Worst amp you have ever played

DanTravis62 said:
I've been really disappointed with the dumbloid amps gain sounds, for sure.

The Brunos and Tworocks I've played all had a lovely fendery clean, but the gain sounds were awful. Loose, honkey, etc.

OTOH, I've loved the matchless, tophat, and other high end non-metal amps I've owned. I still have a 93 Clubman (with the 6at6/6sh7 pre) and an excellent scripty Tophat club royale that I love but need to sell.
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From my experience those amps will only have lovey fender-y cleans until AB’ed with a real ‘60’s Blackface and then they sound quite sterile/flat comparatively. I have a ‘64 Vibroverb that’s kinda spoiled me with that style of cleans. King of the blackfaces. I’ve not been too impressed with all the Dumble clones either. The Bludotone was the best one I’ve tried, but still pathetic compared to the real Dumble I tried last year

To be honest I wasn’t too impressed with the Top Hat and Matchless either. Not bad by any stretch, actually pretty good, but just imho better stuff out there. For non-metal amps my favorites/keepers (which you can see in my sig) have been my Gjika, ‘67 Plexi, ‘80 Jim Kelley, ‘63 Vox AC30 Top Boost, Hiwatt DR103 and ‘64 Fender Vibroverb. Of course a Dumble or Trainwreck would be there too if I could actually afford those. For everything in between high gain and cleans the only amps I use now are just my Gjika, ‘67 Plexi and Jim Kelley. I feel they are head and shoulders above everything else I have for those uses. There’s a lot of “nice” boutique amps made today, but life’s too short for that crap. I only care about the exceptional ones beyond just “nice”
 
ZEEGLER said:
100% agree.

I bought a brand new one for $200. It was not worth $200.

It was gritty and abrasive sounding, and very cheaply built.
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fuck. Now i dont know what i want to buy windsor head with matching cab or line 6 head with matching cab.... I aim to have the shittiest amp ever made. I don't gig, but I will make an exception if i can gig with one of these combinations.
 
rottingcorpse said:
ISP THETA head. Was convinced it was the future of solid state amps. Was soooo looking forward to it. Super tweekable,cool looking,etc. Worked that bitch for months trying to get a good distorted tone before handing it off to a best bro,who spent a month with it before he also gave up and gave it back to me.
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This is a real pisser. For a guy that just wanted one person to come out with a boutique rip your face off solid state head, I almost took the plunge so many times. There were enough bad reviews-and the price-to stay my hand. I would pay 2gs all day if someone gave their best to a solid state death metal amp. Even recreating the vh140 with quality parts. But it has to sound good, too
 
I really liked the Fortin modded Marshall VM I had years ago, flipped it because that's what I do when I dial an amp just right... and then quickly sought to get another Fortin.
So I way overpaid to get the lunchbox Fortin last Spring mailed from Germany as they were the only retailer who had one. I couldn't flip it fast enough and lost a boatload of cash doing it. The preamp tones were decent but the power section was the worst thing I ever experienced. Total small tube fart machine at tv volumes, wtf. By comparison, the similar small glass Invective mh is surprisingly amazing.
 
crankyrayhanky said:
I really liked the Fortin modded Marshall VM I had years ago, flipped it because that's what I do when I dial an amp just right... and then quickly sought to get another Fortin.
So I way overpaid to get the lunchbox Fortin last Spring mailed from Germany as they were the only retailer who had one. I couldn't flip it fast enough and lost a boatload of cash doing it. The preamp tones were decent but the power section was the worst thing I ever experienced. Total small tube fart machine at tv volumes, wtf. By comparison, the similar small glass Invective mh is surprisingly amazing.
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The Sigil is legendary in a couple Facebook groups for it's general tonal badness and QC issues 🤷‍♂️
 
dainbramage0 said:
wern't you just learning to hold a guitar pick when you were playing that amp? might have been user error, you should revisit.
worst amp ive played was a wziard. you had to be in the room to hear it
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I actually feel like it is only fair that I revisit it. I think i could make it gigworthy for sure.
 
braintheory said:
braintheory said:
From my experience those amps will only have lovey fender-y cleans until AB’ed with a real ‘60’s Blackface and then they sound quite sterile/flat comparatively. I have a ‘64 Vibroverb that’s kinda spoiled me with that style of cleans. King of the blackfaces. I’ve not been too impressed with all the Dumble clones either. The Bludotone was the best one I’ve tried, but still pathetic compared to the real Dumble I tried last year

