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Worst Gear You ever played through.

#22
I don't know if it was the worst I've played through, but what comes to mind is the Peavey amp that was in one of the classrooms at BIT. I was a student there in 1995, and one of the teachers said the amp had been in that room at least since he was a student there ten years earlier. It had this huge cabinet with an 18 and two 10s, and this huge solid state head with a million knobs on it, none of which seemed to affect the tone in any way. A lot of booming low mids, not much else.

However, I second the 'nuclear war' comment. It wouldn't surprise me at all if that thing is still there.
 
#24
The above Univox piggyback transistor amp would have been a HUGE improvement over my homemade amp, comprised of a turntable/radio furniture peice, all-tube, 20 watts through a single hi-fi 12" speaker thingamabob I used for nearly a year in 1974.
 
#27
worst gear I gigged through was a Laney 300w head and 4x10 cab... rather like this (although this is not my rig or bass, just a pic i found on the internet)

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

doesn't look too bad does it? well, it sounded like crap.. i'm amazed Laney has a decent reputation now because I'd never bother buying Laney again
 
#28
I had some catastrophic gear meltdown at a show in northern philly a few years ago and had to use a rig that was owned by the venue.

It was an unknown 6x10, an unknown head(literally both were sprayed black... might have been a peavey...).

It sounded SOOOOO bad andwould cut in and out the whole set. To make things worse, i broke a string on my bass... no prob, took out the back-up... and broke a string AGAIN... so i had to borrow some POS 5 string that the venue also owned with the most warped neck i have EVER seen...

So yeah, Murphy's law strikes again i suppose. Not only was that the worst gear, but the worst show :(
 
#29
:cool:

SWR 750 with SWR 8x10 cab.

Played this rig at at a club gig (backline)

I could not get this rig to sound good.
Very weak, lacked, color, stale, sounding.
And, no way was this head putting out wattage stated.

I used a 1966 P-bass with TI-flats.
 
#33
Mojo-Man said:
:cool:

SWR 750 with SWR 8x10 cab.

Played this rig at at a club gig (backline)

I could not get this rig to sound good.
Very weak, lacked, color, stale, sounding.
And, no way was this head putting out wattage stated.

I used a 1966 P-bass with TI-flats.
Click to expand...

Mojo, you beat me to it. I was going to say my SWR SM-400, which I owned for about 5 or 6 years. (5 or 6 dismal, painful, miserable years.) I could do NOTHING to get any character out of this thing. I, too, once owned one of those early '70s Univox solid state piggyback amps, and it had WAY MORE personality than the SWR did. I really hated that SWR. I finally traded it in for an Ampeg SVT Pro 3. Ahhhhhhhhhh....
 
#35
First: Peavey TKO-80...a bunch of solid-state yuck. Couldn't dial it in to save my life, had a hard time getting heard. Still, it as all I could afford at the time.

Second: A Fender Bassman 60 from about 1990. Similar issue...bought it cheap and then realized I couldn't afford to go cheap. I returned it and got a Fender BXR-300C that suited me far better (despite the lack of love in some other threads).
 
#36
cowsgomoo said:
worst gear I gigged through was a Laney 300w head and 4x10 cab... rather like this (although this is not my rig or bass, just a pic i found on the internet)

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

doesn't look too bad does it? well, it sounded like crap.. i'm amazed Laney has a decent reputation now because I'd never bother buying Laney again
Click to expand...

With Laney, I've found they could be a bit hit or miss.

I've never played one that took my breath away, but I've played some that were pretty solid and decent sounding amps, and a lot that were just dire!
 
#39
I've had good luck with getting good tone out of most of the Peavey gear I've owned or gigged with, and I've owned and gigged through a number of different amps over the years. I have never found any attempt by Marshall at making a bass amp rig that I could like, let alone tolerate. I had the displeasure of gigging in a band where the backline was all Marshall provided by the band's leader/owner/etc. He wanted the unified look onstage. It was great for the guitars, but all of my basses sounded like muddy crap no matter what I did to try to e.q. things out. Oh well, at least it was a paycheck, and I didn't have to haul my own gear. I just haven't liked Marshall bass gear scince then.
 
#40
:hiding:

The Uni Vox UB250 is only 20 watts. I have one in my living room and its a great practice amp. Even handles my 5 string, with no distortion and I have used it for church sevice (low volume). I would think with a mic in front of it would work fine for louder gigs. I've played through lots worse small amps. 34 lbs isn't bad either. I'd recommend it in a heart beat as a practice amp. Thanks for the spec sheet.

My worst bass rig was a Fender Showman that chewed up and spit out 6L6s every month. Way underpowered to keep up with a twin and a marshall and at any real volume the bass was distortion city. I believe it was a whole 45 watts. Replaced it with an Acoustic 360 and never had that problem again ;)
 

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