Stuff on amps no one wants

Stuckfast

Captive mains cables which have no means of being secured when the amp is being transported. So the mains plug inevitably ends up bouncing around inside the case and doing God knows what damage.

Accordion inputs.

ICBM

Stuckfast said:

Captive mains cables which have no means of being secured when the amp is being transported. So the mains plug inevitably ends up bouncing around inside the case and doing God knows what damage.

Equally bad, captive mains cables on heads with nowhere to store them. Thankfully both are becoming rare as most amps now have IEC power cables. This also means you can easily replace the cable if it gets damaged, even on the spot at a gig.

DartmoorHedgehog

Indicator lamps that are so bright and near the controls that you can't read anything when they're on.
Bit of a cheat because the main culprit I've got in mind is a pedal (MXR Carbon Copy), but I'm sure I've seen amps like it.

rockmonster

Active tone pots! FFS!

Reverend

Grumpyrocker said:

There are forms of metal that do want all the gain. Especially in the colder forests of northern Europe.

Too much gain ends up sounding like 90s band at Uxfest.

Tubescreamer and jcm800 is enough gain for death metal and sludge. 

bobblehat

JMP220478 said:

Top mounted handles - that have no room to get your hand in / through - whats the f'ng point .

I used to gig with a Laney TNT100 watt bass amp back in the day. I'm sure it was made out of lead and they put a small plastic handle on the top!  

Haych

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but I'm going to stick my neck above the parapet and say..............

Cabinets made from exotic and figured woods!

I know some like them but I never saw the point.  I'm not even that fussed with figured woods on a guitar, although I can accept it a bit more.

An amp is a functional piece of equipment and if used for it's intended purpose is likely to get knocked around a little and pick up scratches, dings and dents.

Whenever I see 50 watt and 100 watt combos, heads and cabs made from highly figured walnut or maple etc I can't help thinking, "what's the point"?

If you're buying an amp with that much power you're likely to want to use it live, if you want to use it live it's unlikely you're going to need or want an expensive solid figured wood cabinet made to look like a piece of high quality antique furniture.

If you do have one it's likely to never go out of the house, in which case why would you need 100, 50 or even 30 watts of power?

OK, at a push you could put the amp in a flight case but even then amps pick up battle scars from the top of the flight case as it's taken off or put back on or other pieces of equipment falling over or band and crew passing with drums, cymbals, bass amps and other bits of gear.

Unless buying simply to collect in the vain hope it might one day be worth a mint it is IMHO a massive waste of money and decent wood.

ICBM

Haych said:

Cabinets made from exotic and figured woods!

I know some like them but I never saw the point.  I'm not even that fussed with figured woods on a guitar, although I can accept it a bit more.

An amp is a functional piece of equipment and if used for it's intended purpose is likely to get knocked around a little and pick up scratches, dings and dents.

Whenever I see 50 watt and 100 watt combos, heads and cabs made from highly figured walnut or maple etc I can't help thinking, "what's the point"?

If you're buying an amp with that much power you're likely to want to use it live, if you want to use it live it's unlikely you're going to need or want an expensive solid figured wood cabinet made to look like a piece of high quality antique furniture.

If you do have one it's likely to never go out of the house, in which case why would you need 100, 50 or even 30 watts of power?

Tone. Big amps just sound better than small ones, even at home volumes.

I do like those hardwood Boogies - they were very much a thing for the 'blues lawyer' types though, along with PRS guitars, which did used to put me off them a bit - but now they're quite cool in an 80s-throwback sort of way.

They also genuinely sound better - or at least different, and I do think better - that's not a joke. Not a huge difference but you can tell if you play both. The hardwood ones sound more 'vibrant' somehow. Of course, a bare plywood one might as well...

Haych

They do look nice, can’t deny that but unless you’re Eric Johnson I doubt the average player could tell the difference when placed in a full band setting. 

Unless it fell off the stage. I bet the hardwood versions make a much more satisfying thud when they hit the floor from a good height.

BintyTwanger77

JayGee said:

Adey said:

Chrome knobs with a white dot for a pointer.

How are you meant to see the position  of it on a stage? Especially a problem if backline is shared by groups.

My Blackstar was a case in point. Laney IRT with black knobs and a white strip was great.

I’ll see your Chrome dots with a white dot and raise you chrome knobs with a little unpainted dimple (Blackstar again, on my Series One).

