worst amp you have owned or had the luck to use

[Kevin Dean]

  On 30/01/2013 at 22:30, yorick said:

Anything by Crashdown.............

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Interesting comment , I've had loads of makes & I've love them & the support has been second to none even when it's been my fault for causing the only fault I've had in in 18 years .

[Chienmortbb]

  On 13/03/2022 at 07:59, Kevin Dean said:

Interesting comment , I've had loads of makes & I've love them & the support has been second to none even when it's been my fault for causing the only fault I've had in in 18 years .

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There is always one,

[jonno1981]

That comment was posted 9 years ago! There was a batch of Mag amps that were fitted with the wrong fuses, it did harm their rep for a bit, I think they’ve firmly re-established themselves as being a top notch company for products and services these days. 

[Woodinblack]

  On 13/03/2022 at 07:56, Kevin Dean said:

TC 250  just a toy definitely not 250 watts & it caught fire .

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I gigged a TC250 combo for a couple of years, night and day on the stuff that had gone before it. Would be happy to do it again

[Sibob]

I had a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 for a little while once, awful amp. Underpowered and couldn't get a decent tone out of it no matter what I tried.

Not to mention it's Gain, Volume and Master control setup. I understand gain-staging, but come on!

 

Si

Edited March 14, 2022 by Sibob

[acidbass]

Aguilar TH500

 

I have never understood why they set the Bass frequency centre to 40hz.  Surely this makes this control completely redundant, IMO it's way too low to be usable as an audible bass control and just adds rumble.  The Drive control was also completely useless, as I found that the amp would distort heavily even before it got to 12 o clock on the Master.

[NikNik]

  On 14/03/2022 at 11:43, acidbass said:

Aguilar TH500

 

I have never understood why they set the Bass frequency centre to 40hz.  Surely this makes this control completely redundant, IMO it's way too low to be usable as an audible bass control and just adds rumble.  The Drive control was also completely useless, as I found that the amp would distort heavily even before it got to 12 o clock on the Master.

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ISn't the low E of a bass guitar 40Hz? Or am I missing something?

[acidbass]

  On 14/03/2022 at 11:51, NikNik said:

ISn't the low E of a bass guitar 40Hz? Or am I missing something?

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The lowest fundamental frequency is, but when the control is centred at 40hz, it boosts frequencies at 40hz, above and below.  There is no audible benefit to hearing frequencies at 40hz and below IMO.  A control centre of around 80 to 100hz is a much more usable and musical frequency IMO.

[BassmanPaul]

  On 14/03/2022 at 10:42, Sibob said:

I had a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 for a little while once, awful amp. Underpowered and couldn't get a decent tone out of it no matter what I tried.

Not to mention it's Gain, Volume and Master control setup. I understand gain-staging, but come on!

 

Si

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Don't let our @agedhorse hear you say that. The Streamliner was very well received here in North America!

Edited March 14, 2022 by BassmanPaul

[Lozz196]

  On 14/03/2022 at 11:53, acidbass said:

The lowest fundamental frequency is, but when the control is centred at 40hz, it boosts frequencies at 40hz, above and below.  There is no audible benefit to hearing frequencies at 40hz and below IMO.  A control centre of around 80 to 100hz is a much more usable and musical frequency IMO.

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Definitely, at rehearsal the other day I changed the bass frequency from 40 to 80 on my Sansamp and it made things much clearer (I was cutting not boosting).

[Sibob]

  On 14/03/2022 at 17:22, BassmanPaul said:

 

Don't let our @agedhorse hear you say that. The Streamliner was very well received here in North America!

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I couldn’t sell mine quick enough, horrible thing haha.

YMMV as always.

 

Si 

[agedhorse]

  On 14/03/2022 at 18:56, Sibob said:

I couldn’t sell mine quick enough, horrible thing haha.

YMMV as always.

 

Si 

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That’s too bad, but it is a fairly heavily voiced amp, and if the voicing isn’t your cup of tea then it’s not a good choice.

 

Thousands were sold and there is still a robust used market for these amps.

