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Worst amp you played through

All these negative comments about the Fender Rumble amps are really making me second guess the Rumble 500 head I just bought off Reverb yesterday! Hopefully it will sound good with the cabs I plan on using it with. Oh well, for what I paid for it I can always sell it and recoup my money.
Don't let a handful of negative comments prejudice the audition - you may be pleasantly surprised. Lots more like than don't. ;)

The worst amp I played was the Vypyr VIP3, but to be honest, I didn't spend a whole lot of time with it. Perhaps I expected too much and should give it another chance....

Cheers,
 
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Years ago, I auditioned for this piano blues project. I brought my rig but was told I could just leave it in the car; there was already a rig in the house. It was one of those ancient Peavey bass rigs from back before Peavey was a respectable music equipment company. It was flabby and sounded like it had a giant sock over the top of it, yet there was a nasal mid honk that I could just not dial out on either the amp or bass.
 
People will hate me for this but I cannot stand Orange amps and cabs. I struggle to get anything useful out of them, it's all mud and anger, my bass sounds terrible through these amps. When I see them in a rehearsal space my heart sinks, it's time for awful tone all night long. I have to stress that this is fully context-dependent because I play jazz with a p-bass with Tapewounds, so I like a thumpy dusty old school tone. I'm sure these amps are great in the right context, ie overdriven and played with a pick. But for me, no way.
I like Orange guitar amps. Their bass amps don't impress me.
 
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A Guild Thunderbass head with a 2X15 cab. Had it in the mid 60s. It blew up on a weekly schedule. Spent more time in the repair shop than behind me. It was a dark time for bass amps. Replaced it with a solid state Standel with a 2X10 & 115 cabs. All on a chrome trolley. Loud as hell but not much tone wise.
Later in the 80s I had an Ampeg 410 combo, covered in carpet, that I really hated the sound. At least it had wheels. Don't remember the model number. These are the few that really stick out through the haze.
 
Ah, the old Guild Thunderbass. They looked cool, but never delivered. They had some nice, stackable and portable 1x15 cabs, maybe before anyone else had anything like them. A music store back home used to carry Guild, Vox, Ampeg and Garnet.

...from back before Peavey was a respectable music equipment company...
I didn't know anything had changed there. Peavey always seems to have some good stuff and some bad. So thanks, I'm finally able to answer the original question; my worst amp was a late '70s 1x12 Peavey bass combo. Can't remember the exact name; TKO?
 
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One of my bands has played at an annual private party/jam session a couple of times, and once I ended up playing through an ancient Peavey 18" cab and some head I don't remember. Mud city. I like thump, but not accompanied by zero definition. Didn't like it at all, but heck, back in the 1980's I actually played gigs with a 65 watt Peavey combo that couldn't have been much better!
 
Legion sound LSB 300 is the worst head I ever had still have it. It doesn't sound terrible but the fan is crazy loud. The cab pictured is a workhorse.

Worst combo was a crazy heavy crate 100 watt piece of crap.

Honorable mention goes to the orange B 20 I had a few years back.
 

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You mention a 6 piece band. Are keyboards part of the equation? I am wondering if the left hand of the keyboard player is getting in the way of being heard?

I'm sorry that I don't agree about SWR stuff - I like how most of it sounds. I still have a small Workingmans 10 that I use for practice and it sounds okay as long as you don't push it.

There was a guy who played around Nashville for several years with Stacy Mitchart that used an SWR 500 watt amp with a Henry the 8 x 8. That's pne of the best rigs I've ever heard
 
And it's distant cousin - Plush
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This amp is essentially a Fender Showman in Kustom drag(i.e. all tube as opposed to Kustom's solid state); I've got one of these, it's not that bad, if going through a proper bass cab, but as it is technically a guitar head, it could use a little more low end. But it thumps, and is plenty bright. Like a Fender. Too much like a Fender, as in lawsuit for copyright infringement. Plush/Earth were from the NY area, and then moved to LA/Orange County until they faded away. Kustoms were made in Chanute, KS, halfway between Kansas City and Tulsa.
 
In 2008 or 9 maybe I got a new Carvin , I think it was called a BR 600 with a 15 in it. Anyway it played okay but right off the bat I started having trouble with it. I live in Texas and didn't want to send it back to Carvin in Cal. So I took it to tech here in Texas a good guy. He found a lot of what he called a lot of cold solder joints. I played it a while after that but it just well it just sucked. So I sold it and bought a SWR 750 head and a 210 Aguilar 210 cab with a SWR 15 cab. Which I played for quite a while until I left the band and now only play in church. To this day I use a MarkBass Jeff Berlin combo with a 210, I sold the 210 it was a Carvin and am going to try and get me a MarkBass 210 or 12 cab.
 
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