What's the worst tube amp you've ever heard?

[Arthur Dent]

Yes! Steve, I knew there was a reason I like you!

I hate Ampeg bass amps. Disgusting tone stack, and generally awful preamp.

It's funny how people keep picking up old Ampeg guitar amps, because no one liked them back in the 70's! Too clean sounding. Everett Hull hated loud rock music.

I did like my Ampeg B-15N, but that was a one trick pony, and it never had a very good low end or top end. But it was pleasant sounding, and did a decent job reproducing what ever you plugged into it. Can't say that about the SVT.

My Mesa Boogie 400+ bass amp mops the floors with any all tube Ampeg, both in wattage and versatility.... but it's also way too heavy. So I usually use my solid state Trace Elliott combo.

David, how is the B-15N a one-trick pony? In my opinion, it does a pretty good bass tone, if a little lacking on the low end. If you have a proper speaker in it, it's a very smooth-sounding amp.

Plug in a relatively high-output guitar and crank it, and does a truly beautiful overdrive. I believe I have yet to hear a more sonically pleasing light overdrive from anything over 20 watts.

Your pickups sound especially nice through that amp.

~Andy Gamble

[txstrat]

I think good tone is also (partly) a matter of personal taste and the music you're about to play with it.
I myself like the tone of the B15-N very much. Just listen to all the Blues Brothers recordings or several other things "Duck" Dunn came up with. I learned that he recorded all his stuff with one of those for a long time. Keeping that in mind I think the amp is quite versatile. Although I miss just a bit high end in it for funk stuff.
But regarding to the topic, the worst tube amp I've ever heard was the clean channel of a JCM800 split channel (I believe it was a 4210 or something similar). Cold, harsh and everything but dynamic.

Matt

[crunchy]

Pignose G-40

I heard a Chinese made Pignose G-40 recently. The sound was tinny and not unlike a small 1960's transistor radio. I have read some comments on the interweb that regarded them well but the one I heard made my eyes squint and my face wrinkle up.

[DCinDC]

I heard a Chinese made Pignose G-40 recently. The sound was tinny and not unlike a small 1960's transistor radio. I have read some comments on the interweb that regarded them well but the one I heard made my eyes squint and my face wrinkle up.

I've got three of these. You need to turn down the mid control almost all the way. Then the other tone controls work "normally".

Hardly the worst I've heard. Great cheap mod platform. Easilly the BEST very small tube amp.

[crunchy]

I have heard they are great with a tweak or two. Next time I have an opportunity to handle one I'll give your suggestion a try.

[DCinDC]

It's basically a little Bassman. It's smaller than a Pro Junior, has 40 watts, many more controls, and a 10" speaker. I got one of them used for $120. The stock speakers aren't bad, but are biased towards surviving rather than tone.

With a GOOD speaker and good tubes, they are gems.

If it had reverb, I'd sell my 30 other amps.

I have the big brother G60-RV too.

[bauhaus]

135 W Twin

Why has nobody mentioned this one? At least the Mesas can do one thing (arguably) well. I had to play a 135W Twin way back in my junior high jazz band, and I have never encountered another amp that made me want to take a bath with a toaster oven quite like that one. Granted, I'm sure there are some Peaveys and Crates that sound pretty awful, but the guys at Fender really should have known better.

[shredhead]

Any amp built after the 70's lacks that true tube tone. The older the better!

[Gtr_tech]

"... built by a guy who claims to have invented - and tried to patent - everything including the weak nuclear force! ..."

That was the thing that convinced me that I hated MB.

My most hated tube amp was a Mesa Studio .22.

The main reason I hate Mesa Boogie, NICKELBACK!

HAHAHA! Yes......Nickelcrack sucks the ass.
"Your tone never sounded so....ordinary......"

Hmmm....bad sounding tube amps. Most Mesas except for the DC5, thats a decent sounding amp. Pignose G40v....bloody awful design. Put a pedal in front of it and it squeals just like a real pig! No grid stopper on the first stage IIRC. Carvin X-amps from the mid 80s.....OD ch sounds like a dist pedal with a dead battery....yuck. I used to buy these all the time for chump change. At one time I had so many X heads I used them for speaker stands in my home stereo! But, they *can* be made into great sounding amps if you know what to do. I have gigged out an '86 X head that I redesigned/rebuilt the front end in for 15 years. *Never* let me down once and I always get compliments on my tone. And the footswitchable FX loop is very nice, as is the active EQ.

