The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by Ceylon » Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:37 pm

I used to have the loan of my uncle's and later my friend's semi-famous blues guitarist dad's 60s Fender Bassman and while it didn't sound bad at all I never once felt like it was an amp I would have to have. Nothing about it stuck out to me as being all that awesome or impressive. Which was disappointing mostly because it was a 60s Fender Bassman and I expected more.

Maybe I'd feel different about it today, but an old Vox AC50 that I was able to play a lot on around the same time definitely had more of that wow-effect and I regret not trying harder to buy that one.
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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by mynameisjonas » Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:37 pm

budda12ax7 wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2024 5:51 pm
Marshall 100 Watt JCM 2000......complete piece of shite.......returned in 4 days after I bought it....
I played one at a gig one time, I had a really hard time getting a ‘Marshall’ sound out of it. Ended up just using the clean channel and getting the crunch from pedals instead. It sounded better, but it was still very disappointing.

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Fri Mar 29, 2024 4:55 am

every time i've tried a fender 65 reissue/68 custom in a shop i've thought they sound *okay* but then either the reverb or tremolo stops working.

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by crazyzeke » Fri Mar 29, 2024 11:55 am

Vox AC30
One of the Korg reissues from early 2000s. I bought it just before I went to university, I think gigged it a few times, never got along with it. I figured if it was good enough for Brian May it'd work for me but no, not at all. It was loud, the cleans could be good but there was no dynamic, no headroom, I assume partly because of the GZ34 rectifier. Not a great pedal platform either. Genuinely easy choice to sell that one. First proper valve amp, too, after nothing but solid state.

Orange AD30
Family member owned this one, and it was no different from the others I've tried - flat, uninspiring cleans, gains that sounded too smooth as if all the hard edges had been filed off. I think that's just what they're like!

Peavey Classic 30
Not so much for the sound - they can sound great, way louder and better for rock than they look from the size - but for how unreliable they are. I used to work in a guitar amp shop retailer/repairer on Denmark Street years ago and these were always coming in barely functional with rattling tubes and blown parts on the boards. They get so hot so quickly, that and the vibration from the speaker just makes them kill themselves I think.

---

I notice a bunch of people have chosen JCM800/900/2000 series amps and I find those really variable - you can happen across great sounding examples just as easily as ones that sound awful, regardless of bias/tube choices. For me I've found that the further they went from the Bassman clone circuit the less they have the right tone even for nice examples though - towards the end of the late 80s they changed the circuit a lot and they started to get really bright, I would guess partly because that would work best to balance out active pickups.

The last great Marshall for me after the JMP (I had 2 of those, the 50w was amazing) was probably the Silver Jubilee 1987x, later re-branded and re-released as the Slash Signature, even with (or perhaps because of) the use of clipping diodes in circuit, it's a genuinely great sounding amp with a half decent clean; classic Marshall problem of not enough headroom though, gain pedals can barely boost the volume even when you crank their volume controls up.

Some of the DSLs/TSLs/JVMs I've played since can be alright, but there are easier and cheaper ways to get the Marshall tone now, and that's good because when you open post-2000s ones they are full of circuit boards including valves sockets being mounted to a PCB, which I hate to see as it can be another point of failure. Even Laney don't do that (I love Laney stuff but the build quality isn't always the best).
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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by shoule79 » Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:37 pm

1976 Fender Vibrolux. Traded an AC30cc2 for it, and quickly wished I hadn’t. All stock, but sounded flat and lifeless. Took it to my tech, didn’t come back any better. Decided to cut my losses.

My kid and one of his friends keep borrowing my old Blues Jr to jam, and I can’t believe how bad the amp sounds with how they have it set. Just boxy mud. I don’t struggle with it, so I’m attributing it to them not be experienced with eq’ing an amp and using cheap humbuckers.

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by walterwiseman » Thu May 16, 2024 1:02 pm

Not sure about most disappointing as I hadn't even heard of it before, but I went to the recently opened Gibson Guitar Garage while visiting London last week and played a few ES-335s through a Mesa Boogie Fillmore head. Not sure if it had anything to do with the loadbox they were running it through, but left me completely cold.

