The most disappointing amp you've ever played?

[marginwalker]

Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb. The cleans sounded pretty decent but I couldn’t run any drive pedals through it without it sounding like a fizzy nasty mess

[tqi]

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[marginwalker]

Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb. The cleans sounded pretty decent but I couldn’t run any drive pedals through it without it sounding like a fizzy nasty mess

Innnnteresting. I passionately despise these amps, but not because of the sound. That said, I did here terrible things about the first gen versions - about half of which was fixed by a firmware update (to the "blonde" tonemaster firmware), and about half of which in changing from Jensen to Celestion.

Was the one you tried by any chance, an unpatched/unmodded "black and silver"?

Yeah the firmware update helped a tiny bit but using drive pedals was still a no go. Perhaps it was the types of pedals I was using (HM-2, Rat, etc) but it did not sound good. My Vibro Champ, Twin Reverb, and even Katana mkII all blew it out of the water

[ShortyMedlock]

Every Gibson amp I ever tried back in the 60's.

We had an occasional Saturday AM radio gig around 1964. The house band had all Gibson stuff...great band but I used my white tolex Bassman after the first show.

[budda12ax7]

Marshall 100 watt 2000
Sucked....could.not get a good sound out it....returned...

[blacktiger]

This is probably the most boring response ever, but most amps I’ve played have been pretty much as expected, and therefore not really disappointing. Maybe the most frustrating amp I’ve played is my current amp, a Marshall Class 5. I like it, but it gets real mushy with Fuzz Faces, but maybe that’s just a FF thing. I’m constantly debating whether I want to replace it with an AC10. I have NOS tubes that and a Weber alnico blue that I could put in it, but I haven’t gotten around to it and don’t want to bother if I’m going to replace it. I guess my own wishy-washiness is the real problem…

[OffYourFace]

Maybe the most frustrating amp I’ve played is my current amp, a Marshall Class 5. I like it, but it gets real mushy with Fuzz Faces, but maybe that’s just a FF thing. I’m constantly debating whether I want to replace it with an AC10.

For fuzz pedals, you're better off with a Princeton type amp. You'll most likely have the same result with the AC10.

[blacktiger]

Maybe the most frustrating amp I’ve played is my current amp, a Marshall Class 5. I like it, but it gets real mushy with Fuzz Faces, but maybe that’s just a FF thing. I’m constantly debating whether I want to replace it with an AC10.

For fuzz pedals, you're better off with a Princeton type amp. You'll most likely have the same result with the AC10.

I wish that I would have been smart enough to buy a brown Princeton in the early ‘00s, when they were still around $400. That would have been the perfect amp for me. FWIW, other fuzzes (Super Fuzz, Tone Bender, Big Muff) are fine, it’s really just FF variants that become total mud.

[Marc]

I had one of those red knob Champ 12 amps. Tube and I think was Mexican. It sucked.

[s_mcsleazy]

I had one of those red knob Champ 12 amps. Tube and I think was Mexican. It sucked.

i fucking love mine. it's everything i've ever wanted in a champ..... except mine looks fucking hideous.

[BMWRider]

Anything running EL84's. I have owned and/or played a number of different amps which run this tube (Marshall Class 5, AC10, Blues Jr., etc), and everything sounds the same through them. I'm also not the most gentle person when it comes to carrying them, so my tubes would go microphonic very quickly. The best amp I had with these was a Traynor YGM-3 reissue, and it did sound great, but it took up a lot of space.

The other amp which befuddled me for the longest time was my Princeton Recording. Great for jamming, but as soon as I began gigging with it, I ran into a severe lack of headroom once the volume knob went past 4. At the time, I didn't know enough about amps to realize I could have improved the sound and volume by running it through a 1x12" speaker cabinet. Blamed a lot of guitars for the problem, wish I had some of them back!

Agree with previous posters about the Champ 600s. I've had one for over 15 years, and still sounds great. Install a new 6V6 every few years, and it's ready to go back to work.

[Marc]

Yes EL84s do impart something of a signature particularly on cleans. I seem to have 'collected' 3 amps with those tubes but they all sound good. A YGM-3, a Marshalll 18 watt and an unusual mid seventies Park 20 watt which is similar to the Marshall 20 treble and bass. These have differ the most in distortion but less the cleans.

[hulakatt]

I had a Marshall T&B but I loved it. It did chew through el84's at an impressive rate though.

[Fiddy]

Im going to add a Ceriatone Hiwatt 50 watter I had Nik build me a few years ago due to my expectations vs what i ended up experiencing when I received the amp.

[Maggieo]

I tried out one of those 20-watt Marshall combos and it was pretty meh. My Reverb 12 sounds better, IMO.