Worst Amps Hall of Fame? [Archive] - Telecaster Guitar Forum

studio1087

September 2nd, 2005, 10:44 PM

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

September 3rd, 2005, 01:27 AM

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

.

Twangmeister

September 3rd, 2005, 04:16 AM

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! :wink:

moparmutt

September 3rd, 2005, 07:50 AM

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

September 3rd, 2005, 01:59 PM

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

September 4th, 2005, 02:04 AM

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

September 4th, 2005, 04:27 AM

Line6 & any of that modelling *****.

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

Tim Bowen

September 4th, 2005, 04:36 AM

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

September 4th, 2005, 08:43 AM

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

September 4th, 2005, 02:27 PM

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

September 4th, 2005, 11:35 PM

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

September 5th, 2005, 02:02 AM

with the faux denim flight case look.
Tonal pancake.

EMC. Dull, anemic, ugly.

petebradt

September 5th, 2005, 02:38 AM

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

September 5th, 2005, 07:40 AM

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

September 5th, 2005, 09:36 AM

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.

jericho60

September 5th, 2005, 09:57 AM

ANY Peavey, for that matter.

I woudn't go that far.

e-merlin

September 5th, 2005, 01:58 PM

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

September 5th, 2005, 01:59 PM

petebradt

September 5th, 2005, 04:19 PM

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

September 5th, 2005, 05:10 PM

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)

jericho60

September 5th, 2005, 09:14 PM

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.

September 6th, 2005, 02:08 PM

I never cared for the Lab Series amps.

Altboy with Tele

September 6th, 2005, 09:55 PM

Scottone

September 7th, 2005, 11:49 AM

Hey, you guys forgot:

1. Traynor

.

Would certainly agree in the case of the '70's solid state models...complete garbage. The 60's - early 70's tube models can be quite good.

Oster

September 7th, 2005, 11:55 AM

Larry K. Williams wrote:
Hey, you guys forgot:

1. Traynor

.

Would certainly agree in the case of the '70's solid state models...complete censored. The 60's - early 70's tube models can be quite good.

Old Traynors are among the very best amplifiers ever made. The Mark 3 (aka Twin Killer) in particular. Their old Mono Blocks are fantastic Bass amps too. I'll agree about the later SS models, but that was when Peter Traynor was no longer designing (he got out in '77). Early Traynor SS amps are nothing like the later ones and are as worth seeking out as the legendary tube models.

September 7th, 2005, 01:50 PM

The singer/rhythm guitarist I was in a band with for several years had a solid state Laney 1x12 amp for a few months back in the late '80s. It had two channels and every knob imaginable on it and you could not get a decent sound at ANY setting. I convinced him to use it towards trade for a $300 SF Twin.

popthree

September 8th, 2005, 02:31 PM

Martinp

September 8th, 2005, 11:12 PM

it was a wedge shaped solid state POS, very nasty indeed, it had no clean, and very ugly distortion.
I traded it for an Ampeg b15 someone beltsanded.
I still have the Ampeg, the Fender was truly pathetic

September 9th, 2005, 12:37 PM

And what about Dean Markley amps? Also hybrids but with a SS preamp and tube outputs?

Anyone remember the old Acoustic 150 amps? Reasonable clean, but terrible when driven.

I think what this thread shows is how one mans trash is another mans treasure.....well, maybe not treasure, but you get the drift!

I have one of those Markley amps...an 80's RM-40. Mine is a bit different being solid state with a 12AX7 for the overdrive channel. Now, you would think a tube in the overdrive channel would help, but it actually sounds very, very nasty. The clean channel however, is very nice.

My first "real" amp was an Acoustic 135. Basically, their solid state take on a twin reverb. It was a decent amp...and loud....but certainly not a tone monster.

As far as Peavey Special 130's, a local blues guy plays through 2 of these and sounds killer. This very fella used to use a Bandit and Gorilla run in stereo. Ugly? Perhaps, but again, he made it work. There is one well known blues guy who collect 130's and scours pawn shops on tour for his stash.

I had a Roland JC-90 for about a week once. In the right situation, it may have worked. For the band I was in at the time is sucked big time.

Before I started playing seriously, a local fella ( who continues to be the top studio guy in the area ) was in a band with my neighbor. I used to go hang out and watch them practice. This was around 1965 or so. His amp was a Silvertone 2 X 12. He could not wait to get rid of that amp and get a "real" amplifier. The last time I saw him, I reminded him about watching them practice and the Silvertone amp. He's on the hunt now to find another for "authentic" old blues tone. I guess you just never know.

popthree

September 9th, 2005, 02:29 PM

One of my first amps was a JMF spectra ..30 watts I believe this company was later absorbed by dean markley. not bad at all....it was a nice sounding hybrid tube combo. I'd like to have it today.

zook

September 9th, 2005, 02:36 PM

Late 60's Early 70's Standel Studio series.

Teleman

September 10th, 2005, 12:01 AM

Seymour Duncan Convertable - the one i owned actually caught on fire during a show. Of course the best it ever sounded was just before it burst into flames.

Lab Series L5 - sterile, hated it

Gallien Krueger 200GT - don't know why Santana used to like these. Sounded like a can full of pissed off bees.

Aaron Schiff

September 12th, 2005, 11:23 AM

This is an interesting thread. I was surprised to see the Peavey Special 130 included by several people. I used one for almost 20 years and was very pleased. However, I sold it and went the tube route. I was also surprised by how many people don't like the Mesa Boogie amps. Their guitar amps are far from my favorites, but I had no idea there were so many people who disliked them. OTOH the Mesa 400+ is a fantastic bass amp and the Walkabout is pretty good too.

The bottom of my hit parade are most of the DSP amps. I thought the early Fender Cyber series were horrible, but the more recent ones have been significantly better.

JoeyV

September 13th, 2005, 12:08 AM

some of these amps did certain things good, a JC120 was a great amp for clean funk playing, reggae, pop and yes even jazz...what it was not was a good bendy spongy sounding blues amp..so it didnt do that well..I actually used to get a pretty mean Albert Collins tone out of mine and Roy Buchanon like em too..
Silver Face Twins with master volume, here is another case of folks using this amp the wrong way, it was built as a clean machine, if you wanted a bluesy crunchy sloppy sound, it didnt do that, if you could pick and play clean it was great for you , I loved em and they took a pedal nicely too for fuzztone ect..
Peavey Special 130, yes another loud clean amp, I had one in the 80's with a Les Paul Standard and I got a gorgeous tone out it..Kind of a George Benson tone..and the overdrive could get that Journey/Santana tone..
On to the crappy amps...back in the 80's and 90's if you picked up a silver face Fender amp, usually they suckked pretty bad..tinny, thin, underpowered, the bottem end would be flappin in the breeze making a musical farting sound.. Pro's, Vibroluxes and Deluxes could be the most ratty crappola amps around, thats why everybody was going for the other amps..the silverface amps you had to retube em, recap em, upgrade the speakers and if you knew a tech back then that new what a black face conversion was you were very lucky..it wasnt until the black face amps got so ricdiculously priced that all of a sudden those silver face amps became desirable...The good old amps were not that great...now that we now how to make em sound good thats a different story,,,back then..they sounded pretty poor unless you got a special one..
Boogies,,,never had luck with them...never could get comfortable with them, they were not badly made amps and some guys got great tones out of , I just couldnt make em work for me...
My favorite amps: Providing there all recapped, retubed and in great working order
1. Modded Princeton Reverb with 6L6's, 40 power tranny and a JBL K120
2. Mid 1970's twin reverbs -with nice speakers, great clean tones
3. 59 narrow panel deluxe with an upgraded speaker and nice fresh tubes and recap!!
4. tweed vibrolux's with new tubes and recap..what a gorgeous little tone machine.
5. 50 Watt Marshall Plexi going into some high powered 12's with an outboard Fender tube reverb going into the front of it...
6. Groove tubes Soul-O-45.combo....these are ripping little tone monsters,,,,an excellent sounding and versatile amp..put a speaker defuser on the 12 and you got a great sound for any gig..
MY ABSOLUTE AMP HATE LIST:
Line 6
Peavey Classic 30's
Ampeg RI amps
Fender Super Twin

CharlieO

September 13th, 2005, 06:59 AM

clearfish

September 14th, 2005, 03:07 PM

Thanks to JoeyV for defending JC-120s. I got one when they first came out 1977 and I STILL HAVE IT. I've gotten compliments on the tone consistently and it is absolutely the most reliable amp made. JoeyV is dead on about the tone, but I think the JC120 is a clean yet warm sound. It handles effects extremely well. I have heard the ones made from the mid 80's on don't measure up. I do agree the on board distortion is useless and the stock speakers lack punch. I have K-120s and a ProCo Rat. I play pedal steel thru it as well as guitar and two other steel players tried to trade for it. Now my list:
(1) Sound City--Marshal copy--We called 'em "Sounds Sh***y" back in the day.
(2) Galien-Krueger--never heard one with any character--same for Mesa-Boogie.(At least a few good players endorse Mesas, however)
(3) Woodson--early SS--rare for good reason
(4) Peavey Stereo Chorus--bad copy of the JC-120

refin

September 14th, 2005, 11:55 PM

Let's not forget that other company that battled Earth Amps for the best amp copies....
Plush!
The funny thing is,they both copied the amps that back then were horrible rock amps--Kustom and Peavey.

Some funny entries here.....some we all wince at,but some are purely subjective to the player.For example,Frank Marino used to use the Acoustic 150s,and sounded great,as did Albert King.Even though I primarily use vintage Fenders,Peavey amps have always been pretty reliable and indestructible for me,saving my hiney a few times...yeh,I've had some blow up,but so have a few Fenders.
But this thread is about the worst amps WE'VE ever played through,not somebody else.
How about Standell amps?
One of the worst I ever played through was the mid '70s Peavey Musician head,with the 6 knob graphic EQ.Any amp that has a knob on it labeled "distortion",you better run from.This thing was a no-rocker for sure.......
but somewhere out there,someone is getting a great tone out of one.... :lol:

David Barnett

September 15th, 2005, 02:07 AM

Let's not forget that other company that battled Earth Amps for the best amp copies....
Plush!
The funny thing is,they both copied the amps that back then were horrible rock amps--Kustom and Peavey.

Plush may have copied Kustom's cosmetics, but the amps themselves were not cheesy at all. The circuitry was pretty much a straight copy of the Fender Twin Reverb-Amp, and the transformers were top quality. Plush hired Saul Marantz as a consultant to help them with chassis layout, parts sourcing, and production issues. The Plush amp was a high-end effort for its time, shame they squandered it all by hiding it inside a copycat cabinet.

clearfish

September 15th, 2005, 08:25 AM

Plush!That's too funny! As I said, I've stuck by my JC-120 for decades, but my first real club amp was a Plush with two twelves! I was fairly tonally ignorant at the time--I did figure out the thing was pretty clean--and I used a Pignose practice amp to get some crunch. I traded for an Ampeg V-2--even cleaner--then I got the Roland, which was juuuussst right. I think the Plush was a pretty good amp. It was quiet--little hiss or buzz--and the reverb was sweet. I really didn't know how to dial in tones, so I wish I stiil had that Plush.

