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Worst amp you played through
- Thread starter MrCash
- Start date
An old Sano tube amp from the mid-50s. Turns out the speaker was in very poor shape, and i, in my ignorance, finished it off one evening at a high school event. There was a transformer riveted to the speaker frame which made replacement almost impossible, based on what I knew about tube electronics at the time. Finally replaced the speaker and dropped an old blackface Bassman head on top, using the Sano as a cabinet. That held together until I was able to make another purchase.
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In the late 60's my rich neighbor had a few Silvertones his dad bought him to start a band. He was a spoiled brat and they needed to do something draw some other kids in! 
Anyway we tried to start up a little band and used the Silvertones. The bass amp had six -- count 'em -- SIX 10 inch speakers. Shoulda been loud and deep, right? Nope! Very thin sounding. The tone controls didn't do anything, and I think the guitar amp only had one tone control.
Fender in the 70's. No power but nice looking. 2 x 12" speakers for bass? Come on, Fender!
This is probably identical to the amp I used in the late 60's.
EDIT: The kid's home even had the 60's style mahogany paneling!
Anyway we tried to start up a little band and used the Silvertones. The bass amp had six -- count 'em -- SIX 10 inch speakers. Shoulda been loud and deep, right? Nope! Very thin sounding. The tone controls didn't do anything, and I think the guitar amp only had one tone control.Fender in the 70's. No power but nice looking. 2 x 12" speakers for bass? Come on, Fender!
This is probably identical to the amp I used in the late 60's.
EDIT: The kid's home even had the 60's style mahogany paneling!
The second-worst bass amp I ever had was a Fender BXR400 with an 18" + 2x10" cabinet. The absolute worst was the infamous Fender Solid State Bassman:
Fortunately for me, Long and McQuade was generous on trade-ins back in those days.
For some reason I think this looks pretty cool. I can't explain myself! Haha
I lost counting. Ashdown budget head. Believe the Mag series. The one with the grey front. Peavey Nitro head. Anything from Crate I played. It always wonders me why they made so many bad amps after the Fender Bassman, Peavey T-Max, Gallien Krueger rb800, Hartke ah350. Can't they just copy some proven design. 
1968 Ampeg B-15. No Tone. No Volume. A pair of bongos and an acoustic guitar would be OK. Anything more than that = No Way.
It was spring 1970. I had been playing bass all of 5 months or so. Across Main Street from my high school was a radio & TV repair shop. In the window was this Ampeg B-15. It looked brand new and the price was (IIRC) $125. The amps owner was a young Air Force veteran recently discharged. He was a bass player and had been a radio repairman in the service. He played country and bought the B-15 reasonably inexpensively. He went through it with a fine tooth comb and replaced all the tubes and cleaned up and reflowed all the soldier joints. Checked all resistor and capacitor values. So the amp was as good as new in all respects.
He let me use it for a week end, and I hated it. What a nothing of an amp. When I brought it back and told him sorry no sale, he commiserated with me on those very same points. He had bought a used Fender Bassman (50) with 2x12 tilt-back cabinet that he restored to like new condition. He played a '58 Fender Precision. He showed me the best tone setting he could get out of the Ampeg and then played the same bass through the Fender Bassman. The difference was night and day. I have loved and owned Fenders ever since. Ampegs are simply way over rated and over priced. I don't like their sound at all. I've never owned one and I never will. Played through a bunch (SVT & V4B), but no banana.
It was spring 1970. I had been playing bass all of 5 months or so. Across Main Street from my high school was a radio & TV repair shop. In the window was this Ampeg B-15. It looked brand new and the price was (IIRC) $125. The amps owner was a young Air Force veteran recently discharged. He was a bass player and had been a radio repairman in the service. He played country and bought the B-15 reasonably inexpensively. He went through it with a fine tooth comb and replaced all the tubes and cleaned up and reflowed all the soldier joints. Checked all resistor and capacitor values. So the amp was as good as new in all respects.
He let me use it for a week end, and I hated it. What a nothing of an amp. When I brought it back and told him sorry no sale, he commiserated with me on those very same points. He had bought a used Fender Bassman (50) with 2x12 tilt-back cabinet that he restored to like new condition. He played a '58 Fender Precision. He showed me the best tone setting he could get out of the Ampeg and then played the same bass through the Fender Bassman. The difference was night and day. I have loved and owned Fenders ever since. Ampegs are simply way over rated and over priced. I don't like their sound at all. I've never owned one and I never will. Played through a bunch (SVT & V4B), but no banana.
