Bugera's new offerings

[Radioboy950]

Bugera's latest seems to be some sort of Bad Cat/Matchless type clone.
A 30W 212 combo. Anybody play one??
They sure make some nice looking stuff.

[Duff]

Bugera's sound interesting but the reliability issues that I have read about are definitely not without notice.

My understanding is that Matchless amps, however, became very popular when they filled the gap left empty when, years ago, Vox moved there mfg operations to Asia, evidently the Vox amps were not up to the British quality.

A Bugera Matchless clone, it seems, would have to be a real reliable and sturdy amp, if the analogy is accurate.

I have been thinking about getting a Bugera.

How do you guys feel about the reliability complaints.

[Spudman***]

There has been very little reliability issues other than tubes and foot switches with any of the Vintage series. Most of the complaints have been with the first series of tube high gain heads. Now those issues have been worked out. I would say the reliability factor is on par with any other Chinese manufactured amps and maybe even better than most.

[Robert****]

You meant to say "very little reliability problems", right?

[Spudman***]

You meant to say "very little reliability problems", right?

Nope. "Issues."





So I blow it when I proof read from time to time.

[BigBadWolf1171]

i loved the bugera 333 (i believe thats what it was) for heavy rock sound.ive never heard anything as heavy for the price they were offering it at. i noticed a few places no longer sell them anymore, anyone know the reason why? While reading reviews on their stuff i also noticed a few complaints about the electronics board being cheap or thin. id buy from them in a heartbeat if i knew it was remotely reliable(not refering to tubes).

[Duff]

That is encouraging Spudman. Those are really attractive amps at great prices.

Obviously you really like yours.

You are right. My reliability comment was based on information about the older Bugera heads and the comments were not flattering.

If they get their production control together and correct things then you have to give them the credit due.

[Spudman***]

That is encouraging Spudman. Those are really attractive amps at great prices.

Obviously you really like yours.

Ya I do like the V22 and gig all the time with it. Once I got some tubes in it I felt more confident of it. Initially out of the box it was awesome but the first tubes changed too much too quickly. I put some Sovtek power tubes in it and I'm pretty happy. No rattle and still good response from the tone knobs. I love the digital reverb. Seriously.

[Duff]

When my brand new Crate V50 new style, Spuds, blew up after only two months, not to be found repairable, the Crate engineer advised me that a power tube from a bad, supposedly, run of tubes, Ruby I think, blew and catastrophically. Resulting in destruction of the power supply and capacitors and other components. Working on those tubes was probably a very good idea.

It was a great sounding and playing amp.

I made out great though because the Crate guy told me he would refund my check for 164 I paid getting the amp from MF on sale, and I replied that I would be better off if he could find a Crate amp laying around the headquarters or in the warehouse that he could send me, even if a big nice solid state one, but that I would love a Palomino V32 or Palomino V50. He told me he had a brand new V32 212 NOS that he would send me. I jumped on it and had it in like two days along with the invoice for 799 dollars that I didn't have to pay, it was just for inventory tracking of the replacement amp.

The Palomino V32 212 is an awesome amp.

What I learned is: I heard a popping sound once or twice from the power tubes and ignored it, brand new V50 new style, unreliable switching power supply, etc. The next day it blew up catastrophically, not to be repairable. Crate was awesome in dealing with my warranty claim.

So, therefore, I would advise to be extra careful with a tube amp and when you suspect a tube problem, get right on it and have a tech check it out or replace the tubes with JJs or something great and have a tech bias it correctly, not too hot or anything like that. I won't mess around taking chances with suspectedly failing tubes again.

[jim p]

I have the Bug V5 that I got as a grade 1 used from Music 123 it had a bad output tube that was causing all kinds of popping. The tubes in the amp have Bugera on then and my best guess is they are made in China. The bad EL84 has a intermittent connection to the screen grid I think but hard to know for sure. One bad thing about Bug amps is I don’t think you will be able to get schematics from Behringer which is who owns Bugera. I bought the amp to check it out and post schematics of the amp. So far on the down side the stock speaker is dark and the way the digital reverb is connected is questionable. I also found that the output of the reverb is buffered by a transistor that is distorting from going into cutoff. The rest of the amp is OK solid cabinet, PCB is not bad the attenuator is all resistors so it could be better and the headphone output load on the amp may be too high so that could cause problems. But at 112 bucks it is a good deal.

[Tig***]

Ya I do like the V22 and gig all the time with it. Once I got some tubes in it I felt more confident of it. Initially out of the box it was awesome but the first tubes changed too much too quickly. I put some Sovtek power tubes in it and I'm pretty happy. No rattle and still good response from the tone knobs. I love the digital reverb. Seriously.

I think some of the reliability issues were mostly in the earliest days of production, and from what I've heard, are much less frequent these days.

After a few hours on a V22 at the local GC, this will certainly be my next purchase. Upgrading the tubes will happen, and perhaps later a Hellatone speaker upgrade.

While I GAS for a few amphs at or above the $1000 mark, I'll be able to buy a CV Strat and some other goodies with the left over money.