Tremo

September 15th, 2005, 02:31 PM

Now my list:
(1) Sound City--Marshal copy--We called 'em "Sounds Sh***y" back in the day.
(2) Galien-Krueger--never heard one with any character--same for Mesa-Boogie.(At least a few good players endorse Mesas, however)

Yo Clear, sorry my man, but a Sound City is NOT a Marshall copy. Yeah, they're a Brit stack, loud, and look similar in that generic sense, but internally they're completely different. And we used to call them the same thing you did. A friend of mine used to have a Sound City 120 full stack. Six Mullard EL34s. Incredibly loud, and very clean. But, no character, and when it did eventually start to give it up, it was not pleasing.

I agree with your #2 as well.

clearfish

September 15th, 2005, 03:13 PM

That's all I meant--that they were supposed to have a Marshal look. If they had copied them down to the circuits they might have been something. I'm not savvy to electronics--so I listen instead of talk when ohms and cap values come up--but I always suspected my old Plush was a Twin under the vinyl! Thanks to David B. for the bird's eye lowdown on that caper.

studio1087

September 15th, 2005, 11:30 PM

and even the Blues Cubes sound like MXR Distortion +'s plugged into an 8" speaker solid state bedroom amp (but louder).

I agree with most of the opinions in this thread, with one exception. This one. The Blues Cube is a really fine sounding amp.

It's interesting how a lot of people who have no real experience with the Blues Cube amps try to criticize them. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

Guys, I owned a JC 120, I also owned a Bluescube and I worked at a large Guitar shop that was a Roland distributor for three years. My humble opinion from my experiance is that Roland is not a guitar amp company.

It's not an ignorant opinion, it's just my opinion. Please lighten up.

John

jericho60

September 16th, 2005, 07:39 AM

WOODSON???

popthree

September 16th, 2005, 10:12 AM

jhundt

September 16th, 2005, 11:25 AM

I see lots of Acoustics mentioned, thought I 'd add mine:

270 head with 2 4x12 cabs; I really wanted something like a Marshall. It was 1973, Guitar Center just opened in SF, they already had the sales-pitch going. I was 19 and let myself get talked into the biggest, most powerful stack you could ever imagine. 200+ watts! RMS! Only it sounded real bad. Like a fool I shipped it to Spain, drove it to France and England, and shipped it back to California before I figured out that a small tube amp would sound better...

PamweChete

September 16th, 2005, 11:42 PM

Randall RG-80 I think it was....absolutely dreadful sound. Also, Dean Markley had a line of "amps" in the early 80's. I can't remember the model numbers but they were a hybrid tube/transistor type of arrangement. Ugh!

Oster

September 17th, 2005, 01:53 AM

Just goes to show you how we all have different ears; which is a very good thing!

I love Roland amps but am not surprised to see them here and I have to say there used to be a solid state, black & white snakeskin tolex'd Randall Stack in an old rehearsal space I used that my best friend wished he owned!

He owns one of those tweed Blues Deluxes (what a great amp those are too) and he was seriously trying to trade for this tacky hair metal transistor stack, he liked it that much. And this guy is the complete opposite of hair metal, both in playing style and in demeanor.

Our worst is always going to be someone's best!

jericho60

September 17th, 2005, 02:40 AM

Today I ran across a Holmes "Mississippi Blues Man" s/s head. No idea what it sounds like, I'm guessing not too good.

Whassup, Holmes??

barnbustud

September 17th, 2005, 03:09 AM

the MG little marshall stack that uses a 9volt battery.

David Barnett

September 17th, 2005, 03:51 AM

Today I ran across a Holmes "Mississippi Blues Man" s/s head. No idea what it sounds like, I'm guessing not too good.

Whassup, Holmes??

Shawn Lane used to play through those. He collected them whenever he found one for sale. He also hoarded Westbury W-20 "The Tube" overdrive pedals.

Pigsfootpeete

September 17th, 2005, 06:02 AM

Any amp, or cab, that says GBX on it. Awful.
Also, Legend amps, though they are way better than GBX, they're still a sad amp. :shock: :?

Tremo

September 17th, 2005, 01:35 PM

LOL! I know a guy with a tweed Blues Deluxe and he's trying to get rid of it because it's a total POS.

Oster

September 19th, 2005, 12:08 AM

LOL! I know a guy with a tweed Blues Deluxe and he's trying to get rid of it because it's a total POS.

Wait a minute! Is he looking to get a snakeskin-finished solid-state Randall Stack??? That would be really weird! :D

jpkusa

September 19th, 2005, 12:42 AM

I've heard terrible tones out of a lot of amps, but I've heard great players make bad amps sound incredible.

There's an old soul player here in town who plays a vintage Casino through one of the old blue-and-silver-knob Peaveys, and his tone is absolutely perfect for that style of music - real clean and slinky, like Cornell Dupree.

I've been told that one of Mike Campbell's main stage rigs is an AC30 with a Kustom.

September 19th, 2005, 03:18 AM

I agree with the post above. Alot depends on the style of the player.

I've been gigging a Blues Junior the past few years and it suits me really well. Fits right in and the guys in the band love the sound. I sometimes get people telling me how nice the guitar sounds.

But the other evening at a gig I let someone from the audience play my guitar to back himself up while he sang a song (I usually don't let anyone touch my guitar but this was a BIG gig and this guy arranged it...and he was in a wheelchair. I couldn't say no).
The sound that came out of that amp was absolutely awful. Dreadful. He was strumming away like it was an acoustic, which might have had something to do with it. He didn't adjust his playing to suit the sound. But it still shows how one player's dream setup may be another's nightmare.

geddins

October 2nd, 2005, 05:19 PM

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.

I had the good fortune to see Redd V playing through his Session 500, by Peavey.....NO BAD TONES at all!

refin

October 2nd, 2005, 11:16 PM

Ultimate Nasty Rig-----

Standel amp with JBLs,a Big Muff with a half dead battery,and an Electra Phoenix guitar with Floyd Rose copy.
:shock:

(actually,tonewise the Electras weren't that bad).

UncleJarmo

October 2nd, 2005, 11:40 PM

This is one of those threads that is just automatically cause disagreements.

If you just think of the stereotype Mesa BOOGIE, I can see why a lot of twangers wouldn't like them. On the other hand, at almost every gig that I play with my Mesa Maverick, a guitar player or sound man comes up and wants to know what amp that is because it has such great tone. It's a lot less gain than a Boogie or a triple rectifier etc...

Then again, that happens with my Top Hat Club Deluxe, too. :wink:

refin

October 3rd, 2005, 12:08 AM

Alot of the replies in this thread come from personal experience and therefore are subjective...then there are some amps that make us all groan. :lol:

For example,it's hard to diss Mesa Boogie when you listen to players like Larry Carlton in his early solo years---take any modern high gain amp,dime it and scoop the mids,and it turns into a cesspool of grunge.Yet,it works for that style.
For all of us who love subtleties of dynamics and touch,we think different,and therefore set our controls differently.I've heard almost every popular brand of amp that alot of us like sound like poodle diarrhea in the wrong hands---think of all the really bad sounds and tones you've heard from plexi Marshalls ,when we all know they are great.
It ain't the car,it's the driver.

Colo Springs E

October 3rd, 2005, 08:45 AM

....to me, it's not just a bad amp because you detest the tone that comes from it. If the amp delivers the TYPE of tone intended, then I think that amp is a good amp, FOR IT'S PURPOSES.

For instance, many here hate the mids-scooped fizzy Mesa Rectifiers; I love them, and I dig a lot of the riffs that have been created and/or played on them. Same with my PV 5150; I can certainly understand why a guy who plays the blues or other forms of non-high-gain music wouldn't like the 5150--high gain is what it's all about. On the other hand, I've played some amps (a Marshall ValveState comes to mind) that were INTENDED for high gain, and they didn't hit the mark. It sounded terrible (to me). Therefore, those amps (in my opinion) aren't very good--they do well what they were intended to do. (Can't recall the exact model ValveState I played... I think it was a 120watts, "hybrid" with tube preamp) By the way, to any ValveState owners, please don't take my post as a diss toward your amp; if you're happy with it, that's all that matters.

I use a lot of gain in my playing and I don't apologize for it; a lot of the music I play calls for it, and the sweetest, most toneful vintage Fender tweed amp would be a "bad" amp in my musical setting.

Your mileage may vary...

genelovesjez

October 3rd, 2005, 09:00 AM

Colo Springs E

October 3rd, 2005, 09:05 AM

I use a lot of gain in my playing and I don't apologize for it

That sounds like it could be a line in a song......mayhaps I should craft a little ditty with that line in it!

When I was in high school, me and my best friend were attempting to write a song (still unfinished, 25 years later) and there were a couple of lines in it that I was real proud of. But alas, the song went nowhere...

"I don't care about you baby
You can kiss my ***
You can sell yourself on the street"

...but later in the song:

"Dancer, prancer
Sweet romancer
Your body is a book.

I ain't read a single page
Won't you let me have a look?"

Wonder if I could squeeze in something about not apologizing for distortion in there??

:)

genelovesjez

October 3rd, 2005, 09:05 AM

Yeah, I added a suggestion you might recognize.

Colo Springs E

October 3rd, 2005, 09:13 AM

Yeah, I added a suggestion you might recognize.....I'll give you credit you on the album liner notes. :)

refin

October 3rd, 2005, 10:36 AM

I use a lot of gain in my playing and I don't apologize for it

That sounds like it could be a line in a song.

"We'll get some overhead lifters and four belt quads
oh yeah,
I use a lot of gain in my playing and I don't apologize for it, oh yeah"
:D

:lol: :lol:

Very funny!
There is nothing wrong with using high gain,and the blues tone isn't the only sound out there.The 5150s that I've played through were marvelously articulate in the sound,and the green channel could even serve up a nice blues crunch.It's all what YOU are playing and looking for.Example---heavy players would probably give a Blues Deville a poor rating,and likewise,a country kind of guy would not be favorable towards a plexi.Both amps do what they are INTENDED to do,but as stated,mileage may vary and you might have bought the wrong vehicle for your journey.

sw3tom

October 3rd, 2005, 07:44 PM

Well that one was "unique"...I forget the manufacture but you had the option of filling the bottom chamber of this SS twin with SAND to get the desired response from the cabinet...damm, I never found it.

I have played through most amps in my 30 or so years of pickin' out and have usually been able to milk the tone out of most anything by turning the knobs to suit my taste. Funny, as a Tele and Steel player I never cared for a Twin...go figure. I do have some of those relics but prefer to use my BluesCube 60 with an A/B box for Tele and steel. Mike that sucker up and let 'er rip. My Session 400 was fine for steel but too sterile for tele. Guess I could pack two amps around but where's the fun in that?

