What is the worst amp you’ve ever played?

ICBM · September 2023

BillDL said:

So THAT'S what "FAL" was an acronym for.

Yes - Futuristic Aids Ltd. Unfortunate, given what happened a few years later, although I suspect their reputation for awfulness had already done for them.

I got given a FAL Kestrel head a few years ago - it was a badly-built piece of junk really, but it did have a certain charm to it when (this may no longer surprise you...

) it was turned up full, including the reverb - it sounded like a sort of punk Ennio Morricone. To my great surprise, doing that didn't kill it either, despite me trying really quite hard to find its limit with a dummy load. So having proved it was guaranteeable enough to sell, I did

. I think I got £99 for it.

Kalimna · September 2023

I had one of these as my first amp. The clean was ok, reverb 'sprangy' from memory. But the pull-knob overdrive was a fizzy wasp nest of dry unpleasantness.

https://lifeguitars.co.uk/products/1981-roland-cube-60-electric-guitar-keyboard-amplifier

Penn · September 2023

Kalimna said:

I had one of these as my first amp. The clean was ok, reverb 'sprangy' from memory. But the pull-knob overdrive was a fizzy wasp nest of dry unpleasantness.

https://lifeguitars.co.uk/products/1981-roland-cube-60-electric-guitar-keyboard-amplifier

Has anyone been to life guitars?

ICBM · September 2023

Penn said:

Has anyone been to life guitars?

Attracted by a hilariously overpriced tatty example of a not-desirable amp, perhaps…

Kalimna · September 2023

Hey, it was the first picture I found on Google

nick79 · September 2023

Blackstar HT5 for me. Couldn’t get a sound out of it I liked and it kept breaking anyway. In the end I chucked out all the pcb stuff and kept the chassis and cabinet in the hope of one day using it for a diy amp build.

I did have an HT1 some years ago though that I did like.

nickaslin · September 2023

SquireJapan said:

For me it was the smallest Guerrilla amp they made - that's what I had with my first Yamaha RGX112 guitar (that was ace).

I'm amazed that I kept playing after having to live with that thing. Was very jealous of my friend's Park G10 - that did (and still does) kick arse.

It wasn't just quiet, it robbed the entire guitar of any life. Even from a noddy player like me.

That image transports me straight back to my high school music room - what a backline . .

OilCityPickups · September 2023

Penn said:

Barquentine said:

I've played plenty of terrible amps but, of those I've actually owned, the Peavey Bravo stands out as a particularly bad memory - an utterly dull, lifeless clean channel and an over-compressed weedy lead channel with not an ounce of bite to it. But the top of my list would be the Katana. It was like a library of the worst guitar tones ever created. What was even more amazing was the amount of people who claimed it was one of the greatest amps ever and better than their Marshalls, Deluxe Reverbs, AC30's etc. On the other hand there are people who think Mrs Brown's Boys is a great comedy show.

I am so glad to hear someone else doesn’t like Mrs Browns Boys. Just do not get it.

Funny how a few people have said about the katana when some people seem to think they are the best thing ever.

I had a micro terror. It wasn’t amazing and only did the orange sound but as a little toy amp it wasn’t the worst thing ever.

Katana is my main amp ... and the one that goes to guitar shows.

NelsonP · September 2023

Supportact said:

A little Sound City solid state combo I had as a teenager. It sounded awful but it was my first amp so I didn't have anything to compare it to. I didn't understand about overdrive at first so I was a bit disappointed it didn't make the noise I'd heard on records. Not that it helped when I managed to get hold of a Rocktek overdrive pedal and pair that with it. That sound I'd created there was possibly some kind of human rights violation towards whoever heard it.

Ha ha, I had the same sound city combo and fully agree that it was utterly crap. I used an Arion Metal Master into it. Imagine how that sounded!

Mine also broke.

Supportact · September 2023

NelsonP said:

Supportact said:

A little Sound City solid state combo I had as a teenager. It sounded awful but it was my first amp so I didn't have anything to compare it to. I didn't understand about overdrive at first so I was a bit disappointed it didn't make the noise I'd heard on records. Not that it helped when I managed to get hold of a Rocktek overdrive pedal and pair that with it. That sound I'd created there was possibly some kind of human rights violation towards whoever heard it.

