Worst amp you have ever played

cardinal said:
Oh I forgot how much I hated the Matchless DC30. So unpleasant sounding. The regular Vox stuff was so much nicer IMHO.
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Once tried a Two Rock and a Milkman at some dudes house.
Talk about fucking over-priced, over-hyped BS.
I'd take a decent Fender Deluxe over both of them.
 
cardinal said:
Oh I forgot how much I hated the Matchless DC30. So unpleasant sounding. The regular Vox stuff was so much nicer IMHO.
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I had a Clubman 35 that was just awful. Matchless was my holy grail for years, and I finally got the opportunity to trade into one about 15 years ago. I drove a 10hr round trip and swapped my Black Cat 30 for it, and as soon as I got home and plugged the Matchless in, I was devastated.

To this day, it’s one of the most anemic amps I’ve ever played. I tried to make it work with my rig for several months, but I never did gel with it. Looking back, I wish I would’ve kept the Bad Cat, it ties with the my old Barber Echelon as the best sounding amp I’ve ever owned.
 
[ Donnie B. ] said:
Once tried a Two Rock and a Milkman at some dudes house.
Talk about fucking over-priced, over-hyped BS.
I'd take a decent Fender Deluxe over both of them.
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Ah yeah I forgot about Milkman. I AB’ed it (the creamer model) with a real ‘65 Deluxe Reverb and it mopped the floor with the milkman and was also cheaper. Even the guy at the store clearly knew it, but just didn’t say anything. It basically sounded like a sterile recording of the deluxe reverb sitting next to it. It totally lacked all the sparkle, dynamics and life of the ‘65 Deluxe Reverb. I felt embarrassed for that amp. As great those old Deluxe’s are though I found the ‘64 Vibroverb to still be the king and head and shoulders above the other models for the sparkly Blackface cleans and lush reverb

Two Rock’s are probably the most overpriced amps I can think of (the ones I tried ranged between 6-10k), although those Fortin’s still weren’t far behind in that regard
 
Out if the higher dollar amps I’ve played that voicing I can’t stand is the Revv Generator 120 mkiii. Has this low mid thing going on and a really smooth top end which to me can sound muddy. I find it also lacks that punch and dynamics compared to other amps.
 
LanierP said:
Peavey Backstage Plus. My first amp. There was no possibly way to dial out the 'MUD' on this amp, even with the bass knob at 0! And the distortion just embarrassing. This amp nearly caused me to give up on guitar completely at the very beginning. Luckily, a friend at work talked me in to driving up to ACE Music in Miami and buying the new rack amp that Mesa Boogie had just released, the Studio Preamp with a 295 simulclass power amp. Had to mow lawns in South Florida for 6 months to pay off the credit card but what an upgrade!!!! Still have the rig too. My first Real amp!
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Holy shit!! Busted out laughing reading this!! Backstage plus was my first amp too!’ Horrible!!
Bought a DOD American Metal pedal. Made world of difference. Well at least to a 15 year kid! There was not much to choose from early 80s that was affordable to someone had to buy their own gear. Worked lots of odd jobs. Field work. Grass cutting. Trimming.
wouldn’t change a thing though. 😎
 
Smashedguitarist said:
I am glad someone brought this up
I used to see these on CL all the time. I always wondered what they were trying to be. I think they were some clone of something
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Not a clone. An original design by Bruce Egnater.

Mine sounded great, but Chinese built/Cheap Chinese components made it unreliable so I got rid of it.
 
ZEEGLER said:
Chinese built/Cheap Chinese components made it unreliable so I got rid of it.
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China has nothing to do with it.
The brand budgeted a low BOM cost for the amp so it was built accordingly.

How's your cell phone or the computer your using right now holding up?
 
To pile in on the Spider (I use one sometimes in my band's jam room rather than bring my own stuff), I really dislike how the EQ controls "reset" and a random effect will be added when changing to another amp model, always thought that was a really bad design choice.
 
cecilbag said:
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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That amp is VERY hard to dial in and there's a lot of room for error, but there's a spot on the dials that sounds good. Ola made it sound pretty chunky and brutal in one of his vids.
 
mhenson42 said:
Krank Krankenstein
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cecilbag said:
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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AGREED! I remember back in late '06-'08 when they were endorsing a ton of metalcore bands I liked at the time and then they released the KT88 version so I jumped on it. Fkn terrible amp. Sounded so harsh. You couldn't dial out any of the fizz. Not much thump, although not quite thin either. So funny how much of a legend Dime is yet had the worst sounding signal chain ever! (minus the Digitech Whammy and Furman PQ3). Just goes to show you its all in the playing.
 
Dollar vs. tone, I'd agree that Two Rock is at the bottom of the list. I played one, I forget the model, that was $5-6K and it was unbelievably underwhelming. Couldn't comprehend anyone spending that money on one.
 
anomaly said:
That amp is VERY hard to dial in and there's a lot of room for error, but there's a spot on the dials that sounds good. Ola made it sound pretty chunky and brutal in one of his vids.
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I'm not sure how similar the Krankenstein is to the Revolution, but that's exactly as I would describe my Rev 1. It's got some awesome tones in there, but they're tricky to find, and the amp is VERY picky about what speakers you pair it with. When you get it right, it's very chunky and aggressive with massive low end thump. Definitely NOT muddy.
 
ZEEGLER said:
I'm not sure how similar the Krankenstein is to the Revolution, but that's exactly as I would describe my Rev 1. It's got some awesome tones in there, but they're tricky to find, and the amp is VERY picky about what speakers you pair it with. When you get it right, it's very chunky and aggressive with massive low end thump. Definitely NOT muddy.
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Yup, they dial in in a very similar manner too. The Krankenstein is based off of a modified Revolution head that Dime used live. They (Krankenstein) have a lot of sweep on the dials, so it's easy to sound bad, but they can sound huge and very clear when used right.
 
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