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by JSett » Thu May 16, 2024 9:57 pm

shoule79 wrote:
Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:37 pm
1976 Fender Vibrolux. Traded an AC30cc2 for it, and quickly wished I hadn’t.
oooof, that's a gut-wrenching mistake right there (especially considering what a Vibrolux is worth these days). I wish I hadn't sold my 66 :fp:
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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by crazyzeke » Fri May 17, 2024 2:08 am

walterwiseman wrote:
Thu May 16, 2024 1:02 pm
Not sure about most disappointing as I hadn't even heard of it before, but I went to the recently opened Gibson Guitar Garage while visiting London last week and played a few ES-335s through a Mesa Boogie Fillmore head. Not sure if it had anything to do with the loadbox they were running it through, but left me completely cold.
Good choice of words - one of the oldest criticisms of Dual Rectifiers years ago was they didn't sound as good as their reputation and the technical reason was the tubes were biased very cold compared to other, similar amps.
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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by walterwiseman » Fri May 17, 2024 3:04 am

crazyzeke wrote:
Fri May 17, 2024 2:08 am
Good choice of words - one of the oldest criticisms of Dual Rectifiers years ago was they didn't sound as good as their reputation and the technical reason was the tubes were biased very cold compared to other, similar amps.
I don't have much experience with Boogies, but I think that must be it. It was a pretty small open space and there were a couple finely-dressed finance gents nearing pension-age in the custom shop corner who I didn’t want to disturb, so I wasn't able to crank it, but I felt that I get more "warmth" from my 80’s Jazz Cube. Funnily enough, I didn't see any Rectifiers but they did have the Mark VII which I regret not trying.

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by crazyzeke » Fri May 17, 2024 3:20 am

walterwiseman wrote:
Fri May 17, 2024 3:04 am
crazyzeke wrote:
Fri May 17, 2024 2:08 am
Good choice of words - one of the oldest criticisms of Dual Rectifiers years ago was they didn't sound as good as their reputation and the technical reason was the tubes were biased very cold compared to other, similar amps.
I don't have much experience with Boogies, but I think that must be it. It was a pretty small open space and there were a couple finely-dressed finance gents nearing pension-age in the custom shop corner who I didn’t want to disturb, so I wasn't able to crank it, but I felt that I get more "warmth" from my 80’s Jazz Cube. Funnily enough, I didn't see any Rectifiers but they did have the Mark VII which I regret not trying.
I think the biasing depends on the Boogie - probably the ones closer to the Bassman circuits don't have that problem, but I see so few Mesas in the UK and I've only been able to use the Dual and Triple Rectifiers so my experience is limited. But I do remember Bob from Eurotubes took some kind of Rectifier and put the bias closer to what a Marshall or Fender would be, and the tone improvement was pretty huge. Perhaps Randall designed them with cold bias on the power tubes to encourage longevity but if they lack any warmth at all there's really no point using a tube amp. I'd rather the tubes wore out a bit quicker and the tone was always good, not that it sounded as lifeless as a bad transistor amp.
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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by walterwiseman » Fri May 17, 2024 4:54 am

Completely with you on that!

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by hulakatt » Fri May 17, 2024 5:07 pm

shoule79 wrote:
Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:37 pm
1976 Fender Vibrolux. Traded an AC30cc2 for it, and quickly wished I hadn’t.
I too traded a perfectly good sf ('72) Vibrolux Reverb for something I thought was better and instantly regretted it. I traded mine for an sf Princeton Reverb and if it weighed 10 lbs, it was 10 lbs of crap. Princeton Reverbs are the only amps I've played were I've found the RI's to be a vast improvement over the vintage originals I've played.

I've heard so many times of people only realizing that the Vibrolux Reverb was the perfect amp right after they traded it away. It really is the best amp you just got rid of.
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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Sat May 18, 2024 6:19 am

am i wrong in thinking that shoule79 did NOT like the vibrolux? that's how i read that post

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by cestlamort » Sat May 18, 2024 6:30 am

MechaBulletBill wrote:
Sat May 18, 2024 6:19 am
am i wrong in thinking that shoule79 did NOT like the vibrolux? that's how i read that post
And traded a Vox AC30 to acquire the disappointing Vibrolux.

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Re: The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

Post by redchapterjubilee » Sat May 18, 2024 11:58 am

I dunno. I was super happy to move a 73 Vibrolux along for a Moyer-modded Custom Vibrolux Reverb.

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