Ha ha, I had the same sound city combo and fully agree that it was utterly crap. I used an Arion Metal Master into it. Imagine how that sounded!

Mine also broke.

Wow. If we'd have happened to jam together with those set ups we'd have probably inadvertently opened a portal into hell.

NelsonP · September 2023

Supportact said:

NelsonP said:

Supportact said:

A little Sound City solid state combo I had as a teenager. It sounded awful but it was my first amp so I didn't have anything to compare it to. I didn't understand about overdrive at first so I was a bit disappointed it didn't make the noise I'd heard on records. Not that it helped when I managed to get hold of a Rocktek overdrive pedal and pair that with it. That sound I'd created there was possibly some kind of human rights violation towards whoever heard it.

Ha ha, I had the same sound city combo and fully agree that it was utterly crap. I used an Arion Metal Master into it. Imagine how that sounded!

Mine also broke.

Wow. If we'd have happened to jam together with those set ups we'd have probably inadvertently opened a portal into hell.

Ha ha. Like in Stranger things!

Keefy · September 2023

Penn said:

Kalimna said:

I had one of these as my first amp. The clean was ok, reverb 'sprangy' from memory. But the pull-knob overdrive was a fizzy wasp nest of dry unpleasantness.

https://lifeguitars.co.uk/products/1981-roland-cube-60-electric-guitar-keyboard-amplifier

Has anyone been to life guitars?

Yes I went there a few weeks ago when Mrs Keefy and I had a day in Exeter. I thought they had a decent range of stock, likewise Project Music. That other shop on South St (I think) had gone and taken its comedy pricing with it.

Telejester · September 2023

Peavey Classic 30 combo. Overly bright pile of junk with THE worst circuit board design conceivable. I loved my Peavey mk1 5150 head when I had it, but the classic 30 combo just deserves to be smashed to bits by Glenn Fricker and his hammer of truth.

rickd2112a · September 2023

H&H 100W 2x12 Combo in 1980.
Most awful amp. Clean and spiky. Didn't take overdrives at all.

SpoonMan · September 2023

Worst one I've played through was a friend's stagg 30w combo.

He bought it new and it was cheap as chips, had everything you'd want on a guitar combo but it just sounded unpleasant really, to me.
He seemed to like it though and tbf could make it sound OK as a loud clean amp with his squire strat and his band sound good so maybe I'm just a gear snob

Nerine · September 2023

Some of these “awful” amps would probably sound absolutely killer micd up on a record.

I’m getting to the point where I believe there aren’t particularly many flavours of amplifier distortion.

A lot of amps sound VERY similar into the same cab with the same mics and positioning on it.

Put that into a mix and the differences are lost even further.

Which makes all these real high end amps seem a bit pointless to me. It’s the “shitty” ones mentioned in this thread which would actually sound interesting on record. Especially the real nasty ones. They’d sound heavy as fuck with the right pedals and stuff.

Possibly “horrid” in the room, yeah. But probably amazing in a mix.

NickB · September 2023

Nerine said:

Some of these “awful” amps would probably sound absolutely killer micd up on a record.

I’m getting to the point where I believe there aren’t particularly many flavours of amplifier distortion.

A lot of amps sound VERY similar into the same cab with the same mics and positioning on it.

Put that into a mix and the differences are lost even further.

Which makes all these real high end amps seem a bit pointless to me. It’s the “shitty” ones mentioned in this thread which would actually sound interesting on record. Especially the real nasty ones. They’d sound heavy as fuck with the right pedals and stuff.

Possibly “horrid” in the room, yeah. But probably amazing in a mix.

Isn't that any Marshall amp? ;-)

polotska · September 2023

Marshall MG15CFX is the worst I can remember, but more recently, the Boss Nextone Special was surprisingly dire.

The Mesa Fillmore must be the most disappointing. I’ve long hoped for a moderate-gain amp with two identical channels, and I thought it sounded great in online demos, so I expected to love it. When I finally tried one, I thought the clean sounds were fine (though unremarkable)—but it sounded terrible with any level of distortion. Two identical crap channels took it from single- to double-plus-ungood.

