YANAD

[twanger]

Yet Another New Amp Day! This time it's the Bugera Vintage 22. Phenomenal tone from a widely and undeservedly despised amp brand. For me this one is definitely a keeper. It ranks right up there with my Epi BC30 for great tone and versatility.

 

This is a 2 channel amp like the BC30 having both a clean and an overdrive channel. Instead of a spring reverb it has digital reverb. The EQ section is the typical TMB and it affects BOTH channels.

 

Tube complement is 3 x 12ax7 + 2 x EL84. Like the BC30 it has a switch on the back that allows for triode or pentode operation. There is also an FX loop on the rear. A footswitch jack is also on the rear for the included footswitch.

 

On the front panel at the far left you have your choice of a Normal or Bright input jack. Next is the clean volume control. After that is the manual switch for channel selection. That is followed by gain pot for the OD channel and it's own volume control. Next up are the EQ pots with a Mid Boost switch between the mid and treble controls. Then there's the Master volume control followed by the Presence and reverb controls. Of course, at the end are the Power and Standby switches along with an incredibly bright blue pilot light..

 

Great tones at realistic volume levels are what this amp is all about. Rock, blues, funk, Motown Sound, jazz and country are this amp's native languages and it speaks them all fluently. This is no hi-gain monster so the metal crowd needs to look elsewhere.

 

It likes all kinds of pickups and responds very well to pedals on the input side. I have not tried the FX loop yet. In fact, I've found this amp to be most enjoyable as a simple plug n' play setup. I have the good fortune of being in 2 bands and the one where I use this amp is the one where a bunch of us old rockers play tunes from the 60's and 70's and this amp is the perfect fit for that group. the other guitar, who plays a Marshall DSL over an Egnater cab, liked the Bugera so much he went down to GC and bought one after our last practice.

 

It's a very responsive amp too. It does NOT do Fender cleans but the clean tone is very respectable if a little generic. the amp can be dialed in from a good clean to nice light breakups to full-on juicy tube goodness.

 

There are some challenges though. The footswitch chip or relay in the amp seems to be prone to heat problems as it will change channels on it's own after it's been on for an hour or so. This is bad news because I really want to gig this amp but I won't until Behringer, the maker of Bugera, gets this sorted out. Of course, until that time I can just use the panel mounted channel switch. the other thing that stands out not so much as a problem but more of an oddity is the standby switch. It doesn't seem to open the signal path like other standby switches. I don't know how it operates but it seems to take a whole minute before you can noiselessly unplug your guitar. My standard practice is to have the standby switch in the off position when I turn on the amp to give the tubes a chance to warm first before playing. I've had the standby NOT engage until the amp was on which, of course, let me hear the handling noise while I set my guitar in the stand.

 

Outside of the footswitch/standby thing this amp is just great. Obviously I can't speak to durability as I haven't had it long enough to make a credible opinion.

 

Anyway, if your shopping for a new amp you owe it to yourself to check this little gem out.

[mrw1960]

Congrats on the new amp. Sounds nice!

[twanger]

Thanks! I'm enjoying the heck out of this thing!

 

I like it so much I'm thinking about getting another one for a backup or maybe even to run stereo!

 

It's simple, quiet, gives me the tones I want at volumes I (and most anyone else) can easily tolerate. 7 sure seems to be the magic number on the volume knobs for both the clean and the drive channels. It breaks up a bit more on the clean channel than it does on my Epi BC30 but it's certainly usable. I get more breadth in in the sound on my BC30 but the Bugera isn't quite as heavy so it's a pretty good trade off.