The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

[marqueemoon]

Also down for more Adrian Belew nerdy details.

Maybe in a separate thread?

[Maggieo]

I remember the tape from a Bears gig at First Avenue!

[fuzzjunkie]

Re dreadful amps: A Peavy solid state practice amp. Not sure of the model, but late ‘80s. The other was a Yamaha solid state amp from the ‘70s. Turned me off to the idea of transistors in amps for a long time.

Re Adrian Belew: I always loved his use of feedback. I have done the same with marking spots on the floor. Always thought his using a Foxx Tone with a JC-120 was insanely brave.

[tqi]

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[s_mcsleazy]

Here's one that might shock and appal - the Epiphone Valve Junior.

I finally got to try one near the end of their hype train and it sounded like a slug. Thick, slow and incredibly boring. A few years later, I eventually got to try out a VJHR head in a music shop. It sounded better as an amp than the original one I tried, but... I wanted it for one purpose.

And the reverb was broken. The guy in the shop tried to gaslight me into thinking it was there, which was ...weird. And he also got really freaked out when he realised I was using it as an outboard tank into another amp, which was also kind of ridiculous.

But yeah - the legendary Valve Junior. Hate it. Hate all of 'em.

i loved mine but i fully admit, it's not an amp for everyone. mine was modded for a master volume and i used to run it with a marshall lead 12 10" speaker cab which really focused the sound. this is the only photo i have on my imgur of mine but you can see what i was running.


i kinda find it weird how fast they all disappeared. i think most people just modded them heavily then when they realised it was more than the amp was worth to fix it, just threw it away.

[tqi]

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[sessylU]

Thick, slow

This is why I loved mine. I played it through through a Marshall AVT cab and it sounded great. Very thick, bassy, ballsy.

That AVT cab is a good'un too. I reckon they're a sleeper. Smaller than a 1960, but still a "proper" cab (as opposed to the MGs which always seemed a bit flimsy). The speakers seemed to be some variation on the G12K made specifically for this amp and are nice and bass/mid heavy, I think in order to fake a bit of valve warmth from the AVT head.

Perfect for me.

[jorri]

For me I'm going to say the ZT lunchbox.

Yeh i bought one, someone told me it was really loud, it wasn't. The tone was like a hifi or something, distortion was rubbish, had this weird phasing delay on it which was absolutely incomprehensible to me.

I'll go with an Orange tiny terror though. Thought it sounded pretty terrible, for a tube amp that seemed to have some interest a while ago. Of course I've played 'worse' like cheap marshalls but i think i chose one of those over this when i was at that particular rehearsal studio.

[Funkybot]

I'm just saying, if you're looking for headroom, the 5e3 is not the tool for the job. If you're looking for fat, swampy cleans that segue into fuzz, it is the tool for the job. Kind of a 1 trick pony but it does that one trick very, very well. If that's not the trick you're looking for though, not the best amp to pick.

Honestly, I built a tweed Champ after I built my tweed Deluxe, the Champ had a much longer segue into OD and stayed cleaner, longer than the Deluxe but the Deluxe lived gloriously on that line between fat cleans and OD and it was so easy to vary pick attack to move between the two.

Agree with all of this. I've been doing TONEX DI profiles of my 5E3 all week at a ton of different settings.

You can get clean tones out of a 5E3, but you really gotta be Johnny on the spot with the volume knob (or use low output pickups) and turn the knobs to strange places (2 on the channel I'm plugged into - 11 on the unused channel!). But if you just start at dirty and go up from there to fuzzy, it's terrific. Regarding mods: I've got 3 way switch on mine that adds negative feedback in one position, and bypasses the cathode bypass cap on the middle position (then of course stock). To the poster who suggested they were about to mod theirs, I'd warn that the differences aren't huge where suddenly you get a ton of clean headroom. It'll clean up a little, but it's not a night and day difference. You can get some jazzy tones out of it but it's not going to be a black or brown panel style clean. For those reasons, the 5E3 is both one of my favorite and least favorite amps at the same time. It does that one trick so very well that when you want classic rock American crunch, fuzz, and lead tones it's incredible. Neil Young swampiness? Great! Edgy drive tones? Sure. For anything else it's a big pile of meh.

The Champ on the other hand, is a thing of beauty. Cleans up for longer, transitions smoother. Great little amp. You don't get more simple than a Champ - and in a good way.

My most disappointing amp? I heard the Laney AOR30 was basically a poor man's JCM800 in a 1x12 30W combo. It's a big pile of meh.

