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worst amp you have owned or had the luck to use


stu_g

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Carlsbro and Peavey here, god awful useless rotten garbage.

Closely followed by the weak as a gnats p*** Hartke head and cab at Monster studios, yes its a decent step up from a Carlsbro but its not even remotely close to good enough for sensible rehearsals...

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[quote name='bremen' timestamp='1359643358' post='1958131']
Anglia Polytechnic University, or 'APU'.

They ran an advertising campaign on the sides of buses in 2001, slogan 'Make it APU in 2002'

I looked forward to the following year's campaign: 'Have a wee in 2003'
[/quote]

Yeah, I remember seeing a poster add for them in the Tube and feeling aghast, it read: "Didn't get the grades you were expecting? We might still have a place for you at APU" :unsure:

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1359639697' post='1958051']
Yeah :lol:

Hold on... Do I remember you have a Korn bass on here? If so I think I know who you are (via who you dated) :lol:
[/quote]

I did have a Korn bass back then......part exed it in 2009ish for an EBS cab

Who was I dating? :blush:

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The worst thing I've ever "tried" to play through was a Trucker Bass combo.
Sounded like a cheap recording of a skeleton having a chug in a biscuit tin & played back through a piezo that's come out the inside of an 80s handheld video game.

Made my Carlsberg Cobra 90 sound like a rig of doom! (& you guys already know how good they are).

Needless to say, about 30 seconds after plugging into it, it got given to the guitarist to use (stopped him getting into the bass frequencies).

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[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1359651886' post='1958292']
Crate bass combo. Truly awful. Not even much use as a crate.
Closely followed by a Laney bass head.
[/quote]


Funny, I was just thinking the worst amp I ever owned in terms of it's condition etc was Crate BX80. 80 watts, 1x15" speaker, graphic eq. Was outmatched for a band situation when it was new and mine was around 65th-hand. The worst 'good amp' I ever owned was it's replacement, a Laney R5. 2x10" and 180W into those speakers, 300 with a cab. It should have been so much better, but it couldn't do anything in a live band context either. Such a shame, I bought a Laney R1 as a small amp at around the same time and I absolutely adore it and still have it 8 or so years on.

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Carldro and HH are a given but add to that PV and it is no excuse that they are bombproof, IMO.... they still sound sh*te..

Worse experience in recent times was a GK RB combo.... followed by plugging my cabs into an Ashdown MAG thing...and getting nothing usable...at all.

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Never actually *hated* anything but plugged into a couple of things that were a bit lacking. Sound City, Fender Rumble & Laney can all step forward with their solid state mediocrity

[quote name='thumperbob 2002' timestamp='1359592968' post='1957403']
I bought a rig once from dogs d ,amour which consisted of a fender pre amp' fender power amp, 4 x 10' and 1 x 15 all in two massive flight cases. [/quote]

Love this. The Dogs were my favourite band when I was a teenager & Steve was probably a main reason why I played bass

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It was 1974. The skies were dark with pterodactyls. Fire had yet to be invented.
I bought a 15-watt 'Audition' guitar amp from Woolworth's and played 'bass' through it by tuning my guitar down an octave.
You can imagine how it sounded. This is how we entertained ourselves before the internet was invented. That and shadow puppets.

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My first proper amp was the Carlsboro 150w stingray combo. My Dad got it for me when I was 16. And low and behold I'm looking at it now in my living room. I've had it all this time, from gigging regularly to being stored away in garages and lofts. I finally junked the split driver a few months ago and put in an Eminence Basslite C2515. It's now a very light, but loud as f*** knock about practise thingy.

Edited by Billy Apple
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[quote name='danhkr' timestamp='1359637424' post='1957979']...important factors such as reliability, value for money and sufficient volume for the wattage - are people mistaking 'not to my taste' as 'bad'?[/quote]

Just to be clear about it...
I said 'Linear Concord' (yes, that's RSC...). What are these 'factors' of which you speak..? Reliability..? Value..? Volume..? I'll say it again. Linear Concord. :blush:
We had great fun, and learned through (bitter-ish...) experience how to seperate the chaff from the wheat. That's why I ended up with Hiwatt, but for 'worst amp' awards, we're not talking 'tone', here, or personal taste. Try it yourself. Obtain a Linear Concord, and tell us how it rates for (what was that again..? Oh, yes...) Reliability. :lol: Value. :lol: Volume. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Happy days...