Turn the knobs, I say milk that "tone" out of them. Another forum that I frequent always has some poor soul beggin' to know what "so and so" has his amp set at for "that" sound...poor guy doesn't realize that Mr. Bigtone changes those settings daily depending on the room, crowd and stellar alignment.

Manufactures keep pumpin' out 'cause ther's a "butt for every seat"...Ha!

Tom

Teddy Salad

October 3rd, 2005, 08:54 PM

Oh God! Earth amps! Not only did I own one in the 70s and think it was a big steamin' pile, but years later, at a family reunion, I found out that my cousin's husband (real nice guy) designed a large part of most of them! (Luckily, It was long gone, and I was sure to keep my mouth shut!)

LexLuthier

October 13th, 2005, 08:29 AM

Most every 1970's solid state amp!

Tried a few Tusq amps, those were pretty dreadful. Lots of knobs and switches, and every setting sounded pretty bad.

I don't like Line 6 stuff, they have a weird attack and just don't feel right, not very dynamic. Sustained overdriven notes get cut off, noisey, small sounding live, etc...

Worst boutique amp I tried was a Two Rock Emerald 50. I heard all the raves, so I drove 6 hours to try one out. The overdrive sounded like a SS Crate amp no matter where the gain was set and how loud I played. Sounded nothing like a Dumble, which it was supposed to sound like.

I owned a bunch of Mesa Boogies, I didn't get on with them all that well. But I have heard people get great sounds with them.

ashtray

October 13th, 2005, 05:11 PM

Let me put a spin on this thread - I'll list some amps I *do* like - that contradict with the previous 3 pages. :)

Marshall 5210 - this was the 1980's solid state 1x12 combo version of the JCM800 - and it sounded great! Very smooth gain, warm sounding amp. Played it for a few years, but got "hung up" that it didn't have tubes like a "real" Marshall and sold it. I was an idiot.

Fender M-80 Chorus - my friend used one of these in a band with me back in the day. The tone is unique, good for modern music - very light. I can see how some may not like it - but the clean channel sounded decent.

Peavey Bandit - I played one of these in a funky band for years - the clean channel was slapping good, lots of spank to it, and the overdrive channel was warm and smooth as well! I had it dialed right in. This was the one before the transtube bandit came out. I got the amp cheap, but loved it while I owned it. Not much of a looker though.

Fender Blues Deville - OMG, this amp is great! I just bought one again (used to own one). The 2x12 has less mud than the 4x10 model. The clean sound is SO full and can get SO much bass if you want it. Totally clean Fender tone! The overdrive channel is a bit lacking, but I consider this a 1 channel amp for the most part.

Line 6 Flextone - Line6 did a good job at creating a highly flexible and gigable amp. Some of the models are based on amps with only a tone knob, or a bass and treble knob, no middle - so when choosing one of those amp settings, they tell you how to adjust the amp's eq, otherwise you end up boosting mids and getting a different tone. These Flextones sound real good at higher volumes too - wouldn't trade mine for anything.

But there you go - everyone has their preference - if we all agreed on the best amp, then everyone would have the same amp, and there wouldn't be any others made. *shrug* I met a guy once who loved the SS Acoustic amps. I thought they sounded terrible. Go figure. But certainly there are amps out there that should be avoided by the majority of people!

:D

refin

October 20th, 2005, 12:44 AM

I would almost drop dead if anyone here ever owned one of these........
...anyone remember WT Grants department stores? They usually had a restaurant attached called "The Bradford House." Well ,Bradford must've been a big name for them,because I had a Bradford amp from Grants....all tube,particle-board,a real waste of minimum wage labor.Even back then ('67) it sounded like poop,no headroom,and would smell funny when on for awhile.

jericho60

October 20th, 2005, 01:28 AM

Sounds like the Gregory my brother had in the 60s...his first 'real' amp, I think

Fuzzyhead

October 20th, 2005, 07:25 AM

the MG little marshall stack that uses a 9volt battery.

Hey, wait a moment! I got one of those. It's no "amp" in the real sense of the word but it's fun to play around with it on the beach... :wink:

shakedancer

October 20th, 2005, 02:23 PM

Any one that weighs over 45 pounds. 8)

Mr. Sparkle

October 20th, 2005, 03:25 PM

Let's not forget that other company that battled Earth Amps for the best amp copies....
Plush!
The funny thing is,they both copied the amps that back then were horrible rock amps--Kustom and Peavey.

Plush may have copied Kustom's cosmetics, but the amps themselves were not cheesy at all. The circuitry was pretty much a straight copy of the Fender Twin Reverb-Amp, and the transformers were top quality. Plush hired Saul Marantz as a consultant to help them with chassis layout, parts sourcing, and production issues. The Plush amp was a high-end effort for its time, shame they squandered it all by hiding it inside a copycat cabinet.

I thought Plush were Showman copies???

Tremo

October 20th, 2005, 03:51 PM

Have the red-knob Fenders of the 80s been nominated for worst? If not, they should.

David Barnett

October 20th, 2005, 08:58 PM

Let's not forget that other company that battled Earth Amps for the best amp copies....
Plush!
The funny thing is,they both copied the amps that back then were horrible rock amps--Kustom and Peavey.

Plush may have copied Kustom's cosmetics, but the amps themselves were not cheesy at all. The circuitry was pretty much a straight copy of the Fender Twin Reverb-Amp, and the transformers were top quality. Plush hired Saul Marantz as a consultant to help them with chassis layout, parts sourcing, and production issues. The Plush amp was a high-end effort for its time, shame they squandered it all by hiding it inside a copycat cabinet.

I thought Plush were Showman copies???

And what, exactly, is the difference between a Twin Reverb and a Dual Showman Reverb?

Tremo

October 21st, 2005, 01:42 AM

And what, exactly, is the difference between a Twin Reverb and a Dual Showman Reverb?

Electrically, none. Cosmetically, the front panel and cabinet.

Mr. Sparkle

October 21st, 2005, 07:59 AM

And what, exactly, is the difference between a Twin Reverb and a Dual Showman Reverb?

Electrically, none. Cosmetically, the front panel and cabinet.

There ya go. See, I did not know that. God bless TDPRI, the eternal font of wizz-dom.

Ian

October 23rd, 2005, 12:21 PM

Peavey Special 130. Sounds horrible, but at least it's painfully loud. I'm almost deaf in my left ear because of a band i used to be in where the other guitar player had that obnoxious piece of crap.

johnny atomic

Were we in a band together in the mid-late 80's??? :wink:
I had one for awile...just God awfull.
CHEERS!!!

pjsky

October 23rd, 2005, 06:24 PM

Back when I was a kid I traded away my early 70's Fifty watt Marshall Super Lead half stack for a 100 watt Ampeg V4 full stack. Thought I was getting a sweet deal with the extra wattage, built-in Reverb and a 2nd 4x12" cabinet. The V4 stack was tall, loud and clean but it's natural overdrive got ugly when cranked. I traded the head for a Hiwatt 100 watt head which was still very clean but had much more tone character. I ran it thru an original Tom Scholz Power Soak for a very cool sounding overdrive...until I eventually fried the output section :(
The loudest amp I ever owned was a Fender Super Twin. Sounded nothing like a regular Twin :evil: . I was sold by the word "Super" (marketing victim lol) I was able to dial in some cool tones using it's unique graphic EQ knobs along with a Dan Armstrong Blue Clipper box.

jericho60

October 23rd, 2005, 06:44 PM

I had a 70s V2 head that I used with various cabinets. Kept it for quite awhile...loud as heck, clean, but with a weird harsh, brassy, midrangey overdrive that sounded more like a trombone than an electric guitar. You could twiddle the knobs all you wanted and tweak thhe filter switches and never get rid of that honk. Not to mention the tubes from the planet Mars. Some Ampegs are weird beasts indeed.

Also had a Scholz Power Soak...doubled as a space heater for those wintertime practices. I figured something like that couldn't be good for an amp.

JamesPatrickPageZoso

January 21st, 2006, 05:56 PM

All I have to say is Marshall AVT 150 head. My friend owned one along with two of the matching 4x12 cabs and he has lived to regret it. He let me borrow his amp and almost paid me to find a good tone on it with his GNX pedal. By itself, the amp sounded like butt, though the cleans were nice, unless you added a pedal; worst pedal amp ever. I tried a Tubescreamer and a Fuzz Face with it and it made good pedals sound bad. Even the GNX couldn't process it enough to get something respectable. My little Squier Champ sounded better; seriously. Also, a Line 6 Spider when cranked up loud sounds bad, though the tone at low volume isn't too shabby, just don't expect any feedback sustain or anything....friggin noise suppresor. Not to mention it was very noisy; get your guitar within 5 feet of it and it will hum crazily.

You seriously think i would have been better off with an MG series? i've played one at GC and the AVT blows it away (and i hated that friggin AVT).

vic108

January 21st, 2006, 10:55 PM

Electro-Harmonix had a small amp in the '70's I owned
that sounded like a wood chipper without a muffler.

And the sad, sad excuse for an amp - red knob Fenders
circa 1980's - I had one for 2 months and that was too long.

AtomicMassUnit

January 22nd, 2006, 02:40 PM

The Line6 stuff is way up there. Those and the Hot Rod Fender series are my choices for worst.

I am surprised to hear mention of one of those Holmes Mississippi Blues (Man? Master? something..) amps. I just fixed one of those! AND a Woodson! For some reason people been bringing in solid state amps all the time lately. I fixed a Line6 SPIDER and I think that was the worst overall amp I've ever heard. It didn't have any good sounds at all. It's like come on, how do you screw up clean tones?!

I'll add the Randall RG 100 es amp to the list...

And... the Boogie Rectifier and Caliber series amps as well, even though they're already on here.

So those Earth amps aren't good? A buddy of mine just bought one chock full of Mullards. Good find there.

sidneystreet

January 22nd, 2006, 03:23 PM

I just fixed one of those! AND a Woodson! For some reason people been bringing in solid state amps all the time lately.

