The worst amp I've ever owned

[Joedog]

I don't remember the model name or number but it was Univox. Little tiny solid state head on a 1x15 cab. Terrible ! Cost way to much and no volume let alone tone. Just horrible it's a wonder I didn't quite playing.

Yep. had a Uni head (100W SS?) w/ 2-15 cab. It got OK loud, but sounded like wet crap. Pretty cheap as I recall (only reason I got it). Also had the "added value" of being the ugliest gear I ever owned

 

[Max Bogosity]

There used to be a Peavey combo that had a row of pushbutton controls like a blender. Don't remember what they were meant to do exactly, but they might as well have labelled every one of them 'suck'. That thing put me off bass for twenty years.

 

[bassman10096]

Worst (and most durable, too) was a Peavey Musician model i bought in summer, 1973 along with the required Peavey 215 fridge. Everything from the pots and knobs (fake metal finish knobs and pots that always felt like they were about to spin off in your hand) to the cheesy, unusable "distortion" channel to the power cord that kept falling out. The Peavey and I took a 20 year hiatus from playing and finally reunited about ten years back. Still the loudest, crappiest sounding head I've ever played. But the 215 (which I'd had the foresight to upgrade to a pair of EVMs back in the 70's) turned out to be a great cab once it had a decent head. Alas, the head crapped out four years back (it was a short trip to the trash) but the 215 kept cranking until a total meltdown killed both drivers last 4th of July when the heat on my band's float topped 107 degrees. RIP

 

[Stewie26]

Back when I was a stupid kid, like 17 or 18 years old, I traded a perfectly good Fender Super Reverb for a solid state Vox Super Beatle. Biggest POS ever. It made so much static noise that it was hard to talk between songs.
It was always breaking and spent most of the time in the shop. I was seduced by its looks and thought it looked cool on stage. Like I said, stupid kid.

 

[murphy]

Another Peavey Combo 300 hater here.1992 model.....UGH!!!

 

[shoot-r]

Old thread.....but it looks like fun!

WORST amp for me..... brand new Sunn 2000S head and two Sunn 200S cabinets.
Sounded great "when" it was working.
Went through JBL's like they were made of water, head actually caught fire at a job!
Only had it 3 or 4 weeks before trading it on a SVT and two 810 cabs.

 

[Jack]

Wow I posted in this thread 3 years ago.

I feel blessed to have never really owned a bad amp. The worst was a Crate BX80 combo. Which was fine. Not great, not even good, but fine.

 

[tmdazed]

I will play along to this re-hashed thread. Worst played through was a Hartke kick back 1x15, supposed to be a 250 watt unit but any volume past 2 was terrible. You could never dial a sound better than 2 day old beer fart, glad it was a loaner from an upstart thrash band I was jamming with. Worst tried out line 6 Lowdown HD 400 , spent about an hour and a half trying to get a reasonable tone from this POS in a music store. I was shopping an amp at the time and the head and 4x10 cab were in budget. Wish I could have that time back. It was loud but shite tone, anywhere from mud to nails on a chalk board. Honorable mention, my old BXR 70, lifeless machine, but all I could really afford at the time, bought it from a buddy for 75 bucks, again, loud but just dead and sterile sounding, sold it a year ago (after gigging and rehearsing with it for the last 10 years) for 125

 

[chadds]

Old thread.....but it looks like fun!

WORST amp for me..... brand new Sunn 2000S head and two Sunn 200S cabinets.
Sounded great "when" it was working.
Went through JBL's like they were made of water, head actually caught fire at a job!
Only had it 3 or 4 weeks before trading it on a SVT and two 810 cabs.

Wow it had to be made on the 15th Monday of Febaugust because there are many in service today.
Good choice though going with the smaller cabs.
Anyway I so remember the days of SVTs with two cabs in bars. One such band the guitarist Punky of the Cherry People used to leave the cover on his top Marshall 4x12 to curtail the noise. You could see the cover moving. !!!

