Worst amp you have ever played

1983 Marshall JCM-800 4210 combo. The 1x12 combo version of the 2205, with a G12M-70 IIRC.

Horrible, terrible, no good, very bad amp. When I got it, it ran KT-88's. Modded to EL34's and made it a little better, but still an icepick with a very thin lead channel. Nothing like the amps I had tried at our 2nd hand shop locally. Shouldn't have bought that one online from MGR without trying.

Ended up trading it for a Carvin X100B, which was a better amp but still on the lower end of the amps I've had.

That Marshall was less fun to play than my Fender Frontman practice amp.
 
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.
 
Axe FX II. Wife just had our first baby, so I sold off my Diezel VH4 rig and bought the Fractal. Damn I hated that thing. Everything seemed simultaneously too bright/thin but boomy/muddy?

Probably user error though (currently have an Axe FX III that I really like, FWIW)
 
For me , especially for the price Fortim Natas , horrible I couldn't believe how thin and buzzy it was. I know it was geared for more dropped tune stuff but man what a disappointment.
Yeah that was the most disappointing amp I've tried also. I didn't think it sounded bad necessarily, but they were going for over $5k at the time when I tried it years ago and was expecting this next level sound, only to hear other less expensive amps like the Baron DHG I had at the time wipe the floor with it and it was even also was tighter and chunkier than the Natas
 
Carvin SX300 combo

or Laney AOR 50 Series 2.

I had the AOR much more recently. (Winter 2018/19 I think), so I can definitively say that thing was a POS for what I wanted. With its matching cab with G12M70s, and with a great sounding Greenback loaded cab. Just a shit amp.

The Carvin was a long time ago, and I bet I could make it sound much better today than I thought I could at the time.
 
As far as expensive stuff, every Fortin I've ever tried probably qualifies - they all sound like a Fisher Price children's keyboard trying to sound like my Larry.
The 2 Fortin's I tried (Natas and Meshuggah) were definitely the most disappointing of the expensive stuff for me, but other expensive amps that were disappointments for me were the Driftwood Purple Nightmare and all the Diezel's that came out after the Blueface basically (was especially disappointed with the Hagen, D-Moll and Lil Fokker)

Actually I forgot, the 2 most disappointing pricy amps I've tried were the Dynamo's and Kruse Quanah. Both worse than Fortin's. Both tried at the Music Zoo. This thread is making me recall all these bad sounding amps I long forgot about lol

Oh and also the Kustom Double Cross was a really awful sounding amp. More mid priced, but I had high hopes for it because it had good reviews at the time and James Brown (guy who designed the 6505's/5150's) designed it, so seemed promising, but was a mess of an amp
 
Mesa Nomad
Bwhahaha I bought a Nomad too.... was all excited and showed up at JDubs house with it on my way to a gig two hours later. I wasn't in the door more than 10 feet before he said "Why the fuck did you do THAT?" followed by " You could've bought my Shiva!" He fired up the Shiva and I was instantly defeated, not a good place to be on my way to the first gig with my new amp hahaha.... took the Nomad back the following day (fuckers only gave me store credit) and bought the Shiva from JDub. That was the beginning of the slippery slope to this day......the Nomad was horrible, I just didn't know it until knew it.
 
Hate to harp on the LIne 6 spider, but it was like a 40 watt combo. and maybe they sound good usually, and this one was broken. But it was my dad's amp, so he would tell me how good it sounded, how it had natural distortion. I was pretty new to distortion at the time, but I just felt I couldn't get a good sound out of it. He always like that insane button. Shit, no matter what gain button i pushed, or how i twisted the knobs, it was garbage. But it is like you say. You don't know what a good amp is supposed to sound like, aside from what you hear on the radio.
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
 
The 2 Fortin's I tried (Natas and Meshuggah) were definitely the most disappointing of the expensive stuff for me, but other expensive amps that were disappointments for me were the Driftwood Purple Nightmare and all the Diezel's that came out after the Blueface basically (was especially disappointed with the Hagen, D-Moll and Lil Fokker)

Actually I forgot, the 2 most disappointing pricy amps I've tried were the Dynamo's and Kruse Quanah. Both worse than Fortin's. Both tried at the Music Zoo. This thread is making me recall all these bad sounding amps I long forgot about lol

Oh and also the Kustom Double Cross was a really awful sounding amp. More mid priced, but I had high hopes for it because it had good reviews at the time and James Brown (guy who designed the 6505's/5150's) designed it, so seemed promising, but was a mess of an amp
I've never played a Dynamo, but holy shit some of the demos the maker/owner posts on HMAP on Facebook are absolutely AWFUL. Especially the solid state gigwhatever looking rack thing.

