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Worst amp you played through
- Thread starter MrCash
- Start date
Never had a reason to play any of the Kustom stuff but there was another company (for the life of me I can't remember) that mimicked Kustom, but their stuff was absolutely nasty. Played through the tuck and roll 2X15 on a backline back in like '79 and good lord - NASTY!
Laney Linebacker 100 head.
Not sure how a bass amp can sound both thin and muddy at the same time, but this amp managed to do it.
It wasn't a problem with lack of power. At the time I had this amp I was playing cafe size gigs as a duo with an acoustic guitar player.
It also wasn't a speaker cabinet problem. It was paired with a properly working Hartke 4x10 which sounded just fine with other amps.
I sold this and bought a Peavey TKO 65 combo and it sounded 10x better.
Not sure how a bass amp can sound both thin and muddy at the same time, but this amp managed to do it.
It wasn't a problem with lack of power. At the time I had this amp I was playing cafe size gigs as a duo with an acoustic guitar player.
It also wasn't a speaker cabinet problem. It was paired with a properly working Hartke 4x10 which sounded just fine with other amps.
I sold this and bought a Peavey TKO 65 combo and it sounded 10x better.
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wmhill
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A bass player in a band opening for us had a Behringer Ultra bass stack with a 410 and 115. He kept insisting I use it on our set so hell, why not? I played a 5 string MusicMan 5 string through it, but it was the worst mud tone I'd ever experienced. I asked if he minded me moving the EQ around, told me no, be my guest. Absolutely worst sound I ever had and had to just not think about how crappy I sounded, and just soldier through the set.
Kasino was a Kustom brand. Same product without the tuck-and-roll.
An Acoustic 150b head with matching 2x15 cab. Cardboard farts at any volume. Added a second 2x15 cab. Just added a second sphincter for the flatulence.
First let us get out of the way that I original started out playing guitar, until I saw the light and made my amends picking up a bass a few years later and never looked back on my misguided sinful guitar past since then (though that isn't entirely the truth, since I continued to play guitar on the sideline and do to this day).
Anyway, why I tell you this is because my very first electric guitar was a crappy homemade one, not by me mind, but let's just say I would be ver whoever made it should probably drop their plans about ever becoming a luthier, even as just a hobby, and with that an equally horrible homemade amp made out of a PA amp build into a homemade cabinet equipped with PA speakers, but I got it cheap and it was the only thing I could afford at that point.
Fortunately I got an actually great Japan made Tokai Strat guitar clone of my dad for Christmas that same year, and had at that time managed to save up enough money to buy a nice used Peavey combo as well, the exact model name escapes me, but as far I remember it was a 100W and a more than just decent amp.
However that very first hack of a homemade combo amp, pieced together from PA gear, which I initially bought, got to be the ultimately most horrible amp I have ever had the displeasure to play through, just absolutely terrifyingly bad, which did eventually start to slowly dawn to me as I eventually started to get a slightly better idea about how to play guitar and music as such, even if being blissfully oblivious of that fact when I first bought it, having absolutely zero grasp of music gear, and at that point just having started out playing in a punk band some of my friends had started and asked me to join, were non of us had any real grasp of how to actually play our respective instruments, and even the lead vocalist sang horribly out of tune, me exclusively using the infamous m7add11, just my index finger pressed across all the strings on a single fret and then moved around on the fretboard, barre chord for all our songs, equally obliviously distasteful spiced up with my only effect pedal at that time, the infamous Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, which basically at that point functioned as an always on pedal, dialed in on the suggested "fuzz" setting in the user manual.
What a glorious sonic mess we made...
And the name of that band was "Spit Jones" by the way, later extended and renamed to "Spooky Spit Jones".
In our defense though we were all just around 12 years old or so at that point.
And the hook line chorus to one of our greatest songs went :
"I'm a child!
I'm a child!
I don't wanna grow up!"
Half aggressively screamed, half sung horribly out of tune, in perfect alignment with the helplessly badly but very enthusiastically and heart felt executed instrumentation by the rest of the band.
Anyway, why I tell you this is because my very first electric guitar was a crappy homemade one, not by me mind, but let's just say I would be ver whoever made it should probably drop their plans about ever becoming a luthier, even as just a hobby, and with that an equally horrible homemade amp made out of a PA amp build into a homemade cabinet equipped with PA speakers, but I got it cheap and it was the only thing I could afford at that point.
Fortunately I got an actually great Japan made Tokai Strat guitar clone of my dad for Christmas that same year, and had at that time managed to save up enough money to buy a nice used Peavey combo as well, the exact model name escapes me, but as far I remember it was a 100W and a more than just decent amp.
