Worst Amps Hall of Fame?

[StetsonMan]

Originally Posted by gls500

Seymour Duncan Convertible (with the switchable "modules").

If you could keep it working for more than a week, it was hard to make it sound good.

Some people loved them, but they weren't for me, and were notoriously unreliable. Neat concept, though.

I actually have one of these. It has the stock modules and it sounds good. I have had no problems...so far that is. Although I could think of other amps I would rather have. I got the Duncan for free...so I couldn't pass it up. This thing is really really heavy too...looks like its time to buy a Blues Junior!

[Oster]

I was excited about the Pignose G40V when they first came out. They seemed kind of cool. A Pignose with Tubes.

The first one I bought short-circuited with a plume of smoke shortly after plugging it in. Brand new.

Its replacement had absolutely no character. Just loud, tinny, harsh annoying drive. It seemed too loud at any volume. Just harsh.

It's an amp that I tried to like but just couldn't.

[studio1087]

1. The Roland JC's. The speakers are awful and you cannot play clean and clear at moderate volumes. The dirty channel sounds like a harsh transistor amp. I bought a JC 120 while going through a major Adrian Belew fanatic fan stage (15 years ago). What an overrated solid state hunk of poop. The Roland Cube amps from the 80's and even the Blues Cubes sound like MXR Distortion +'s plugged into an 8" speaker solid state bedroom amp (but louder).

2. Any solid state or Hybrid Fender amp from the 80's with the Red Plastic knobs. AKA "The Chamion 30" or the "M-80" or the "Stage Lead". Noisy amps/Bad Dirty Amps. Ouch.

3. The Gorilla Bannana (Because it sounded awful and because someone named an amp "Gorilla Bannana".)

4. The first solid state Crate Amps that actually were built to look like wooden fruit crates. Remember that marketing nightmare from about 1978? Crate thought that Country Musicians would love the genuine "crate" look because of the rugged look. Brown wooden boards with big plastic knobs sticking out. Yikes.

5. Any Pignose Product. Practical but awful.

This is a fun thread.

Thanks for thinking of this topic. I'm reading about amps from the 80's that I forgot existed. Very interesting stuff.

John

[OaklandA]

my vote would be for the transistor Kustom amps in the 70's.
Solid State Marshalls. Anything with a red knob.


.

[Twangmeister]

the SF Twin w/master volume that I put Altec-Lansing speakers in back in '74-'75, then I apologize ahead of time. There are still fish in Lake Michigan with permanent hearing damage from when I was playing my gold top Les Paul Deluxe through it whilst living in Chicago.

If you have this amp in your possession now, flee while you still can!

[moparmutt]

I had a little trasistor amp in the 80's called a "ZAP" It was pretty thin and cheezy sounding. Picked up some cool AM radio stations. Also had a tiny amp called "splender". It went up in a puff of smoke one day.

[Larry K. Williams]

Hey, you guys forgot:

1. Traynor

2. Polytone

3. Earth

4. Fender Hot Rod series ( I know, I know, buy 'em if you like 'em )

I coud add a few others, but I think I stepped on enough toes with that last one..........sorry.

[kp8]

Originally Posted by Larry K. Williams

Hey, you guys forgot:

1. Traynor

really?

anyhow, i have owned a JC-120 and can't improve on any of the lovely descriptions here. It was indeed a giant steaming pile of poop.


But the worst amp i *ever* had was a Baldwin combo. Yes, that is right, Baldwin, like the piano company. You can't even fathom how craptacular this amp was. Nothing exceeds it for the excellence of it's crappiness. It exude crappiness from its very core. The power of its crappiness was truly awesome to behold.


-kp8--

.

[simonc]

Line6 & any of that modelling Sh*t.

Solid State Marshall (& some tube as well - Valvestate - yuck! worse than their all SS offerings).

[Tim Bowen]

Yeah, the speakers in a Roland JC120 leave much to be desired. The trick to using that amp to its potential is to dial it in with a volume pedal, on top of/in tandem with a rich sounding tube amp. It doesn't work for everything, but there's nothing like adding a bit of that sound for lush chords, sparkly arpeggios, and such (plexis and brown Deluxes and VOX and tweeds and Hiwatts don't really get exactly that). It's an acquired taste. I'm a dual amp freak... no one amp really gives me a chubby... however, combine any one smokin' amp with a cool and different tone stack, and... now we're talkin' tone.

Anyway... guys that wanna get Hubert Sumlin and SRV licks and vibe out of a JC will most certainly be disappointed. That's not what it's about. Last time I used one regularly was with a prog-rock band, where I needed a really pristine clean tone that shimmered. I combined it with a Twin Reverb. Nothing else but the JC completed that sound. I don't have the back for all that anymore, don't play that type stuff anymore. BUT I know where to find it if I need it.
Again, JC120 + AC30 sounds too cool for school.

I love the tone of Polytone amps.

[maestrovert]

Vox "Super Beatle"
i bought it used....
the "rolling garment rack" supporting the speaker cab was the coolest thing about it.....

Sunn "Beta Lead" 2x 12" combo
bought it to help a friend who needed $
absolutely no tone, lead or otherwise....ended up giving it back, no charge...

Line 6 Ax Sys 2x 12" combo w/ floorboard
it claimed to do everything, and while it did do a multitude of things, it did nothing well....even the Beta Lead was a better amp...

but hey, i gave 'em a shot....

[Farfel]

The first amp I ever had was a small battery powered harmony. It was too muddy and bassey, and not very powerful. It was diarrhea, my dad has it now.

