Most Disappointing Experience (Amps)

[BBassBassington]

Reading the OP I thought meh they've all been pretty good. Getting through the first page I remembered all the "bad" amps I played. (I'm sure I've played plenty more in stores but these are the ones I have more experience with.)

Ampeg: I love the Ampeg sound. Every time I use an Ampeg as a test amp it's everything I hope for and expect. Every time I go shopping the Ampeg I want is broken on the showroom floor. I did buy an SCR-DI at the start of the pandemic but that too was broken (and also not an amp). So the disappointment here is I'll never own an Ampeg.

SWR: I've played a few at gigs. I see they get lots of praise but I honestly can't see or hear the appeal. My tone with them has always been flat and lifeless. Perhaps the appeal is transparency and I just like colour though. No functional issues with these amps.

Peavey Tour 700 + Tour 115 + some 210: This was supposed to be my endgame rig. Paired with my main bass at the time, an EBMM Ray 4H Slo Special I figured I'd have all the tone. 7-band EQ on the amp, 3 band on the bass, 700 watts of fury. To be honest I can't tell you what that rig sounded like. I was either gone in the mix or knocking everyone over with how much volume I needed to be heard. I did sell that bass because it had no life to its tone but that description fits the amp as well.

Traynor: This is a guitar amp I bought for $25 at a garage sale. I know nothing about it but it was just flat out wonky and sounded awful. My later experiences have been great though. There's a Yorkville/Traynor combo that's a 210 with a silver metal grille. I don't remember the model but they're just stupidly punchy and great sounding amps.

Ashdown combo of some sort: It's my drummers. It's got pretty blue 10" speakers, a 5 band EQ, input gain and master volume, and a volt meter to help balance the input. In other words this thing should be my kind of amp. It produces two sounds; mud or stick. Nothing in between, and you need to move those EQ knobs a lot to make any tonal changes. Even my drummer doesn't like it but it's got blue speakers and he doesn't play enough to replace it.

Marshall: Just adding a guitar amp note. I hear plenty of people play these and sound amazing. I play them though and I want to rip my ears out. I can't make them work for me. Les Pauls too, which is funny because I'm a bassist but I can't make a thick guitar sound work for me.

 

[Frank Vozak]

My biggest disappointment was in 1968 when my new Silver Face Bassman arrived at Halpin Music in Alton, IL
I tried it out at the store and it sounded just like I wanted it to. Unfortunately the 2 12 cabinet did not easily fit into either of the cars I had access to. The amp went back and I was back to my Kalamazoo w/2 10's. Luckily an Ampeg BT 1 D waS A HANGER QUEEN AND CAME TO MY RESCUE. Today a bass player would not have to deal with this kind of problem given that there are so many excellent bass cabinets with more limited dimensions and weight without sacrificing performance.

 

[WoodyJ]

Ampeg SVT-350 (pre-H)

Looked great, weak sound for its advertised output.

 

[Jefenator]

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.

I've had tube heads of various wattages (20, 50, 100, 200) for various occasions. It is a drag to run out of steam - almost as bad to lug out too much tube amp, only to run it too cold. (Done both with almost every unit.)
But when it's just right... definitely nothing like it. (Thus far the Sunn 200s is my breakup king - just have to dig in to go from awesome clean to awesome dirty.)
IME it's easier to get the ideal setup when there is some continuity with guitar & drums. (My hodgepodge of different hired gun settings seems to have driven me back to solid state power.)

 

[rtslinger]

Okay I'm in. To start out with I am not one to throw a fellow bass player under the bus, so I apologize in advance if any of you guys personally recognize this story.
My band was asked to perform at a fund raiser for a keyboard player we know.
I was told I didn't need my bass amp, because some other bassist would be supplying the rig.

He had a Carvin pb 200w it was a pretty good sized banquet hall and right away I was leery of what it was going to sound like. In discussion with the bass player I asked about the Carvin combo, he told me he had it for a few years, bought it used It works pretty well for him.
I said so you run it Di to the PA since it is only 200w? He says no, I don't want to muddy up the mix.
So I said if it is okay if I run a xlr out to the mixer when we play? He says and are you sitting down it doesn't have a XLR Di out But you'll see it is really a good amp, oh and he throws in please don't adjust the knobs I have it set just the way I like it. ??????

