Worst solid state amp.

[billybilly]

I'm not really trying to be negative here but "The best solid state amp" post has 50 different amps listed, so, which ones do you feel don't sound good?

 

I'll start... The Marshall MG series.  Possibly the worst distortion I have ever heard, models with cooling fan hum and lack of clarity.

[Dougy]

A friend of mine had a Line6 Spider II - you might as well run your guitar through the AUX input on a car stereo than use one of those... it was basically only any use on the clean channel with a good FX unit running through it.

[Tall]

I have a Line 6 Spider4 thats terrible but not as bad as my Fender FR 212.

[Promit]

Going to vote for the Fender Frontman 15R. Don't know if it's the worst sounding amp ever, but there are so many of those stupid things out there thanks to Squier starter packs etc.

[Special J]

Anything with the Behringer label, followed by Crate and Line 6.

[dmc69]

 

+1 on the Marshall MG series. Friend had the 50w amp a while ago and it was the just a POS.

 

I don't find the Fender FM212R to be a bad amp. Perhaps the FM15 isn't a great idea, but the FM212 takes pedals very well. And the clean channel is not bad at all. Distortion is {censored}, but hey, you can't get everything from a budget 100w, 212 transistor amp. My entire amp lineup consists of Traynor tube amps, yet I still keep a Fender FM212R around as a beater.

[kayd_mon]

Crate and Gorilla come to mind first.

 

Marshall MG? Not that bad. In fact, the MG micro stack is way cool.

 

Fender Frontman? Sure, they sound a little off somehow, but they're cheap, giggable amps (the bigger ones).

[genesis3]

 

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kayd_mon wrote:

 

Crate and Gorilla come to mind first.

 

 

 

Marshall MG? Not that bad. In fact, the MG micro stack is way cool.

 

 

 

Fender Frontman? Sure, they sound a little off somehow, but they're cheap, giggable amps (the bigger ones).

---

 

 

 

Check out Joe Walsh's stuff http://www.uberproaudio.com/who-plays-what/355-eagles-joe-walsh-guitar-gear-rig-and-equipment....down the list, from the Live from Daryls house, he used a Fender Frontman 212! ...I saw that, and they panned to that amp several times and I could not believe the Gawdlike tones Joe was getting came from that amp!

 

I'd vote a Peavey Classic 212 ..the distortion literally sounded like dying transistors , though maybe it actually was ...

[kayd_mon]

Line 6 Pods are great! I have never liked their amps much, but I'm sure you can get them to sound good with work. I wouldn't put them on a "worst amps" list, though. Too many {censored}ty Crate and Gorilla amps from the 80s and 90s.

[tim gueguen]

One that isn't working.

[PrawnHeed]

Marshall MG, Fender FM are indeed not for me, but the amp I am really least attracted to is a Roland JC 120. It weighs a ton, costs a grand and sounds just like a chorus pedal direct into the PA.

 

 

[Sailorofdarknes]

My worst pick is the Crate Gt series amps.  I owned a 12" 30 watt model and it was pure garbage.  I did however have a Fender FM212, it was {censored} alone but in the context of the band it seemed to change and fill out doing it's duties very well.  And it took pedals like a champ.  Its a good back up I suppose.

 

Dan

[noisebloom]

Here's one I own. It was thrown in when I bought one of my guitars. Didn't need it, but I accepted it anyway, even though I knew I probably wouldn't use it. The fact that the sales guy gave it away for free was all I needed to know about it. It goes from zero to suck in 0.4 seconds. One thing I'll give it credit for, though, is it blares the suckage really loud for its size. I think it's 10 watts of pure retchedness. I think I've actually plugged into it 3 times.

[mschafft]

Wow there's more stuff than in the best solid state amp thread!!

[PRS_JRW]

I had one in the 70's that was built in the '60's and it picked up HAM radio at night. I would just turn it on and listen to news from Brazil and I was in NY close to the Canadian border. I don't know if you would count that as good or bad. 

[kayd_mon]

Multifunctional! I plugged into two different ZVEX fuzzes at a guitar shop that were only good for picking up radio. In fact, one of thr knobs even tuned the band! Lol

[nothingstock]

When I was in High School (late 1960's) I bought a guitar amp from the local Lafayette Radio & Electronics store.  It was supposed to be 40 watts and had 2 - 12" speakers, trem and reverb.  It looked big and impressive to me at the time, but sounded horrible. The tone was flat and lifeless and the reverb was sproingy.  Did I say that it looked big and impressive at the time?  That's what matters when you're in high school!  Anyone else ever have one of these?

[Vanhalen64]

Had an mg50 which wasn't half bad at low levels. The worst ever was a line 6 spider II that thing was dreadful preset or dialed in... Never could get a good tone out of that thing.

[phaeton]

 

The two on the left.  Bottom is a Fender BXR something something bass amp that I traded a case of beer for.  It works, it's horrifically loud, and the volume goes up and down on its own whimsy.

 

Above that, the "Ford" is actually a 1975 Peavey Pacer.  The most sterile, lifeless sounding thing you'd never want to hear.  45 watts of cold bologna and American cheese sanwiches on Wonder bread with a skim milk chaser. It has a footswitchable distortion that sounds like the most impotent fuzz box and an overdrive mode where you crank the pre until it coerces some poor hapless 2n2222 transistor against its will to abuse a pair of Ge diodes into the meekest, driest sounding rattle.  The distortion in this amp is so underpowered it can't even get fizzy and sound like a can of bees like any other self-disrespecting shitbox amp: It basically sucks at sucking.  The reverb was actually decent, but I took the tray out and wired it in series with another tray I had and stacked them up in the cabinet.  I called that arrangement "The Pacific Ocean" and it made it sound like you were playing a Dick Dale record in a sewer pipe. The 2nd reverb tank tanked in the late 90s so it's back to original config now.

Interestingly, it takes pedals really well.  And by that, I mean it doesn't really have enough of its own character to get in the way of the pedal's sound.  It's the guy who goes to the amp party and cries in his drink about how all haught chix dig the other amps and he's so old and ugly and nobody takes him seriously, etc etc blah pish and other Beta shit.  That said, a TS-10 going full tilt into the front end will take that abysmal overdrive and give it some balls.  It gets moderately gainy, very percussive.  A humbucker guitar into this can almost sound like the recordings on Metallica's Kill Em All, which sort of is, but sort of isn't saying much.

 

The two on top are some solid state amps I built.  Plastic tubs were meant to be temporary, but I don't have a woodshop.  So I ended up making them as kitschy as I could, just for the lulz.  They're both pretty garbage, but a real hoot for those times when you want that "pretty garbage" sound.