Which Woodson model was it? I have a w-150 2-12 combo. I've had it for 25 years now, and bought it used. The thing has been bullet proof, even when I abused it in junior high/high school. It isn't a great amp, but for a B.B. King-ish kind of thing, it is pretty darn good really. Throw a Big Muff in front of it and you can make an awful racket! My parents can vouch for that.

ducatiman

January 22nd, 2006, 05:55 PM

ss, single 10" , 30 watt absolute gutless POS. i acquired it for free. it was so bad, in fact, i *GAVE* it away to the next unsuspecting victim. hey, it was someone i knew (my mistake) i couldn't actually take money (or any other form of compensation) for it. after all, he knew where i lived!!!!!

i didn't want to put myself in a position where he'd RETURN it to me while i wasn't home or somethin'.

i'm sure he got rid of it quick, too. come to think of it I never did hear from that friend again......LOL!

hot potata ....... ducatiman

eggman

January 22nd, 2006, 08:19 PM

Howdy,

My vote is for those dreadful G-K's. Didn't do a thing for me some 20 years ago when a college buddy was shredding with one; sheesh!
As for the unpopular red-knob Fenders, my Super 112 is loud clean and reliable, needing just one recent $40 fix since being acquired new in 1992. The gain channel doesn't do anything for me, I'll admit. The Super 60/112/210 red knobs amps are reliable, clean sounding amps and useful for those seeking that annoying "preamp buzz" so popular with the Heavy Metal types. I think they are a comparative bargain on the used market; my local amp tech says that my red-knob Super 112 is no harder to fix than any other modern PCB amp, and easier to fix than Peaveys. So there, Tremo! :wink:

Eggman

sixty4fairlane

January 22nd, 2006, 09:46 PM

If it works, and it is really cheap, under 50 bucks, or free, I will take any amp. Like it has been said there is an occasion for everything. The toneless S/S amp can be used for effects. Chorus, flangers, most modulation things sound good through any clean amp. We all know how to make any tube amp shine, let your ears bleed. HAHA.

My first amp was called an WINSTON. S/S with a 8 or 10 inch speaker. Never seen one since. I don't miss it any. I wasn't any worse then my first guitar a hondo l/p jr copy, that had humbucker size pickups with one coil in them. HAHA.

V-4s/VT-22s are the next collectible amps. Mark my words. As the price for old marshalls and fenders get ridiculous ampegs will come in vogue. Just look at silvertones already getting overpriced. Ampeg v-4, I had one, nothing wrong with it, just one of those amps that are designed to be too loud to play comfortably. It was the era it was designed in. I imagine if you run one through a power brake of some sort it would really sing.

Tremo

January 22nd, 2006, 10:36 PM

Yeah, the old Ampegs sound great. The VT40, or an old Reverberocket or Gemini.

AtomicMassUnit

January 23rd, 2006, 04:35 PM

sidneystreet, I don't remember the model, but it had 1x15 and was loud and clean. Real simple fix too.

I personally LOVE the sound of those V4, VT22, etc ampegs. They will break windows in small rooms and make birds fall from the sky though. I agree about the rising collectibility of these as well. Even with their oddball tubes, they're creeping up there. I love the sound of that quad of 7027a's in the V4.

Wally

January 23rd, 2006, 07:15 PM

Interesting thread. Likes and dislikes are widely varying..tubes, SS..whatever..someone likes and someone hates it.
My boogie MKIIC+ is most certainly not the worst amp I have ever heard. However, it can be misused. I heard this to great effect one evening. At a benefit for an ailing local musician, a MKIIC+ sat onstage for guitarists to use....and everyone who used it sounded terrible regardless of what guitar they were playing. My friend John Sprott had recently bought a MKIIC+ from me and had come to understand the amp. HE sounded magnificent through the Boogie that was on that stage...same amp, different player with different ears and different brain activity. He understood the nuances of the signal path, and made a few quick adjustments. One amp that hasn't been mentioned is the Fender BF Twin Reverb. A customer called the other day complaing about his TR. He wanted to change out his speakers, which I knew were excellent speakers for what he was doing. I told him to bring the amp in and we would do whatever he needed. He brought the amp in. We plugged it in, warmed it up and connected it to his Tele to see if he was getting 'twang' sound. Nah...it sounded like the worst Peavey SS amp you could imagine. I looked at his controls....bright switch on, treble on 2, mids on 9, bass on 2. He had a flat, cutting 'tone' that would erase high frequency hearing in short time. I switched the bright switch off, set the tones on 5 and asked him how that sounded. He said that sounds great. I asked him what cord he was using. He brought that out, plugged it in, unplugged it and we threw that away. A good CBI with Belden cable was the final key to giving him warmth and dimension. $15 bucks and some knob turning changed that lousy BFTR into a big-sounding, warm and articulate twang machine.
You can make any good amp sound bad. The problem with a bad amp is that you can't make them sound good. A good player can get by on a bad amp, but a good player would much rather have a good amp.

So, in answer to the question of the thread....for me, the worst-sounding 'gigable' sized amp that I have heard would have to be Line 6, JC120, any Peavey SS or hybrid amp, any Fender SS. I walk away from any of them. 8)

Scatterbrain

January 23rd, 2006, 09:46 PM

My first amp was a little Memphis SS practice amp (with a Memphis Strat). I wanted to love playing electric guitar so much but this was SO bad it kind of ruined my experience for a while. My next gem was a Roland Spirit 50. This amp had a knob you could pull out for supposed Overdrive. Unfortunately, there was very little gain and it sounded incredibly flat and lifeless. Kids buying their first amps today don't realize how lucky they are. There was such a dearth of good products back in the 80s. After that came the infamous Duncan Convertible 100w. I actually liked this amp (at the time), but traded it in for '73 Marshall 50w head. I don't regret that trade at all!

the velvet catfish

January 24th, 2006, 08:52 PM

Anything from Mesa.

I would disagree with that.. so would
Vintage Guitar Mag:
http://www.mesaboogie.com/Reviews/LSSpecialVintGuit05/LSSpecialVintage.html

No Affiliation With Mesa.
Jeff

Savagery

January 25th, 2006, 06:24 PM

before this thread descends into merely jesting, i'll cast the first stone:

-80's Peavey Stereo Chorus 212

this thing weighed more than a Twin Reverb, had 3 channels (all of which sucked), and horrendous digital reverb. Not a good tone to be found anywhere in the thing. it was so bad that i traded it in for a Pignose G40V...

Holy hell, I know what you mean. My friend has a peavey SC with the 2x12 config and man does that thing sound like garbage. He thinks it's the best though, but his opinion is incorrect. I just hate going to his apartment and hearing him crank the gain on that thing and do metal riffs. Makes me bleed.

People seem to really hate crates... I have a Vintage Club 30 from the early 90s and that thing sounds great! (more so after I took out the Sovteks) The overdrive channel isn't so hot but the clean channel is wonderful, especially when I play the tele through a Tube Screamer.

the velvet catfish

January 26th, 2006, 12:06 AM

After playing that Mesa Lonestar Special 1-12
it makes me want to "hurl" my Fender Blues
Deluxe down a flight of very LONG and
winding stairs. :shock:

Jeff

trag-o-caster

January 26th, 2006, 12:23 AM

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.

Someone has been showing up to the Sunday night jam lately with one of these. He puts it on a chair, runs his guitar (some Fender Jag body w/'buckers thing) into a Boss distortion pedal (don't remember which one), and gets the most Gawd-Awful tone ya ever did hear :shock: . He INSISTS on using it too. We'll have a couple of idle DR's sitting around and offer them for him to use - no way. "Gotta have MY amp man"!

Go ahead. I'm steppin' outside! :lol:

Plush may have copied Kustom's cosmetics, but the amps themselves were not cheesy at all. The circuitry was pretty much a straight copy of the Fender Twin Reverb-Amp, and the transformers were top quality. Plush hired Saul Marantz as a consultant to help them with chassis layout, parts sourcing, and production issues. The Plush amp was a high-end effort for its time, shame they squandered it all by hiding it inside a copycat cabinet.

My dad brought one of these home one day. I plugged it in, turned it on, and got a big shower of beautiful purple sparks flying out of the back of the amp! :shock: Never did get to find out what it sounds like! :lol: It was a roll and tuck head.

Didn't Jeff Beck use a Plush for about a minute back in the Beck, Bogert, Appice days?

BradKM

January 26th, 2006, 01:57 PM

I used to work in a store that stocked everything from $59 acoustics to $10k+ Custom Shop Martins and Gibsons.

My boss insisted that we always have some of the absolute cheapest gear available on the floor with the good stuff, because he knew that people would come in knowing nothing about musical equipment at the holidays and insist on buying on price. We didn't push this stuff...the staff was trained to show the true differences in various pieces of gear. The boss was right, though...every Christmas we'd get dozens of customers who wanted the absolute cheapest guitar and amp they could get.

So to the point...

The absolute cheapest amps that we had at the time were by a company called RMS. I believe they were distributed by Musicorp, one of the big gear wholesalers.

The small ones, which sold for around $40, came in packs of four. We'd order a dozen at a time, and test them when they came in. It wasn't uncommon to get a 50% failure rate right out of the box, and I remember several occassions when 3 out of every 4 that I unboxed were D.O.A.. And of course, they sounded pretty bad too.

David Barnett

January 26th, 2006, 02:58 PM

Didn't Jeff Beck use a Plush for about a minute back in the Beck, Bogert, Appice days?

He endorsed them for a short time, but that was in the Jeff Beck Group days with Ron Wood and Rod Stewart.

Or maybe it was Ron Wood who endorsed them. The picture I seem to recall in my mind's eye in the old Plush catalogue I used to have, was captioned "Ron Wood of the Jeff Beck Group" or something like that.

eggman

January 26th, 2006, 05:27 PM

Howdy,

Trag-o-caster's post about Crate's SS amps from the late 70's brought a sheepish grin to my face. THAT was my first amp! I even gigged with that loser in College, too! LOL
It was portable..and cheap..and was better than my stereo I'd been plugging my Kent LP custom copy into at age 15! Jeesz, I'm goin' back to 1979, 1980 here. Those Crates disguised AS crates were dogs, only i didn't know it at the time. This forum is a blast.

Eggman

January 26th, 2006, 10:25 PM

Well, those Crates weren't much better by the mid-80s, which is when I bought a G60 or something like that -- a 1x12 mostrosity that sounded like a pissed off hungover bumblebee. It was loud, though....

Runner up: a Kuston tuck~n~roll 2x12 that I blew up by driving with the speaker output of an old Peavey (which survived the abuse, remarkably). It howled pretty good, gave up some Bauhaus-ish moans and squeals, and sang no more.

Honorable mention: mid-60s Gibson with the coarse black tolex. This one was a 1x10 with two EL84s. A reasonable idea, but the power supply was so tight, it was a more narrow-minded amp than most solid state fizzboxes.

PaulR

January 27th, 2006, 05:11 PM

According to some reviews there, the Gorillas are just about the best thing going! :wink:

I think I had one a long time ago, I had one of those Crates that looked like a crate, I had some sort of Sunn solid state thing, a couple of bad Peaveys, a Legend--with the cane grill.

Tremo

January 27th, 2006, 08:54 PM

The small ones, which sold for around $40, came in packs of four. We'd order a dozen at a time, and test them when they came in. It wasn't uncommon to get a 50% failure rate right out of the box, and I remember several occassions when 3 out of every 4 that I unboxed were D.O.A.. And of course, they sounded pretty bad too.

I've seen that at a local Fender dealer. The real ultra cheapo small solid state amps have terrible reliability and fail frequently. They're so cheap that when they fail, even if it's DOA from Fender, they won't repair it, just replace. Throw them in the trash. The local dealer has a whole wall full of these failed little amps. Fender tells him to just cut off the line cord and record the serial number, and they send him a replacement amp. They're really not worth anything, everything inside is ultra cheap garbage. And yeah, even when they do work, they sound bad.