[Ian Miller]

That I've owned:

Sunn Solarus - Harsh and loud, but not too heavy!

Legend 1/2 stack - Harsh, loud (but not loud enough for what I needed) and a distinctly "fern bar" look to it.

That I've played through -

Guyatone - yikes! Ugly sound.

those little GK combos that came on a little stand, favored by new wave bands, and not many others.

I'm sure there's more......

[Poppatwang]

with the faux denim flight case look.
Tonal pancake.

EMC. Dull, anemic, ugly.

[petebradt]

5150. ANY Peavey, for that matter.

Any Mesa Boogie. "But d00d, they have ALL THOSE TONES!"

Yeah, all BAD tones.

Actually, I'd expand that to ANY master-volume amps. Preamp-fizz is NOT tone.

[tweedman]

www.mesaboogietonesucks.com

Seriously,I've only heard 1 Strat player get a decent tone from a MB and that is Walter Trout.He uses an early 70's Strat with a MB MK4 Head and a 4x12 cabinet.

[Glen W]

Back around '71 me and some bandmates bought these things. My guitar amp (combo!) was 200 solid-state watts, and stood about 4 feet tall. It had eight 10" CTS AlNiCo speakers in it, and a detented knob on the face called "Selectone", that sounded like you were picking points in a wah pedal.

They had vertical stripes on the grille, and were made by Kustom. The one neat feature on the big ones like this was they had a sort of built-in hand-truck feature - 3 or 4 inch wheels on the back, and a grab-handle near the top. I ended up using it for a speaker cab with a 50 watt Marshall head. A Marshall thru eight tens!

Compared to this amp, the Peavey Bandit I later had in the early '80s sounded like the voice of angels.

[ye olde fretmonkey]

Originally Posted by petebradt

ANY Peavey, for that matter.

I woudn't go that far.

[e-merlin]

Originally Posted by petebradt

5150. ANY Peavey, for that matter.

I doubt you've played all Peavey amps. The Bravo 112 is one of the best amps ever made. And as for the 5150, my 5150 combo will do anything from Twin clean to metal. And I've got a VTM 60 setup that sounds incredible. The Triple X and JSX are also fantastic.

But then again, some people are stuck on a certain brand name.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by petebradt

5150. ANY Peavey, for that matter.

Any Mesa Boogie. "But d00d, they have ALL THOSE TONES!"

Yeah, all BAD tones.

Actually, I'd expand that to ANY master-volume amps. Preamp-fizz is NOT tone.

Hear hear!

[petebradt]

Originally Posted by tweedman

www.mesaboogietonesucks.com

Seriously,I've only heard 1 Strat player get a decent tone from a MB and that is Walter Trout.He uses an early 70's Strat with a MB MK4 Head and a 4x12 cabinet.

When my old band was recording its album, I recorded all my stuff in a day with my Hullett Deluxe.

As I was driving away, the engineer came running out to my truck waving like a crazy man. The other guy had shown up with his Boogie Mark somethingorother and they couldn't get a decent tone out of it, could I leave my amp? I said if the other guy brought it back to me at the end of the day, they could keep it.

All the electric guitar on that album was recorded with that amp.

For the guy who said "some people are hung up on brand names," I'm hung up on well-built, good-sounding amps.

Never heard a Peavey amp I'd give you a plugged nickel for unless it was a Steel amp. They made some good steel guitar amps.

[Lance]

Well.....I had (and sold) a coveted Mark IIc+.... The amp on the normal channel was actually awesome but you neeeded to turn it up so loud to get that awesome tone it hurt. Next hurt...the weight....80 lbs. I hardly felt like playing after lifting it. They're also very difficult to dial in since the knobs interact a lot. The reverb is weak too...but once turned up, it didn't matter. It was an amp you really needed to work at to get the tone....but once the power tubes were cooking - watch out!

Yeah my BF DR is very easy to get a great tone ....but the point is that not all Boogies are terrible. At least the Mark series can sound really good....but there's too many downsides to them. For less $$$ and annoyance there's a pile of amps I'd play first.

(on the Rectos....yeah - not my cup-o-tea)

[ye olde fretmonkey]

I had an oooooold Classic 50...

...s/s front end, 2 x 12s, 6L6 output, big chrome Peavey knobs.

I think I paid $125 for it, decent (if papery) clean sound but the nastiest square-wave distortion sound you ever heard.

I don't think I ever played a gig with it. Kept it for a couple of months, played it maybe a half dozen times, sold it for $150.

[e3]

I never cared for the Lab Series amps.

[Altboy with Tele]

Originally Posted by studio1087

4. The first solid state Crate Amps that actually were built to look like wooden fruit crates. Remember that marketing nightmare from about 1978? Crate thought that Country Musicians would love the genuine "crate" look because of the rugged look. Brown wooden boards with big plastic. John

Hey! I've played one of those... a pastor round here has one and a maple neck strat bought at the same time. I'll say it sounds good clean, but cant tear too well. Not too shabby with an experienced touch and a hint of dirt. And it looks hilarious.

I haven't played my fair share of amps by the look of this forum! I have a Maarshall avt 275, and i will agree that the effects loop is worthless. Why complicate things and then have the big volume drop that comes along for the ride? I like the amp as a whole, it's good for an intermediate like me. Of course i play my tele through it 90 percent of the time, so to help the tone come out a little more. heh eh.

peace until my next post, could be a year!