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Worst amp you played through

#321
Bit of an overreaction but I get how you feel.

Whereas my crappy Peavey is still going 'strong', it occasionally makes a weird fuzzing buzzing sound, but when I stomp on it, it stops. It's never been quite bad enough for me to throw away, but I couldn't sell it to anyone.
 
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#324
1st amp I ever owned...... sounded like a huge pair of lips blowing raspberries.
Silvertone 1483.jpg


In my career, I used most every amp brand made (well, back then ....)
It seemed, at first, amps either sounded good or I got rid of them: Silvertone, old Peavey... the usual suspects. But if an amp had ANY character at all I'd keep it for a while... as I became a better player, I learned to make my sound through almost any adequate amp..... I became less dependent on the amp sound and more in control with a Bass that felt and sounded good, so that's where my focus shifted... my now brands..... Fender (solid but not edgy) and GK (tight and clear). I like an amp to reproduce the Bass I'm playing (and right and left hand technique) accurately and leave the REAL FOH sound up to the sound man..
 
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#325
topcat2069 said:
1st amp I ever owned...... sounded like a huge pair of lips blowing raspberries.View attachment 1005075

In my career, I used most every amp brand made (well, back then ....)
It seemed, at first, amps either sounded good or I got rid of them: Silvertone, old Peavey... the usual suspects. But if an amp had ANY character at all I'd keep it for a while... as I became a better player, I learned to make my sound through almost any adequate amp..... I became less dependent on the amp sound and more in control with a Bass that felt and sounded good, so that's where my focus shifted... my now brands..... Fender and GK, but I like an amp to reproduce the Bass I'm playing (and technique) accurately and leave the REAL FOH sound up to the sound man..
Click to expand...

Great photo, great memories! ...can't recall if it was a great amp, though. We sure wouldn't have known any better in '64!
 
#327
topcat2069 said:
No :D I could tell it was a bad sounding amp..... the very next amp was an Ampeg B15N... THAT was a good sounding amp...:cool:
Click to expand...
Funny... I remember playing through a B-12 back then and didn't even think about tone. Honestly, what we cared about was VOLUME ...or so we thought. That had to wait for a while :) ...and I never heard anybody back then tell me that upper mids would help me cut through the mix!
 
#329
the worst thing or amp i used playing bass was an old Peavey PA head about 400 watts i think, it was a 1980 some model but it was all we had, i played it tru an 15 cab with a 400 watt Altec speaker, speaker and cab was great wish i still had it, PA head was not that great, i then up graded to a swr working man 15 played it many years it was okay, then in my traveling days with a band, i ended up playing an swr 750 head a aguilar 210 and a EV15, good rig, now i play a 2008 i bought new MarkBass Jeff Berlin combo i am using sometimes a Carvin 210 cab i think i have to look, have not used in a while loaded with EV10s i bought off craigslist. But the peavey pa head was nasty nasty.
 
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#330
After reading through all the posts I can only conclude that there seems to be no decent bass amp out there (brand or model). It would appear the only safe bet if you play bass is to use a high end DI and go straight to the mixing desk...now I'm guessing the next post will pretty much trash that idea as well. :)
 
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#331
I had a Roland DB 700 that sounded great--WHEN IT WORKED---but played the part of an 80lb. paperweight on stage twice. Thank G*d for the Sansamp DI I always packed for backup at that time. I really loved the sound I could get out of it, but two failures during two different gigs is simply disastrous. As much as I liked the sound of many of Rolands' Bass Amps, this thing single handedly turned me off of ever buying another DB--Whatever, or Roland Cube ever again. Sticking with my old beat up military grade GK 700RB. A truly great amp for both electric and upright.
 
#333
silvertone-front.jpg


This was my first bass amp back in the 70's. Can't say I hated it but it really didn't sound great. BTW this is not my amp but a picture i found. I did like that you could shove the head into the bottom of the back of the cabinet so the cabinet would weigh more for a young skinny me to move around.:D
 
#338
Ampeg BA115. A quiet drummer can bury it in the mix. Was forced to use one at an outdoor festival a couple years back. Again, no volume.. In order to hear anything out of it, the gains were well into saturation... Unfortunately, that signal went out front..
 

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