[Sibob]

  On 16/03/2022 at 05:50, agedhorse said:

That’s too bad, but it is a fairly heavily voiced amp, and if the voicing isn’t your cup of tea then it’s not a good choice.

 

Thousands were sold and there is still a robust used market for these amps.

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100%, I bought it used as the sentiment was good around them, just ended up not being for me.

 

Si

[Quilly]

  On 13/03/2022 at 07:56, Kevin Dean said:

TC 250  just a toy definitely not 250 watts & it caught fire .

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My one just died one day, piece of garbage

 

[NHM]

To get back into playing in the '90s, I bought a Kustom KBA100 combo from Studiospares (thinking that would be an endorsement of good quality). At my first gig a punter kindly pointed out that I 'sounded sh*te'; this turned out to be its one and only gig under my ownership, so that punter did me a favour.

[Guest]

Funny looking back at this thread & seeing how hated Ashdown were. The one time I tried a MAG I wasn’t impressed, but it wasn’t the worst amp I’ve played through- that award goes to a 90s solid state Marshall combo... no volume, tone like wading through a swamp & as heavy as half a neutron star

[BassmanPaul]

  On 12/05/2022 at 12:33, Spaced said:

Funny looking back at this thread & seeing how hated Ashdown were. The one time I tried a MAG I wasn’t impressed, but it wasn’t the worst amp I’ve played through- that award goes to a 90s solid state Marshall combo... no volume, tone like wading through a swamp & as heavy as half a neutron star

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Considering that a one centimetre cube of such a deceased star weighs something akin to ten aircraft carriers that would indeed be heavy! LOL

[Sarlscharisma]

Worst amp I have tried is the Ashdown Mag at practice.  But the ABM series were great.

 

I once owned the Carlsbro Stingray in the 80s which I really liked, but it blew after 2 practices.  I was gutted.

 

How lucky we are now that we have access to so many great amps.

[Downunderwonder]

  On 12/05/2022 at 12:33, Spaced said:

Funny looking back at this thread & seeing how hated Ashdown were. The one time I tried a MAG I wasn’t impressed, but it wasn’t the worst amp I’ve played through- that award goes to a 90s solid state Marshall combo... no volume, tone like wading through a swamp & as heavy as half a neutron star

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Worst amp I ever heard would have to be a 20 year old Ashdown stack when brand new. I gather the blue speakers were the problem. I think I would rather stay home than have that as my sound. Murky and not very loud.

[gjones]

  On 12/05/2022 at 16:44, Sarlscharisma said:

 

 

I once owned the Carlsbro Stingray in the 80s which I really liked, but it blew after 2 practices.  I was gutted.

 

 

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You made the fatal mistake of plugging a bass into it.

 

......and turning the volume higher than 2 on the master.

 

I had one too. Shockingly useless thing.

[KingBollock]

  On 13/05/2022 at 05:56, gjones said:

You made the fatal mistake of plugging a bass into it.

 

......and turning the volume higher than 2 on the master.

 

I had one too. Shockingly useless thing.

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Yup, I hated mine. The only problem I had with it (except the way it sounded) was having to replace its bridge rectifier.

[rhysyjob]

This…… I can still remember the lack of tone no matter what you pressed. And it weighed about as much as a nuclear reactor! 

[MichaelDean]

  On 12/05/2022 at 16:44, Sarlscharisma said:

Worst amp I have tried is the Ashdown Mag at practice.  But the ABM series were great.

 

I once owned the Carlsbro Stingray in the 80s which I really liked, but it blew after 2 practices.  I was gutted.

 

How lucky we are now that we have access to so many great amps.

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I feel like I used to really like playing through the head version of a Carlsbro Stingray into an 8x10 at Old Chapel studios in Leeds. Must have been 16 years ago... It might have been the 8x10 that was making it halfway decent though!

[Downunderwonder]

One time I thought the Ashdown 15'' combo at the rehearsal space was done for when I found it with everything dimed. Turning it all back down and playing it was sounding very broken. Then I noticed the 'Subharmonic' button was engaged, disengaged and all was well. That thing must have cost a heap of sales over the years.

 

Assuming it actually stood up to everything at 11 then it's one tough little bugger.

[beans-on-toast]

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.