What amp did you Gas for the HARDEST...only to be let down.

[glblues]

a carr rambler.

seems to be nice cleans at first but the more you play it, it just seems sterile to me.
doesnt have the organic cleans of a good BF or tweed fender.

a pity because it seems great on paper

 

[jwilliams]

Morgan AC20tb. I read the countless reviews on here of how Morgan amps were the greatest and was convinced that I had to try one.

Then I spent 3 weeks trying so very hard to convince myself that I liked the amp. However, in reality I knew after the first 10 minutes that I really, really did not like it. Very flat, sterile, non responsive, and next to no clean headroom.

Needless to say, I was pretty bummed and sold the amp.

 

[Ascension]

Mesa Boogies, they suk.

Bought not 1 not 2 but 3 over the years and fought all 3 on stage till I finally got fed up fighting with and not playing through my amp and couldn't get rid of all of um quick enough. I AGREE for me the things SUX!! They sound GREAT when I hear someone else playing through one and are ok in the shop. But oh how I HATE the way those blasted things respond (more like DON'T respond) to touch in a live situation!!!

 

[Braciola]

What amp did you Gas for the HARDEST...only to be let down.

I'd have to say the biggest let down would be a Carol Ann Tucana

On the flip side, the one amp that really surprised me, and was better than expected was a Landry LS100.

 

[wolfpack]

Diezel, every model

 

[Chikn]

Anything with "Boogie" on the front.

 

[gdomeier]

Soldano Atomic 16. I was expecting a hot rodded jcm 800 and instead got the worst, buzzy pos I ever laid ears on.

 

[Chinhung]

Victoria Regal II

 

[Dashface]

JTM45.

Always wanted one but, once I got one, I realized that it just plain didn't live up to my Hiwatts... Sort of like every other amp I try to buy. Perhaps I should learn my lesson

 

[Beng2040]

Mesa Boogie Mk III

Same here...couldn't get a useful tone out of it, even with the EQ cheat sheets. Clean was decent, but not as good as my Fenders. Just wasn't my sound.

 

[Sirloin]

Whatever amp I'm buying next...

 

[Fenderosa]

My first tube amp was a Mesa Boogie Tremoverb. I read a rave review about it in Guitar Player Magazine. There was also an advertisement that implied that the Tremoverb could cop the tones of old Supros, Ampegs, and Fender Tweeds. The Guitar Player article said the Tremoverb could cop some AC30 like tones.

I was unable to make the Tremoverb sound anything like Supros, Ampegs, AC30s or Fender Tweeds. I still have the Tremoverb. It's my white elephant.

 

[rhollyday]

Suhr Badger 30

 

[tigerfan2]

My Orange rocker 30. What makes it so bad is I sold an amp that I really liked for it and a camera.

 

[Rev2S]

Orange Rockerverb 50....

 

[wrxplayer]

Komet 19. Hands down. From everything I'd read this should have been perfect. But it sounded bad (to my ears) with humbuckers and only decent w/ a strat. This through the stock cab w/ an English greenback. Sounded better (again to my ears) through an open back 1x12 w/ a TT alnico but still not nearly up to the hype. I much preferred Reinhardt's "wreck", and it cost half as much.

 

[ce24fan]

soldano hot rod 50+. not that it was a bad amp at all, just the fact that the volume required to get the goods was soo loud that i couldn't use it in a band setting. (and at the time i was ignorant of power attenuators) FACEPALM!

 

[Deathmonkey]

They sound GREAT when I hear someone else playing through one and are ok in the shop. But oh how I HATE the way those blasted things respond (more like DON'T respond) to touch in a live situation!!!

I think this is kinda the thing with MESAs. I hear players who like em play em, and they sound great. So I figure maybe it's user error on my part, and I buy another one. And then I hate it. So I sell it. Then I see another player who makes it sound fantastic. SO I GET ANOTHER ONE. And I hate it, and sell it. And so forth, and so on. I think a lot of people get caught in this cycle.

I think they just have a thing that you either get or you don't. Great sounding amps in the right hands, but frustrating as Hell to those of us not in that group.

 

[Hgb5000]

This thread is so interesting as it involves perception/reality as affected by many other factors including actually hearing the actual sound another player has been able to coax from the same amp or reading written reviews and opinions by other people when the purchaser may not have actually heard the writer of the review play the amp and may not have known the other variables such as the other gear used (guitar, effects, etc.) whether the reviewer played the amp at home or at a gig, what type of music the reviewer plays and whether the person writing the review has any talent at all or is just a hack who enjoys playing music.

I bought a Blues Deluxe in 1995 and was often dissatisfied with the tone that I heard when I played it. After joining the Gear Page I bought, sold and traded many nice amps (Headstrong, Hayseed, Rivera, Mesa Boogie, Fender) and I still have my '95 Blues Deluxe and find that it sounds much better to me now as my playing has improved and my ability to adjust the amp controls has also improved. I have several other amps now and I still GAS for many other amps but my opinion of my old Blues Deluxe has certainly changed over the last 16 years. I am glad that I kept it in my stable.

 

[TonePowers]

Blackstar Artisan 15. No matter what I did, I could not get a single good tone out of that damn amp, and I had such high hopes for it too. Big learning curve right there. and such a pain to get rid off too! Baaah!

I really wanted to like that amp. Killer build quality. But I could never get the harsh, brittle top end under control. And like you said, it was hard to get rid of. I finally just took a beating and traded it...sigh.