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Worst amp you played through

#21
There was a thread about this subject not long ago, but here it is again .. VOX AC60, very bad, very bad indeed.


vox ac60.jpg
 
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#23
Not really the worst amp but the one that disappointed me the most : Markbass littlemark II

I was psyched to try it at the rehearsal room. Could'nt get a decent tone out of it. I quickly turned off the VLE and VPF. I just hated it. Still don't understand why it gets so much praise. And I can't justify its price either.

Worst combo was a 100W Crate. It was really crappy. Saturated too easily. And this thing weighed a ton while delivering very little power. I left it at a friends place and never claimed it back.
 
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#27
The off-brand excuse (Kingston maybe?) that came in trade with my first bass. Had a couple of 10" speakers that may have been mediocre for guitar mounted in an open-back cabinet. The amp may have put out ten watts with twenty percent distortion. Made the bass loud enough to hear, but that was it... :rollno:
 
#28
MrCash said:
Urgh that kustom! Horrible lol
Would love to know the reasons why the amps were so bad.
Click to expand...

I guess it sounded ok, for the times, but those amps had a circuit breaker that would pop
if you drove it too hard or tuned up too loud. The breaker would cut the power like a blown fuse... mid song... repeatedly throughout the night at a gig. I remember my amp would just suddenly shut off and I'd have to press the circuit breaker button to get it powered on again.
When I traded it for a different amp at my local music store, around 1975 or so, I was never so happy about getting rid of a piece of gear as I was that one. I'd never heard of a SS amp until Kustom came along and because of the circuit breaker issues I always was suspicious of anything SS from then on.
 
#29
I bought a used Carvin BR15 that has to be the most disappointing amp I've played through. The seller was honest and said he could never get a tone he liked through it. Well, it has a bunch of tone-shaping controls, so I thought I'd be able to make it work as a decent practice amp and stage monitor for church. Nope. I spent hours trying to find settings that didn't sound like a fart in a tunnel, but never could. After letting it sit for a year or so, I cranked it up and now it has a hum and intermittent crackle and gets very hot after a while. Carvins have a pretty good rep here on TB, but this was a total POS and really soured me on the brand.
 
#30
For me it was a GK Backline 112. Worthless pos it was. ANY active, and many passive, basses overdrive the input and it farts out well before my little 15 watt Kustom guitar practice amp. Yes, the guitar amp handles bass better than the GK. I would blame it on the fact it is a budget model but the input overdrive thing has been present in every one of their heads that I have tried. In fairness I have only tried 6 GK products.
 
#32
First gen Fender Rumble 100 I demoed at Guitar Center in Webster Texas the first year they were out. There was something nasty loose in the cabinet that buzzed, rattled and pretty much made playing through it intolerable. Fender and Guitar Center lost a sale that day for having that POS on display.

Second worst was what should have from what everyone tells me should have been the best, was an Ampeg SVT / 810 rig. Thing got hot and cut out super fast. Another Guitar Center wonder...

I figured out after not too much time it wasn't the gear, it was the way gear is treated and not fixed when needed on Guitar Centers floor models... Terrible way to do business, but that is the same at Home Depot, Sears etc... with any complex demo item...
 
#33
spiritbass said:
The off-brand excuse (Kingston maybe?) that came in trade with my first bass. Had a couple of 10" speakers that may have been mediocre for guitar mounted in an open-back cabinet. The amp may have put out ten watts with twenty percent distortion. Made the bass loud enough to hear, but that was it... :rollno:
Click to expand...

My very, very, very, second ever amp was a Kingston guitar combo. It had the wettest reverb of any amp I've played through. That amp, a Hondo Fame 760 strat copy, and an old console turntable kept me entertained for hours, when I was a young teen.

On topic - worst amp was an Ampeg B115 combo. Worthless under any circumstances that required volume.
 
#37
Bodeanly said:
It may also be worth noting the style of music you tried to play with said amp. I see there is already some hate brewing for the Rumbles, but if you're trying to blow metal through them, you're definitely not going to get a favorable voicing.

To answer OP, anything Crate. Or Sonic. You get what you pay for. They couldn't handle gigging the rock and roll.
Click to expand...

It's easier to quote than to make assumptions and be "subtle" in your response.
Anyways, Crate is garbage too. Does Seismic Audio even count as a cab?
 

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