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Worst guitar amp you have ever heard

JapanAxe

By JapanAxe,
in Guitar Amplifiers

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skankdelvar Grand Master

skankdelvar

Posted
Posted (edited)

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
Beer of the Bass Mentor

Beer of the Bass

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[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.

skankdelvar Grand Master

skankdelvar

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Posted

[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.

JapanAxe Grand Master

JapanAxe

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[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...

paul_5 Grand Master

paul_5

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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!

Woodinblack Grand Master

Woodinblack

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[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1476629856' post='3155760']
I'll see your Carlsbro Stingray and raise you a Carlsbro Hornet 45!
[/quote]

Did the Carlsbro hornet have the Suzz control of the stingray?

BigRedX Grand Master

BigRedX

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[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.

leftybassman392 Grand Master

leftybassman392

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[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1476735857' post='3156866']
My best distortion pedal was a valve reel to reel tape recorder - it did distortion and echo!
[/quote]

Holey moley! :shok: I had one of those too. A '50s Brenell. I think I still have the owner's manual somewhere...

itsmedunc Veteran

itsmedunc

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[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:

Lozz196 Grand Master

Lozz196

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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.

JapanAxe Grand Master

JapanAxe

Posted
  • Author
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[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?

Lozz196 Grand Master

Lozz196

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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.

Musicman20 Grand Master

Musicman20

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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.

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
blank20 Rookie

blank20

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This
https://musicsquare.co.uk/142381_Marshall-MS-2-Classic-mini.html
Because it works just about a week.
And this, because i never heard worst clean sound
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MG10CF

Rich Grand Master

Rich

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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.

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MoonBassAlpha Mentor

MoonBassAlpha

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I think the main problem with guitar amp sounds is that too many folks apply far too much gain to their sound which takes all the dynamics out of the playing and sounds to the audience like a fizzy mess.
User error, for the most part, imho.

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