OK folks, I just waded through 14 pages of this thread in order to tabulate some results from the hate-fest on the worst amps. It is not scientific in any way, and for the sake of space and practicality, I omitted any amp listed that got only one vote. These consisted mainly of old, off-brands that probably nobody else ever heard of anyway. Here are the votes:
Acoustic IIIIII
Ampeg IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Ashdown IIIIII
Behringer IIIII
Carvin IIIIIII
Crate IIIIIII
Dean Markley II
Eden IIIIII
Fender IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Fender Rumble IIIIIIIIIII
GK II
GK Backline IIIIIII
Gorilla IIIIIIII
Kingston II
Kustom IIII
Hartke IIIII
Markbass II
Orange III
Peavey IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Randall IIII
SWR IIIIIIIII
Traynor IIIII
Univox II
VOX IIII
Yamaha IIIII
I guess what I was most surprised by were all the votes for Ampeg. I had to include my own vote for Ampeg in there too as I very recently had a terrible experience with a PF 500 that I am sending back to Sweetwater.
So there you have it!
Acoustic IIIIII
Ampeg IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Ashdown IIIIII
Behringer IIIII
Carvin IIIIIII
Crate IIIIIII
Dean Markley II
Eden IIIIII
Fender IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Fender Rumble IIIIIIIIIII
GK II
GK Backline IIIIIII
Gorilla IIIIIIII
Kingston II
Kustom IIII
Hartke IIIII
Markbass II
Orange III
Peavey IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Randall IIII
SWR IIIIIIIII
Traynor IIIII
Univox II
VOX IIII
Yamaha IIIII
I guess what I was most surprised by were all the votes for Ampeg. I had to include my own vote for Ampeg in there too as I very recently had a terrible experience with a PF 500 that I am sending back to Sweetwater.
So there you have it!
I Almost succeeded in deleting this thing from my memory. But now you mentioned, this combo gets the grammy award.
Huh seems weird.. my favorite bass player is pictured with a redhead alot back in the day.. he also uses modulus.. and used to use the sm900...me im an eden guy.. wt550 atm.. great head.. also have a swr redhead that I love... worst amp I Ever played was a fender rumble the older black ones.. I hate those combos so much lol
Oh yesss .... I had one of these blue Kustoms. . Mine had 3X15 in it though . Sound sucked . Even through the bright side . Plus a nightmare to move .....
I tried an OB1-500 and an Ampeg SVT-410HLF too, and it was awful. It was very muddled and the speakers vibrated like crazy. I'm not sure about the Ampeg 610, but i think the ob1 was too powerful for the 410. I found an old 410 Gk 600W from the 80s, and it sounds amazing for now until I can upgrade. Ob1 sounded decent with a Mesa Boogie Powerhouse 412 when I tried it, but I couldn't afford it or mess with it for long. Still not sure what cab will work best, but I'd like to try out the orange cabs.
Wow reading thru this thread is giving me PTGD (post traumatic gear disorder). Totally forgot about fender bxr series. Friend in high school had one among a bunch of gear (so a few of us jammed at his place mostly). I think it was a 2x10? I hadnt really played bass thru anything else than a tiny peavey guitar amp so i thought bass at a certain volume was just unintelligable thud thud thud. Perhaps the worst ive played.
There's an interestin distinction in this thread to be made btwn worst and most disappointing. I remember wanting to like an swr 350 on their 4x10 but just hated it! Settled on a hartke 3500 on an older gk 4x10 (really didnt care for those hartke aluminum cone cabs, yuck).
Also heartily disappointed by the aggie tone hammer 350. Love their gs and db cabs ive had the chance to play. Think the ag500 sounds swell. Had an s210 which was mild and lovely. Thought the th350 was weak sauce with a really unconvincing od circuit.
I think the fender rumbles have def improved over their iterations and i dont mind their voicing but there's something just a little off to my ears. I think it's a class d thing for me, that bit of compression i dont care for. Still cant imagine them being the worst amps someone has ever heard: plug into a crate and get back to me! Wow a lot of those crate combos are absolute garbage too!
I know people rag on 'em but i like the peavey tnt amps. Bullet proof with a nice warm grind good for rock to my ears but admittedly my tastes can be weird.
There's an interestin distinction in this thread to be made btwn worst and most disappointing. I remember wanting to like an swr 350 on their 4x10 but just hated it! Settled on a hartke 3500 on an older gk 4x10 (really didnt care for those hartke aluminum cone cabs, yuck).
Also heartily disappointed by the aggie tone hammer 350. Love their gs and db cabs ive had the chance to play. Think the ag500 sounds swell. Had an s210 which was mild and lovely. Thought the th350 was weak sauce with a really unconvincing od circuit.
I think the fender rumbles have def improved over their iterations and i dont mind their voicing but there's something just a little off to my ears. I think it's a class d thing for me, that bit of compression i dont care for. Still cant imagine them being the worst amps someone has ever heard: plug into a crate and get back to me! Wow a lot of those crate combos are absolute garbage too!
I know people rag on 'em but i like the peavey tnt amps. Bullet proof with a nice warm grind good for rock to my ears but admittedly my tastes can be weird.