Flanging_Fred · September 2023

A couple of tiny practice amps like a Solec amp (my first) and a Yamaha Budokan, were bad but the one that stands out is a Vox ac4tv. That was so disappointing, harsh, fatiguing and simultaneously too loud to sound good for home practice and too quiet to play in a band with. Nasty.

ICBM · September 2023

Nerine said:

Some of these “awful” amps would probably sound absolutely killer micd up on a record.

I’m getting to the point where I believe there aren’t particularly many flavours of amplifier distortion.

A lot of amps sound VERY similar into the same cab with the same mics and positioning on it.

Put that into a mix and the differences are lost even further.

Which makes all these real high end amps seem a bit pointless to me. It’s the “shitty” ones mentioned in this thread which would actually sound interesting on record. Especially the real nasty ones. They’d sound heavy as fuck with the right pedals and stuff.

Possibly “horrid” in the room, yeah. But probably amazing in a mix.

I'm really not joking that some of the awful old solid-state amps mentioned really do sound very good, and probably more interesting than many valve amps, when they're turned right up. There's something that happens even with solid-state when the power stage is hammering the hell out of the speakers - even assuming the speakers are rated high enough, so won't blow - and the amp doesn't then die (which is a real risk with many). Not a versatile sound to be sure - usually in the punky/bluesy/Jack White type ballpark - but still a great sound, and actually quite hard to reproduce with pedals or modellers.

A punk band from the 70s who many of you will have heard of which I used to do some tech work for used a Carlsbro Stingray on all their early records. They've still got it, although both the guitarists use valve Marshalls on stage now... but I still think the Stingray sounds better *for their music*.

maltingsaudio · September 2023

BillDL said:

I'm posting from work so I can't look it up, but one of the "worst" amps I had was in the mid to late 80s when I bought a 2nd-hand 30 watt 1x12 combo that was covered with fuzzy grey carpet. Hughes & Kettner? I remember the panel and/or buttons lit up in a blue or green and it was all pretty fancy, but it just sounded far too "processed" and clinical for what I wanted at the time. I think it had a single valve in the preamp circuit and even though you could get some really saturated and fairly smooth lead sounds, I recall that I didn't like the clean or crunch sounds much. I traded it in against one of the many Peavey amps I went through around that time. I preferred their "roughness". Perhaps if I had to try one again after all these years I might actually like the sounds.

Sounds like an HK ATS 30, I had one and had it repaired by a BBC engineer, gave him the circuit diagrams and waited. 2 weeks later got a call saying I can’t get rid of the distortion on channel 2! When I got it back it was an absolute sweetie , really liked what he did to it. Still hacker after it now so if anyone has it , it’s got a big solder burn by the handle , give me a shout!

HAL9000 · September 2023

Close call between Boss Katana Mk 1, and Blackstar ID:Core. I think the ID:Core takes it - impossible to get a decent sound out of the thing.

HAL9000 · September 2023

nick79 said:

Blackstar HT5 for me. Couldn’t get a sound out of it I liked and it kept breaking anyway. In the end I chucked out all the pcb stuff and kept the chassis and cabinet in the hope of one day using it for a diy amp build.

I did have an HT1 some years ago though that I did like.

Strangely the HT5 sounds completely different (to my ears anyway) to all the other HT amps. It doesn’t sound like it belongs to the same series.

ICBM · September 2023

HAL9000 said:

Close call between Boss Katana Mk 1, and Blackstar ID:Core. I think the ID:Core takes it - impossible to get a decent sound out of the thing.

I found the Core unusably murky and claustrophobic, and the stereo effects sound like you’re wearing headphones wired out of phase… underwater.

Neither of them are as horrible as the Micro Terror though - that thing still gives me the shivers.

NicoAdie · September 2023

Marshall AVT100 without a shadow of a doubt. Wee practice amps get a pass from me because they’re basically always going to sound shit, but at least they have the decency to do so in occasionally interesting ways. The AVT100 however, horrible shrill cleans, horrible fizzy distortion channel, couldn’t take a pedal to save its life.

ICBM · September 2023

NicoAdie said:

Marshall AVT100 without a shadow of a doubt. Wee practice amps get a pass from me because they’re basically always going to sound shit, but at least they have the decency to do so in occasionally interesting ways. The AVT100 however, horrible shrill cleans, horrible fizzy distortion channel, couldn’t take a pedal to save its life.

