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Whats the worst combo you've ever owned?

#161
I got my first bass guitar in the late 60's and played it through my brother's keyboard combo amp. In the early 1970's I saved up enough money to buy a new Gibson Thor. A fifty watt, 210, horrible waste of my allowance.... I played in my first garage band with that thing. I replaced it a few years after with a used Ampeg V4B and a 212 cabinet of some sort. I wish I hadn't sold that V4B.... but, that Gibson Thor was the worst bass amp I have ever heard, ever.
 
#162
I haven't owned a lot of combos, but years ago I played through a Marlboro that made me want to cry. Also played a MarkBass (don't remember the model) that sounded brittle and sterile at the same time but compared to the Marlboro was a dream. Only bass combo I remember actually owning was a Prometheus that I got from the TB classifieds and sounds great (tho I only use it to jam in the living room).
 
#163
lowfreq33 said:
Peavey TNT 100. 100 watts into a single 15, ridiculously large with no power or headroom at all. Couldn't keep up with a power trio without distorting like crazy.

Of course this was about 20 years ago.
Click to expand...

I had one of those also. I bought mine used around 1984 or so. I always thought something was wrong with it because it would distort like crazy and sound like garbage.

After reading your post, it made me realize that it was working perfectly!:)

Sold it around 2000 for $ 50.00
 
#165
The worst combo? That's easy. The Sunn Beta Bass with 1-15. One of the worst amps I have ever owned. Waste of money. Gave it to a guy to repay a debt. Glad it's forever out of my life.
 
#167
tinman 1967 said:
I had one of those also. I bought mine used around 1984 or so. I always thought something was wrong with it because it would distort like crazy and sound like garbage.

After reading your post, it made me realize that it was working perfectly!:)

Sold it around 2000 for $ 50.00
Click to expand...

Wow, $50? Mine was stolen, I always wanted to find out who did it so I could send them a plate of cookies.
 
#168
SWR LA10.

Decent sounding amp in a solid box that got loaded with the worst piece of crap driver ever made. It was white and judging by the tone it was made of paper towel material. I used it with headphones it was so bad.
 
#169
A Holmes B-160 (I believe that was the model name). 160 watts, 15" speaker. Worked for 5 seconds then died. Sent it in to be repaired, came back, did exact same thing.

Had the B-75 prior, 75 watts, 12' speaker. Wasn't bad, good enough to play along with the turntable, couldn't cut it in rehearsal. Used it for a month then traded it in for the B-160. What a disappointment.

After that I got my money back and bought a Peavey Mark III head and a dual 15" cabinet loaded with EVs. Much better.
 
#172
I've had surprisingly good luck with combos.
I still have my original Microbass from at least 13 years ago and still works great for around the house stuff; have an Eden/Nemesis 110 combo at about 80W that sounds excellent and can handle small rehearsals; SWR Basic Black 115 was a bad mofo. I still miss that thing. A tad "light" on the power but sounded incredible.
 
#173
I've owned three amps, all combos.

The worst by far was a Behringer 90-watt combo, but I really didn't know how bad it truly was until I got my Ampeg BA115. I loved that thing.

Now I'm rocking with a 100W Crate combo. The built-in effects are all but useless, other than one or two, and it weighs a ton, but EQ it right and you've got a hell of a combo. Loud, bulletproof, and absolutely no hiss whatsoever.
 
#174
My first bass amp was actually home made, my dad (at the time an electrical engineer) built me a tube amp and built it on a box he also built with an old 15 or 18" movie theater speaker in it. The tubes would warm up to about 1000 degrees and hummed something awful, but you could still hear the bass over the hum - barely. It had these big old industrial knobs for the controls - steam punk before steam punk was invented. Plus side, free, and also my dad made it in his basement out of stuff he had lying around, which at the time I thought was pretty cool - and I still do. He might actually still have that bad boy in his basement (he seems to have everything down there). I'll have to ask him about that.

Upgraded from that to a Rogue combo, not sure I would call it an upgrade but it was nominally louder (or at least I didn't have to play over that hum). I used it for years as a practice and "jam with friends" amp. SS so it didn't cook everyone in the room at least. The box was large enough for a 15 but it had a 12 or 10 in it as I recall. Can't remember the model but I finally got sick of it and gave it away.

Still have my SWR Workingmans 15 and I like it (so nyah!).

Still have my Markbass CMD102P, like that one too.

My buddy back in the day had a Peavey TNT 130 and as others said, it was loud and a bit "thud-ish". You could tweak the sound if you wanted to - but at the time we were all into the "thud" sound.

My other stuff is separate heads and amps so they don't count for this discussion.

Worst of the bunch for the price was the Rogue, it was underpowered, under speakered, overly heavy, and in a group setting very limited.
 

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