Bugera Amps

[DetroitBlues]

Hey all!
   I recently picked up a Bugera V22 tube amp and I'm quickly discovering the amps are clever clones of the big guys.  Anyone else like or try these amps?

[zagatron1]

Ive checked out the Bugera V22 once just for the heck of it. Reminds me of one of Matchless' models. In spite of questions of reliability issues I've heard, it seems to be a decent amp.

[pictoratus]

I would like to try one but our local Mom/Pop store doesn't carry them and we don't have any of the big box stores here. Next time I get up to Dallas, I plan on finding someone that carries those models to try them out.

[DetroitBlues]

I've had mine for over a week.  So far I think its an awesome amp.  Great tones and affordable.  Its seems the people who have problems with these amps are the ones who had bad amps right out of the box.  Thankfully, mine doesn't seem to be that way.

[zagatron1]

Speaking of Bugera amps, have you ever seen one of these 85 watt, three channel monsters?

http://www.bugera-amps.com/EN/Products/MAGICIAN.aspx

[pictoratus]

Speaking of Bugera amps, have you ever seen one of these 85 watt, three channel monsters?

http://www.bugera-amps.com/EN/Products/MAGICIAN.aspx

No, but it sounds like a killer amp! And way more than I would ever need or use. 

[robert]

A friend of mine has a V22 and he loves it. I think these are great value for the money, from what I can tell.

[DetroitBlues]

I had my Bugera now for about three weeks.  I usually only ran it for 45 minutes or less at a time.  Since I'm working on a bunch of songs for a couple different band tryouts, I played the amp for well over an hour two nights ago.  While adjusting the tone and volume on my guitar (I'm trying learn how to adjust my rig for each song) I noticed the amp didn't have much reverb.  So I turned the Reverb all the way up.  Typically this would give me that over the top echo reverb that sounds aweful.  But this time, nothing.  The amp has a footswitch that turns the reverb on and off and nothing.  I turned of the amp, let it sit for 20 minutes before powering it back up and the reverb came back.  Not a good sign.  So I returned it.  I read too many horror stories and I checked with people on youtube that demo'd this amp.  Their demo's had to be a year or so old and they cannot be one of those one and done demo guys.  Half the people had no problem, the other half went through a couple different units before giving up.  So back to Guitar Center it went.  I ended up ordering a Jet City Amplification JCA2112RC due to arrive at my doorstep tomorrow.  Hopefully this is the last amp I need to buy for awhile (long stroy, but this is my fourth different amp in the past 30 days)

[sven]

IO had read that they worked out the bugs.   Was this a new Bugera?

[DetroitBlues]

It was a brand new right out the box Bugera.  I returned it and ordered a Jet City JCA2112RC combo.  I received it last Friday and its another inexpensive amp that sound great.  From everything I've read and checking with people from youtube, its a great amp that's also reliable.  Now it is a single channel amp that doesn't have a lot of head room when playing clean, but it has plenty of dirt if you need it!  I like the amp and clean tones are not what I'm looking for.  So I'm going to begin a post in reference to Jet City Amplification.

[Dan]

Though I've never owned a Bugera amp, I've watched about every single demo and review of them I could find. Dingle1 on youtube is a Bugera devout, plays out all the time, owns a lot of their models and hasn't had a stitch of trouble with any of his. He's even gotten into tube swapping el34/6l6 and done some demos. Check them out, I think you'll like them.

http://www.youtube.com/user/dingle1

[DetroitBlues]

I still wish I would of given the Bugera another shot, but I didn't.  I made the mistake of messing with my Jet City's tubes last night, now its really noisy.  I thnk its going to need all new tubes.  Darn it.

[IM4Tone]

I've owned a Bugera V22 for 9 months now. The first one I got had the infamous random channel switching problem which has been well domumented on-line. Sent it back and got another under warranty. I has not had any problems to date.

After patiently trying to find "my sounds" now I must say that I don't care much for the amp. I had hoped that I could use it as a stand alone amp w/ no effects pedals, but here's what I dislike about it: I can get a good sound on the clean channel and I can get a good sound on the drive channel, but I cannot get a good sound on both using the same eq setting. This means I can't use the clean for rhythm and then switch on-the-fly to the drive channel for solos.

The clean channel tends to be dark and needs high treble settings and low bass settings. With these settings the drive channel has ear piercing highs and sounds "fizzy". Dial in a good drive channel eq setting and the clean channel sounds muddy. The amp either needs separate eq's or different eq tone stacks more suited to both channels.

I can get around the problem by using effects pedals, but it's awkward to use in a gig....too much continual tweaking.

My advice is to take the $350 , save another $300-$350 and buy a better amp. YOMV

[Dan]

I thought this amp was really supposed to be a Deluxe Reverb clone. Those while considered great suffer from eq imbalance as well as not being channel switching at all. I'd really thought about getting a v-22 as a deluxe is just so dang expensive. I guess I will wait and test it myself before ordering anything.

[IM4Tone]

I thought this amp was really supposed to be a Deluxe Reverb clone. Those while considered great suffer from eq imbalance as well as not being channel switching at all. I'd really thought about getting a v-22 as a deluxe is just so dang expensive. I guess I will wait and test it myself before ordering anything.

Definitely test drive before buying. I would not buy this amp again...just doesn't suit my method of playing.