I'll raise you the AVT150, which not only does all of that, it has a nearly unusable "acoustic" channel which the amp defaults to when powered up, so if you don't notice it's set to that instead of the normal clean channel - or there's a brief power-out for any reason - you spend a few minutes wondering why it sounds even more than usually shit.

Not only that, both have a lemming-like death wish and will set themselves on fire without much (or sometimes any) provocation. I've lost count of the number I've scrapped as being simply not worth the cost or hassle to repair.

Keefy · September 2023

ICBM said:

NicoAdie said:

Marshall AVT100 without a shadow of a doubt. Wee practice amps get a pass from me because they’re basically always going to sound shit, but at least they have the decency to do so in occasionally interesting ways. The AVT100 however, horrible shrill cleans, horrible fizzy distortion channel, couldn’t take a pedal to save its life.

I'll raise you the AVT150, which not only does all of that, it has a nearly unusable "acoustic" channel which the amp defaults to when powered up, so if you don't notice it's set to that instead of the normal clean channel - or there's a brief power-out for any reason - you spend a few minutes wondering why it sounds even more than usually shit.

...

That was what happened to me on a gig where an AVT150 was the provided backline. I spent half a song frantically checking my pedals and leads before I realised the amp had switched to its shittiest channel of its own accord.

NicoAdie · September 2023

ICBM said:

NicoAdie said:

Marshall AVT100 without a shadow of a doubt. Wee practice amps get a pass from me because they’re basically always going to sound shit, but at least they have the decency to do so in occasionally interesting ways. The AVT100 however, horrible shrill cleans, horrible fizzy distortion channel, couldn’t take a pedal to save its life.

I'll raise you the AVT150, which not only does all of that, it has a nearly unusable "acoustic" channel which the amp defaults to when powered up, so if you don't notice it's set to that instead of the normal clean channel - or there's a brief power-out for any reason - you spend a few minutes wondering why it sounds even more than usually shit.

Not only that, both have a lemming-like death wish and will set themselves on fire without much (or sometimes any) provocation. I've lost count of the number I've scrapped as being simply not worth the cost or hassle to repair.

My life is now quantifiably worse simply by having learned of this. Thank you.

Tex Mexico · September 2023

For me it was an early Blackstar 100 head. I was in a store at a time the Blackstar guys were in to promote their kit maybe 15 years ago, and got chatting to one of the guys, who spent the entire conversation slagging off Marshall. I tried out his head and matching cab, with a Strat and a Les Paul, and it was probably just bland and unremarkable - I remember the British/American tone dial thing being particularly uninteresting - but following as it did twenty minutes of the guy telling me their amps were brilliant and Marshall were pish, it really soured me on that amp and the whole brand. Never owned any of their products.

slacker · September 2023

Nerine said:

Some of these “awful” amps would probably sound absolutely killer micd up on a record.

I’m getting to the point where I believe there aren’t particularly many flavours of amplifier distortion.

A lot of amps sound VERY similar into the same cab with the same mics and positioning on it.

Put that into a mix and the differences are lost even further.

Which makes all these real high end amps seem a bit pointless to me. It’s the “shitty” ones mentioned in this thread which would actually sound interesting on record. Especially the real nasty ones. They’d sound heavy as fuck with the right pedals and stuff.

Possibly “horrid” in the room, yeah. But probably amazing in a mix.

A crap amp is a crap amp. It might be a subjective opinion but the fender HRD is awful imho.

So the first time I tried one was in Bristol at a harmony central jam. Nobody liked it. Someone demonstrated DAM pedals and they all sounded rubbish. Next day I heard a friend play in a band and I went to speak to him re his Cornford hurricane sounding off. He said look at my new amp a fender HRD. I played that thing often and never got it to sound good.

One day my friend sounded good with the hrd I went to speak to him and the hrd wasn't on and there was a Beringer modeller on the amp. Last time I played the amp it blew up and was replaced by a gorilla keyboard amp. It sounded better.

Some amps just sound good some don't. I played a solid state marshall that was great fun.

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What is the worst amp you’ve ever played?

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