What's the purchase (bass, amp, cab, etc) you made that you regretted the most?

L

Luisim11

Nov 19, 2019
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#1
I remember buying an ampeg head, 20 w, it had tubes in it and I wanted to use it to play live when I was a beginner, there was no sound from the pub, all went through the amps, I didn't understand how my $2000 rig was so quiet (not from US, so prices are very, very high), I returned the equipment and had to pay like $150 shipping, overall, could've been worst...

Any particular brand? My worst customer experience ever has to be Yamaha, so I would never buy from them again.
 
#2
SWR SM900 with the Big Ben 18 and Goliath 4x10. This was in 96 or 97. It was a horrible sounding rig.

I took it back and got an Ampeg 8x10 and a GK 1000RB. That head didn’t like being pushed. It would cut out. Finally one night at rehearsal it just blew. Sparks, flames, smoke, stunk the place up badly. The tech would later describe it as severe chassis damage. Got it fixed under warranty, but talk about a losing streak. :facepalm:

I got me an 800RB to go with that 8x10 while the other amp was being repaired and was happy ever after. I still have and love that 800RB.
 
#3
had great luck with everything for decades, minus the 2 most lauded Swiss ARMY Knife basses in history, a gorgeous pair and the costliest (tho quite fair to say the least) ...maybe flats will eventually change that around but, my G&L L2KT and Peavey T-40 have been ignored far too long cos they sound like everything under the sun except great for what I like, basic unadulterated vintage tones. both are close but no cigar failures yet have tons of promise just from aspects of such quality builds alone. the L2000T can jump out of my hands it's so lively, especially when hit with a thumbpick, while the 40 has a weird baked-in annoyance that refuses to let it open up and breathe, no fun at all. I have less hope for it without somehow modding the wiring into a clearer sound without the insistent blanket of meh discoloring the entire mix. but they sure do make the wall look even better lol there are other basses that don't give me grief so they get their deserved attention. fortunately I've always fared well with amps and hope that steak continues this week regarding a 1970ish ss combo!
 
#4
62 lb. SWR WorkingMan's 15, aka WM15, which was sort of an improvement over the 50 lb. WM12—or at least louder, but also heavier, no mids, at least not good ones. All honk, boom and gank, but not the good kind. Oh, and hiss. Plenty of loud hiss.
 
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#6
My L2K was my biggest regret as I discovered a dead coil and a slightly twisted neck after I got it home. The pickup repair turned out to be easy but the frets had to come out to sand the fretboard back to the proper shape. I bought new fret wire but ended up just leaving them out and eventually filled the slots. It is now the one piece of gear I own that will never go up for sale. Funny how this stuff works out sometimes.
 
#12
Ampeg SVP-BSP

The Billy Sheehan preamp. I love Sheehan. I love his tone. He even signed mine (before I got it).

This is the worst sounding preamp I have ever used. The distortion is unusable, and sounds nothing like Sheehan in any possible way. The compressor is terrible and an afterthought. The clean channel is just absolute pure horsecrap. The bass is centered super, super, super low so all you get is sub-bass hollow-ness. The midrange is non-existent. The highs are set so high it makes it sound like you have a tweeter even if you are running an old school full-range 215 cabinet.

This thing just had noooooo tone. Empty empty empty. Built-in smiley-face tone, all subs and high offensive glassiness even when supposedly set flat, not possible to get a thick warm usable clean tone at all, and the distortion was just nauseating.

I remember seeing Sheehan back in the early 2000s and he had one in his rack, but it wasn't connected or turned on. I asked him once back then (on AOL IM of all things) if it was still in production, and he had no idea about anything involved with it.

Strange he put his name on such a POS. I guess they paid him well, because he did actually use Ampeg amps for years and years. But there is no way in hell (or whatever he believes in) that he could have used that horrid, horrid, preamp. In nearly 40 years, that's the worst piece of equipment I've ever heard for bass. I played through a 60's transistor hand-held radio once through a Mr. Microphone FM modulator that had a better tone and actually sounded great overdriven! It's like they purposely designed the BSP to suck. BSP should stand for "Billy's Sucky Preamp."

But yeah-the Ampeg SVP-BSP is the worst piece of bass equipment I've ever heard.
 
#13
When I was younger I got really into Jaco Pastorius. I thought it was so cool that he had his bass converted to a fretless, so I paid a really good luthier to do the same to one of mine.

...Yeah, it wasn't my thing. I tried for months to get into it and I just never connected with the fretless style of playing. I was able to sell it to someone who was really happy with it for a good price, so it all worked out in the end.

I've since drive other fretless basses (ones that were made that way from the beginning) and Iv'e just come to the conclusion that I'm a fretted guy. Maybe one day I'll be playing something that calls for a fretless, but I can at least say for now that I've tried it.
 
#15
Every 35 scale bass I’ve ever purchased . All were MTD non US models Beast and AG5. Great basses but I just can’t handle the 35 scale .


Also both Stingray basses. USA SUB and Stingray Special 5HH. Also excellent basses. But as much as I like the old school Stingray sound when others play it. I just can’t make them sound good. The 4 string SUB was too thick a neck for me and uncomfortable to play.
 
#20
No big regrets. I usually buy used gear. If it turns out to be something I end up not liking, I can typically sell it for what I have in it (more or less). So minimal regrets. I learned and moved on.

That said, living and playing in the deep south in the 1980s, I had a couple of Peavey bass rigs. Thinking of the bass tone that my inexperience plus these Peavey amp heads and cabs resulted in makes me shudder today.
 
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