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The worst amp I've ever owned

#81
Many "worsts," sad to say.

Peavey Mark VI. Sounded like cardboard no matter what I did with it, and managed to disappear in any mix.

Sunn Concert Bass: Heavy and gutless. Amazed me how much more you could get out of it with an EQ pedal, but still gutless and toneless. I kept this POS way too long.

Eden WT800: Fan would come on a LOT, even when playing at low volumes. Best of all, the freakin' fan sounded like a BLENDER. The most embarrasing amp I've ever used; nothing like playing a quiet club gig and having the fan going on all the time. Like a 747 spooling up, everyone would look about the room to see what was taking off. God I hated this amp.
 
#82
TheGrizz said:
Worst Amp? Peavey TNT-115 hands down. It was my first amp, and wasn't bad when I was playing in my bedroom. Then I started gigging...the thing was heavier than any combo I've ever come across. And the sound was awful. I replaced the speaker in hopes that it would improve the tone. It didn't do much. The handle sucked and eventually broke, but it had casters. Also the covering was really rough and jagged, so it tore your skin up.

The final straw came when my band played a Relay For Life at a local college. They wouldn't let us park anywhere near the track for some reason. I ended up dragging this cab across a parking lot, 2 Soccer fields, and the track to get to where we were supposed to play. Needless to say I was done with that amp. I bought my first cab and head setup and haven't looked back.
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Man that brought back memories. I friggin' hated needing help to move the TNT 130 I had wherever I went. Nobody volunteered to help either :)

It wasn't like the tone was so great that it warranted the weight. Actually the tone was as bad as the combo was heavy. I even "splurged" and got a Black Widow speaker.

So glad lightweight cabs and amps are available now.
 
#83
JKT said:
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
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That exact combo was at my local GC a few years ago. I didn't try it.

The worst cabinet i owned was a 1970's Fender with 4 12's in the angled baffles. I bought it from a friend. As the 12's quickly blew out (could be dry rot or poor quality, who's to say?), I replaced them with Carver 12's from from a cabinet our guitarist had rejected/retired. They sounded better, but the whole thing still sucked.

We used the old drivers for ashtrays at practice.

Mike
 
#85
Believe it or not the SWR Super Redhead combo.



Wanted one for years and after I got it the reason for the one rack space slot under the amp section became apparent.


:hmm: ... For adding a BBE Sonic Maximizer to get any kinda sound with bottom out of it!
 
#88
i just sold the worst amp i'd ever played with.
it was a peavey markVIII XP series. it's quite possible i just got one that had been worn down, but no matter how i turned all 1000 of the knobs on the front, i never once got a decent sound out of it. before i got rid of it i ended up using it as a power amp and running a 15 watt behringher in as a pre-amp... yes. it was that bad.
i had a peavey 1820 matched up with it, and blew the tens the very virst time i played through it. i spent $225 replacing the tens just to have the 18" start to fart out on me. so i sold the cab and amp for the price of the tens, that's how much i needed the damn thing gone.
 
#89
My first bass amp was a SWR Workingman's 15 combo. Lifeless, hollow sounding amp with no punch. I owned it for less than 10 days - back to the store it went for exchange. An Ampeg B-50R replaced it. In contrast the B-50R was one of the best sounding bass amps I've ever plugged into.
 
#91
mozarwasagenius said:
Man that brought back memories. I friggin' hated needing help to move the TNT 130 I had wherever I went. Nobody volunteered to help either :)

It wasn't like the tone was so great that it warranted the weight. Actually the tone was as bad as the combo was heavy. I even "splurged" and got a Black Widow speaker.

So glad lightweight cabs and amps are available now.
Click to expand...

Amen. Pretty much the same story on my end. I'm using a Ampeg V4 which is heavy, but it's sooooo worth it. I threw in a Black Widow, and it sucked a little less...I don't miss that thing one bit. Moving it was like trying to drag a fridge down a dirt road in hell.
 
#92
My first amp,a 70's Fender Bassman 10,bought from a pawnshop.Didnt know jack about amps.I kept blowing the 10 inch speakers left and right.

I ended up buying an Electrovoice Force 15,ripping out the speaker board that held the 10's and cutting a new board to install the 15.The 15 rattled the tubes big time so I started shoving old socks up under the tubes.Like I said,I didnt know jack about amps.The heat from the tubes would start scorching the socks after awhile.

There is almost nothing worse than the smell of old socks burning.I cant even remember how or when I got rid of that thing,I think I've blocked out that bad memory
 
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#93
b_carville said:
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!
Click to expand...

That's the funniest post I've read in ages
 
#95
morehorn said:
Eden "metro" combo ... i don't know what it was about it... muddy and glassy at the same time. it never sounded right in the mix with a band.
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I had the same thing happen with a WT 500. I could tweak a good "bedroom" tone or solo tone, but it never did sit right in the mix. Muddy and glassy is a great description of what I experienced. I bought it used and always wondered if there was something wrong with it, or maybe it just didn't pair well with my Genz Benz cabs.
 
#96
5StringBlues said:
My first amp,a 70's Fender Bassman 10,bought from a pawnshop.Didnt know jack about amps.I kept blowing the 10 inch speakers left and right.

I ended up buying an Electrovoice Force 15,ripping out the speaker board that held the 10's and cutting a new board to install the 15.The 15 rattled the tubes big time so I started shoving old socks up under the tubes.Like I said,I didnt know jack about amps.The heat from the tubes would start scorching the socks after awhile.

There is almost nothing worse than the smell of old socks burning.I cant even remember how or when I got rid of that thing,I think I've blocked out that bad memory
Click to expand...

oh that made me laugh , great story !
 
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#98
I had a Magnatone......with a 15" cab, and the head itself weighed like a pound...I think the thing was rated at about 10 watts. Wish I had a picture, that amp couldn't keep up with a set of bongoes, never mind my guitarist's amp or a complete drumkit.
 
#99
Back around 1977-1978 (if memory serves) Montgomery Ward sold a 75W solid state head and cabinet with a Marlboro brand name. The cab was ported and carried a single 15" speaker (might have had a horn or two in it too...not sure), and I think I bought it through their catalog for $350 or so. It was new, and I didn't know any better. I found it laying around behind some moving boxes (it still had several sets of moving company stickers on it) and sold it at a garage sale in the early 90's.

At first I thought I was in heaven...but it sucked worse than my playing did in those days. Even after all that time, it was still working and I even made a profit on it. :D
 
#100
Jim Carr said:
+1

Had one. Total crap, as was the WM-12, but then I tend to hate combos.

Also had a Vox Essex. Junk. Dare I say I hated every B-12, B-15, and B-18 I ever played through? :mad:

OK, Jimmy and everybody--peace! I know all y'all love them. I just was always stunned by how little actual sound they made. Tone? Yes. Sound--No. Hate 'em to this day. Only thing almost as bad was an Epiphone Constellation. :hmm:

I also hated my Marshall Major 200 watt 8x12. Not the head, the cabs were not useable for bass. Glad I ditched them for an Acoustic 301. That was a cab!

Now the list of stuff I love is much longer.
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I also had a Vox Essex Bass amp with a dolly on it! It was gutless and expensive. I think they tried to make the cabinet bigger to sound better. What a PAJ!




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