[RumorsOFsurF]

I also never liked Blues Jrs and Hot Rods; boxy, glassy, anemic tone. They’re very loud, that’s about all there is to them. You’d be much better off with any Roland JC.

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist; there’s an obvious reason Blues Jrs and Hot Rods and DeVilles don’t sound that great. Why would Fender want to compete with its own, far more expensive, reissue range of amps?

When you delve into the schematics of those amps, you’ll find an amp seemingly designed to sound just kinda okay. They’re also clearly not built to last. For example, Blues Jrs are biased way too hot for their output tubes. That’s intentional. The only time I ever hear Hot Rods mentioned by musician friends is when they’re asking if anyone knows someone who fixes amps.

I've been playing through the same HR Deluxe since about 2006. I have other amps, but I've played about 99% of my gigs with that amp. Hundreds of gigs, I'd bet. It has been 100% reliable, and I think it sounds great for what I play. So YMMV, I guess. My 1971 Twin Reverb has been finicky, so it never made it to that number one spot. Plus it's like 100lb.

[hulakatt]

The Champ on the other hand, is a thing of beauty. Cleans up for longer, transitions smoother. Great little amp. You don't get more simple than a Champ - and in a good way.

I have a pair of Champs and I do love them dearly. Unpopular opinion but I prefer the SF Drip Edge over the tweed one. Slight preference but it's there.

[Brock the Mod]

I also never liked Blues Jrs and Hot Rods; boxy, glassy, anemic tone. They’re very loud, that’s about all there is to them. You’d be much better off with any Roland JC.

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist; there’s an obvious reason Blues Jrs and Hot Rods and DeVilles don’t sound that great. Why would Fender want to compete with its own, far more expensive, reissue range of amps?

When you delve into the schematics of those amps, you’ll find an amp seemingly designed to sound just kinda okay. They’re also clearly not built to last. For example, Blues Jrs are biased way too hot for their output tubes. That’s intentional. The only time I ever hear Hot Rods mentioned by musician friends is when they’re asking if anyone knows someone who fixes amps.

I've been playing through the same HR Deluxe since about 2006. I have other amps, but I've played about 99% of my gigs with that amp. Hundreds of gigs, I'd bet. It has been 100% reliable, and I think it sounds great for what I play. So YMMV, I guess. My 1971 Twin Reverb has been finicky, so it never made it to that number one spot. Plus it's like 100lb.

My tech I took my Pro Junior and Traynor too just put up a video of a Blues Junior he finished. I was actually very impressed how it sounded.

I think any of the Blues, Pro, Hotrod series has the potential to be good but they are built to break weirdly as you said. The bias on my Pro was very high, I hear thats common.

My twin is my #1 but fuckkkkkk the 100lbs

[Tafarel]

As I've gotten older I've tried to lug fewer lbs. when dragging an amp to a gig. With that in mind, I happened upon the Dr. Z Jetta. I played it in the store, it sounded great, was a great pedal platform as it turns out, and best of all, it was lightweight.

After playing it at practice it developed a rattle, which turned out to be the power tubes. I thought, "okay, it happens, I will just swap in some new tubes". Played it again for a couple of practices and it developed the same rattle. I got on the Dr. Z forum and solicited feedback, which ranged from, "get some of those rubber bumper rings" to "buy some Mil-spec tubes 'cos they can withstand anything" to "just live with it, it's a great little amp". WTAF? It didn't sound THAT good. So...

I took it to my local amp tech. He had it for a good week to try and figure out what was going on. He called me to say he was a bit mystified by the amp. The tubes checked out on his test equipment, except for the fact that they rattled in the Jetta. All he could really say about it is that the cabinet was so small and overly resonant that it caused a broken-in tube to eventually rattle. The same tubes sounded fine in one of his amps.

I am not sure that I entirely bought the theory, but I couldn't live with that sound, so I sold it on at cut-price and with the warning that the rattling problem would probably present itself. The buyer seemed happy enough and I've not heard from him in almost two years, so... yeah.

[OffYourFace]

Are they EL84s? If so they all rattle in small combos. Too close to the speaker. They need to be shock-mounted. I just worked on a newer Ampeg Jet for a friend. It has a metal bracket with heat resistant foam that screws into the chassis.

[Tafarel]

Are they EL84s? If so they all rattle in small combos. Too close to the speaker. They need to be shock-mounted. I just worked on a newer Ampeg Jet for a friend. It has a metal bracket with heat resistant foam that screws into the chassis.

No, this amp uses 7591 tubes. They are octal tubes. Not the easiest to find, but I had a new set on hand originally because I had a Supro that used them.