'Worst amp' for me would have to tick (or, not tick? or something? anyway) several boxes.
I mean, I've played through an SWR SM900 head and a Goliath Snr 6x10 cabinet as the provided rig at a festival.... the tone just didn't work for me and I was not pleased with it, but you could tell it was a serious bit of kit. Just not for me or the sound I was going for. I guess SWR work best for different types of music than what I was playing (with a thrash metal band).
It's no good complaining an amp is bad if you're trying to get it to do something it was never designed to do, so I'm keeping that in mind. No point in trying to get a GK to sound like an all-tube Ampeg, or trying to get a crystal-clear Glockenklang-type sound from an Orange head, or getting a little combo and trying to play a gig with it.
Having said that...
I played through a Marshall VB400 and 4x12 at a gig. It was the provided setup. I figured 'well I'm playing in a rock band, and Marshalls are designed for rock, right?' But all I got was thick, muddy, noise with no definition or presence. Just couldn't get a workable tone out of it. Which was a bummer, I was really stoked about trying it out and expected a lot from it, but was totally let down. As in, I was expecting 'awesome ballsy rock&roll full-tube sound' and instead got 'a woolly incoherent mess'.
One of the rehearsal spaces I go to a lot has an all Eden setup. They had an Eden Traveler 550 and I simply could not get a decent sound out of it for my metal band - the output was totally underwhelming (running into a 4x10 + 1x15) and really just couldn't get it to do anything without overdriving. There was no punch, no feeling. Apparently someone managed to blow it up one time, and now they have an Eden WTX500. Which is actually a big improvement, it must be said. Lots more presence and feeling, and only clips infrequently. Still doesn't come close to my GK in terms of sound and power but much, MUCH better than the Traveler. Maybe it was a lemon, dunno.
Another rehearsal space had a Behringer 4x10 combo. It didn't sound too bad, it just would break down every week and bits and pieces would fall off it all the time. Not reliable, massive and weighed an absolute ton.
Yet another festival I played at had a Warwick LWA 1000 head. Another 4 bands had already used it, it was really hot, so maybe that had something to do with the messy, noisy sound from it. Was not impressed and expected better from Warwick.
I mean, I've played through an SWR SM900 head and a Goliath Snr 6x10 cabinet as the provided rig at a festival.... the tone just didn't work for me and I was not pleased with it, but you could tell it was a serious bit of kit. Just not for me or the sound I was going for. I guess SWR work best for different types of music than what I was playing (with a thrash metal band).
It's no good complaining an amp is bad if you're trying to get it to do something it was never designed to do, so I'm keeping that in mind. No point in trying to get a GK to sound like an all-tube Ampeg, or trying to get a crystal-clear Glockenklang-type sound from an Orange head, or getting a little combo and trying to play a gig with it.
Having said that...
I played through a Marshall VB400 and 4x12 at a gig. It was the provided setup. I figured 'well I'm playing in a rock band, and Marshalls are designed for rock, right?' But all I got was thick, muddy, noise with no definition or presence. Just couldn't get a workable tone out of it. Which was a bummer, I was really stoked about trying it out and expected a lot from it, but was totally let down. As in, I was expecting 'awesome ballsy rock&roll full-tube sound' and instead got 'a woolly incoherent mess'.
One of the rehearsal spaces I go to a lot has an all Eden setup. They had an Eden Traveler 550 and I simply could not get a decent sound out of it for my metal band - the output was totally underwhelming (running into a 4x10 + 1x15) and really just couldn't get it to do anything without overdriving. There was no punch, no feeling. Apparently someone managed to blow it up one time, and now they have an Eden WTX500. Which is actually a big improvement, it must be said. Lots more presence and feeling, and only clips infrequently. Still doesn't come close to my GK in terms of sound and power but much, MUCH better than the Traveler. Maybe it was a lemon, dunno.
Another rehearsal space had a Behringer 4x10 combo. It didn't sound too bad, it just would break down every week and bits and pieces would fall off it all the time. Not reliable, massive and weighed an absolute ton.
Yet another festival I played at had a Warwick LWA 1000 head. Another 4 bands had already used it, it was really hot, so maybe that had something to do with the messy, noisy sound from it. Was not impressed and expected better from Warwick.
Orange cabs are super with Orange heads. If you really dig that thick, full, old-school sound then there are few better amps for that. A venue I gig at fairly regularly has the (now discontinued) Terror Bass head and a 4x10, and the sound is really great.
You sir are a gentleman and a scholar.
In all seriousness, keep updating this post, it might actually come of some use for research purposes.
Funny to see the Ampeg hate, but it does seem to be centered around 2-3 specific products and it IS probably the biggest bass amp brand around, so I guess it's just the law of averages. Same applies to Peavey and Fender.
Also interesting to note the absentees from this thread.
Ampeg SVT 3 Pro. I can fart louder than that amp could play.