I am now thinking I really don't want to get up there with this rig.
I am trying to work out in my head if I have enough time to run home and get my amp. An they announce it is about to start oh Fudge! but I didn't say Fudge I hadn't been on stage, so I'm thinking okay hopefully he has the room dial in pretty well it is what it is (and oh how I hate that saying.)
So the lineup gets change around a little and we are now going on 2nd after this bass players band).
So I am sitting there about 15 ft from the stage so I can hear the bass amp. They jump into their first number and as soon as the guitars and drums come in no bass nothing, fingers are moving zero come from the stage
I walk up to the stage bass side and barely hear the amp at all. The guitar amps on stage are a Marshall 100 and a Fender Twin which I believe is also 100w?
Anyway it was finally our turn and I get up there my first look at the knobs that can't be touch the vol is on 8 and bass is at 12 the mid are between 200 300 scooped the treble is -12 and the com is set to 8 there was some other knob I don't remember, but the sliders were set like a frown! I am thinking really guy are you freaking kidding me. He hovered by the front of the stage like a hawk to make sure I didn't touch the knobs. It was a train wreck, my guitarist kept looking at me to turn up as was the drummer it was so useless that after the first two songs I turn the volume on my bass off and air guitar my way through the show, no one would have heard it anyway.
These are the shots from the stage you can tell by the look on my face this is not going to be good the guy in the white shirt is the bass player hovering. The last one was how far I was from the stage when they were playing

When we were done, I wished the next bass player good luck he mention he couldn't hear me at all and I said like I said good luck. I didn't even stay for that guys misery I grabbed my stuff and left.
Now maybe the amp isn't bad, but this was my experience with it. Sorry so long

 

[Heavy Blue]

But you'll see it is really a good amp, oh and he throws in please don't adjust the knobs I have it set just the way I like it. ??????

Anyway it was finally our turn and I get up there my first look at the knob that can't be touch the vol is on 8 and bass is at 12 the mid are between 200 300 scooped the treble is -12 and the com is set to 8 there was some other knob I don't remember, but the sliders were set like a frown! I am thinking really guy are you freaky kidding me. He hovered by the front of the stage like a hawk to make sure I didn't touch the knobs. It was a train wreak my guitarist kept looking at me to turn up an was the drummer it was so useless that after the first two songs I turn the volume on my bass off and air guitar my way through the show no one would have heard it away.

Brutal! A perfect example of why I always bring my own amp regardless of what others say.

I went through an ordeal similar to yours. Dude says I can use his amp, yadda yadda.
So just before I get up there he also gives me the "do not touch the sacred EQ knobs" speech and right there I knew it was gonna be crap because the EQ was out to lunch. Thin bass, scooped mids, and piercing treble with a side of what I'm thinking is slight speaker distortion. So I was basically sonically invisible to the audience while icepicking my ears at the same time till I turned my bass's tone knob down. Ouch!

So I get up there and do the best I can with this. Then afterwards the dude says I blew one of the speakers (Hartke 3500 2x10" combo) and he then elaborates that years before he damaged that speaker surround somehow so he "fixed" it with some silicone or something like that and now somehow I "blew" it on him. So iow his hack fix finally let go and I'm somehow the bad guy now. At least I know why the bass was set so low now.

It also happened once at a local jam once after being told that there was a Markbass unit there so I wouldn't need mine. Same BS thing with the EQ again. It probably was a nice amp but I couldn't EQ it properly so it sounded like a$$.

Twice was enough. Never ever again!

 

[rtslinger]

Brutal! A perfect example of why I always bring my own amp regardless of what others say.

I went through an ordeal similar to yours. Dude says I can use his amp, yadda yadda.
So just before I get up there he also gives me the "do not touch the sacred EQ knobs" speech and right there I knew it was gonna be crap because the EQ was out to lunch. Thin bass, scooped mids, and piercing treble with a side of what I'm thinking is slight speaker distortion. So I was basically sonically invisible to the audience while icepicking my ears at the same time till I turned my bass's tone knob down. Ouch!

