Worst Amps Hall of Fame?

[11 Gauge]

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

[BB]

Originally Posted by 11 Gauge

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

Sned Nensons "Harmonic Crapulator" comes to mind along with the short lived, but much maligned 1958 "Atomic Turd Bucket" made by Leo's arch rival Elgernon Bavaquah.

Other than those two, I think you're safe!

[Jakedog]

Originally Posted by 11 Gauge

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

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

But that's just me...


Jake

[11 Gauge]

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...

the kicker is i got it in a trade where i gave away a 70's Peavey S.C. 212 that was fantastic - great channels (each assignable as stereo or mono), good ol' Accutronics reverb, and a decent clean channel. Kinda like the big brother of the infamous Peavey Special. oh well - a fool and his (or her) good amp are soon parted...

[gls500]

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

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

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

[Tremo]

Anything from Mesa. Sound like crap.

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

Any transistor trash amp.

Duncan Convertable.

Cheezy cheapo budget tube amps, because they're built like a POS.

Amps with too many bells and whistles, and insane high gain. Those are for kids and wankers.

[Chris S.]

http://tdpri.com/viewtopic.php?p=364769 (scroll down to the Yamaha photo...) CS

[Joe-Bob]

Originally Posted by 11 Gauge

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

I know this may go against the grain around here a little, but the truth will set you free:

*Fender Blues Jr.* !!!

[Bluesbob]

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.

[Paul G.]

Yamaha G50-12.

Sounded ok at bedroom volume. Absolutely no cut or tone when you turned it up, even a little. When I think of how blisteringly loud a 50 watt amp should be, I just couldn't figure out how puny this thing was.


Marshall JTM 30-2x12.
Bought it sight unseen, seemed like a good idea. What a piece of junk!!! Cardboard cabinet, lousy distortion (on a Marshall!!!). Open it up and you'd think you were looking at a cheap toy. Junky PC board, junky pots, cheesy parts. Could only fit short bottle 5881 power tubes. The worst part is, it cost a bunch of money.

P.

[Tremo]

Originally Posted by Joe-Bob

I know this may go against the grain around here a little, but the truth will set you free:

*Fender Blues Jr.* !!!

I agree. Cheapo cheezy budget amp. Even though several of my friends have them. I've re-voiced a couple and they do sound better, but still they're basically a POS.

[stephent2]

For me it's a Boogie. others might love 'em and I don't mean to offend.

How come every Boogie player i see has his butt to the crowd and he's bent over dickin' with his knobs trying (I guess) to get a decent tone out of the thing.

I calls it "The Boogie Bend".

[Tremo]

Originally Posted by stephent2

For me it's a Boogie. others might love 'em and I don't mean to offend.

How come every Boogie player i see has his butt to the crowd and he's bent over dickin' with his knobs trying (I guess) to get a decent tone out of the thing.

I calls it "The Boogie Bend".

LOL! They can dink with the knobs all they want, a decent tone is not to be found in those things, unless your idea of tone is insane gain, and mushy harsh distortion. Fenders have much better clean, Marshalls have much better crunch.

Riveras have about the same gain as a Mesa, and all the bells and whistles, but sound a helluva lot better.

Ever hear someone trying to pull a clean tone out of a PV 5150 head? Ain't gonna happen, they're biased ice cold. The 5150-II and the combo are biased warmer.

[Mr. Sparkle]

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.

[voided3]

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.

[tweedman]

My vote for this amp category is the Mesa Boogie Subway Blues.It had absolutely NO BOTTOM END and I only kept it about 2 months.

[Ringo]

I certainly wouldn't classify the Mesa amps I owned as Hall of Shame candidates.
I don't care for the Dual Rectifier etc.. but I've had a couple of Mesa amps (Mark IIB, Studio .22+, DC3)that I liked.
No they weren't perfect, but I've come to the conclusion that there is no "one" amp that will do everything.

I'm 48 , I've played through a LOT of amps over the years , solid state, vintage and modern tube amps, and several modeling amps. I was able to get some good tones out of almost any of them. Some were better than others.
What I regret buying the most were good tube amps I paid way too much money to have so called amp techs mod , or should I say hack and then lost my tail when I didn't like them and resold them.

So put my vote for "modded tube amps".

[Maggot]

I had an Acoustic fake-leather covered solid-state thing growing up that sounded worse than any of those.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by Tremo

Anything from Mesa. Sound like crap.

Haha, you beat me to it.

As long as we're slaughtering sacred cows, Roland JC120! It's the "no tone zone".

Red Knob Twin.

Johnson modelling amp.

[fontaine]

70s Marshall Master Lead twin 12. Looked
real cool. Had real greenbacks.
Played one in a London shop and liked it.
Came home, bought one and then proceeded
to dink around with that thing for a year!
No matter what i did it sounded like genuine
crap.
The upside is i gave it and $160.00 for a "65
Deluxe Reverb that i still have. I had no
problem getting pleasant sounds out of that
amp.Jeff Andrews just did a freshen up on it
and it's even better than when i first got it.