worst amp you have owned or had the luck to use

[inthedoghouse]

I didn't actually own this amp, but I did borrow a Fal amp for a gig about a million years ago - completely awful! I was glad to have my Wem ER100 back ... ahhhh, those were the days :-)

[peteb]

I recently played quite a big festival where the house bass rig was a Demeter preamp, a Crown power amp and two Purple Chilli cabs (a 4x10 & 2x10). I thought that it looked rather tasty - different from the Ampeg rigs you often get at these type of gigs and certainly a cut above the Ashdowns you sometimes have to use.

Unfortunately it was awful. I couldn’t get a half decent sound out of it in the minute or so I had before we had to do a very quick soundcheck – the eq was very unintuitive, it sounded very dry and to cap it all, one of the speakers appeared to be on its way out. It wasn’t just me either, a mate of mine (who is a serious player) had to use it the following night and he hated it as well…

Edited August 23, 2015 by peteb

[mazdah]

[quote name='Brother Jones' timestamp='1440332217' post='2849847']
GK MB150E. The little, supposedly 150w combo (do they still make them?). I only bought it because it was cute and supposedly portable.

In reality, while it was small, it was also extremely heavy
[/quote]

You are joking right? This amp weights 26 pounds. SVT810e is heavy, this GK is a feather...

[Ed_S]

New top-scorer for me; the house amp at a venue we played a couple of weeks ago turned out to be a Stagg CA-100B/115 and it is easily the worst amp I've ever ended up trying to play through. Was an all-dayer with short changeovers and nowhere to store kit, and I was on public transport anyway so just thought 'sod it, I'll play through whatever they're providing'. In the end, after a coupe of mins trying to find a tone that was loud enough without being fuzzy and on the edge of feedback, I just turned it off and went with a clean DI and a bit of bass in the monitors.

[tauzero]

[quote name='Brother Jones' timestamp='1440332217' post='2849847']
GK MB150E. The little, supposedly 150w combo (do they still make them?). I only bought it because it was cute and supposedly portable.

In reality, while it was small, it was also extremely heavy and a nightmare to carry on the tube.Plus the cab rattled something awful. Replaced with my Eden rig which was a revelation.The older Eden heads remain my favourites.
[/quote]

I used a GK 200MB (predecessor to the MB150) for years. Weighs about 11kg, so lighter than most 1x12 cabs. Took it on the back of my motorbike on a couple of occasions. Did you have it in a lead-lined flightcase?

[Nodd]

OK, I'm in,
worst amps: 70's Marshall 50W,
I tried, really tried to like Ashdown in shops, at gigs and in rehearsals... just wool and thud.
The worst speaker cab was a massive Marshall 1x 18" which blew its speaker every 2nd gig,
but is still used as a car ferry on the Clyde!

[Osiris]

My vote goes to my old Trace Elliot 1215 SMX combo. I bought it new in the early 90's when I was still new-ish to both bass playing and earning my own money.
I think I was taken in by the hype at the time, still being young-ish and somewhat impressionable. The band I was playing with at the time were gigging regularly so I needed something reliable, which to me at the time meant expensive. I also bought a 1153 cab for a 2 x 15 setup.

I owned the thing until it died about 10 years ago. In that time as I came to understand what makes a good bass sound and what I wanted my sound to be, I realised that the Trace was incapable of both. At best it was gutless and underpowered. If you wanted that slap bass overpowering top end then all was fine (I didn't and still don't) but if you wanted anything else, well, you could forget it;
These things have a million different tone shaping options, but unfortunately none of them made any useful or usable difference to the sound. Crank the low end up on the eq? It still sounded thin and toppy. Back the top end off? No, you still sounded tinny and thin. Dial in the valve for some warmth? Nah, nothing. Everything was so subtle as to be pointless.
Even the dual band compressor, which seems to be highly praised was too much. Even backing it right off the tone seemed too squashed to my ears - and I'm a big fan of compressors.

No matter war you did to it, it still sounded like a tumble dryer full of cutlery.

I thought that maybe mine was duff, but reading through this thread it seems I'm not the only to have been underwhelmed by TE gear.
When it eventually died mid-gig about 10 years ago, my first though was "Thank fork for that".
It cost a fortune new and I was determined to get my money's worth out of it so was reluctant to sell it no matter how much I came to hate it over the years.

It was definitely the amp that was the turd - after it had died I bought a Mark bass little Mark 2 and ran it through the TE speakers and it sounded deep, warm and punchy, everything the TE wasn't.

Never again.

Edited September 4, 2015 by Osiris

[basexperience]

I started out with a carlsbro cobra 90: it wasn't that powerful, but I rewired it to give me a speaker out and then created a cabling system to let me hook more cabs up to it. Surprisingly good trouser flap ensured until I eventually scraped enough together for a secondhand peavey TNT from sound control in Dundee!

[Jono Bolton]

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1365092201' post='2035246']
That Ampeg solid state SVT clone....450H?! AWFUL.
[/quote]

I really like them; the studios we reharse in have them in most rooms and I've never had a problem dialling in a tone that I like. The Ashdown ABMs they have sound a bit crap but I've never liked them going in to Ampeg cabs.

[bassbiscuits]

I'd have to say worst (i.e. most disappointing) were a couple of different faulty Ashdown ABM heads I had about six or seven years ago. They kept breaking down and were really quiet for the rating, so I eventually sold them.

Though in defence of Ashdown, the little Mag300 head of theirs I'd bought a few months beforehand was great - very loud for the 300w rating, smooth and nice sounding and plenty of juice in it.

I used that for a hell of a lot of loud gigs without any problems, and I still have it as a spare.