To be honest I wasn’t too impressed with the Top Hat and Matchless either. Not bad by any stretch, actually pretty good, but just imho better stuff out there. For non-metal amps my favorites/keepers (which you can see in my sig) have been my Gjika, ‘67 Plexi, ‘80 Jim Kelley, ‘63 Vox AC30 Top Boost, Hiwatt DR103 and ‘64 Fender Vibroverb. Of course a Dumble or Trainwreck would be there too if I could actually afford those. For everything in between high gain and cleans the only amps I use now are just my Gjika, ‘67 Plexi and Jim Kelley. I feel they are head and shoulders above everything else I have for those uses. There’s a lot of “nice” boutique amps made today, but life’s too short for that crap. I only care about the exceptional ones beyond just “nice”
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I could probably live off your scraps like a sewer rat in the gutter..
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DanTravis62 said:
Lol this is kind of irrelevant. Any decent player can make just about ANYTHING sound passable.

I thought that was a prerequisite for discussions like these?
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You are probably correct. But being that the LIne 6 was my first foray into high gain, if you can call it that, as much as my skills have developed over this time, so have my ears...So I am not 100% sure that I could play the thing longer than 10 minutes. I don't have patience for shit. I didn't last long with the yamaha thx or whatever.
 
Smashedguitarist said:
You are probably correct. But being that the LIne 6 was my first foray into high gain, if you can call it that, as much as my skills have developed over this time, so have my ears...So I am not 100% sure that I could play the thing longer than 10 minutes. I don't have patience for shit. I didn't last long with the yamaha thx or whatever.
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If you didn't last long with the Yamaha TH series a line six Spyder is going to sound like fried asshole to you 😂😂😂
 
Racerxrated said:
I almost forgot about a Voodoo modded Laney AOR....that one might be worse than the Randall RD100. An eq in the loop couldn’t save it. Shitbox with tubes.
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It was a real weird thing. It was grating, but also inarticulate. Big bottom end, but just flubby crap.

I was disappointed because I had a series One that I actually liked a fair bit. But after the S2 I will never go back.
 
SoooRad said:
It was a real weird thing. It was grating, but also inarticulate. Big bottom end, but just flubby crap.

I was disappointed because I had a series One that I actually liked a fair bit. But after the S2 I will never go back.
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I had this one before I was here on RT, and before I had any type of tube stash or ability to bias my own amps. Maybe it would've been better had I been able to tube roll/check bias? But, when I put it on eBay it was gonzo in half a day.....it had a global EQ, resonance and a few bright switches, but damn if I couldn't find a decent tone at all...
 
crankyrayhanky said:
I really liked the Fortin modded Marshall VM I had years ago, flipped it because that's what I do when I dial an amp just right... and then quickly sought to get another Fortin.
So I way overpaid to get the lunchbox Fortin last Spring mailed from Germany as they were the only retailer who had one. I couldn't flip it fast enough and lost a boatload of cash doing it. The preamp tones were decent but the power section was the worst thing I ever experienced. Total small tube fart machine at tv volumes, wtf. By comparison, the similar small glass Invective mh is surprisingly amazing.
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I know this feeling. My first real boutique amp was a blue soldano avenger 100watt. I posted it on reverb for way too much after Soldano llooked like he was going to retire and someone bought it. Then I bought a Slo, Diezel, Bogner, etc. That avenger wasn't the best amp in the world. But i really would love to have it back. I tried to get another one, and it was a 50 watt version and never lived up to the original. Maybe it was the transformers..
 
Smashedguitarist said:
I know this feeling. My first real boutique amp was a blue soldano avenger 100watt. I posted it on reverb for way too much after Soldano llooked like he was going to retire and someone bought it. Then I bought a Slo, Diezel, Bogner, etc. That avenger wasn't the best amp in the world. But i really would love to have it back. I tried to get another one, and it was a 50 watt version and never lived up to the original. Maybe it was the transformers..
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There are some Avengers in the wild that came with the SLO DeYoung transformers...maybe yours had them?
 
Krankestein +. I got a matching half stack and couldn’t get a decent tone out of it no matter what. It was like the full sweep of the knobs did very little to get away from the awful, muddy distortion. The cab wasn’t half bad with other amps but that head sucked ass
 
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