Worst amp you played through

[J_Bass]

Maniac MVB500 50W bass amp. My first amp, what a piece of crap.
It was what I could afford as a college student back then.

 

[Buster Brown]

Kasino was a Kustom brand. Same product without the tuck-and-roll.

Actually, now that I think back - it was a company that featured the tuck and roll amps - but it wasn't Kustom

 

[Stevorebob]

Actually, now that I think back - it was a company that featured the tuck and roll amps - but it wasn't Kustom

Earth.

 

[Hypocrite]

Worst amp: an Eden something or other. Incredibly weak tone.
Cab: EBS (Proline?) 4x12. Mud city, no matter what I do. And I'm stuck with it until we find a rehearsal space where we can store our own gear.

 

[Berniez40]

Had to be an old Woodson Head w/2 very sucky 15’s in the cabinet. The Kustom Black Tuck and Roll I ownd before that was pretty good sounding relative to old Woody. That should tell you something.

 

[Berniez40]

Earth.

Earth or Plush. The Plush amps actually sounded okay, but not as reliable.

 

[byacey]

I'm not sure, but I don't think they even accept these at the landfill.

 

[Berniez40]

Ouch....Funny I played a few Traynors and actually liked them, but never played that little combo.

 

[DaveDeVille]

this was the " Provided Backline BassAmp " at Fiesta Texas , a local theme park years ago .
Fender BXR200
... we had a contract to do four gigs , and i offered to bring my Ampeg V4-B and 1-15" cab .
but i was assured there would be a "high quality bass rig " provided ...
amp sounded like doggy-doo onstage , even the monitors sounded like crap .
pure torture for me .
the sound tech kept telling me " it sounds great out here " ...

... made the rig sound as good as i could , but hated every minute of it ...

EDIT : this is not the actual amp i used ,
but an online image looking suspiciously like the one i used ...

 

[bronzdragon]

I started with an Ashdown MAG series amp. I forget which model. I had it sitting on a cheap 2x10. I didn't like it. I traded it off after practicing with some friends about 5 times.

 

[GreyBeard]

I went on tour with a Traynor YBA-3 with a single 8x10 cab. It sounded good when it worked but it spent more time in the shop than it did on stage.

 

[Just George]

You'll have to be an older player to remember these but....

Worst..... Baldwin Exterminator.
Bad........ Vox Super Beatle.

The Vox was only slightly better than the really awful Baldwin Exterminator.

 

[ezstep]

Backline provided by "professional" sound company. Hartke 1x15 aluminum cone with 4x10 aluminum on top, with Hartke head on top (1000, maybe?). I plugged in and immediately told the sound guy that the cabinet had only three working speakers. We even found the dead speaker within a few seconds. He moved the mic to a different area, and then he complained that NOW he had to repair both cabinets. Seemed that the 1x15 was there for show as it didn't work at all.

Of course, the audience (5000, more or less) couldn't hear the amp at all and heard only the sounds going through the direct line and not even the microphone. Very strange. Pretty bad onstage, pretty good in front. Audience had no clue.

Second worst was an ancient Peavey TKO. IIRC, they were 65 watts of raw power back then. The only way it could be heard (again, direct box out to console) was to push all the sliders to the top. Even then, it was horrible. This crowd was really big, and, again, they had no clue. Sounded really good out front.

 

[DTRN]

Earth.

My very first bass amp was a Earth 100 watt tuck and roll tube amp. I bought the 215 cab for $40 back in 1983 as I had no cab. The guy who sold me the cab had the head as well which was fried. He sold that to me for $10. I thought the tubes in it were worth that. To me delight, it was a hand wired amp which had a fried resister d/t a short. Fixed the short and replaced the resister...plugged it in and it served me well for the next 10 years till I loaned it to my son who fried it again. Repaired it again and he still uses it. I'm still amazed the transformer in that amp survived the shorts. Of note; the 100 watts of power easily kept up with 2 Marshall full stacks and I had power to spare.

That all said, ironically, the worst bass amp I played through was a friend's SS 100 watt Earth amp with 215 cab. It was unreliable and sounded icky.

 

[5StringBlues]

Probably not the worst, but I hit a jam recently with a Rumble 40 watt combo as the house rig.



Loud guitars, loud harmonica, loud drums, and a big echoey room.

It was either good tone I couldn't hear or crap tone I could almost hear. Not the amp's fault.