I think it's pretty common knowledge that the Ampeg SVT and all of its variants is the worst bass amp anyone has ever played through. That's pretty much a given, right?
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Worst amp you played through
- Thread starter MrCash
- Start date
I've been going around, auditioning/jamming with some bands. I often hear, "We actually have a bass amp that you can use," which usually translates to "We have some ancient entry-level combo amp from some unspecified time period you can use." Needless to say, I always show up with my own rig. *lol*
Gibson Lab Series from the 70s, all of them. Horrible.
Peavey Combo 300. No warmth at all, but then again it was transistor. Heavy, too.
New Acoustic. All of them. Ditto the previous comments.
EA iAmp 800C. Great company, well built, but I just couldn't get a decent tone out of it. Maybe if I had another cab with it it would have been a different story.
Peavey Combo 300. No warmth at all, but then again it was transistor. Heavy, too.
New Acoustic. All of them. Ditto the previous comments.
EA iAmp 800C. Great company, well built, but I just couldn't get a decent tone out of it. Maybe if I had another cab with it it would have been a different story.
From the amps I've owned, I thought a small Marshall combo sounded dry and lifeless even at living room volumes. At rehearsal studios, I played quite a few that I didn't like. Somehow, I remember that nothing bearing Peavey and Warwick nameplate ever impressed me.
Now that you mention Peavey, I have a small Peavey Microbass that simply refuses to die. Any bass sounds... just about ok through it, it's actually a very democratic amplifier in that it makes my first ever cheap-ass Precision knockoff bass sound exactly like my German-made Warwick or vice versa. Occasionally it makes this weird fuzzing noise that goes away when I stomp on it. I bought it from a friend for like 30 pounds 10 years ago and it made that weird noise then, and still does to this day. The noise was always cured by stomping on it (the fact that it's built like a brick and weighs a lot for its size helps) and the frequency of the noise has not changed in the 10 years I've owned it. I'd never take it anywhere, not even to a living room jam session with a friend, but it just sits in the corner, judging me. The fact that the handle isn't very comfy and the cable is hard-wired and dangles all over the place doesn't help either. It gets used because I can't be bothered to toss it out and buy a new little combo like that, and stomping on it to cure the fuzzing noise is cheaper than buying a new amp. It's like being stuck with a relative you intensely dislike, but need them around.
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Marshall JMP Bass Head and matching cabinet. Did not own it. used to share practice space with another band and the bass player left his Marshall stack, and back at the time I had very heavy gear so I used his and it was awful, in fact it was so awful that the guy eventually heard my amplifier at the time (Ashdown ABM 300 EVO II) fell in love with it and bought it from me after having sold his Marshall.
Combo - Hartke 1x15 combo amps from the 90s. Heavy, sterile sounding, speaker overdriven before any reasonable volume could be produced.
Amp Head - Again, the Hartke 7000 or something like that. Very feature rich and LOUD, but a very bland and unmusical sound to me. No amount of EQ and features could make that head usable. I don't know why I bought so much Hartke stuff.
Speaker - It's a tie. 1) SWR cabs with 10 inch speakers. The speaker excursion and distortion make it nearly impossible for me to gig. There was nothing good to me about those cabs. 2) A first generation Acme cab. I can't remember the format. Perhaps it was a 2x10. But it sounded like playing out of a PA speaker and had almost no punch to it. This goes back 15 or 20 years, so I assume these have changed quite a bit.
Amp Head - Again, the Hartke 7000 or something like that. Very feature rich and LOUD, but a very bland and unmusical sound to me. No amount of EQ and features could make that head usable. I don't know why I bought so much Hartke stuff.
Speaker - It's a tie. 1) SWR cabs with 10 inch speakers. The speaker excursion and distortion make it nearly impossible for me to gig. There was nothing good to me about those cabs. 2) A first generation Acme cab. I can't remember the format. Perhaps it was a 2x10. But it sounded like playing out of a PA speaker and had almost no punch to it. This goes back 15 or 20 years, so I assume these have changed quite a bit.
What cabs were you pushing with it? I had one with an SWR Workingman 2x10 and a Hartke 1x15 and it sound great and put out plenty of volume. I only traded it because I wanted to go light with Class D.
I actually think it is the ampeg B15. Worst amp I ever played through in my life. It was a '68 and had been freshly serviced when I tried it out in 1970. Utter Garbage. SVT's are a close second.
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I had the same Kustom head for a few years (1978-82). Sometimes it sounded pretty good, but in certain rooms not so much. After a show at the Troubadour some 35 years ago, someone told me the tone was amazing. I ended up selling it to a good friend cheap and I'm with GK ever since. He claimed he got good tone out of that head. Go figure. I think that head really had to be matched perfectly with the right cabinet for a decent small-venue rig.
The worst amp I ever played through was my very first one, a no-name ordered from JC Penney back in 1982 because I was 14 and po'. My first bass is #8, the amp is #9. Both were pretty craptacular, but I still have the bass (30" Harmony Marquis) for sentimental reasons. I actually used that amp for the first theater show I ever did, and that was the *only* show it got used for. Damn thing would fart out if you looked at it wrong.
Wow, so edgy. Look how independent and and cool you are for calling stuff other people love garbage. Next you'll tell us to "wake up, sheeple!"
Ampeg pf350. Really weedy sounding, and cut out for a few seconds anytime it was pushed hard. Literally useless as a 'bass amp
Ha! 
Ha! 
I had the same amp and cab in silver sparkle back in the day, and it was less than outstanding, but I still loved it.
I got the head and a Univox cab initially, and then found the matching cab, I wish I still had it.
First amp I ever owned, Peavey TKO65, hated that Amp. I bought an SVT within a year or so, bit the TKO still was used for rehearsals from time to time.
One rehearsal, after we were done, I had been so frustrated by the crap tone all night, I pulled the grill off and rammed the headstock of my Rick into the speaker and shredded it. Youth and alcohol might have been contributing factors.
Trash man hauled it away the next day.
One rehearsal, after we were done, I had been so frustrated by the crap tone all night, I pulled the grill off and rammed the headstock of my Rick into the speaker and shredded it. Youth and alcohol might have been contributing factors.
Trash man hauled it away the next day.
