The worst sounding amp you’ve played through?

T

Tomm Williams

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For me it was a truly disappointing experience…… I spent about a year restoring a very rare 1959 Gretsch Stereo King with the help of Skip Simmons and Jeff Earl (J Design Cabs) in the end it turned into a let down, sounded really quite bad but it had high cool factor. Had it a few years and passed it onto a young musician from SF, hope he’s found a sound he’s happy with?
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Line 6 Spider.

We had a gig where the venue insisted that we use their backline. Having no choice I dialed it in the best I could and we did the gig.

The owner loved us and afterwards said he definitely wanted us to come back.

As soon as we left I told the bass player, who had booked the gig, that I never wanted to set foot in that place again.
 
Worst?
That is probably a Marshall MA or a Line 6 Vetta 2
Both horrific .

Most disappointing?
Where do I start;

Mesa Road King.
I was expecting to get versatility and mark sounds as well as recto and you actually just get a recto that weighs too much.

Engl special edition.
glass clean - crushing tight high gain and absolutely nothing usable in between.
Mark 5.
I expected a Mark 4 with a decent interface got the interface but lost everything else mush and mud.

Best surprise?

Marshall JVM .
Almost impossible to get a bad sound. Best value tube amp ever built.

Diesel VH4 .
Expected awesome channel 3 and not that much more but it does everything right and again almost impossible to get a bad sound .
(EL 34 version from the early 2000s ) they vary quite a bit over the years.
 
Orvillain said:
Peavey Valveking.
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This! 👆

Loud? Yes, but also dull, lifeless, bland, and lacking any fun aspect whatsoever.

Also, a H&K Switchblade (?) head w/ 4x12". Sooooo many buttons and options, sound was legit tight, but all in all a huge disappointment at a high price point.

Luckily the amp wasn't mine, but belonged to a band we shared a space with. 🤷‍♂️
 
hm. i think genuinely the first gen 5150s were amongst the weirdest sounding amps ive ever played. not necessarily the worst- but inscrutable in 1996.

i will likely die a loather of the mesa lone star. i couldnt get sounds outa that amp i liked. just too round. but not a BAD amp- just an amp i couldnt make sense of.

i really didnt like the mesa express amps.

to be honest- theres precious few amps i feel are unusably bad- but i suspect, especially with the mesas, that i just didnt have time to figure them out and theres plentynof good sounds to be had with some time.
 
Worst tube amp? It's some Crate amp that was probably a Champ clone. Dinky speaker, even cranked it sounded like tearing paper.

Second worst tube amp vote for me goes to the Peavey Triple XXX. I tried the combo at a store and it was the least dynamic tube amp I've ever tried. Even the cleans sounded compressed, and the overdrive was "we've got Dual Recto at home". Boomy, muddy, compressed. I'm sure some with more experience with the amp can make it sound better, but I truly hated it. The tacky mud flap girls and fake chrome styling didn't help.

Worst solid-state? Fender Frontman. Not sure of the model. I can't believe they still sell that piece of shit series.
 
laxu said:
Worst tube amp? It's some Crate amp that was probably a Champ clone. Dinky speaker, even cranked it sounded like tearing paper.

Second worst tube amp vote for me goes to the Peavey Triple XXX. I tried the combo at a store and it was the least dynamic tube amp I've ever tried. Even the cleans sounded compressed, and the overdrive was "we've got Dual Recto at home". Boomy, muddy, compressed. I'm sure some with more experience with the amp can make it sound better, but I truly hated it. The tacky mud flap girls and fake chrome styling didn't help.

Worst solid-state? Fender Frontman. Not sure of the model. I can't believe they still sell that piece of shit series.
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thats so funny about the frontman. the 25r is totally one of my favorites for a cheap pickup box if you jettison the original speaker, and especially if you add a 12" in parallel! by itself off the shelf.. its pretty bad
:LOL: but most practice amps come with shitetastic speakers.. and that ones made even worse by a wimpy baffle!

but the amp itself is actually alright!
 
newholland said:
thats so funny about the frontman. the 25r is totally one of my favorites for a cheap pickup box if you jettison the original speaker, and especially if you add a 12" in parallel! by itself off the shelf.. its pretty bad
:LOL: but most practice amps come with shitetastic speakers.. and that ones made even worse by a wimpy baffle!

but the amp itself is actually alright!
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Yeah I wouldn't be surprised it's just that. That would be actually interesting to see some YouTuber explore these "crap" amps through world class speakers.
 
That I've owned, probably a used ss Randall head I'd picked up at a pawn shop. But, it was a weird amp in that the gain channel sounded incredible through a 4x12 basket weave Marshall cab. Everything else ... :wat. The clean channel was anemic too.
 
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