Edited October 5, 2015 by bassbiscuits

[funkydamo]

I'm really surprised by some of the big names popping up here repeatedly.
I used Peavey combos at college which were nothing special, but adequate. Owned a Park 10w amp first, at which time i wouldn't know a good amp from a bag one - but it was as a 10w amp should be. not loud haha.
I moved up to a marlin 50w which lasted me well as 15 year old in my first band - but even DI'id didn't cut it with a band.
Then had a monter marshall set-up - 300w head with 2x 4x10 cabs (one of which i still use, for now) the head gradually lost its volume until it would barely cut through the band - so got replaced with a trace 300w head (which had to be repaired twice in a year then got dumped)
I don't recall model numbers unfortunately.

Currently use a behringer 300w ultrabass head with one of those marshall cabs. i cant complain - for a cheap head it gives me sound im happy with.

Never played a warwick amp, presumed they would be decent but learned otherwise reading the thread.
Also presumed ashdown and ampeg would be a good choice but i'm wary of both now.
I guessed Laney would be hit or miss.

I am in the market for both a combo for practicing, and a stack for gigging - but now i feel more cautious and confused than before

[Twincam]

I think I have two new contenders for the worst amp ive used.

Peavey microbass (far east made one). Sounded like a glorified alarm clock and within ten mins farted and blew up!

Ampeg b2r only just bought (cheaply thankfully).
Decent sound I think but pitiful power output, if I was gigging think I would be in trouble

[Lightlyseared]

I had to use one of those Line 6 Lowdown combos in a rehearsal room once. They had just been favourably reviewed in the guitar mags. I remember a vast range of mediocre sounds, a weirdly voiced EQ and it being barely audible over a drummer. Looked like a Maplins PA too.

[modelreject]

Sound City! There is a word that rhymes with the second word of the brand that accurately describes it. [url="https://ssli.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAyNFg3Njg=/z/WEQAAOSwDuJWxzll/$_86.JPG"]https://ssli.ebayimg...JWxzll/$_86.JPG[/url]

Edited March 31, 2016 by modelreject

[GremlinAndy]

Hartke! By a country mile! I bought the 350watt head and a couple of SWR cabs after a long break for bass, and got the worst sound it's possible to imagine. That head did everything but a good sound. I sold it at a horrendous loss because I was honest about how sh*t it was, and after the new owner had it a while, I asked how it was... and he loved it. As someone said earlier, one mans meat is another mans poison.

[Merton]

The Ampeg SVT-4 Pro and 8x10 rig I used last night was f***ing horrendous. I don't like Ampeg, there, I've said it

Edit - actually this just backs up my previous post on this thread hahaha

Edited April 3, 2016 by Merton

[kodiakblair]

No mention yet of the 50 watt Kay combo I bought from the catalogue.

[attachment=216073:Kay bass amp.jpg]


Can't remember it being up to much but was a big improvement from playing through the music centre tape deck

Fond memories of the Carlsbro Stingray though it was a bit ungainly lugging on and off Edinburgh buses.Sometimes mistaken for a "washing machine" it
doubled as the sound system at several drunken parties.

[JohnFitzgerald]

Session 100w combo thing. graphic EQ and a 12" speaker.
Sounded lovely at home.
The minute you took it anywhere else, it was pointless. Thin, weedy, useless.
I thought that 100w meant that was enough. I was yet to realise the importance of the speakers at that point.

Ashdown ABM300 into matching 8x10" cab. Mud. You shouldn't have to do that much to the EQ to stop it sounding terrible, and the sheer logic of the EQ section defies all sense. Good or bad.

[skychaserhigh]

[quote name='JohnFitzgerald' timestamp='1459696388' post='3018688']
.

Ashdown ABM300 into matching 8x10" cab. Mud. You shouldn't have to do that much to the EQ to stop it sounding terrible, and the sheer logic of the EQ section defies all sense. Good or bad.
[/quote]

The Ashdown ABM is probably one of the most straight forward eq sections avilable...really simple and logic to me !

[mazdah]

You just have to remember to push "shape/flat" button in ABM heads, because it has to be in "on" position to get the flat response...

[Maxn]

My first Bass amp was a home made setup, couldn't afford a proper amp so i made one.

The amp head was a 150W Commercial PA Amplifier 100v line thing with an 8 ohm output. It was given to me by a chap who got it from a frozen food factory. It was the announcement amp haha.
It Was made by "Optimus" was extremely heavy.

And a 1x15" home made cab. The Cab was ace
The annoying thing about this amp was it had a "Clip Limiter" that didn't reduce the sound or anything like that it annoyingly cut the sound all together foe 2 seconds.
So while playing i had to keep the volume just under the clip. Very annoying.

Moved over to a Trace Elliot GP12 head soon after and that blew my mind! I was only 16 at the time haha

[Bass-Thing]

Ampeg PF500 with PF210HE. Easily the worst amp I've ever had. It had a good sound but it kept over heating and cutting out. Ampeg customer service were bloody hopeless as well. I tried to have it fixed privately and was told that the build quality was shockingly bad. Ended up selling the amp for parts and repair.

Now I use Bugera. Utterly brilliant and I haven't had to remortgage!

[andytoad]

Trace Elliott commando. Terrible amp.

[Bass-Thing]

[quote name='andytoad' timestamp='1460240598' post='3024031']
Trace Elliott commando. Terrible amp.
[/quote]

I've had one of those as well. Utterly tragic! Poor chap I sold it to didn't speak English too well but I don't feel guilty because I let him play a bass through it for 15 minutes and he still bought it (for more than I had paid for it)...

[Twincam]

[quote name='andytoad' timestamp='1460240598' post='3024031']
Trace Elliott commando. Terrible amp.
[/quote]

I disagree on the terrible bit, I had one and while not great they were certainly better than say a carlsbro cobra etc etc