worst amp you have owned or had the luck to use

[Old Horse Murphy]

40 minutes ago, beans-on-toast said:

My worst  experience was bringing home a cab that reeked of animal urine and cigarette smoke.  I tried everything to rid the smell to no avail. It was deep in the wood. In the end, I chucked it in the bin.

 

It taught me a lesson. Do a smell test before buying.

 

 

I had a similar experience once in a rehearsal room. It was vile. 
 

Anyway, turned out it was actually one of our guitarists

[Sarlscharisma]

We once had a Selmar PA which we put the bass through - every note just the sound of fart in a wind tunnel.  I think I could have made better cones out of Conflake boxes.

 

Anyway, outside of the school youthy (our rehearsal venue) we did wickerman-style  ceremony and put it out of its misery.  The black smoke billowing off it that that night in 1985 I think caused a small hole in the ozone layer above Hartlepool lol.

[Stub Mandrel]

Sound City 50W bass combo...

 

[Chopthebass]

Mesa Boogie Titan V12. 
ran out of steam doing a pub gig and got so hot. Must have been a duff one.

[paul_5]

As far as 'worst amps' go it's obviously the Carlsboro thing was was at a mate's house back in the '90s, but in a very close second place would be the Ashdown ABM300 that I bought (when the transformer on my Ampeg SVP blew) brand new and the buttons kept falling apart (literally split when I pressed it) so I returned it. 

 

In its defence it sounded GREAT -really clean, punchy DI sound with tons of 'heft', but I didn't have any faith in the build quality.

 

I also had a Trace 150W GP7 head that sounded great but couldn't keep up with my drummer at the time, but maybe I was expecting too much from it.

[joel406]

Hartke.

 

Everyone I've tried just sucked.

[alexa3020]

45 minutes ago, joel406 said:

Hartke.

 

Everyone I've tried just sucked.

I loved the HA5500 - such a good amp and bulletproof

[PaulWarning]

13 hours ago, paul_5 said:

 

 

I also had a Trace 150W GP7 head that sounded great but couldn't keep up with my drummer at the time, but maybe I was expecting too much from it.

must have been faulty or a really inefficient cab, I got a 150 watt GP12 loads of volume and we've got a really really loud drummer

edit, my Trace lost all it's volume, needed new output transistors

Edited Friday at 13:04 by PaulWarning

[Rosie C]

18 hours ago, paul_5 said:

As far as 'worst amps' go it's obviously the Carlsboro thing was was at a mate's house back in the '90s,

 

My example is Carlsbro too, a late 80's / early 90's 30W with Trace Elliot style green/black finish. It had a continuous mains buzz,  a particularly loud 'thump' when switching on and switching off, and had nothing inspiring about it.

 

 

On 18/05/2022 at 10:34, beans-on-toast said:

My worst  experience was bringing home a cab that reeked of animal urine and cigarette smoke.  I tried everything to rid the smell to no avail. It was deep in the wood. In the end, I chucked it in the bin.

 

It taught me a lesson. Do a smell test before buying.

 

Yup, I bought a piano accordion which seemed perfectly OK, but when I got it home it stank of mould. Fortunately it was from a dealer, so it went straight back the next day for something that didn't engulf me in mould spores every time I squeezed the bellows!

 

 

Edited Friday at 18:28 by Rosie C

[paul_5]

3 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

must have been faulty or a really inefficient cab, I got a 150 watt GP12 loads of volume and we've got a really really loud drummer

edit, my Trace lost all it's volume, needed new output transistors

Cab was a Trace 1153, but it was still underwhelming with their smaller 2x10 (2103H) too.

[casapete]

5 hours ago, alexa3020 said:

I loved the HA5500 - such a good amp and bulletproof

+1 

 

I always liked the HA3500 and 5500 heads, seemed easy to dial in decent sounds.

The cabs on the other hand seemed very bland to me, even the aluminium cone ones.

 

[kwmlondon]

I was a stupid teenager who didn’t know what he had and traded my first amp, a Marshall 100w valve bass head for a Laney combo. Utter piece of farting crap. I still feel that awful sense of shame. The first time I heard the head through a proper cab was when I took it in for the trade and even then I had my doubts…

[Obrienp]

My first and worst amp was a FAL solid state 50 watt thing in the early 70s which I played through a homemade cabinet with a Fane 18” driver. I think the cab was probably OK but the FAL …. euch!

[casapete]

44 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

My first and worst amp was a FAL solid state 50 watt thing in the early 70s which I played through a homemade cabinet with a Fane 18” driver. I think the cab was probably OK but the FAL …. euch!

We had a FAL Phase 50 amplifier when I was at school - think it was used for PA duties in assembly and stuff.

Dreadful things, tried it with guitar and bass and it was horrible. Seemed to remember them being sold

by RSC, a shop that sold budget disco and band stuff. My second or third amp was an RSC GP 30 watt

valve job, in a metal case! Wasn’t that bad IIRC, used it in my first band. 

[Sean]

I'm going to give Ashdown a shout out but in a weird way because it got me where I needed to be and where I am now.