Aen

January 28th, 2006, 12:35 AM

After playing that Mesa Lonestar Special 1-12
it makes me want to "hurl" my Fender Blues
Deluxe down a flight of very LONG and
winding stairs. :shock:

Jeff

Could you hurl it into my studio instead?

crazyjosh

January 28th, 2006, 11:37 AM

Marshall JCM2000! ! !

enough said, that amp is pure crap but yet so popular...
It's completely rediculous!

Biglebowski41

January 31st, 2006, 12:45 PM

I would have to say that I agree with a few of the posts on here. I owned one of the "fruit Crates" with the wood cabinet, and had a red knob Fender Super 60 and they both sucked bad. I also had a little Peavey tweed covered amp from the early 90s that was a heap of junk too.

I currently own a 65 Super Reverb which I love, and play a Boogie Subway Blues at home and to practices. I bought it because I am lazy and got tired of hauling my vintage, heavy-ass SR around. The Subway is no blackface, but it is a pretty decent little amp for the money IMO.

voided3

February 1st, 2006, 01:08 AM

Hello. I've noticed a few posts in aimed towards vintage Kustom amps, the tuck and roll ones form the 60's, which honestly suprises me, but you can get some bad sounds when they are setup strangely; these are the kind of amps and speaker cabs that I've found work best together. I once ran an old Ampeg SS140C into a Kustom Jensen loaded 2x15 and it sounded quite bad, but then I rigged up a matching K200-B6 and it sounded great. The heads may be another story though; i've used my K200-A5 with an Orange 4x12 before and it sounded great (I usually use a pair of the CTS loaded 2x15 bass cabs for guitar with this amp and they play just as high as any guitar speaker, but they play a lot lower; with a minimal number of effects, mostly Boss, these amps come alive). These are the kind of amps that like big speaker cabs i've concluded, and the big matching speaker cabs like their matching head when it comes to SS amps, though I did once run a '68 Showman through one of my Kustom 2x15s and it sounded great.

So, i'll have to agree with previous posts that sometimes it's how you use it or what with.

David Barnett

February 1st, 2006, 03:18 AM

John Fogerty always managed to get a cool tone from his Kustom amps.

55 Jr

February 1st, 2006, 10:30 AM

My thoughts after reading this thread:

An old Traynor MkIII (my fist amp) or Guitar mate are very good amps.

A Mesa MKIIB with graphic EQ or Maverick are very good amps.

A Marshall 5210 solid state amp really sounds quite good.

A JCM800 4210 sounds like ass.

Best regards,

Brian

ramseybella

February 19th, 2006, 01:58 AM

The Kittyhawk P.O.S.++

Sound Citty Head Loud monster clean crummy, but Gents try a Sound City Concord 2X12 EL-34 if you can find one! One Ugly looking amp with the slide controls! But the reverb is deep and gets a good twang with a single coil
(LOUD CLEAN SUCKER) :wink:
A friend of mine bought one at a yard sale for $10.00 and he can't play for S--T but wont sell it to me for $300.00!

studio1087

February 19th, 2006, 11:39 PM

Electro-Harmonix had a small amp in the '70's I owned
that sounded like a wood chipper without a muffler.

Aahhh yes; that would be "The Mike Mathews Dirt Road Special"

I wanted one of those because I loved the EH pedals so much back then. A used Dirt Road Special came into the guitar store that I worked in. I was very excited untill I actually played the thing (not what I expected).

Oh the memories!

John

eddiewagner

February 20th, 2006, 11:40 AM

i once, in the seventies, had a maine amp. that was bad. it blew up one time and i waved goodby with no regrets.

earl diltz

February 20th, 2006, 12:20 PM

I don't understand the hatred of Mesa amps.I have a lonestar classic and love it,Fender cleans and a great distortion (no more distortion pedals). Most hated amps,PV triple xxx,nasty dead sounding clean,raspy dirt channel could not give that thing away,mid 70s Pv mace ,another dead sounding amp that did me a favor and finally caught fire. and my first amp, a Kustom 100, tinny POS and last,Fender THE TWIN just awful soulless thing.

franchelB

February 20th, 2006, 10:30 PM

I can only speak for myself. I had a Gorilla practice amp. It didn't sound like a *insert favorite amp*; but for what I paid for it, I shouldn't expect it to sound a like million bucks!

I've read what others have said about Mesa Boogies and Roland JC amps; and all I can say is that "another man's junk is another man's treasure". Or maybe, and quite honestly, it's not really the amp that sounds bad, does it? :twisted: :wink:

Keeso

February 21st, 2006, 06:15 AM

*post deleted*

detuned

February 21st, 2006, 12:28 PM

I had one of these for 29 days...

Thank goodness for the GC 30 day return policy.

If it sounded 1/10th as good as the cd they used to send around promoting it, I'd still have it.

Live & learn.

:-)

pullchord

September 15th, 2009, 05:17 PM

Those God-awful looking AND sounding rolled-and-pleated Kustom P.O.S. Sheryl Crow cannot POSSIBLY using the original guts in her present stage set-up with those things. They were solid-state and had to be the worst sounding amp ever built.

pullchord

September 15th, 2009, 05:19 PM

Ah yes, the exploding Traynors....but boy were they LOUD!

pullchord

September 15th, 2009, 05:21 PM

Yep, had some old Ampegs too. Used to play a V4 head thru a Bandmaster bottom. Loud as F%#$ but horrible tone.

rangercaster

September 15th, 2009, 05:26 PM

i missed this thread the first time around ... i've played through a few real "tone turds" in my day, but in the end i've learned ... any amp, no matter how appallingly terrible, is better than no amp at all ...

garytelecastor

September 15th, 2009, 06:13 PM

I've never tried one, but I would think that Raven amps are probably in here somewhere.

dantonel

September 15th, 2009, 06:23 PM

I'm no Boogie fan, either--they can turn any guitar into an icepick.

I'd add to the list any Marshall ValveState. Pure crap.

Ouch! You cut me deep Sparkle... You Cut me deep. I'd have to say that with a simple tube exchange you can get a very Warm and responsive tone from a MkII Valvestate Like the VS100...

I would have to say that Behringer Vamp tops my list... along with (almost) and 15 Watt Practice amp.

T Prior

September 15th, 2009, 06:25 PM

dan1952

September 15th, 2009, 06:41 PM

Gibson SG amps from the '70's - covered with blue denim, aluminum edges that looked like a flight case from across the room. Sounded awful, looked stupid, AND unreliable, too.

yark14

September 15th, 2009, 07:28 PM

Jimo

September 15th, 2009, 08:45 PM

JD0x0

September 15th, 2009, 09:20 PM

chalk another one up for MOST Mesas. Anyone who doesnt think mesa boogies sound thin hasnt played a dumble or clone. the Mark I amps are actually a ripoff of a dumble with less harmonics and flabbier bass.

backalleyblues

September 15th, 2009, 09:25 PM

MY nominee: Yamaha Series I guitar amps, from the 70's... spikey, harsh cleans, distortion that would make bumblebees blush, reverb that came from a tin can-ugh!!!! Traded my first one (yeah I was dumb enough to have bought a second one) for a TV Front Deluxe straight up (my #1 wish I had back amp!). Later Yammys were much better, but those originals make a bad Bandit sound like a Super Reverb...

Franc Robert

11 Gauge

September 16th, 2009, 12:13 AM

Jakedog

September 16th, 2009, 01:37 AM

Goodness gracious...

A four year old thread that I started has been rekindled. IDK if I should feel a sense of accomplishment or one of shame.

I guess that this one marries well with the "Stock Pickups Are Fine?" thread that gets reanimated occasionally, that I think I started around the same time.

But I'm still sticking by my story with the Peavey Stereo Chorus 212, circa 80's, with horrible digital reverb, three useless channels, and heavier than a Twin Reverb. I'll defend many Peaveys to the death (including a really cool 70's Stereo Chorus w/analog 'verb) but not that 80's monstrosity.

I knew better than to ever bring home a GK or Gorilla amp, at least for my preferences. The 80's were a real rough patch if you were trying to "trade up" for a great new amp, IMO.

I wonder where this thread will be in 2012?

I love my '89 Stereo Chorus 212. I routinely smoke amps with it that cost up to 15X what I paid for it. You gotta stay off the dirty stuff, and watch the FX a little, but some quality time spent with that amp will yield a killer, vintage Twin destroying clean tone like you never imagined. Not to mention, in a tight spot I can play a 600 seat ballroom with it and not have to mic.:grin:

Worst amp I ever owned- Seymour Duncan Convertible. Hands down. It sounded "ok" when it worked. Definitely as good as anything in it's wattage class. The difference is, all of the other amps worked! This one broke down so much it was ridiculous. Spent roughly 6X as much time in the shop as it ever did on a stage. And I only owned about 3-4 months. Couldn't keep that amp running for any amount of money. One night when it was working, a guy in the crowd hit me up to buy it. I never smiled so big counting $200 in my life. You'd a thought I'd just won a Grammy.

nosuch

September 16th, 2009, 01:59 AM

My first amp was a "cheap" solid state thing by guyatone. it was like 200 Deutsche Mark in 81, so in todays money would be like 400 $. That sounded like d*gsh*t. only thing I liked was running it from the headphone out into my stereo which distorted then, sounded like zappa to me.
Later I had a big fat yamaha something with 2 12" speakers. loud, but ...

moodus2006

September 16th, 2009, 08:01 AM

Legend 50

With it's oak cab & cane wicker grille, it beckons to you and begs to be taken home, much akin to a puppy in a pet store window.

Then you get it home & wonder how anything so cute can suck so hard.....

be scared. very very scared!

That is FUNNY!!! "oh, how cute", then it poops in your shoe and gnaws on your tele!

I vote Roland cube 15x - it was like playing out of an am tin can radio with the a bad case of the flu. "distortion/overdrive" was useless. Worst $79 I ever spent.

T Prior

September 16th, 2009, 08:46 AM

They made some re-issues with all-tube circuitry...I don't know how they sound.................

I'll go on record, put it out there..I don't see how S Crow can be using these amps, nobody can use these Kustom 60's amps in a serious situation in a stock condition. Comedy show maybe ? Smarter than a 5th grader ? maybe....Seinfeld episode ? Maybe

the 100 Watt POS that I had I am thinking I bought it because it was 100 watts and I thought I could play loud. 100 watts had to be better than 50..

NOT NOT NOT

I remember using it a show ( the last one of it's life with me ) I was on a fairly big stage and the amp was maybe 10 feet behind me.It was like I had no amp at all and I had it cranked all the way....100 watts of SS POS and it was probably 25 watts useful power.

I'm still embarrassed that I owned one :oops:

dantonel

September 16th, 2009, 11:08 AM

I wonder where this thread will be in 2012?

I think it'd Go something like this

... Cerca 2012

"Man... Those Line6 Spyder Valves were Horrible in 2008! That was the worst Waste of Tubes I have ever seen. Stupid Bogner Sellouts!!!"

