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Which amp was the biggest disappointment? Which exceeded expectations?

#22
Disappointment: an early EA iAmp (can't remember which one, was around 2000 or so) - gutless, toneless, and unreliable. I didn't keep it very long. I also have yet to hear an MB cab that I like.

Exceeded: Any of my Berg cabs (even though I had high expectations), along with my Ashdown ABM-500Evo. That thing was a tank that sounded great and never faltered.
 
#23
biggest disappointment- mesa 400+. I was always battling the midrange, never could get a sound out of it I really liked

Exceeded expectations? That would be my peavey vb-2. Lots of tone I love. Great value. A buddy of mine showed up at a gig with his, we threw it up on top of my v4-b cab, and bam! Live at leeds!

Got rid of the mesa and bought the peavey, and had 500 to spare.
 
#25
kesslari said:
Inspired by the "Has Anyone Been Disappointed in the Genz Benz Streamliner" thread... they're amps, they're not gonna fix world hunger. But sometimes our expectations are not in line with the reality of any particular bit of gear.

For me:

Biggest disappointment - GK Backline 115. Bought it when I got back into playing after a long hiatus (all prior gear sold). I expected too much - a combo that would sound good at gig volumes.. It did not deliver, in spades.

Exceeded expectations the most: GK 800RB, bought the week it came out. It replaced 60 lbs of rack gear, I played many hundreds of gigs with it. That amp did everything for me except drive girls home when I was done with 'em.
Click to expand...

SWR Working Man 15. Fine at low volume; put your CD player on, crank the amp up to 2, and it's fine. Ensemble situation? Awful. Clanky, no balls, no definition. Maybe it was just mine, but when I was able to get a Metro, I gave the SWR away.
 
#26
Grooveman1961 said:
biggest disappointment- mesa 400+. I was always battling the midrange.never could get a sound out of it I really liked
Click to expand...

I came here to post the Mesa 400+. I couldn't ever quite get a sound that I liked out of it and spent practices and stagetime tweaking knobs and settings. I also could never quite get it as clean as I wanted and the DI on mine never ever was anywhere close to clean.
 
#27
Biggest disappointment: Played a friend's old Traynor. Unbelievable amount of string noise around 600 hz - I never could dial it out.

Exceeded expectations: Acoustic 370. Played it for 35 years and never once thought about needing a backup. Sounds great, dependable, lots of tone control and tons of power. I'm going with lighter weight amps now, but this amp definitely exceeded expectations.
 
#28
Disappointment: Bergantino. Tried/Bought the IP310, IP112 and NV215 and could never get a sound i liked live out of them. Although i must say that i'd really like to try an AE410

Exceeded Expectations: Mesa Carbine M6. I've tried a bunch of amps over the past few years but this one has stayed with me. I Can't find anything with such a wide tonal spectrum that allows for many tonal varieties.
 
#29
BurningSkies said:
I came here to post the Mesa 400+. I couldn't ever quite get a sound that I liked out of it and spent practices and stagetime tweaking knobs and settings. I also could never quite get it as clean as I wanted and the DI on mine never ever was anywhere close to clean.
Click to expand...

I was forever pulling and pushing pots in and out, tweak tweak tweak. I do have a mesa 400 non plus, that i will pair with a deisel 2x15. I hope that having a head and cab from the same era might push the rig into the usable realm.
 
#30
Selected disappointments: (1) Markbass 102p (terribly honky cabinet!) and the TecAmp Puma combo (small, underpowered, overpriced, 'soft lifted' DI never worked without interference on my gigs).

Exceeded expectations: GB Shuttle 3.0. That's a fine amp for the coin. Sheesh.
 
#31
Not really a disappointment but my first amp, a Line 6 LD150, wasn't as transparent a sound as I would've liked when I started playing.

Exceeded expectations: Ampeg SVT-7PRO. A powerful, intuitive tool that is teaching me how to experiment with different tones in depth for the first time. A new world to explore.
 