Edited by Dad3353
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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1359669503' post='1958687']
It was 1974. The skies were dark with pterodactyls. Fire had yet to be invented.
I bought a 15-watt 'Audition' guitar amp from Woolworth's and played 'bass' through it by tuning my guitar down an octave.
You can imagine how it sounded. This is how we entertained ourselves before the internet was invented. That and shadow puppets.
[/quote]

Oh wow, Audition, used to repair them for Woolies. yep, must be one of the worst.

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Couple of house bass amps where I used to rehearse, one was an old 100w Peavey combo, all of the buttons had been ripped off by the 100s of people who had battered the poor thing and it sounded terrible. I have played through a couple of other Peavey amps since and I cannot get on with the sound of them, that's personal preference though. There was an old Truker head through a HH cab and that sounded like somebody farting down microphone! Somebody replaced the "TR" in Trucker and replaced it with an "F"! I'll leave that to your imagination!

I'm surprised to hear the bad press about Ashdown. I used to be endorsed by them and played through many of there amps, always got a good sound out of them, the NEO cabs are amazing! I never played some of the really old ones tho.

Many thanks.

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Tried an Ashdown again yesterday just in case my view was clouded by those Nasty rehearsal room heads.

But no, it was still horrible, lots of flashing lights, VU meters, eq options etc etc. However, it failed to do the basic job of reproducing an even half decent bass tone :(

Mind you, some people love 'em so what do I know!

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worst combo an Alligator 300 watt (yer right) thing looked like a getto blaster with two 8inch speakers weighed a ton
sounded sh*te,what was i thinking?
worst heads a Laney G100 (poor mans Trace eliiot copy)loud and that was it ,the controls did nothing
also an original 80's Trace eliiot GP11 head with the hard wood sleeve which broke down all the time but the UV light looked pretty
worst cab Trace elliot multi stack 2x10 monitor shaped nightmare

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[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1359671667' post='1958747']
Just to be clear about it...
I said 'Linear Concord' (yes, that's RSC...). What are these 'factors' of which you speak..? Reliability..? Value..? Volume..? I'll say it again. Linear Concord. :blush:
We had great fun, and learned through (bitter-ish...) experience how to seperate the chaff from the wheat. That's why I ended up with Hiwatt, but for 'worst amp' awards, we're not talking 'tone', here, or personal taste. Try it yourself. Obtain a Linear Concord, and tell us how it rates for (what was that again..? Oh, yes...) Reliability. :lol: Value. :lol: Volume. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Happy days...
[/quote]

[IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/LinearStackL30.jpg[/IMG]

I've had this Linear L30 Conchord for ten years and whilst it will never win any awards for SPL, it does sound sweet and it's been perfectly reliable including the vintage Goodmans speakers with the exception of a couple valve swaps.. It now has one Mazda and one Mullard EF86, a Sovtek ECC83, a no-name GZ34 and a pair of Ruby EL34Bs..

Will it compete with a group / drummer? Is it flexable tonally? No, not at all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend it as a 'good bass amp', it isn't but it certainly has vintage charm..

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[quote name='VTypeV4' timestamp='1359729167' post='1959503']


I've had this Linear L30 Conchord for ten years and whilst it will never win any awards for SPL, it does sound sweet and it's been perfectly reliable including the vintage Goodmans speakers with the exception of a couple valve swaps.. It now has one Mazda and one Mullard EF86, a Sovtek ECC83, a no-name GZ34 and a pair of Ruby EL34Bs..

Will it compete with a group / drummer? Is it flexable tonally? No, not at all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend it as a 'good bass amp', it isn't but it certainly has vintage charm..
[/quote]

I was thinking of one of these...

Probably much the same Mullard based design though. With the Anodes of the EL34s usually glowing cherry red.

[attachment=126562:misc8c.jpg]

Edited by BILL POSTERS
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