BigDaddyLH

September 16th, 2009, 11:11 AM

Hey, you guys forgot:

2. Polytone

Mini Brutes are one-trick-ponies (don't touch the red knob!), but they do that one trick very well. There are plenty of guitarists still using MBs from the '70s and '80s.

Teleglide

September 16th, 2009, 11:31 AM

My old (and long gone) Peavey Mace takes the cake for me. 160 watts of dreadful tone. An 'overdrive' channel that sounded like a tube amp with a head cold.

thekillingjoke

September 16th, 2009, 11:31 AM

Anything by Crate or Line 6 comes to mind.

Teleglide

September 16th, 2009, 11:33 AM

Mini Brutes are one-trick-ponies (don't touch the red knob!), but they do that one trick very well. There are plenty of guitarists still using MBs from the '70s and '80s.

I have a mini-brute that I use for quiet jazz gigs - I think it sounds good! The reverb is lousy, but other than that it gets a satisfactory mellow jazz sound. I agree about the red knob - don't go there!!

rockinhorse

September 16th, 2009, 12:12 PM

Fender M-80 gray carpet....put every kind of tube pedal in front of it....what a waste...what was I thinkin' !!!

emiller45

September 16th, 2009, 12:26 PM

Stay away from amps that are not designed to do YOUR job. A Blues Jr may be underpowered for a strong gigging amp. If you play "country clean" go for the headroom and stay away from amps that break up at low volumes. etc etc etc.

As indicated by the previous posts, the amp that you play through is a very personal decision and there is no right or wrong. Most of all, always remember it is ultimately about the player.

I have said many times, something to the effect that I have played through many makes and manner of amps over the past 40 years, and none of them played any better than I do.

Jahmbie

September 16th, 2009, 01:58 PM

Gallien-Krueger 250 ML - a 100 watt SS amp with 2 - 4 1/2 speakers! Looks like a boom box, but sounds worse.
http://www.superpage.com/riffs/desc_gk.gif
A guy at my college got one of these because Alan Holdsworth used them. He played a 335 through it and it was such a waste of a nice guitar.

dantonel

September 16th, 2009, 02:04 PM

Have the red-knob Fenders of the 80s been nominated for worst? If not, they should.

Oh Man!!!! M-80's For Sure. You wanna talk about brittle and... Fuzzy (both tone and covering)

GROSS!!!!

musicalmartin

September 16th, 2009, 02:17 PM

the MG little marshall stack that uses a 9volt battery.
Its only a tiny practice amp .Try ditching the tiny stock speakers and hooking it up to larger Hi fi speaker and a much better tone comes out.A cheap practice amp and a much better tone .Not fantastic but much better.My own version is stuck to the side of a plastic speaker cab with duct tape . A truly elegant solution . :lol:

electrablue

September 16th, 2009, 02:34 PM

Kustom 100 gets my vote. I can't believe I actually bought one of these back then,( used) what was I thinking ! I was a Fender guy all the way and all of a sudden I owned this thing. But not for long, maybe 2 months then I went to NYC and bought a brand new Twin ! The Kustom had a POS 15 and a bigger POS 15" horn in the cab. It may very well have been a mild drug experimentation moment...ok, I admit it, worse....I'm still embarrassed:oops:

All my friends were using these in the early 70s when I was using my used Gretsch Twin Reverb. My, how they ragged me for playing an old fashioned tube amp (that cost $75 used) while they were playing a state of the art amplifier with modern solid state transistors. :lol:

drdos

September 16th, 2009, 03:06 PM

Anything that says Line6 and is all SS!:razz:

jazztele

September 16th, 2009, 03:36 PM

i don't have the time to read all these pages right now, but i'll ask, has anyone been the jerk who says "if you actually know how to play your guitar, you can get a decent sound out of just about anything?"

if not, then i'll be that jerk.

if someone's already claimed that line, i'll say any of those battery powered desktop novelty amp deals.

i guess this is just my way of saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." and polytone's are horrible, if you have any laying around, i'll give you 50 bucks and dispose of them properly for you. really. i will. i'm not just trying to rip you off. :twisted:

BigDaddyLH

September 16th, 2009, 03:49 PM

and polytone's are horrible, if you have any laying around, i'll give you 50 bucks and dispose of them properly for you. really. i will. i'm not just trying to rip you off. :twisted:

Only if you cart away this old '48 Broadcaster prototype my father got from his uncle Leo. Dad never touched it, so it's mint. Seems a shame to start playing it now.

T Prior

September 16th, 2009, 03:53 PM

Jakester93

September 16th, 2009, 04:10 PM

I really don't like the Line 6 Spider amps. I think they sound junky, but I know so many people that have them.

I actually have a friend that uses a line 6 amp as a stand for his main amp. lol.

jazztele

September 16th, 2009, 04:24 PM

I think the topic is more of how satisfied with the amp were you, did it hold up and go the distance in a working situation, was it everything you expected...did it cut the gig...

I don't believe this is a tone thing...

t

my apologies-- i only read the first page from 2005 and it was a boogie bashin' party, so i thought i'd play devil's advocate a little...

jazztele

September 16th, 2009, 04:26 PM

Only if you cart away this old '48 Broadcaster prototype my father got from his uncle Leo. Dad never touched it, so it's mint. Seems a shame to start playing it now.

that old bolt-on, one pickup thing you're always trying to get rid of? i'll give ya $25 and a sixer of shiner.:mrgreen:

Columbus

September 16th, 2009, 04:40 PM

Z Vex Nano Head. Noisy, nasal, inflexible, and overpriced. It even sounded awful through a Celestion blue. I owned it for less than a month before I sold it. Luckily I had the foresight to buy used and was able to get my money back out of it.

dan1952

September 16th, 2009, 04:41 PM

I thought Plush were Showman copies???

Jeff Beck did an ad for Plush amps in GP.

leebman

September 16th, 2009, 05:01 PM

Vox ac30 eesh dustbin arama !

zosofan

September 16th, 2009, 10:07 PM

I must have been lucky with my amp purchases to this point.
I have never owned any amp that I wouldn't be happy to still have or be playing thru still.
There were some that I liked more than others, but I never owned any that I didn't like or ended up hating.
YMMV
Eric

backalleyblues

September 16th, 2009, 11:09 PM

Ack! Someone is selling my nominee for worst amp, the Yamaha Series I amp I had as a young (and dumb) man... I feel sorry for whoever buys that son-of-a-harmonic-crapulator...

http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/msg/1378344184.html

Franc Robert

Dave_O

September 16th, 2009, 11:17 PM

Peavey Rage 158. Little 15 watt crap thing. Someone threw it in free on a guitar they were selling. I hated it, sounded like crap and was noisy as hell. About two weeks later I threw it in free on a guitar I was selling.

I wonder how many times that thing has been "thrown in free" in its lifetime.:rolleyes:

I changed the speaker in mine for a 10" Eminence. I do small gigs and record with it. But standard they were a little iffy... I bought two at a hockshop for $175AUD(about 1/2 the price of a Squier Strat:grin:)

There were some stinker amps made here in Aus back in the 70's... I had an Eminar valve bass amp- 150watts (allegedly), slide controls that would rattle down to "0" and a cute habit of losing all it's treble when it got hot. The guitarist in my 1st band had the 100watt "guitar" version... with a 4x12 loaded with Plessey/Rola speakers that were perhaps better suited to a big ol' valve TV.
Then there was the lime-green 85watt Savage. It "Savaged" my wallet- didn't even last one set, before expiring in a cascade of sparks from melted output transistors. I didn't even get a real chance to hear how good/bad/otherwise it was.

And a personal favourite. The Fender Super Twin.
I'll just say one word.... Why??

Clutch442

September 16th, 2009, 11:32 PM

I wouldn't give 5 cents for anything that says Marshall on it. I have to admit tho, y'all are killing me with the Mesa hate. I own a Triple Rectifier and can get all kinds of tones out of it. Beautiful cleans, nice warm blues tones, and exteme death metal too!

toadman

September 17th, 2009, 12:49 AM

i had a KMD 100 watt SS head for a short time inthe 80's(or maybe early 90s) . it sucked pretty bad and didn't last long. but it sure was cheap!

fordfanjpn

September 17th, 2009, 02:53 AM

Some of the amps I suffered with (briefly) back in the day were Baldwin, Standel and Kustom. I got rid of all of them very quickly.

The red knob Twin is a hard amp to dial in. Robben can make one sound really good. I was in a band that rehearsed in a studio that had one, and except for one time, I could never make that amp sound good. That one time, I walked in, twiddled the knobs without really paying attention, and the damn thing sounded like a Dumble! I should have written down the settings because I could never get it to sound good again after that.

Regarding the JC-120, I can't get a good sound out of one of those things no matter what I do. But I have a friend who plugs in his home made Stratenstein guitar and sounds incredible. I have no idea how he does it.

Bill

BigMike

September 17th, 2009, 03:06 AM

Paulie13

September 17th, 2009, 10:50 AM

All of these amp generalizations are really funny to me...

Just saying, this thread is cracking me up.

yostamplifier

May 7th, 2010, 02:00 AM

I would say any Brand of amplifier conceived in the 90's and up are worthless, set apart from a handful of boutique builders. This is about the same time Levi's went overseas. That is my time-stamp on when quality started to go downhill. It seems amps are not really being built for tone, but for supply and demand, consumerism and profit. set aside from the worst, why not focus on something more positive like the best amps.

pttron

November 6th, 2010, 05:54 PM

Hi Boogie-fan here!
Worst amps for me: 1. Phoenix - 100watt(I think not) valve pre-amp/ss power section
2. Vox ac-30 - late 70s model
3. Fender Super 60 - el34s/all valve

TheGuitarist365

November 6th, 2010, 08:02 PM

Friend of mine traded in his Blues Deluxe (tweed) for a Crate "120 watt" SS 2X12 combo with "DSP", straight up. I just couldn't believe it. This wasn't a new one, it had blue and chrome trim. I tried to get him to take it back, but I guess he just wasn't able to face facts. The sound of the distortion covered so many frequencies you couldn't tell what he was trying to do. Horrible. Eventually he brought it back, but his Fender was gone. The good news is he now plays through a Rivera, don't remember which one.

Crate GFX-212, eh?
Nasty distortion and weak cleans. ugh

d_byrne23

November 6th, 2010, 10:54 PM

My first amp was a Marshall MG 15 = Fizzy distortion but not the worst I've owned

Crate GT65 = Too tight distortion, clean was dreadful, my worst amp for sure

Line 6 Spider 15 = When I was younger I thought the distortion was cool but when you get to real tube distortion territory I realize this was junk but it at least opened me up to tonal possibilities

JackStraw

November 7th, 2010, 10:56 AM

60's Ace Tone ss bass amp. Had three push buttons to change the tone, kept pushing them but it never got any better.

ac15

November 7th, 2010, 11:16 AM

I've always tried to stay away from anything with the word "Gorilla" on it.