So I get up there and do the best I can with this. Then afterwards the dude says I blew one of the speakers (Hartke 3500 2x10" combo) and he then elaborates that years before he damaged that speaker surround somehow so he "fixed" it with some silicone or something like that and now somehow I "blew" it on him. So iow his hack fix finally let go and I'm somehow the bad guy now. At least I know why the bass was set so low now.

It also happened once at a local jam once after being told that there was a Markbass unit there so I wouldn't need mine. Same BS thing with the EQ again. It probably was a nice amp but I couldn't EQ it properly so it sounded like a$$.

Twice was enough. Never ever again!

It was a crap shoot and that is how it goes down. Now I do not roll out of the house with out my Sansamp bass drive II in my bag

 

[Lenny JG]

IME every amp has a combination of how you have to adjust the settings to dial it in. If you don't know the magic order then you're lucky if you find a good sound.

 

[Frank Vozak]

I thjink we are always best using an amp that we know rather than winging if with somebody else's amp There are so many variables in terms of whether an amp works for you or not (I just read a stream talking about how bad Ampegs are------my 5 years of playing loud music with guitarists like yours using the same amps taught me that AMPEG bass amps are fabulous--must be we played in a different universe. My 1967 even had nan xlr/di output when many amps like Fender Bassman did not. I can.t bad mouth a man's amp for no xlr/di ouitput because at one time that is how amps were made but if you regularly use a DI that is how you should be able to play. On the other hand now I use a Fender Bass amp a Rumbler 15 with only an 8 inch speaker 15 watts and no xlr/di but for the band I play with itis enough (plus I could never carry an Ampeg BT 15 Portaflex amp given my bad shoulders, back, knee and hip) But I would never saddle another bass player with my amp unless they tried it first

 

[Ken Mathews]

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 love my 78 p though a 700rb and a Hartke 410!

 

[Solipsistik]

Went to a jam night / gig kind of thing. Good fun and I managed to enjoy it but....... my god. They had no bass in the monitors. They had a "100W" 12" combo amp of a brand I haven't seen before or since, and have struck out of my mind. The monitors had a shocking amount of vocal feedback and some keyboard, with the guitar nearly silent and the drum feedback appeared to be just in the hands of nature. In short, I couldn't hear myself, I could barely hear the drums (big stage), I could make out the guitar only by concentrating on it - the sound wasn't good - and the lead vocal was absolutely pinned in the monitors. Front of house sounded "ok". The 'house bassist' who ran a few songs at first didn't seem to have a care in the world, I suppose he must be used to it or he had a wireless in-ear setup that I didn't notice and he didn't share (I had the ears in my case, I could have jacked in to the sender).

Not knowing the sound guy or the venue setup, I didn't have the sense to jump up and demand bass in the monitors after the first song. Instead, I cranked the amp to the max, I tried standing directly in front of it and played my best by memory. When the lead singer even breathed, I couldn't hear myself. I gave up on that and tried moving around the stage, to see if there was a pocket of bass that I could move into, which sometimes happens with 15" speakers. Nope. I then stood in front of the monitors to get some feedback from FOH and that was better than all the other solutions. I played 'radar love' that way almost completely by memory and when it ended, I casually went over to the singer and told him not to play his planned next song which required me to hear in order to get the right tone and is somewhat busy - modelled after the live version of "Back To You" by Bryan Adams. Nope. We ran it, with me doing my best to make it basic and did none of the vamps that make the song interesting for us to play, as it's very much a 'bass' song (as is Radar Love, but I digress).

It taught me a very important lesson: when they say that they have a backline and all I need is my instrument, they're full of @#$&. Not only was the stage mix horrible, but I felt like a complete tool knowing that I was playing "Bass 101" just to get through it.

Of course, the band right after us was a regular and the bassist yelled out over the mic "give me a lot of bass guitar, you @#$hole, I can't hear anything!" halfway through the first song. If I'd known it was that informal, I'd have done the same.

 

[WG Plum]

All all-tube heads. I've yet to play one that worked for me. Special mention for an Ampeg V4B blue line that would overdrive at any kind of volume.