#32
Disappointed - Ampeg SVT-IIP I'm sure I could get a good sound out of this preamp now but back when I had it I was disappointed.

Exceeded - a 50w Jansen tube amp which served as my first gigging bass amp. also hearing my gk1001rbII on my bands recordings.
 
#34
Disappointment - Markbass F1; I should clarify. Sounds great for my horizontal basses, but for my EUB (99.9% of my current playing), I couldn't quite put my finger on what was missing until ...

Exceeded expectations - TCE RH450; bought it for the convenience of all the bells and whistles, but didn't have an opportunity to play it until I purchased it. Love my EUB through it -- incredibly flexible EQ, and it can really bring out a dark, woody tone from the NS. The bells and whistles are great, and save pack space and setup time, but they are just icing on that yummy tone-cake! Doesn't seem to be a popular choice amongst EUB or upright players, so I'm in the minority here. But hey, I don't know much about tone, but I know what I hate :D.
 
#35
DISAPPOINTMENT: me,... when i sucked, every amp i used sounded like...., CRAP!

EXCEEDED: LMIII is a winner in my small circle. i ABC'd it against two very popular amps. the owners of the other amps were stupified that a little lightweight out performed the heavy big stage amps.
 
#37
lowfreqgeek said:
That's funny! My absolute BIGGEST dissapointment was the CMD121P. I was using an amazing little EA Wizzy 10 at the time and decided to buy the Markbass combo for convenience. I quickly found the Markbass combo to sound like a piece of paper; thin, flat, sterile, flabby. Even my wife heard it and said "that's yucky. Sounds muddy and undefined - take it back" (she confirmed my fears, which I hadn't shared with her). I used it on one gig with a light drummer, acoustic guitar/vocalist, and a Pbass... Took it back to GC the next day. Maybe I got a dud, but I totally lost interest in Markbass from that day on.

Few amps exceed my expectations, but I will say that the EA Wizzy 10 cabinet FAR exceeded all expectations. I used that cab countless times with a full band, outside, with no PA support and it did my Pbass justice every time. Got a little flabby down low with a B-string at high volumes, but I expected that. Far louder, deeper, and clearer sounding than the Markbass CMD121P mentioned above. I only sold it to fund a second Epifani UL112 since the Wizzy 10 was 4ohms and my UL502 only goes down to 4ohms - preventing me from using additional cabs with the Wizzy. The Wizzy was so good, I almost sold the 502 to get a 902 so I could run a second Wizzy 10 or 12 with it, but I'm happy with my UL502/2xUL112 stack.
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Just goes to show you!! Thankfully, we don't all think alike!! What a damn boring placed THAT would be!!:D
 
#39
For this I will not talk about my personal gear because well my gear is just awesome it'd be pointless

Disappointment - Ampeg SVT. Dont get me wrong I love that "ampeg tone" heck I play through an ampeg myself just to get that. I followed the TB hype, actually all the hype and went to try the SVT myself. But if you walked into my local guitar center and saw their SVT, you'd understand. The thing was falling apart, and it was less then a year old! Its fan was louder then a '72 buick and its three band eq seemed lacking to me. Right next to it I plugged into a 3 pro (my good ol companion) and was blown away by how much the 3 pro played better. Actually I played every pro model they had in stock and still liked them better. More watts, more eq possibilities, and most of them weigh a ton less. Maybe my store had a lemon, but before i shell out $1800 on an 80 door stop, Ill need to hear that "svt difference" always mentioned. For now the pro series does the job way better
Exceeded - SVT Micro VR. OMG!!!!!!!! The tone, the punch, and the small size. It had punch, and it had grind, it had it all. The sound from the 2x10 was ok, but heres a little sneaky trick i did. I took the cable from the ampeg 4x10 i had been using at GC with the 3 pro (YEA!) and plugged the micro into some real speakers. All i can say is the difference was instant! If you have not tried the micro with a full sized 4x10 go fire up your car and get to GC because the difference is amazing. This head has me sold! how many more days till Christmas? :hyper:
 

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