But that's just me...

Jake

That's pretty funny. I know absolutely nothing about Gorilla amps, but every "worst amp" thread I've ever seen contains copious amounts of "Gorilla."

In fact I opened this thread specifically to see how early in the thread "Gorilla" would come up. You did not disappoint.

Birdmankustomz

November 7th, 2010, 11:20 AM

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.

The VTM60's are great amps. I run mine through a marshall 4x12 and it sounds more marshally then my buddys marshall stack, lol

I had a crate when I had only been playing a few months that was terrible. I gave it away after about a week. The distortion was painful and the cleans just sounded flat.

jbdrumbo

November 7th, 2010, 11:41 AM

The one on the right.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/graphics/fenderBass69p3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/fenderBass69p3.php&usg=__jPLvgPc0iIQQdPvFmQyC_bMysHY=&h=529&w=750&sz=66&hl=en&start=0&sig2=Vq__9LG4s_gWzIpK-eQDHw&zoom=1&tbnid=JcW8QHpryjMo3M:&tbnh=119&tbnw=184&ei=RdbWTNmYLsOAlAeDvqiACQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfender%2Bbassman%2Bsolid%2Bstate%26um %3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26biw%3D1280%26b ih%3D685%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=127&vpy=70&dur=2474&hovh=188&hovw=267&tx=163&ty=80&oei=RdbWTNmYLsOAlAeDvqiACQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

A.B.Negative

November 7th, 2010, 11:57 AM

HH IC100
I had one of these in my mid teens, kept conking out, still I suppose one good thing was that it did match with the PA Amp, Speakers and Monitor slave...........

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/rab622/amp.jpg

I've owned a couple of HH amps in my time, the only good thing about them was the way the control panel glowed green when they were on. The ones I had were the 100 watt VS Musician model - VS stood for Valve Sound apparently :lol:

(Edit: I just remembered their habit of picking up Radio Moscow!)

An honourable mention goes to the Roland DAC50X - four 5" speakers and built-in effects. Nasty!

Radspin

November 7th, 2010, 12:29 PM

Toadman, I thought I'd be the first person to bring up KMD but you beat me to it! I bought a 12-inch KMD combo amp in a garage sale last summer for around $20. I had high hopes. Celestion Speaker! Made in England! It was one of the most tinny, lifeless, sterile thing I ever had the misfortune to play through. I sold it in a garage sale a couple of months later, maybe for less than what I paid for it and didn't even want to cannibalize the Celestion speaker.

The distortion on the late '70s Yamaha amps was the most wretched distortion I've ever heard.

fenderaddict

November 16th, 2010, 05:45 PM

aside from some incredibly horrid 70's peavey like the Pacer and a few other SS ear torture devices, the worse tube amp i recall was made in the 80's i believe by roland and it was called the "Bolt 60". I think it was 6L6 outputs, but in any case it was unusable. how they ever released such a POS is beyond me. I guess the fact in all this time i have never seen anyone use one in any context from beginner to pro says it all.

MacGuffin

November 16th, 2010, 06:34 PM

I'm a just joined this forum after lurking for a couple of years, and I couldn't pass up this thread. I have to agree with anyone who has mentioned the early '80s Peavey Bandit series (plural). I still have my 1983 50W Solo Series Bandit, and I will not plug anything into it. I've always found it had three tones/sounds: 1) god awful; 2) not so god awful; and 3) god awful with reverb. I guess that's what happens when ones moves from tubes to solid state and has no clue what they are doing. :roll:

Dave_O

November 16th, 2010, 11:03 PM

Some Australian crap amps from the 70s that I've owned- and was owned by-----

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRWGwThE0NHaTCgPLGH15L2E7E-2xXqy9QRGEakUSPShr_sZao2Xw

Savage 85watt (Yeah, sure...)
You've never heard anything as bad. I'll wager Skully's left egg on that....

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQHyHVi4NtpcKIEFT1U3zE0MNBqzdVWl yYpBYmoY-d69BAiy6_O3Q

Eminar. Some swear by them. Most swear at them.

e-merlin

November 16th, 2010, 11:07 PM

Another attack of the zombie threads...

fndrman

November 24th, 2010, 04:18 AM

I can't believe the HR series Fenders are mentioned. I've had some crappy sounding fenders in my time including a master volume Twin, but my HR Deluxe and my BF Twin reissue are by far the two best sounding Fenders I've ever owned..

Having said that, does any one remember those STAGE amps from the 70's? I don't think any bad amp can outstink that one. I never owned one, but my brother did, and I think I advised him to unload it when he asked for my opinion. I think most of them might have self-destructed by now, thus destroying most of the evidence.

Another bad sounding amp I had was a Peavey Classic 50 212. I thought that one was going to sound like a vintage Twin....WRONG! I don't know, maybe if I had put better tubes and better speakers in that one it might have sounded good....sometimes that's what it takes.

Someone said awhile back that some "modded" amps sound bad....That person was right! Sad to say that I had a "modded" non master volume silverface Super reverb. That one sounded like a tin whistle from hell. It also had stock speakers. I wish I had kept that one and had it unmodded and had good speakers installed.

paratus

December 2nd, 2010, 09:22 PM

Noob here, highly entertaining thread.
Worst amp I ever played thru was a Peavey Deuce. Painful clean, pitiful distortion.
I don't see a lot of Line 6 Spyder love here, as an owner I can understand that, although I do like the clean sound with my strat.

napawino

December 2nd, 2010, 09:30 PM

The little Fender Frontman 15 kinda made me want to stick nails in my ears.

paulsoud

December 2nd, 2010, 09:32 PM

Just wondering which amps I should never, ever consider acquiring...

Anything with a screen on it is guaranteed to have no soul.

Gnobuddy

December 14th, 2010, 02:21 PM

The little Fender Frontman 15 kinda made me want to stick nails in my ears.
It was a Squier SP10 in my case. I bought it off Craigslist to convert to battery operation - I wanted a small, light, inexpensive battery powered amp I could take along to acoustic-guitar jams.

The battery conversion worked just fine, but that little amp sounded so absolutely horrible that I couldn't stand to listen to it.

I also had a Line 6 Spider Jam that cost a whole lot more and sounded almost as nasty. Still licking my wounds from that one.

-Gnobuddy

pondcaster

December 14th, 2010, 02:25 PM

Anything from Mesa. Sound like crap.

Computer wannabe amps like FMIC's "Cyber" crap.

Mesa = crap? Not the ones I've heard.

Another guy who's never taken the time to learn how to use a Cyber amp. Or thinks it's limited to the 16 efx presets? You gotta use the little button called "Manual"... from there, it's quite a phenomenal amp. Sound & features.

That's why they call them opinions, I guess?

FMA

December 14th, 2010, 02:56 PM

Enjoying this thread. Don't know how I've managed to avoid it...

Anyway, Legend amps. There was one in a local shop a few years back and I thought, gee, that looks kind of cool. Plugged it in and just sounded horrible. Thin. Highs that caused dogs from miles around to start howling.

Then, let's see, the GK amp with the small speakers. A friend had one and it sounded like a bad boom box.

Gorilla. Had one as a practice amp many years ago. Horrible.

Yamaha. Another guy I used to gig with had one and it was the second harshest sounding amp I ever heard.

Earth. Yes, we have a winner. Played with a guy back in a previous decade who had one of these. Thing weighed about 18 tons and was loud as hell. Loud and harsh. It was instant tinnitus.

spikypaddy

December 24th, 2010, 10:54 PM

Most "hybrid" amps (Valvestate, Roc 100 etc.)
Modelling amps (ugh!)
Marshall JTM30/JTM60 (not bad sounding amps but just really badly designed and made)
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe/Deville (This one is going to be unpopular, but I've played a couple and the clean is dull whilst the drive channel is too harsh. And the master knob just isn't a master volume - it's a drive channel volume!)
Fender Twin (unless you're playing arenas it's just too much. And have you ever tried carrying one?!)

getbent

December 24th, 2010, 11:22 PM

Northerntele

December 25th, 2010, 12:15 AM

I love my ampeg v4. at least before i had it retubed and then it blew the OT 3 days later... New years resolution... fix the ampeg. The worst sounding amp i have ever played through was a rogue bass amp maybe it was 20 watts...
That said i own a solid state fender Stage Lead from the 80's that has one of the best clean tones i've ever heard to a deafening volume and quite possibly the worst distorted transistor crap tone in the history of existence. but it has black knobs.

nrand

December 25th, 2010, 01:08 AM

oh man! I remember this thread!

emerlin, it is an 'epic thread' hence, not a zombie... c'mon man, keep up!

some of my favorite all time posters here..... (some of whom got banned!)

I gotta say, I miss tremo!

Attack of the epic zombies? Screen play potential I'd say.
My worst ever was Diason Solid State amp I picked up from the Melbourne Trading Post about 15 years ago. The Diason Valve models were similar to the Goldentones, now very collectible, but the Solid State version is forgettable except maybe for Karaoke vocals.

nosuch

December 25th, 2010, 09:29 AM

my worst ever amp was a yamaha solid state 2x12" can't remember the model name to save my live. weighed a ton and sounded harsh. I looked like humpback of notre dame http://www.wissen.de/wde/generator/substanzen/bilder/sigmalink/d/de/der_/der_glockner_von_notre_dame_2184608,property=inlin e.jpgtrying to move it, at least that was the name my fellows gave me.

goinpostal

December 26th, 2010, 10:39 PM

Anything Vox-way overrated in my book

sataandagi

December 27th, 2010, 12:05 AM

And the sad, sad excuse for an amp - red knob Fenders

Jonny Greenwood makes those things sound good. He uses a Deluxe 85 1x12 for his distorted tone. AC30 for cleans though.

telewhat

January 9th, 2011, 10:33 AM

An amp that starts with Rand ends with dall and has an RX75D on it. I have it and it's a great big fizz box, though the clean is decent enough. I wouldn't use it for metal even though that's supposedly what it's designed for. I got it at a great price, but so what! It sucks. Just the clean channel is o.k. My EPIPHONE Valve Jr is better. Though the Randall is SS it is pretty bad. My MG15CD sounds as good as the Randall. I'm really leaning toward clean tube amps for the future. The future is here!

e-merlin

January 9th, 2011, 11:28 AM

emerlin, it is an 'epic thread' hence, not a zombie... c'mon man, keep up!

Sorry, man. Working 18 hour days'll do that to you...

NYbill

January 9th, 2011, 12:01 PM

I still have a mid-80's Peavy Bandit 65. It has a "saturation" knob. Enough said. ;)

jglenn

January 9th, 2011, 12:18 PM

I also cant stand the Mesa stuff,had a DC 5,tried a blue angel.two of the worst tube amps I ever owned,traded the dc5 for a Crate vfx5212,that was a great amp!.Had a Vht Pitbull for about a week,what a dog!And had a Carvin tweed 212 for about 2 hours,couldnt find a good sound in that to save my a--.Oh maybe my least fav of all,Peavey valve king 1x12!What a freakin dog!,didnt have enough clean head room to even practice with,very suprised as I love me some Peaveys.

jglenn

January 9th, 2011, 12:35 PM

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.

