Most Disappointing Experience (Amps)

[Cave Puppy]

Some form of an Eden amp (Nemesis 300?), the two Aguilar THs I had, and (not an amp) - the Phil Jones cab with the four 5" drivers. ugh. I'm sure there's more. I acquired a Quilter BB800 and haven't looked back. EDIT: Oh yeah - I was also very disappointed in the GK 400 RB I had to use as backline once. Once.

 

[agedhorse]

A disappointing moment in bass/bass amp/speaker manufacturers could be characterized by those manufacturers that shut down operations claiming bankruptcy protection but not actually filing for bankruptcy, walked away from supporting their existing products (including those that were still under warranty), then restarted operations as though nothing ever happened... no harm no foul. I can think of several companies that did something along these lines, but regardless of the company it hurts the players who bought their amps/cabs in good faith expecting the warranty and parts support to be honored. This makes me a bit sad.

 

[foal30]

GK and Spector or Warwick work very well.. I agree, GK and P not so much..I'm still searching for a sound I like with my P bass. Its been quite frustrating. I'm starting to consider a Kemper.

Precison and Ashdown
The old ABM or the CTM big valve

 

[Taustin Powers]

Quilter Bass Block 800.

Bought after reading so much praise about it. Sold it a few months later. I just did not like the tone, or rather the lack thereof. Sounded lifeless and dull to me.

 

[Gustopher]

Quilter Bass Block 800.

Bought after reading so much praise about it. Sold it a few months later. I just did not like the tone, or rather the lack thereof. Sounded lifeless and dull to me.

I've read a lot of people say that amp was great for being super transparent almost to the point of just being a power amp... I would imagine it being great for people that use a lot of effects and a different offboard preamp, but supposedly doesn't have a lot of baked in tone.

 

[Altitude]

I love Aguilar as a company and I've had a good experience with almost all of their products. But, like the OP, I had a DB750 as backline on a gig once, with whatever 410 they had on the market in around 2006. I was so excited because I'd seen John Patitucci use one on that "Hudson Project" video not long before and really wanted a piece of what he was getting.

It just didn't sound good. Flat, not powerful, midrangey in a not good way. Luckily the gig was a festival tryout and we only played three tunes. We did not get selected for the festival - not sure it was the DB750's fault.

 

[Altitude]

Second place for me was the Thunderfunk. I bought one of these after reading about them here for years. I think I might have gotten it just as they became sort of irrelevant, as I was comparing it to the far smaller and lighter Genz Benz Shuttle 9 I had at the same moment, which sounded at least as good.

In the end, there was nothing to distinguish the Thunderfunk positively and it was bigger and heavier than everything else I had. I played it in 6 or 7 rehearsals and then sold it. It never saw a gig with me.

 

[Marty Forrer]

In the 90s SWR and Eden were the hot tip. I had a couple of Edens and several SWRs and could not get the sound in my head from any of them.

 

[MDBass]

I love my p bass through my GK 700RB just not through a GK cab. Different strokes.

And I have yet to come across a class D head that has the heft of a traditional class A SS lead sled amp.

Horsepower vs torque. YMMV.

I was the same way for years until I found the Bergantino Forte HP.

Just as much slam as my DB750, with more clean headroom.

 

[BOOG]

I had made a thread about it (or maybe I had posted on the Rumble thread) and some of the fanboys had said it wasn’t a big deal and something that could easily be remedied.

That’s not the point.

It was brand new. I shouldn’t have to do anything to it.

Agreed.
That is exactly, the point.

 

[chaosMK]

SWR heads never had a sound I could enjoy but I "get" them.

 

[Solarmist]

Carvin BX700. I got it during the 2016 black Friday selloff, and I thought I got a pretty good deal. You'd think an amp should last 8 years plus, but not this one. It started cutting out a year+ ago, and I'm done screwing with it to try and keep it on. Saturday I ordered a GK Legacy500 - it's suppose to be here Friday.

 

[Membo]

I have been content with most amps I have owned, but never happy. Sure, I was happy at first, but then there is this never ending quest for "better tone" and eventually whatever I'm playing through turns to just "OK". And you forever need to reconcile the live sound with the bedroom sound. If it is the best amp you have ever heard in your bedroom, chances are you won't cut through live. My two cents, anyway.

 

[Roger M]

Raised on an old 1964 Bassman so that was my amateur reference point (I still have that old amp and still love it). Now, I have an Aguilar AG700 and a TH500, and an Ag SL410 and I'm very happy with them both

 

[wolfbass82]

The legendary Trace Elliot V6. It was not so much the sound (which I didn't like too much, too), but the fact that two new heads died on me in less than a week. They were so massively unreliable.

The other amp I really hate is the Hughes & Kettner BassBase 400. I've been trying to get a decent sound out of these for quite some time, but they never cut through. I couldn't hear myself no matter how loud I tured it up. Really frustrating.

Now extremely happy with my Acoustic 320, Peavey Mk4 and Little Mark.

 

[bassmike2010]

Around ‘96 I bought an SWR SM900 along with a Goliath 4x10 and the Big Ben 18’er. This was going to be THE Rig of Doom. It just didn’t work out. In fact it farted out on me and my P Bass when I dug in. Fortunately GC had begun the 30 day return policy.