However that very first hack of a homemade combo amp, pieced together from PA gear, which I initially bought, got to be the ultimately most horrible amp I have ever had the displeasure to play through, just absolutely terrifyingly bad, which did eventually start to slowly dawn to me as I eventually started to get a slightly better idea about how to play guitar and music as such, even if being blissfully oblivious of that fact when I first bought it, having absolutely zero grasp of music gear, and at that point just having started out playing in a punk band some of my friends had started and asked me to join, were non of us had any real grasp of how to actually play our respective instruments, and even the lead vocalist sang horribly out of tune, me exclusively using the infamous m7add11, just my index finger pressed across all the strings on a single fret and then moved around on the fretboard, barre chord for all our songs, equally obliviously distasteful spiced up with my only effect pedal at that time, the infamous Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, which basically at that point functioned as an always on pedal, dialed in on the suggested "fuzz" setting in the user manual.
What a glorious sonic mess we made...
And the name of that band was "Spit Jones" by the way, later extended and renamed to "Spooky Spit Jones".
In our defense though we were all just around 12 years old or so at that point.
And the hook line chorus to one of our greatest songs went :
"I'm a child!
I'm a child!
I don't wanna grow up!"
Half aggressively screamed, half sung horribly out of tune, in perfect alignment with the helplessly badly but very enthusiastically and heart felt executed instrumentation by the rest of the band.
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Funny! I played the same rig for almost 20 years. I agree it was a little thin, but the Altecs were very clear and very rugged. I put an MXR 10-band (120 volt) graphic EQ in front of it and it gave it all the low end heft and sparkly highs you (or at least I) could want. I don’t miss it, but I didn’t hate it.
My worst amp ever was a Bassman SP300, Fender’s very first (‘69) attempt at a solid state bass amp. I think I already trash-talked it somewhere up this thread, so I won’t here. I’m sitting here now wondering how it would have done with that MXR magic box in front. Better, I’m sure. Of course, a 10-band graphic EQ hadn’t hit the market yet back then.
Hummergeist
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The worst amps I've played through, it's been more about maintenance than design. Crappy old tube amps...I hate using amps where the sound changes over time...
Peavey TKO 75 from the 90s, basically 20 years ago. It was not a bad amp in itself for what it was, but it was a 75W practice amp which at times I had to push in bad rehearsals or occasional gigs, and it was an obvious pain. Not to mention that it had a 15" speaker and weighted at least twice as much compared to the average 300w solution you find nowadays.
Another amp which isn't that terrible but can be problematic is the Ashdown MAG series. Not a lot of definition (verging to muddy territories) but mostly it has a sort of baked-in character that tends to fight with pedals/preamps like sansamps, vt bass and such: going into FX return = boomy, going into pre flat = quite wolfy and muddy, working on the EQ and turning down the low mids around 250hz = can get a bit better. They have a noticeable bump around that area which doesn't retain definition when you turn them up.
Another story is IMO their ABSs: still warm and colourful, but way better defined and more professional sounding - I still keep my ABM 500. I think their cab equivalent (MAG vs ABM line of 4x10s) are as decisive as their heads on the matter, being the ABMs way more precise.
I'm not a huge fan of amps verging on neutral (earlier Mark Bass digital portable lines...) but I have to confess they tend to play well with aforementioned preamps and pedals where I craft my tone, so it's usually a relief when they show up on backlines, as long as I have my pre rig.
The worst "amps" in terms of experience were probably the wedges when I had to play in places with a PA and no bass amp was around: confidently plugging in the Pod Xt (lol, "good" times) with your SVT-based "killer" patch which turned into something with muddy and unbearable subs and piercing clanky highs, all presence and definition completely gone the moment a cymbal joins in...
Another amp which isn't that terrible but can be problematic is the Ashdown MAG series. Not a lot of definition (verging to muddy territories) but mostly it has a sort of baked-in character that tends to fight with pedals/preamps like sansamps, vt bass and such: going into FX return = boomy, going into pre flat = quite wolfy and muddy, working on the EQ and turning down the low mids around 250hz = can get a bit better. They have a noticeable bump around that area which doesn't retain definition when you turn them up.
Another story is IMO their ABSs: still warm and colourful, but way better defined and more professional sounding - I still keep my ABM 500. I think their cab equivalent (MAG vs ABM line of 4x10s) are as decisive as their heads on the matter, being the ABMs way more precise.
I'm not a huge fan of amps verging on neutral (earlier Mark Bass digital portable lines...) but I have to confess they tend to play well with aforementioned preamps and pedals where I craft my tone, so it's usually a relief when they show up on backlines, as long as I have my pre rig.
The worst "amps" in terms of experience were probably the wedges when I had to play in places with a PA and no bass amp was around: confidently plugging in the Pod Xt (lol, "good" times) with your SVT-based "killer" patch which turned into something with muddy and unbearable subs and piercing clanky highs, all presence and definition completely gone the moment a cymbal joins in...