+1 on the Duncan.My buddy has used one as his main amp for 20 some years.Meanwhile the Peavey Delta 2X10 I sold him sits unused,along with his 50s Deluxe,and Hot Rod deluxe.Man that seymore just sucks so bad,and he runs his giant multi effects unit into it,adding insult to injury.One of the finest people I know,but I just cant bring myself to tell him his sound is crap.

mattdean4130

January 10th, 2011, 12:23 AM

Orange Micro Crush. Obviously wasn't expecting much anyways - but it fell apart within a week and sounded like utter bird S#*T

Gnobuddy

February 9th, 2011, 04:10 AM

I just bought a well-used Fender Princeton 65 DSP (solid state). It sounds pretty nasty to me. Even with some reverb dialed in, it was cold and harsh to my ears.

(So why'd I buy a nasty-sounding amp? Because I'm going to remove the solid-state electronic guts and turn it into a bigger cab for my Super Champ XD. Yup, I bought it just for the particle-board enclosure and stock Eminence 12" speaker!)

-Gnobuddy

mysterbalfys

February 28th, 2011, 04:19 PM

I played with:
Fender super 112
Hiwatt HiGain
Marshall DSL100 +4x12+4x12 (actual)
Fender Hot Rod
Fender Deville
Fender Champ (1969)(i still have)
Carvin (combo all tube)
Fender Princeton
Fender Twin Reverb
Mesa boogie (combo all tube)

Absolutely best is the Marshall stack, Fender super is best clean. The stack is an amazing complete amplifier.

Daddy Hojo

March 2nd, 2011, 09:23 PM

I had a mid 90s Epiphone Stereo Chorus back in college. It had 2 10" speakers and weighed a ton - way too much to live on the third floor. The distortion had no grit to it, and the chorus sounded like some bad 80s pop. Clean channel wasn't very loud at all. Most of the amps I've owned are scary loud at around 4 on the dial, but this Epi didn't even have the fear factor at 10.

Daddy Hojo

March 2nd, 2011, 09:25 PM

I still have a mid-80's Peavy Bandit 65. It has a "saturation" knob. Enough said. ;)

Don't. Touch. That. Knob. Keep that thing on clean and run pedals and it's quite alright.

Daddy Hojo

March 2nd, 2011, 09:32 PM

DOGMA Dunn

March 12th, 2011, 07:23 PM

Worst amp for bedroom at home practice is a Musicman 120. Great for concerts bad for the house. It has only two sounds "LOUD" and "LOUDER"

Neilio1sock

March 12th, 2011, 08:44 PM

Wasn't a huge fan of the vox ac50 cph. To Marshall sounding for me.

Manolete

March 20th, 2011, 12:02 PM

I've owned a couple of HH amps in my time, the only good thing about them was the way the control panel glowed green when they were on. The ones I had were the 100 watt VS Musician model - VS stood for Valve Sound apparently :lol:

Each to their own, I just picked one up and whilst its hard to dial in it is a nice amp. :lol: Also I picked one up circa 2011, its a late 1970s model and with the exception of a few crackly knobs it is in 100% working condition. They must have been built to last, mine has much larger end protectors than the one you posted.

Mine does however pick up any light switches or plugs being plugged in within my flat, so I'm not sure how well screened it is. The reverb tank is almost totally un-shock proofed as well. :confused:

Worst amps I've come across would firstly be this amp I tried when I was 14 called a Line 6 Spider, back when they first came out. This one had a setting on it called "insane", which was some thick undifferentiated distortion that made my horrific teenage playing sound ok, and therefore sucked on principle.

Other horrid amps I've played through include some sort of modelling Vox in the design of the AC30 that had a built in noise gate on the distortion models that would not budge. Really got me down. I've played a '70s Kay bass amp called a Sound King or something that was SS, had 4 knobs and about 60 watts (allegedly) that farted out on bass if you took the volume above 3. It was ok for guitar though I never wanted to know where the overdrive was coming from and it smelled like rising damp. Had an obnoxious hollow tone you could barely shape with the available bass and treble controls.

My first amp was a 15 watt Marshall MG15 CDR. It had a spring reverb which was cool. My first "rig" was this amp with a Zoom 606 pedal. I guess those zoom pedals are voiced to make small practice amps less fizzy sounding as it was a mud machine. Infact I recently got a Zoom G2 for general recording and its also a mud machine. The MG15 was ok though I managed to cook some sort of component within the first couple of days of owning it because I used the CD line in and the headphone out at the same time and it started smoking. It was a let down as I wanted to play along to classic rock CDs at the time and so I could tell straight off that even with the 'Marshall' name I could not get the Plexi tone from this little amp (even if the owner manual said otherwise). It eventually got knocked over onto its knobs, which fractured two of them off on the PCB rendering it unusable. I gutted it for parts.

I replaced that (as I got into bass) with a Stagg 20 watt bass amp with an 8 inch driver. I only ever see these in Cash Converters. Its almost like Stagg only distributed them to pawn shops. Even though it is only 20 watts they included an upper and lower mids section alongside bass and treble controls. Small SS bass practice amps annoy me as they produce little of the fundamental note being played. This is no exception, but is still a mud machine. The EQ is voiced so badly it either produces a frail mids-scooped tone, a tone that is punching you in the ears with mids or a lot of undifferentiated mud. No happy middle ground. Not sure what frequencies the EQ controls centre on, but its not the right ones for an 8 inch speaker to do the goods.

EllenGtrGrl

March 22nd, 2011, 11:33 AM

I agree with what was said earlier - it depends upon the application you're using the amp for. Some players like uber twang. Me? I hate uber twang. Conversely, while many players hate mega high gain grind, I love it. My following list below, only reflects amps I've had, and while I give them a nice thumbs down, others may feel opposite of what I felt for these amps.

Peavey Encore 65 - can you say unreliable? Sure you can, I knew you could! I had an Encore 65 when I was in college in the mid 80s. Lessee, the output transformer blew up (repaired under warranty), the channel switching relay acted up - numerous times (also repaired numerous times)!! The clean channel was decent. The distortion channel (called the "Pump" channel), was only OK - better than a Mace, but nowhere near as good as a Mesa or a Marshall. Oh, and I forgot to mention, an old boyfriend of mine also had an Encore 65. His ended up completely non-operating after about a year of use. It was definitely not one of Peavery's better amps.

Crate CR60 - the followup to the original Crate amp with a fruit crate chassis - just crappy sounding distortion, and flat sounding cleans. Oh yeah, and the input jacks sure were flimsy!

Sound City 120 - I got this one cheap, when I graduated college in 1987. I really didn't need an amp head, but I couldn't resist buying a Brit amp for $100 - even if I didn't have a 2x12 or 4x12 cab. I got a 4x12 cab (it was a pain to take anywhere). The amp itself was OK if you ran it clean, and used a dirt box. But crank the amp for distortion? Uh uh. Loud (but at least not deafening like my old Hiwatt Custom 100), and farty sounding to boot! The head also weighed a ton! Nope! After 3 months of ownership, the amp went bye bye.

Music Man 65 Reverb head - I found it to be VERY DISAPPOINTING, especially in the light of previous experiences I'd had with Music Man amps. I'd used a 2x10 Music Man combo in 1984, as a loaner, while the earlier mentioned Encore 65 was being fixed for its first electronic temper tantrum. It was a nice amp, that sounded really good in combination with the MIJ Squier Strat I was playing at the time. It had nice cleans, and a decent growling (without sounding shrill) overdrive. I wish in retrospect, that I'd offered to buy that amp and told the shop to take my Encore 65 in trade towards it. A local player I knew, who was in a metal band, used Music Man 65 heads (without the reverb) and a boss distortion pedal. He had a killer sound (it sounded like WW3 was happening when he was playing)! So, with the above experiences in mind, I bought a Music Man 65 head. What a pain! It weighed a ton (making it a hassle to carry)! Unlike the combo I'd played back in 1984, my Music Man 65 Reverb head was super clean sounding, and it was dirt pedal unfriendly to boot (sounded really constipated - no punch or decent grind). It was also very difficult to set up for medium volume sounds. It was either too loud, or too quiet. After a particularly grimace inducing gig while using this amp, it was given the boot.

1965 Fender Showman head - not a bad sounding head if you could turn it up a bit, to get some sonic beef out of it. It also sounded great with the Chandler Tube Driver I was using at the time. The only problem was, that when I turned it up above 1, the drummer in my band (who was the band leader), gave me dirty looks, due to me drowning out everybody else in the pop covers band I was using the amp in. I kept everybody else happy by keeping it on 1, but I hated the thin sound it had at that volume level. So, I ended up getting rid of it. BTW, like a Twin Reverb (which the Showman was basically a head version of), even being a '65 blackface, my Showman was ridiculously clean sounding. A couple of times I cranked it up bigtime. I don't think it gave me anything approaching dirty tones, until the volume was on 9. Even then, it only had a slight amount of grit to its sound. But it sure was loud!

1965 Fender Bandmaster - bought to replace the Showman. Back in the early 90s, you could get blackface Fender amp heads pretty cheap. I paid like $350 or $400 for the Bandmaster head. IMO, it was a weak sounding amp. I had a Vox AC15 Top Boost that had more guts at clean levels than the Bandmaster. Dirt was a bit better than the Showman, but still not up to the par of a good Bassman head. It also wasn't very dirt pedal friendly (had a tendency to suffer from crashing [excessive compression in the front end that causes a sort of coughing sound if you try to play percussive palm muted stuff at high gain]). Billy Zoom (who along with being the guitarist for X, is a very accomplished amp & electronics tech.), told me on the Gretsch forum, that one of the main reasons why the Bandmaster wimps out, when compared to the Bassman head, is due to its undersized output transformer. 'Nuff said.

Marshall JTM30 - as others have said, yech!! I had the 2x10 combo version of this "thing." It ran hot, and was unreliable to boot (the channel switching relay kept on sticking on a sort of halfway position when the amp got hot, due to thermal issues, giving this odd, reduced volume and distortion sound). It also sounded very boxy at volume. Nope, it didn't stay long in my amp stable.

Rockman - yeah, I know it was a headphone amp, but don't forget that Scholz R&D also marketed a head, and I think a combo version. I had the headphone amp version. Physically it was flimsy (cheap plastic clips separated the boards, and I kept on having to resolder the headphone and guitar input jacks) . The accessory AC power supply was poorly filtered (it had tons of hum). The biggest complaint was the sound. The more gain you piled on, the more compression it had, to the point of being so over compressed, that every guitar (humbucker or single coil), sounded the same through it! In a nutshell, use a Rockman at high gain, and you'll invariably wind up sounding like the guitar tracks from a Boston album, or a Thundercats cartoon soundtrack! Sheesh!