 

[shoot-r]

Wow it had to be made on the 15th Monday of Febaugust because there are many in service today.
Good choice though going with the smaller cabs.
Anyway I so remember the days of SVTs with two cabs in bars. One such band the guitarist Punky of the Cherry People used to leave the cover on his top Marshall 4x12 to curtail the noise. You could see the cover moving. !!!

First rehearsal...blew a JBL.
Fixed under warranty.
First job with it...blew a JBL in the other cabinet.
Fixed under warranty.
Following week's gig...head burnt out, (there was a Fender Bassman head available to finish out the night with.)
Traded the Sunn rig in on a full blown SVT and two 810 cabinets.
Used the SVT head for roughfully two years...had problems with it.
Traded it on a new, "1984" G.K. 800RB and ran it through one of my 810 cabinets.
Used that head and cab combination for 28 or 29 years.
Still use the G.K. head on occasion!

 

[Stumbo]

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!

We all thought we were going to be stars so anyone that could sell stuff did. Yeah, they suckered a lot of kids out of their hard earned cash. B@§+@?*§!

I had a Vox Viscount 2x12 combo for awhile back then. It was mint with blown speakers. Fortunately, got the speakers replaced under warranty. Guess Vox was one of the good guys at that time!

Terrible bass amp, great guitar amp. Lots of effects built in. Sold it to my guitar player. Next amp a got was a Kustom 200 2x15 JBL (D140). Great sounding amp. Just not loud enough sometimes. I really needed another cab to open it up a bit.

I tested a couple of Standels at a gig for a music store in 1971. A combo and powered extension cab. Beasts. Sounded good/loud with my '63 Hofner/flats/pick but difficult to move. I declined to buy. Picked up a Sunn 2000s and cab a bit later. Never regretted that purchase.

 

[Honkycat]

I had my gear stolen and had to start again with very little dough...I wound up using a Line 6 bass pod (the kidney shaped looking thing) as a preamp for a while...fairly awe-uninspiring.

 

[zachoff]

Crate BX-100. No life... Just sterile, nondescript tone no matter which way you turn the knobs (except the vol to 0, of course).

 

[will33]

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

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

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."

For the low, low price of $750 you guys could own this piece of rock-n-roll history.


No affiliation, just noticed this this morning.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[gustobassman]

I love threads like these! Old or not..

By far to me the Ampeg SVT 350H is the worst ive owned. No power, horrible tone, and a 30lb wooden box to hold the lousy amp.

 

[SirMjac28]

Hands down the Warwick Profet 5.2 worst amp in the history of amps noisy and horrible sounding it was a great day when I dumped it at Guitar Center.

 

[Curmei]

I don't generally jump into threads like this - I have used all sorts of gear over the years, and have been able to make most anything work for me. However, I got a Gibson Thor as part of a trade, about ten years ago, and it was - and still is - the worst amp I have ever played through. It is still sitting in the corner of my studio, as it has no resale value, and even if it did, I would feel bad inflicting it on another player. I thought that it might have had some technical issues, but when I brought it to my tech, he was surprised at what good shape it was in. He mentioned that those amps just sounded that way.

I did read of people modding them, to cut down the noise and get a cleaner sound, but I kind-of enjoy owning one of the worst amps in history, at this point.

 

[Rockbobmel]

"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)."


Yup, that was my experience!! SUCKS!



.

 

[lokikallas]

Crate BX-100. No life... Just sterile, nondescript tone no matter which way you turn the knobs (except the vol to 0, of course).

I'll up you 1 with a BX 50. Just enough power to not keep up with a full band, and fart out maxed out trying to.

 

[Pedulla-Player]

Hohner amps.... (Yep, the harmonica people).

My 1st amp was a Hohner with a 15" speaker combo amp that my sister bought me. I think it was actually an accordion amp , but don't quote me on that.
I used it about a year and sold it to my guitarists younger brother for way more than I thought I'd get for it. Lats I heard - the 'Little brother' that I sold it to owns a company that provides amplifiers and music gear for big festivals and events.