The worst sounding amp you’ve played through?

[paisleywookiee]

i never met one! man that turkey was stiff and dirt sounded like a square wave! :lol: glad they fixed it!

Yeah, I was going to ditch my DC-5 when I had one, for the 5:50. It ended up being a bit of a turd. Then they did the 5:50/5:25+ series, and it was MUCH better. Still kept the DC-5 for the time being (wish I still had it), but whatever they did with the revision made a big difference.

 

[László]

the JC is a very weird amp to *play* if you are used to tube amps. I don't know how else to put it. It's too responsive and not enough all at the same time. It is no fun whatsoever to play solo, it's the least rewarding experience ever. "Yep. That's my guitar." It's incredibly useful, though, and has some really nice tones in it as well as being a unique pedal platform.

An SS amp will have a faster slew rate than a tube amp, so it responds differently to transients (among other differences). So any solid state amp sounds fast and more in your face, which I don't care for except on very clean tones.

Pick attack is faster, the dynamics are different, on and on I could go.

But yeah, they can be useful. Not my cuppa meat, however, but the JC did sound great on that record I mentioned.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

It had an okay clean channel. But yeah I agree. I had the 100w head. That’s why I laugh when fucking Glenn Fricker goes on about it. Like dude, it’s a crap amp. Stop peddling garbage.

When Glenn Fricker gives advice, you have to pay really close attention, then do the opposite.

 

[paisleywookiee]

When Glenn Fricker gives advice, you have to pay really close attention, then do the opposite.

Would like to give a and a laugh reaction to this.

 

[ejecta]

For me and my tastes and not every one of them… but pretty much most amps that I didn’t like had Mesa and or Boogie on it.

 

[MatrixClaw]

It cuts in a band mix like you wouldn't believe and is great for hair metal/thrash/etc or the lead voice in heavy rock . It's an absolutely terrible basement/personal amp.

Oh, I'm sure it does, but man was that thing anemic in the room. The only way I could get any amount of low end or low mids was to just CRANK that power section, so it would saturate an add some low-end with the flub I wasn't even expecting anything crazy, I love the JCM800 and it has plenty of low content for me, but that amp was just lacking severely.

 

[Blix]

True, that's why I was curious!

The VC combos sound thicc, at least when they work.

Bland, flat, boring as hell, just doesn't do anything for me.

 

[BFRaid]

Can I also nominate the Gallien-Krueger 250ML? I really wanted to like this amp. The form factor and 100W of power were a huge plus. It just sounded absolutely anemic, no bottom whatsoever. No thump.

 

[ChordInversion]

Me too. One of my favorite recorded tones ever was The Cure's "A Forest" (in fact the whole record), and it was all Jazz Chorus.

My JC-22 and JC-40 are two of my favorite amps ever.

 

[Count_Drugula]

I owned a Fender TRRI and DRRI, hated both of them. I've played some sweet blackface vintage amps but these weren't that. Harsh and thin. I'll take a Bassman any day but I'm not a Fender fan. I actually would have preferred to keep my 1st tube amp, a Crate VC-30, but it kept falling apart.

Every Mesa I've owned has been super frustrating to me: Express 5:25; 3-channel Dual Rec, TA-30, F-50. Nice cleans and annoying dirt channels.

I won't even mention some of my first solid state amps that were pure trash.

 

[laxu]

An SS amp will have a faster slew rate than a tube amp, so it responds differently to transients (among other differences). So any solid state amp sounds fast and more in your face, which I don't care for except on very clean tones.

Pick attack is faster, the dynamics are different, on and on I could go.

But yeah, they can be useful. Not my cuppa meat, however, but the JC did sound great on that record I mentioned.

Many SS amps are like that, but it's not some universal truth. There's all kinds of designs to make the poweramp behave more like tube amps do.

Plus it's not like tube amps are the same either. If I run my Mesa Mark V's preamp into my Fryette PS-100, it has a lot of the qualities you attach to solid-state. It feels more immediate and very in-your-face compared to running the Mark V into its own poweramp. Even within that MKV poweramp, whether you run it at half power, 10W single ended, with or without variac, with tube vs diode rectifier, triode vs pentode the feel of it changes noticeably.

I remember back when I had the Bogner Goldfinger 45 SL, I really would've loved if it allowed per-channel power scaling because the "low voltage" mode felt much better on the clean channel - more "bounce" and "sweetness" to it at the same settings and volume.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Many SS amps are like that, but it's not some universal truth. There's all kinds of designs to make the poweramp behave more like tube amps do.