Without sifting through other horror stories, mine. Same SWR SM900 experience.
Around '96, guitarist friend asked me, my then keyboard- player- wife and drummer friend
to join up with him in a female fronted prog CW outfit that had corporate funding. Deal was
we could have our choice of individual dream rigs of choice. I'd recently purchased a KS CR5M
followed by a Modulus Q5 on layaway @ GC. I eagerly grabbed the Q5 and ordered the flavor
of the month SWR SM900/ Bag End 410/ 118 stack plus a good racked wireless. In the ensuing
gigs I was unable to get anything but the afore- mentioned farting under- powered outcome;
despite proper impedance load matching. Maybe it was the lack of Bag End processor, but as
an experienced soundman/ bassist of 30 yrs I was disappointed at my inability to get an efficient
tone/ stage level. Fortunately the funding backed out and I relinquished the rig back to GC.
Minus the Q5 which is still my #1 to this day. 3K bass for 2 bills so it wasn't a total loss.
Today my dream rigs remain my '71 Blueline SVT, Trace Elliot AH350X/ 2-410 stack
and dangerous daily driver GK700RB-II/ 215 Eminence Delta. Oh, and the GK PLEX/ Shure IEM pack.

 

[Fuzzbass]

I want to start by saying that this thread is NOT intended to poopie on gear!! I’m just curious to see what others experiences are.

My story...I have been playing professionally for about 30 years. In that time I’ve played a LOT of gear. I have my preferences but I recently had a MAJOR let down. I’d like to hear about yours and/or some disagreements that may make me think twice.

So...I’m all my years of playing I never had the experience of playing an Aguilar DB750. The price tag and lack of availability to try out this amp locally or really anywhere always bugged me...particularly because Chris Chaney (who is a beast IMO) has used one for a while. During Covid my band had the opportunity to do a live stream with full production and touring grade equipment. I pretty much had my pick of gear. When I heard that a DB750 and Aguilar cabs were on the list I seized the opportunity and used the head with (2) 212 cabs. I was stoked! I showed up with my Spector Basses and had high hopes. When I plugged in to soundcheck and setup I had about 60 mins to tweak and play. I was SO disappointed that I just couldn’t get this rig to sound good no matter what I tried. In the end I just played the show with the best settings I could get but to this day I am just bewildered that I couldn’t dial up anything exciting or even acceptable IMO.

anyone have a similar experience with an amp? Anyone use the DB750 and love it?

I've taken chances on raved-about amps that didn't work out for me. I just chalk that up to 'different strokes': sell the amp, and move on to something that works better with my ears -- or my other gear: the entire signal path matters.


Ironically, a large disappointment was with my favorite amp: my early 70's SVT. Don't get me wrong, it sounded good at any volume, but the real magic happened when I was cranking it up on a big stage or outdoors and the power tubes got cooking. Bummed me out that I couldn't get that glorious overdrive at any volume level. I tried overdriving all-tube preamps, even top quality ones like Alembic, but preamp tubes are not power tubes.

So, my solution became solid state amps with overdrive units (first rack, now pedals): I get the quality dirt I need at any volume. I won't try to claim that these rigs equal warm power tubes, but tube emulation keeps getting better and better: they sound plenty good enough for me, and a nice bonus is that they're smaller, and lighter weight.

 

[Low Main]

I'm with all those who couldn't get a MarkBass rig to work for them. But I've heard others sound great through them. Maybe it's me. Or maybe I needed to go back further in their production history and find something of Italian manufacture.

I like Aguilar cabs but haven't found an Ag amp or pedal I liked.

 

[chadds]

Around ‘96 I bought an SWR SM900 along with a Goliath 4x10 and the Big Ben 18’er. This was going to be THE Rig of Doom. It just didn’t work out. In fact it farted out on me and my P Bass when I dug in. Fortunately GC had begun the 30 day return policy.

From here I can tell you why. There are numerous reasons.

SWRs put out tremendous subsonic lows. We now know HPFs would have saved the day. The 1x18 was getting 240 watts, adequate compared to the 4x10 getting 240 watts, barely adequate. Crank that and the 1x18 would fart. One cab bridged would have roared for you. Ohm choices that engineers design aren't what marketing people show with cabinet arrangements. I refer to this below. The owners manual describes setting the pre gain until the led barely lit backing off then hitting the master for whatever you needed. SWRs came with all of that eq capability and needed very little. Like mixing you reduce treble to get bass and vice versa. Over eqing, using the eyes (I need more bass, dial more bass), and improper gain would cause farting when you dug in. Cranking the aural enhancer and the limiter would just get you into trouble.

Some salespeople sometimes know very little about the rigs they sell.
SWRs SM-400s were shown with two Goliath 4x10s. That would result in each cab getting 160w. Hardly enough to bring the boom and certainly not the sound such an impressive looking rig should muster. How many 1x15 Hartkes were blown up because of the match with a GK head and a 4x10 Hartke? They were shown that way in advertising pics.

 

[jonsebass]

Nothing really to do with tone or sound, but I had one of the first Ashdown MAG 115 300w combos that was SUPER unreliable. It used to cut out at gigs and rehearsals randomly meaning I either had to source a backup or go through the desk (UK small pub gigs where we didn't use monitors or IEMs etc.) which of course meant I struggled to hear myself, let alone the band!

It obviously meant that I couldn't rely on it for well... anything really and I ended up replacing it and sticking it in the shed to look at fixing later. The reality was I got shot of it as spares and repairs which wasn't ideal but hey!

I learned later that Ashdown had a problem with the early MAGs power unit which caused the problem I was having, and that they were fixing them for free, but I'd moved on to Trace Elliott stuff by then... And had several different amps since haha!