic. Tons of gain for mics, and lots of boom for DJ's. No idea why it didn't work for bass. Maybe a speaker was missing, I never really figured that out.

[Trevorus]

I've never really owned a BAD bass amp. I've played GK since soon after I got into bass, and that thing was a tank and is still working to this day (though I don't own it anymore, I know where it is). I had a Carvin B800 and it was really nice, and only gave me one hiccup. Now I play 2 GK heads again, and they are reliable as can be!

[ScottB.]

Originally Posted by Bassflute

Hands down. Bad sound, bad design, faulty workmanship, poorly made right out of the box, along with nasty, rude, condescending and out and out lying customer service. Oh, and did I mention it was the most expensive amp I've bought?

Worst soundwise: Fender Bassman 50

Worst reliability: original Ampeg SVT

Cheers,
Cameron

Eden, bad?

Does not compute

[ThunderLizard]

JKT-
Early 70's ACE TONE! And I traded a mid-60's Fender Bassman for it.
I know....I know........

[Bluesbob]

Originally Posted by Bassflute

Worst soundwise: Fender Bassman 50

Worst reliability: original Ampeg SVT

Cheers,
Cameron

I stayed away from the Eden 1205 because of its' price as well as the WT800C because of reliability issues. I wound up buying a WT800B, which has been wonderful, so far.

But what I don't get is, if the Fender was your worst soundwise, and the SVT was the worst as far as reliability, why did you say the Eden was the worst? I'm guessin' price/value ratio? And I guess that's a valid criteria, but still... I'd take an expensive amp over one that doesn't sound good or one that's not dependable, any day. That's just me. MHO and YMMV.

[JimmyM]

You apparently don't know about the Eden CS wars of a few years ago.

[vinxbass]

My worst amp I've ever owned and still use for a rehearsal amp, is really not a bad amp, is my Peavey 700 Firebass head w/TVX cab. The amp has a lame midrange section and both head and cab are hella heavy. The head is like 40 lbs and the cab is 104 lbs, way to heavy at my age.

[Crockettnj]

Not onlly the worst amp I ever had, but easily the worst amp ever sold to anyone in north america was the 15" rickenbacker combo I borrowed from my brother. It was free and I paid too much. Just plain bad. I forgot the model #, but it wasnt cheep.

This post doesnt do it justice. If you all really knew how much is S****d, you'd all be mailing me condolence cards in the mail.

[b_carville]

Originally Posted by ThunderLizard

JKT-
Early 70's ACE TONE! And I traded a mid-60's Fender Bassman for it.
I know....I know........

ACE TONE! AAAAHHHHHH! NOOOOO!

I had hoped to never hear the name ACE TONE again!

Some of the local trendies actually gun for Ace tone combo organs.They think they are getting that "authentic" 60's sound! HAH! Those things were godawful too! They used to sell those at Sears Roebuck.
You can sell those for more then you paid for them in the 60's.You have never lived until you sung through an Acetone P.A.system. Yep,Acetone made it all. All bad! Hard to believe that they survived into the 70's but yes they did.

Just the name ACETONE makes my memory regurgitate all of the dogdirt brands of gear designed to fleece the unsuspecting young musician of their hard earned bucks in the 60's & early /mid 70's.Let me run down some names to purge myself.You oldtimers may remember some of these superfine lines.

GREGORY Horrible amps. Usually used car radio speakers.Made right here in the USA.Mainly solid state but some tube.

HAYNES The "Bass King" model. It wasn't. Their brochure stated "Stand Back! The booming bass sound will knock you over!" or something like that. Your household pets fart louder.

MARLBORO. They made everything too. PA's to bass amps.You don't want to know.

TENEYKE Not sure of the spelling. Huge,loud & horrible.The front grill cloth was illuminated though. Tone? Forget it! Oh yeah the head & cabinet were all in one not seperate. A real pain to lug around. A lot of guys got suckered into these my way.Loud,though.

BALDWIN BASS "EXTERMINATOR" Two twelves & Two fifteens all in one cabinet with the 100 watt solid state head attached.Cute color stops to change the tone,not that it had any.Another hernia box! I read somewhere that Neil Young uses or does something with one of these. Can't imagine what for.

UNIVOX A name that needs little introduction.Some of their stuff was halfassed.Most was crap.

LAFAYETTE Amp line carried by the old Lafayette electronic store chain(They were way cooler than Radio Shack).Generally lower quality Univox.Hard to believe that was possible.They made basses too! Don't ask!

ORPHEUM This one had a dim/bright knob for the pilot light!Sold at the old SILO chain next to the washing machines.

EMC These amps were named after the various signs of the zodiac. I think the bass one was "Taurus".Well it was bull!

CONCORDIA I've snarled about this one on a couple of other posts. My 1st amp. I tried to forget about it but a friend of mine found one & presented it to me on my 50th birthday. Don't think I've spoken to him since.

VOX I'm talking the made in the USA Thomas Organ solid state one's. The biggest ripoff amp ever. My pick as win,place & show in the Golden Fleece award amplifier division. I know these amps have their fans but they were cheaply made & would crap out all the time. Some of them did sound good,when they worked. They led dumbass American kids (like,me!) to believe they were getting the real British deal.A Super Beatle would hiss like a pack of snakes.They were hyper expensive & never discounted. The cabinets were made of pressboard. A Super Beatle was $1200 in the 60's. An Essex bass amp (A Whopping 25-30 watts of power) was $450. That's 60's dollars kids. You could get a new car for $2000 then (not a fancy one,but new).

Man,I could go on! This crap made Beheringer sound like Glockinglang! Every body jumped on the 60's rock band wagon & every ying yang with a soldering iron wanted to cash in. People actually gigged with this stuff! Don't even get me started about the refrigerator sized Teisco Del Ray amps,the 60's solid state Fender's (The three twelve inch speaker bassman was legendary but not for good reasons),Ovation,GBX,the 1st Ampeg solid state models,Hohner,& the Magnatone Exterminator.All of these amps I had the misfortune of having to play through.

Oh,yeah! You could order the SG amps in bluejean denim!