The Herniator? Yeah, I had one too, and I still wonder what the heck I was thinking when I got it?
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The worst amp I've ever owned
- Thread starter JKT
- Start date
The Herniator? Yeah, I had one too, and I still wonder what the heck I was thinking when I got it?
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.
Half the people here probably don't remember Montgomery Wards!
Easily the Tiesco Checkmate amp. My dad bought it for me from a K-mart or Zayre dept. store. It produced about 10 seconds of sound, started crackling and smoking and gave up the ghost!
- Aug 30, 2003
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- Engineer & Owner, Sonic Nuance Electronics
Ampeg BA115?
My friend owns one and it sounds TERRIBLE. Really muddy and you have to use a fairly extreme EQ to get a decent sound out of it. The best part is when you do get an ok sound from it the volume comes way down as if theres some sort of limiting.
Hated it.
My friend owns one and it sounds TERRIBLE. Really muddy and you have to use a fairly extreme EQ to get a decent sound out of it. The best part is when you do get an ok sound from it the volume comes way down as if theres some sort of limiting.
Hated it.
Let's see here...pretty easy choice.
I would say that the worst amp I have ever owned was my first amp. It was a Peavey TKO 80 that I got used for $80. Got what I paid for, though I couldn't afford much more at the time. The speaker had been trashed and in a few months it gave out completely. It was an easy replacement, but the amp never did sound very good. It got stolen when I was in college. Probably a blessing... ;-)
I also made the mistake of getting a '89 or '90 Fender Bassman 60. Big mistake. Couldn't keep up with the band and not terribly tweakable. I returned it after one practice and soon after got a floor-model Fender BXR-300C -- which at the time, suited me quite well despite the lack o' love on this thread.
When that band broke up, I sold the BXR-300C due to a lack of space in my apartment. Some years later as I started with a new band, I got an Ampeg BA-115. I never could get that one dialed in and I put up with it a lot longer than I should have. I guess that it was the XLR direct output that allowed me to keep it for so long -- without PA support it would have been useless to me.
As for Montgomery Wards...ah, I remember it well!
I would say that the worst amp I have ever owned was my first amp. It was a Peavey TKO 80 that I got used for $80. Got what I paid for, though I couldn't afford much more at the time. The speaker had been trashed and in a few months it gave out completely. It was an easy replacement, but the amp never did sound very good. It got stolen when I was in college. Probably a blessing... ;-)
I also made the mistake of getting a '89 or '90 Fender Bassman 60. Big mistake. Couldn't keep up with the band and not terribly tweakable. I returned it after one practice and soon after got a floor-model Fender BXR-300C -- which at the time, suited me quite well despite the lack o' love on this thread.
When that band broke up, I sold the BXR-300C due to a lack of space in my apartment. Some years later as I started with a new band, I got an Ampeg BA-115. I never could get that one dialed in and I put up with it a lot longer than I should have. I guess that it was the XLR direct output that allowed me to keep it for so long -- without PA support it would have been useless to me.
As for Montgomery Wards...ah, I remember it well!
First amp i ever owned was a Randal RB200X. It was a 200 watt combo, 4x10 with a tweeter.. needless to say was the biggest waste of money.
I would have to say my Peavey Mark bass head w matching back breaker 215 Black Widow loaded cab!!
This post is bring back music store memories.
#1 worst: Was a 1960's Marshall 50/100-watt bass amp. Loud with no tone when it was working.
#2 worst bass amp I owned was a SWR Basic Black 15" combo. But it was not because of the amp it's because of what happened to it.
I toured with the UN playing USO Bob "No" Hope style shows. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down my pants. So about 10-years ago they fly us to Alert, it's about 200-miles from the north pole. Look it up on line. We went there in November and cir-cum navigated the globe at 11: am so it was dark the week we were there. The military jerk assigned to looking after our gear that trip, smashed the amp up pretty good. I never got a straight answer how it happened. So, the electrical corp came to the rescue and got it working again. It worked OK for about a few months and then died on a gig, where else. For the next two years it was in and out of the shop until it was sent back to SWR and completely rebuilt. First gig after that it died again. So, back to the factory for repair. After that it was too hard to trust it so I sold it. I never heard from the guy again so it must have been good to him.
PS:
In the late 70's I owned a SG powered mixer which I used when I experimented with the idea of separate outputs for each pickup. It was a stupid idea.
I used an AceTone with the colored, push button tone controls. It actually sounded pretty good, from what I remember.
#1 worst: Was a 1960's Marshall 50/100-watt bass amp. Loud with no tone when it was working.
#2 worst bass amp I owned was a SWR Basic Black 15" combo. But it was not because of the amp it's because of what happened to it.
I toured with the UN playing USO Bob "No" Hope style shows. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down my pants. So about 10-years ago they fly us to Alert, it's about 200-miles from the north pole. Look it up on line. We went there in November and cir-cum navigated the globe at 11: am so it was dark the week we were there. The military jerk assigned to looking after our gear that trip, smashed the amp up pretty good. I never got a straight answer how it happened. So, the electrical corp came to the rescue and got it working again. It worked OK for about a few months and then died on a gig, where else. For the next two years it was in and out of the shop until it was sent back to SWR and completely rebuilt. First gig after that it died again. So, back to the factory for repair. After that it was too hard to trust it so I sold it. I never heard from the guy again so it must have been good to him.
PS:
In the late 70's I owned a SG powered mixer which I used when I experimented with the idea of separate outputs for each pickup. It was a stupid idea.
I used an AceTone with the colored, push button tone controls. It actually sounded pretty good, from what I remember.
Fantastic! That's the beast. I could not get a clean sound out of that thing at all- even with the "funk" switch!
In retrospect I guess. I was just sitting at my desk and all of a sudden the memory of that amp just popped into my head. I just couldn't recall the name at first. It has turned into an interesting history lesson though
JKT
I too owned a Fender BXR300C and I actually liked it. And it was reliable. Up to the day it got stolen.
You don't just steal a BXR300C.. You have to plan it in advance and make special arrangements, like renting a U-Haul..
I had one of these.. That big ugly sucker with those godawful red pointer knobs.. It wasn't painfully bad sounding, but it's up there on my "Before I knew better" list.
It's actually north of the magnetic north pole. I used to live in Resolute. Alert in November just makes me laugh real hard.
My first amp was a Peavey "Musician", the 400 series. 210W, two channels, one with guitar amp style tone controls low/mid/high, and one with a five (?) band EQ. Add a built in flanger and reverb to that, and a huge output transformer (in a solid state head.) 
It was absolutely awful. Bad sound, low power and very heavy. I think I have never seen a worse bass head!
Luckily (?) it broke after a couple of hours. A good friend of mine, who is a VERY accomplished EE spent a few hours with me changing semiconductors "en masse" in this thing.
As soon as we fixed one section of the amp, the next section failed. There was no end to it.
I eventualy realized my mistake, scrapped that piece of junk and bought an EBS 1V2 preamp and a PA power amp. I still use that combo today, more than 10 years later. It has NEVER failed.
/Alexander
It was absolutely awful. Bad sound, low power and very heavy. I think I have never seen a worse bass head!
Luckily (?) it broke after a couple of hours. A good friend of mine, who is a VERY accomplished EE spent a few hours with me changing semiconductors "en masse" in this thing.
As soon as we fixed one section of the amp, the next section failed. There was no end to it.
I eventualy realized my mistake, scrapped that piece of junk and bought an EBS 1V2 preamp and a PA power amp. I still use that combo today, more than 10 years later. It has NEVER failed.
/Alexander