Any Mar$hall tube amp after the JCM800 is naff. And the Acoustic tube amps (the brown ones) are pretty bad too......OD tone resembles a wet fart. Awesome! Not.....

And the award for most ridiculous design goes to.......Carvin for the Quad-X preamp! Just look at the schemo......maybe they had a huge surplus of 12ax7 tubes and the designer was ordered to find a way to use up the stock? I rebuilt mine and it sounds great now....with only 3 stages in the OD channels and a high V plate supply.

[Gibsonman63]

I have a couple of mid-eighties Marshall 800's that will rip and roar, but I digress.

My least favorite tube amp that I have owned is the Blues Jr, but bear in mind the rest of my arsenal is vintage Fenders and Marshalls. To me the Blues Jr was boxy sounding. There are tons of mods for them, but based on the construction, it seemed like a lot of work when I could be putting my time, effort and dollars into something that would sound great instead of just pretty good.

[imaradiostar]

I've watched this thread for a while, thought I'd weigh in.

Maybe I've spent too many hours studying schematics in the wee hours but I don't think it's fair to make an "all mesas suck" or "all mesas except _____" suck statement. I have owned a DC-5 and a mark IV and I'd take the DC-5 over the mark IV any day. I think it depends on what kind of music you like to play. While I couldn't ever use it in a Hendrix cover band I love the sound of a single rect or a two channel dual rect for 311 covers or any of a number of metal or 90's hard rock sounds. That cold cathode stage adds a sizzle that's useless for classic rock but makes all the difference for the heavy crunch sounds that some people love.

Dunno if this means anything to anyone but my DC-5 didn't sound decent till the output section was working hard. It was strange- I used to bring the hotplate to kill volume even though the power section was still clean. Tough to pin down what was going on there.

How about the valve junior? Sure, they're a decent platform for mods but in stock form they're pretty miserable amps. That said, it's funny how few steps there are from valve junior to any of a number of high priced single ended amps.

I don't know why people are down on amps like the SVT or B15- you can't argue with all the thousands upon thousands of people out there that love the way they sound. I completely understand why some people don't like them but I don't understand the worst amp claim unless it's on the grounds of their overwhelming heft.

I love old marshalls but the tendency to blow up and the "one trick" nature of them is a fair judgment. On the other hand- that one sound is really awesome and millions of recordings back that up.

I like using the chassis from old solid state amps to build little tube combos. I recently built an amp in a valvestate marshall chassis for a guy and he loved it. I have another little valvestate amp that's likely to end up as a channel switcher- traditional fender/marshall switching kinda thing.

jamie

[Gtr_tech]

Thats what I said....the DC5 sounds ok. Certainly beter than most other Messy Boogers I've had thru here including the Marks that some ppl are gaga over....I can't stand those.

Building tube amps into SS chassis is certainly possible. There's a guy out here that does it all the time. I have a little Mar$hall 1-10 combo that was abandoned due to the cost of repair going beyond the value of the amp. That is gonna be a nice "jam night" amp. 3 stage pre and a fixed biased 6V6 pair output section is what I have planned when I get around to doing the metalwork (not my favorite part).

[selectortone]

If people who bought these things knew what goes wrong with them, they would not buy them at all. If people knew that these amps rarely last more than five years, they would not buy them in the first place.

I have been gigging with my DC-5 most weekends for the last 15 years and apart from replacing the valves once it has needed no servicing whatsoever. It is 100% reliable and has all the tone I need.

If that's what they want, let them buy it. But there is rarely a person who owns one who would buy a second one, after the first goes up in smoke.
welcome to the arc of technology.

I bought a second one - a Studio .22+ which is a fabulous little amp, great for smaller venues.


edit: ...and when I was working as a sales rep it lived in the back of my car for about three years and between gigs and rehearsals it did about 150,000 miles bouncing about in the boot (trunk) with no problem whatsoever. Those things are built like brick shithouses.

[bajaman]

the worst tube amp??? - any tube modeling amp
bajaman

[Baxtercat]

Why has nobody mentioned this one? At least the Mesas can do one thing (arguably) well. I had to play a 135W Twin way back in my junior high jazz band, and I have never encountered another amp that made me want to take a bath with a toaster oven quite like that one. Granted, I'm sure there are some Peaveys and Crates that sound pretty awful, but the guys at Fender really should have known better.

Likewise: I had a "70 watt" Pro Reverb which I couldn't get a good sound from.