Same issue with the Rectoverb 25 I had, even though they went to the huge effort of making the tiny dots on the chrome knobs visible by making them black. Yep, still wholly unhelpful.

welshboyo

Haych said:

They do look nice, can’t deny that but unless you’re Eric Johnson I doubt the average player could tell the difference when placed in a full band setting. 

Unless it fell off the stage. I bet the hardwood versions make a much more satisfying thud when they hit the floor from a good height.

My old Hardwood MK3 Boogie fell out of the bottom of its flightcase once when I was holding over the edge of a pretty high stage in a load-out after a gig - it did make a tremendous racket and a big dink out of the wooden dance floor it landed on...it was one of those BANG....OOOOOHHH moments where the whole place went quiet and looked at where the noise came from...

randella

BintyTwanger77 said:

JayGee said:

Adey said:

Chrome knobs with a white dot for a pointer.

How are you meant to see the position  of it on a stage? Especially a problem if backline is shared by groups.

My Blackstar was a case in point. Laney IRT with black knobs and a white strip was great.

I’ll see your Chrome dots with a white dot and raise you chrome knobs with a little unpainted dimple (Blackstar again, on my Series One).

Same issue with the Rectoverb 25 I had, even though they went to the huge effort of making the tiny dots on the chrome knobs visible by making them black. Yep, still wholly unhelpful.

Those Tele-style knobs are a pain in the backside. My (Mesa) amp head is sat on the desk next to me in broad daylight and I can't see where the knobs are set. Form over function.

ChuckManual

For those of us non-gigging players, exotic hardwood cabs look absolutely *boss* in the corner of the lounge...

digitalkettle

ChuckManual said:

For those of us non-gigging players, exotic hardwood cabs look acceptable to the boss, in the corner of the lounge...

Fixed.

Kalimna

ChuckManual said:

For those of us non-gigging players, exotic hardwood cabs look absolutely *boss* in the corner of the lounge...

Whilst not everyone agrees, I like the look of figured hardwood amps - I don't gig, but would have no hesitation doing so with my Thornton Dexter And I genuinely wouldnt be concerned should scratches/dents appear. That would just show it being played. The wood, in this case, is rippled ash felled from a churchyard in Glasgow some years ago.

https://i.imgur.com/uzYATda.jpg

Adam

hollywoodrox

Chicken head knobs 

wabster

I gotta disagree about chickenhead knobs, as myopia kicks in, it's the only arrangement that lets you see your settings onstage, if they need tweaking. Learned this at first gig with my shiny JSX head - chrome knobs with a tiny chrome indent as a marker, on a chrome backplate, and 18 knobs to choose from... After that put on colour coded chicken heads (eg red for volume, white for gain, black for the rest), and it's much easier to turn round and grab the offending knob (ooer). I've gotten used to the look, rather than liking it, but not going back!

Grumpyrocker

wabster said:

I gotta disagree about chickenhead knobs, as myopia kicks in, it's the only arrangement that lets you see your settings onstage, if they need tweaking. Learned this at first gig with my shiny JSX head - chrome knobs with a tiny chrome indent as a marker, on a chrome backplate, and 18 knobs to choose from... After that put on colour coded chicken heads (eg red for volume, white for gain, black for the rest), and it's much easier to turn round and grab the offending knob (ooer). I've gotten used to the look, rather than liking it, but not going back!

I agree. I changed the chicken head knobs on my Laney Cub to Marshall style. These were more attractive. But I change them back recently because the chickenhead ones are easier to see.

My Blackstar HT5 MK2 has chicken heads too. The other benefit is you can easily turn them with a finger tip. 

monquixote

wabster said:

I gotta disagree about chickenhead knobs, as myopia kicks in, it's the only arrangement that lets you see your settings onstage, if they need tweaking. Learned this at first gig with my shiny JSX head - chrome knobs with a tiny chrome indent as a marker, on a chrome backplate, and 18 knobs to choose from... After that put on colour coded chicken heads (eg red for volume, white for gain, black for the rest), and it's much easier to turn round and grab the offending knob (ooer). I've gotten used to the look, rather than liking it, but not going back!

You have to admit a shiny chrome top on a Satriani head is appropriate.

crunchman

5 pages and nobody seems to have mentioned those health & safety metal grilles which mean you can't change valves quickly.  If you are playing out somewhere, and you start getting sputtering frying pan noises from your amp, you want to be able to change valves quickly.  You don't want to be locating a screwdriver and unscrewing multiple screws just to change a preamp valve.