I've never played a purple nightmare but honestly the demos all sound okay 🤷‍♂️ Similar to KSR etc.
Bwhahaha I bought a Nomad too.... was all excited and showed up at JDubs house with it on my way to a gig two hours later. I wasn't in the door more than 10 feet before he said "Why the fuck did you do THAT?" followed by " You could've bought my Shiva!" He fired up the Shiva and I was instantly defeated, not a good place to be on my way to the first gig with my new amp hahaha.... took the Nomad back the following day (fuckers only gave me store credit) and bought the Shiva from JDub. That was the beginning of the slippery slope to this day......the Nomad was horrible, I just didn't know it until knew it.


I didn't make the mistake of buying one 😂 my best friend did, though. At the time I was ungodly poor, and owned a 100 watt Laney AOR with a carvin 1960a copy, and the Laney absolutely killed the nomad. Just mud mud mud mud HONK mud.
 
I've never played a Dynamo, but holy shit some of the demos the maker/owner posts on HMAP on Facebook are absolutely AWFUL. Especially the solid state gigwhatever looking rack thing.

I've never played a purple nightmare but honestly the demos all sound okay 🤷‍♂️ Similar to KSR etc.
Yeah the Dynamo was possibly the worst sounding expensive amp I’ve tried. Really disappointing

The Driftwood sounded quite good actually until I AB’ed it with my iic+ and Wizard and then it sounded pathetic in comparison. Sounded very polite, almost castrated in comparison. I liked the KSR Gemini I had more than the Driftwood, but wasn’t a keeper worthy amp ultimately for me either

Most of the expensive disappointing amps though to me were non-metal amps like all the Bruno’s, Sommatone’s, Two Rock’s, Victoria's and others that I don’t wanna remember. They all just sounded like flat/sterile versions of great amps that came out almost half a century ago now (or longer in some cases)
 
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Carvin SX300 combo

or Laney AOR 50 Series 2.

I had the AOR much more recently. (Winter 2018/19 I think), so I can definitively say that thing was a POS for what I wanted. With its matching cab with G12M70s, and with a great sounding Greenback loaded cab. Just a shit amp.

The Carvin was a long time ago, and I bet I could make it sound much better today than I thought I could at the time.
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.
 
Carvin SX300 combo

or Laney AOR 50 Series 2.

I had the AOR much more recently. (Winter 2018/19 I think), so I can definitively say that thing was a POS for what I wanted. With its matching cab with G12M70s, and with a great sounding Greenback loaded cab. Just a shit amp.

The Carvin was a long time ago, and I bet I could make it sound much better today than I thought I could at the time.
I once bought a 6 knob Laney AOR, or got it in a trade, can't remember. I do remember hearing a lot of guys raving about how it's a lot like a JCM800. That thing sounded like shit. Dry and harsh like being violated with sandpaper and no lube.

I took it to Glen Morris to fix the badly modded effects loop, and asked him to try and figure out why it sounded so bad. He said there's nothing actually wrong with it, they just sound like that. :poop:
 
Yeah the Dynamo was possibly the worst sounding expensive amp I’ve tried. Really disappointing

The Driftwood sounded quite good actually until I AB’ed it with my iic+ and Wizard and then it sounded pathetic in comparison. Sounded very polite, almost castrated in comparison. I liked the KSR Gemini I had more than the Driftwood, but wasn’t a keeper worthy amp ultimately for me either

Most of the expensive disappointing amps though to me were non-metal amps like all the Bruno’s, Sommatone’s, Two Rock’s, Victoria's and others that I don’t wanna remember. They all just sounded like flat/sterile versions of great amps that came out almost half a century ago now (or longer in some cases)
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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