Plus it's not like tube amps are the same either. If I run my Mesa Mark V's preamp into my Fryette PS-100, it has a lot of the qualities you attach to solid-state. It feels more immediate and very in-your-face compared to running the Mark V into its own poweramp. Even within that MKV poweramp, whether you run it at half power, 10W single ended, with or without variac, with tube vs diode rectifier, triode vs pentode the feel of it changes noticeably.

I remember back when I had the Bogner Goldfinger 45 SL, I really would've loved if it allowed per-channel power scaling because the "low voltage" mode felt much better on the clean channel - more "bounce" and "sweetness" to it at the same settings and volume.

I played an old Roland BC-60/310 for a while, and it felt very much like a typical tube amp. There was even a switch that would approximate the sag from a tube rectifier. It did that pretty well, although I don't actually mind a tight and less forgiving output. But I also used a tweed Super I'd built, and a Carvin Legacy combo. Each were vastly different in terms of sag and attack. So there's certainly more to it than ss vs. tube.

 

[Stratzrus]

Can I also nominate the Gallien-Krueger 250ML? I really wanted to like this amp. The form factor and 100W of power were a huge plus. It just sounded absolutely anemic, no bottom whatsoever. No thump.

Years ago when it first came out I tried one of those in a small guitar store in West Chester, PA. I liked the form factor as well.

But as much as I tried to dial it in I couldn't get a tone out of it that I liked. It sounded small, thin, and very solid state in a bad way.

I didn't buy it.

 

[Count_Drugula]

I played an old Roland BC-60/310 for a while, and it felt very much like a typical tube amp. There was even a switch that would approximate the sag from a tube rectifier. It did that pretty well, although I don't actually mind a tight and less forgiving output. But I also used a tweed Super I'd built, and a Carvin Legacy combo. Each were vastly different in terms of sag and attack. So there's certainly more to it than ss vs. tube.

I had the BC-60 and it was a great amp, very tube-like but still a bit flat sounding. I just picked up a silver stripe Bandit and the TranTube thing does that too, another classic SS amp. My Splawn Pro Mod is a super tight and unforgiving amp and I've come to prefer that so maybe that;s why I don't mind using SS amps as much.

 

[Baba]

Years ago when it first came out I tried one of those in a small guitar store in West Chester, PA. I liked the form factor as well.

But as much as I tried to dial it in I couldn't get a tone out of it that I liked. It sounded small, thin, and very solid state in a bad way.

I didn't buy it.

I always thought those sounded like the amp equivalent to the OG Scholz Rockman.

The collector in me still wants one, though, lol

 

[BFRaid]

I always thought those sounded like the amp equivalent to the OG Sholz Rockman.

I wish. The one I played was probably 10 or so years ago. They only wanted $150 at a Mom & Pop, even at that price, I left it at the store.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I had the BC-60 and it was a great amp, very tube-like but still a bit flat sounding.

It definitely opened up with a clean boost or a TS9. Later on I'd run it thrown an oversized 1x12 cab loaded with an EVM12S. That was another improvement imo, at least for how I play.

 

[hehasthejazzhands]

I always thought those sounded like the amp equivalent to the OG Scholz Rockman.

The collector in me still wants one, though, lol

I really do think they ripped off Rockman with this amp lol. Similar distortion and clean tones, heavily compressed, always-on analog cab sim (probably due to using full-range speakers), a chorus and reverb/echo that sound exactly like the Rockman stuff.

I'm going against the grain though; I love the amp lol. I love that synthetic Rockman sound though. It also really shines when being ran through proper 12-inch guitar speakers, especially 2 for the stereo spread. Also takes a boost like a champ.

 

[PeteS]

One of those super tiny Boss Katanas. Good thing I got it for free.

 

[László]

Many SS amps are like that, but it's not some universal truth. There's all kinds of designs to make the poweramp behave more like tube amps do.

Though none have truly succeeded in this quest; why someone would actually buy a fake tube amp that doesn't sound like it's supposed to, when anyone can just go out and buy a real tube amp that sounds exactly like it's supposed to, is something I've never understood.

One day maybe someone can explain this to me, but some 60 years after the solid state Vox amps were introduced, I've tried a lot of SS amps designed to sound tube-like and remain unconvinced.

I don't know whether the Jazz Chorus was built to sound like a tube amp; if it was, it failed.

But it's a very good solid state amp that succeeds on its own terms as a solid state amp.