Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Worst guitar amp you have ever heard


JapanAxe
 Share

Recommended Posts

Worst guitar amp? But there are so many candidates...


* Marshall Class 5. Only sounds good outside the room with the door closed. Up close it's just soggy mush.

* Small Blackstars (as above). The much-vaunted voicing control makes almost no difference to the sound.

* Any Mesa Boogie - throttled, constipated tone

* Modern Orange amps (what's the opposite of versatile?)

* Any Silverface Fender with the Ed Jahns ultralinear transformer / master volume circuit


All IMO, one's mileage may vary, of course :)

Edited by skankdelvar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1476559445' post='3155258']

* Any Mesa Boogie - throttled, constipated tone

[/quote]

I've heard a few people sound good with them, though I must say that John Scofield sounds so much better since he switched from Mesa to Vox and moderated his chorus pedal usage. I feel like their repuation as a "Swiss Army" amp is well deserved. With a Swiss Army knife I could open a bottle of wine, cut up food and trim my toenails, but I'd much rather have a proper corkscrew, kitchen knife or scissors to suit the task at hand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1476560289' post='3155273']
I've heard a few people sound good with them, though I must say that John Scofield sounds so much better since he switched from Mesa to Vox and moderated his chorus pedal usage. I feel like their repuation as a "Swiss Army" amp is well deserved. With a Swiss Army knife I could open a bottle of wine, cut up food and trim my toenails, but I'd much rather have a proper corkscrew, kitchen knife or scissors to suit the task at hand.
[/quote]

I don't much like Boogies mainly because there's a sort of overpowering blarty muddiness which sundry guitards with whom I've worked don't seem to notice.

OTOH, I once had a bash on a Mesa Royal Atlantic and it was quite nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1476564278' post='3155321']
Carlsbro stingray!
[/quote]

I'll see your Carlsbro Stingray and raise you a Carlsbro Hornet 45!

I played mine in a church music group and it seemed OK because I knew no better. It only took one actual gig for me to realise how totally inadequate it was in every way. I replaced it with a Sessionette combo which did me fine until I did a gig with a horn section. The world of valve amps was beckoning...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Peavey Bandit 112 (scorpion USA version, with the blue piping). They were ubiquitous in Colleges and rehearsal room once upon a time, glad to say that I haven't seen one for years.

The Classic 30, on the other hand, is magical!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1476564278' post='3155321']
Carlsbro stingray!
[/quote]

My first guitar amp was a Carlsbro Wasp. 10W of transistor power into a 10" speaker, all for £20 second hand in 1975. Two inputs marked bright and normal, Volume, Tone and Tremolo speed and depth. With a home-made fuzz pedal and the tremolo depth set to maximum I got some fantastic synth-like sounds out of it. I even used to amplify my bass on the recordings that nearly got my second band signed to a major record label. Can't really fault it at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1476564278' post='3155321']
Carlsbro stingray!
[/quote]

A couple of guitarist mates of mine still use Stingrays and they do get a great sound. Stingray bass gear is appalling though. Worst ever guitar combo was a Yamaha something I heard in the early 80's. Not sure what it was but it was dreadful and still haunts me... :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In terms of what it was used for, a Fender Twin that had no gain or drive, when it was a provided amp for my old punk covers band. The Sex Pistols, Clash, Anti Nowhere League etc don`t sound great on a clean guitar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1477429832' post='3162245']
In terms of what it was used for, a Fender Twin that had no gain or drive, when it was a provided amp for my old punk covers band. The Sex Pistols, Clash, Anti Nowhere League etc don`t sound great on a clean guitar.
[/quote]

Didn't Steve Jones use a Twin live?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah Jonesy used a Fender Twin in The Sex Pistols, but his must have had some kind of gain/drive on it. The one we had was clinically clean, couldn`t be pushed into breakup at all, no gain or drive on it. Sounded rotten on our version of Ace of Spades.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Fender Twin is an incredibly LOUD amp. It is made for Fender cleans and will only break up when ABSOLUTELY pushed.

Most use the 'classic' Fender amp tone for the stunning cleans (which are then much more pristine with single coils) then use a great pedal board for the effects. Any tubescreamer type drive pedal and you have brilliant tone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

My mate had a silverface Fender Twin and used it in exactly the way mentioned by Mm20 above -- standalone for lovely crystal clean tones, or with a TS9 for those dirty moments. It was the perfect rig, apart from the fact that the Twin weighed as much as a truck and only had one poxy handle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...