Discussion - Worst Sounding Amp You've Ever Owned...

[coolfeel]

For me it was an early 80's Fender Stage Lead Combo. At the time I was playing hard rock/metal and I acquired the amp through a buddy of mine in a package sale - the amp and a Kramer Striker. I was young and wanted to rock rock rock...lol Unfortunately the amp didn't rock to well - it had decent cleans but yuck was the distortion terrible! I used to run a Rat ProCo through the clean side and that was barely tolerable...

[MCChris]

This won't sit well with serial or BadgerDave, but a Line 6 Duoverb. Sounded so awful that i probably had it hooked up to the cabinet wrong (used the direct out or something, who knows). But then I played through Dave's, which I assume was hooked up right, and it sounded a little better, but not much.

[hamerhead]

Fender Super 60 head/cab. Rivera-era, red knobs. Clean channel wasn't Fendery, distortion channel was unusable.

[Disturber]

This, a Roland GA50. It sounded terrible. At least for a kid who was expecting a 100W Marshall, but could only afford a solid state Roland

I put a Celestion in it, and bought a BOSS HM2 pedal. I was expecting Eddie Van Halen to come out of the amp. Dissapointed!!

Then I switched to bass for a while, until I could afford my first Hamer and a real tube amp.

[Brooks]

sound city 120

[Lockbody]

Acoustic 160 head. After the second Marshall in a row went out on me, I decided I wanted to try a Mesa/Boogie, but didn't have the cash and let a store talk me into the acoustic. "It's just like a Boogie. Just like it."

Well, it wasn't.

[bcsride]

Whatever amp I am playing through seems to sound horrible - but I do continue to blame the amp.

[carfish7]

This IS the worst-sounding amp ever:

Luckily I got it as part of a CL package deal that included a 1965 Rickenbacker that had been butchered (since transformed by our own Murkat into something quite awesome), so it was worth the pain inflicted when I tried to use it as an amp. I have been trying to give it away ever since.........but it always returns somehow.

You can't imagine how horrible it is, and if you think you can, reach further into the horribility and then add some more.

[MCChris]

^^^

Pitch it into the drink. If it comes back after that, then something truly weird is going on.

[Armitage]

ENGL Savage. Sounded like a 6 watt tranny amp, badly mike'd.

[Tres Aardvarks]

This IS the worst-sounding amp ever:

Luckily I got it as part of a CL package deal that included a 1965 Rickenbacker that had been butchered (since transformed by our own Murkat into something quite awesome), so it was worth the pain inflicted when I tried to use it as an amp. I have been trying to give it away ever since.........but it always returns somehow.

You can't imagine how horrible it is, and if you think you can, reach further into the horribility and then add some more.

Holy cow!!! I borrowed one of those from my bass player (since I stored my only amp at his place rather than hucking it back and forth). It wasn't horrible as long as you didn't get anywhere near distortion..then yes, the horribleness was unreal!! Edit to add: my 3 year old LOVED playing his guitar through it!!!

My first guitar rig sounded like absolute SHITE! But what did a silly young bass player in junior high in the mid 80s know about not using a Peavey 15" bass combo for guitar...funny, my TurboRat sounded like poop through there too!!

[dragan]

Acoustic 460? ( bought because wisbone ash was using , never figured how they got a sound ) or early Gallen Kruger 112

[DBraz]

The little amp I got my Evm12l speaker from was pretty pants. Great speaker. Horrible little solid state amp with no character at all. It would win the sterile award. It sounded thin as hell without any quality to the thin-ness ( )

[zzzdat]

Mesa Boggie MKIIb, Hated it. Okay clean, good sustain on the lead channel, terrible mid gain sounds. I live in the mid gain type of sound and use my guitar volume to go from clean to mild overdrive, then boost with a pedal for more gain. This amp just would not do that. It had no personality at all. Just a very generic sounding amp, An amp should be organic and breath, and become as one in the guitar player. Not bad, but far from a great amp.

Cool Beans

Gene

[Jakeboy]

Crate palomino V4 tube amp. Just fizzy, noisy crap. It couldn't go back to GC fast enough.

[dragan]

Fender Super 60 head/cab. Rivera-era, red knobs. Clean channel wasn't Fendery, distortion channel was unusable.

I like the super 60 ! still have one (mines a combo). I was a cheap amp but I thought the distortion channel sounded good (I almost never like the od channel on amps ) , way better than my 80 cain front boogie which it replaced !( thought Id love it , was a wedding present from my wife , hated it from the first night ! ) still have it as well edited to say : the amp ,not my wife , still have her also ! edited again to say : the super 60 was the exception to the red knob fenders , it ran 2 6l6 , 212ax7 and a at7 phase inverter , a huge output tranny and a pretty cool speaker for fender , got good reviews at the time and was a GaryMoore endored amp designed by Jim Boe

[mc2]

A peavey solid state bass amp from around 1978. Got rid of it in 24 hours. POS.

Funny, I actually told that to Hartley Peavey at a NAMM Show when he asked if I'd ever tried a Peavey.

[LefThanDed]

Laney AOR 30 Combo (Too many "undocumented features" to mention...)

(One exception to Dean Markley: The RM 80 was really nice with a tube preamp. NOT part of the Spectra series)

[Hamersaur]

I still have this POS only because my Takamine sounds half decent through it on a totally clean setting. Otherwise this thing is useless.

[HSB0531]

Acoustic 140 head.

[The Shark]

_{Lab L-7. The worst sounding amp I ever owned. For a 4x10 with 100watts, it sounded tiny in the mix.}

[tomteriffic]

90% of the Dean Markley/Spectra stuff was gawdawful. BUT the original Dean Markley RM/SR Tube and hybrid stuff was top-flight. I still keep one 80-watt hybrid around because it sounds great and because the brand was sullied so badly by what came after.

Same with the original white Crate Vintage Club stuff, particularly the 20 and 30 watt ones. The trick on those, though, was to wind up the clean channel someplace north of 8.

Worst sounding amp for me was a Mesa Nomad. Maybe it was my expectations, but I just couldn't get a consistently good sound out of it after weeks and weeks of fiddling. It was the exact opposite of a Subway Rocket, which may have been the best sounding amp I've ever owned.

[Hfan]

Back in high schoolin the 70s, some weird SS amp from the early 70s. Worked out good though when I traded it and some unplayable Harmony guitar for this new 73 Tele that I still have.

[FrettyMcgee]

Thread jogged a terrible memory....

This stinky little number stuck with me for several years. It's the only piece of gear that I'll never be nostalgic over.

Parents got it for me when I was about 13 for X-Mas. Literally within a day, a family friend of a friend had a nice Carvin 2x12 tube amp combo he was willing to let go cheap...just buried the Peavey. The little mom and pop music store would not return the Peavey, even though it had literally not left the store's floor yet. This was the same music store that I was taking lessons from, and my parents had bought a couple guitars and countless strings and picks. At the time the store was the only game in town, so I guess they thought they could afford to be pricks.

I was happy when they folded in the mid 90s.

...second worst was a Mesa Dual Rectifier.

[tommy p]

Peavey Triumph.