In about 2006 I bought a new ABM600 head and 410 to replace a Trace 410 (or was it a 412???!!) combo that burnt out.

 

The Ashdown broke down intermittently and was really difficult to get a decent sound out of. Fair play, they took it back, fixed it and returned it no hassle. When I came back I thought I'd get the sound I wanted but it just wasn't happening. This led me through searches to find Bassworld, which led to me discovering what DI preamp pedals do, it enabled me to sell the Ashdown rig and buy a GK RB700ii rig. And ultimately Bassworld became Basschat in May '07, and that's how I got here.

[Sean]

On 10/04/2025 at 22:34, Chopthebass said:

Mesa Boogie Titan V12. 
ran out of steam doing a pub gig and got so hot. Must have been a duff one.

 

I thought Duff used GK amps. Boom, tish! I’m here all week, ladies and gentlemen.

[pst62]

Another vote for Carlsbro. Bought it for £25 back in 1981. Flat as a pancake in looks and sound.

[Chienmortbb]

I have thought about this long and hard and on reflection a GK 15” loaded combo was the worst. I never got to grips with the ass backwards EQ layout could never find the flat setting. 
 

It used the internals of the MB200, including tbe ICEPower 50AS2BTL power module. It looked the business but could not keep up with a drummer and guitarist. Needless to say I sold it shortly afterwards. 

[fergs40]

I had one of these (though - probably - not this one: picture borrowed from Gumtree):

 

 

Like many here, it was the mid-80s and affordable options were many fewer than now - I think I paid £90 for mine second hand from Musical Exchanges in Brum (IIRC).

 

No, it wasn’t a great amp. Not anything like as loud as it looked like it should be (that well-known measure of sound output…), but turned up full and with my Thunder 1A’s preamp set to ‘maximum bass’ it was great for playing the bassline to Peaches.
 

And it had a thing called a parametric EQ, which I didn’t really understand but nonetheless believed to be frightfully clever. Ah, happy days.

 

I’ve no recollection of what happened to it - I don’t remember selling it, but, equally, how does one lose such a thing?

[Jonge McLengo]

Haven’t had the best of luck with amps to be honest.

First came a Marshall Bass State combo… horrendous, pure mud.

Then a Markbass LM2 - started dropping volume one day despite tech’s best efforts. Got rid.

Then a Mesa Boogie Walkabout - sounded ok for a couple of months, then the transformer went bang in a puff of smoke.

[kwmlondon]

50 minutes ago, Jonge McLengo said:

Haven’t had the best of luck with amps to be honest.

First came a Marshall Bass State combo… horrendous, pure mud.

Then a Markbass LM2 - started dropping volume one day despite tech’s best efforts. Got rid.

Then a Mesa Boogie Walkabout - sounded ok for a couple of months, then the transformer went bang in a puff of smoke.

Maybe you play too many cursed basslines?

[Stub Mandrel]

12 hours ago, fergs40 said:

I had one of these (though - probably - not this one: picture borrowed from Gumtree):

 

 

Like many here, it was the mid-80s and affordable options were many fewer than now - I think I paid £90 for mine second hand from Musical Exchanges in Brum (IIRC).

 

No, it wasn’t a great amp. Not anything like as loud as it looked like it should be (that well-known measure of sound output…), but turned up full and with my Thunder 1A’s preamp set to ‘maximum bass’ it was great for playing the bassline to Peaches.
 

And it had a thing called a parametric EQ, which I didn’t really understand but nonetheless believed to be frightfully clever. Ah, happy days.

 

I’ve no recollection of what happened to it - I don’t remember selling it, but, equally, how does one lose such a thing?

 

Looking back over this thread, the Cobra 90 is definitely the clear winner.

 

The guy who introduced me to bass had one back in the 80s. He hated it.

[basshead56]

Worst I've owned was probably my old Ampeg B500DR.

Seemed like a great idea at the time - 4 programmable presets and 500 watts but it was absolutely gutless. Could never get it to maintain stage volume or keep up with the band, not overly loud even .

It was a disappointment across the board.

 

Other amps I've played through at gigs and felt pretty meh about - a couple of Markbass combos, one was a 1 x15 thing and the other was a little 2x10 - guessing they were LittleMarks but both were very thin and a bit farty.

 

I"m on the fence about keeping my Darglass AO900 or moving it on. Overall, nonplussed I suppose.

Love the tones but not sure it's getting anywhere near the use it deserves after being relegated to the home Jamnasium in favour of my GK 1001RB rig for live stuff.

Bought it to do clean and distortion stuff live but I find I prefer the sound of the dUg pedal pre in front of the GK a bit more. Especially comparing the clean tone options. Also having a Darkray I can call on to do the AO thing probably doesn't help.

Seems like a lot of kit to just have laying around.

[rhysyjob]

This howling piece of crap! Flat as a pancake and weighed about as much as a nuclear power station! 

[kwmlondon]

Oh my goodness - the worst bass amp I ever played through was one of these, up for sale on Facebook Marketplace

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/1380928936250759/?ref=share_attachment