Getting a Bugera this week

[Pills Are Yummy]

Originally Posted by seamonkey

"Trying" it would be a good idea.
The whole "Gotta have a tube in it" is silly. Try the amp, really, it may just surprise you.

Awesome. It should be here be the end of the week, I'm very excited and I can't wait to make a video of this steal of an amp! Thanks everyone for your $0.02,video is coming soon.

[Johnny Crab]

Just noticed the "Only 4 left" and back to $543....!!!!
Glad I got it when I did. It will get tried here in the BiAmp mode with a front-loaded 18" and a 4x8 w/horn on top.

[MuthaFunk]

I got one for $226 taxes in shipped to my holding company in the U.S. Sadly, it'll be a while before I can cross the border and bring it here myself. Shipping to my door was $170 or free to my mail spot just across the border. (1 Hr drive)

I'm really excited to take it all apart and post nude photos of it... Naturally I'm not expecting top notch build practices but I'm curious as to what kind of components they built it with considering it only cost me $200.

I've been waiting to really pound my Bergantino AE410 with some power and hear what she can do! Soo much fun. I've paid twice as much for some pedals I own.

[staccatogrowl]

I saw this at the low Amazon price, and then looked at the specs. Size and weight are deal breakers for me: too big, too heavy. And, although power ratings are unlikely to be circuit breakers, they are likely to be "speaker breakers." Who needs that hassle and expense?

When something appears to good to be true, it likely is, so I passed the opportunity to buy and try. As an Amazon Prime member, shipping would have been free with 2-day delivery. Return would have been free as well.

I just wasn't able to find the value in that head. I hope the best for those of you that did "take the plunge."

[Steve Dallman]

Bugera quality? My brand new Ampeg PF500 died the 5th time I turned it on in my practice room (no problems with the replacement.) Ampeg...delivering Chinese built, Crate quality. I quit the bench 5 years ago. For the last year I was there, trying to even get someone to answer the phone at Loud Technologies took letting the phone ring for an average of 4 hours a day...and finally getting an answer on the third day. I remember telling the rep from Loud that it is a sad day when I get better customer service from Behringer than I do for Mackie, and his response was "I get that a lot." (I never had problems getting parts from Behringer...and I was not an authorized tech for Behringer.) I remember comparing the first Ampeg Chinese offerings with the former USA offerings (there were both on the sales floor) and being disappointed...and I personally have nothing against Chinese products.

The rap against Behringer was always they were Chinese built, while Mackie was made in the US. (Well...that and the whole ignoring of other companies patents and the copying etc.) Isn't an SVT just a Chinese copy of an American copy of a really great, classic American iconic amp? I have several Behringer amps, many pedals, a few rack units, and so far (many years in most cases) I've had no problems. In some cases I have the units they are copies of, and they are comparable. In some cases, the Behringer still works, while the originals (Sabine, Line 6...) are down, waiting for me to repair them.

As an authorized SLM tech when Loud took over, I had the joy of telling owners of their warranteed Ampeg (Crate and Mackie as well) that if they wanted their units repaired, THEY would have to ship them back to Loud for replacement, as Loud did not reimburse our store for shipment back to them, and I couldn't even get Loud to answer their phone. It would take me weeks to receive even shematics from Loud, and longer to get any parts for out of warranty items.

I have heard that Loud is far better now with their service, and that's great. I also love my PF500.

[5port]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallman

Bugera quality? My brand new Ampeg PF500 died the 5th time I turned it on in my practice room (no problems with the replacement.) Ampeg...delivering Chinese built, Crate quality. I quit the bench 5 years ago. For the last year I was there, trying to even get someone to answer the phone at Loud Technologies took letting the phone ring for an average of 4 hours a day...and finally getting an answer on the third day. I remember telling the rep from Loud that it is a sad day when I get better customer service from Behringer than I do for Mackie, and his response was "I get that a lot." (I never had problems getting parts from Behringer...and I was not an authorized tech for Behringer.) I remember comparing the first Ampeg Chinese offerings with the former USA offerings (there were both on the sales floor) and being disappointed...and I personally have nothing against Chinese products.

The rap against Behringer was always they were Chinese built, while Mackie was made in the US. (Well...that and the whole ignoring of other companies patents and the copying etc.) Isn't an SVT just a Chinese copy of an American copy of a really great, classic American iconic amp? I have several Behringer amps, many pedals, a few rack units, and so far (many years in most cases) I've had no problems. In some cases I have the units they are copies of, and they are comparable. In some cases, the Behringer still works, while the originals (Sabine, Line 6...) are down, waiting for me to repair them.

As an authorized SLM tech when Loud took over, I had the joy of telling owners of their warranteed Ampeg (Crate and Mackie as well) that if they wanted their units repaired, THEY would have to ship them back to Loud for replacement, as Loud did not reimburse our store for shipment back to them, and I couldn't even get Loud to answer their phone. It would take me weeks to receive even shematics from Loud, and longer to get any parts for out of warranty items.

I have heard that Loud is far better now with their service, and that's great. I also love my PF500.

Sounds like LOUD decided to "maximize profit for the shareholders". This translates to:

1) the employees will suffer

2) the customer will suffer

[IPYF]

I'd love for somebody who has gone for this deal to do a really good video demo of the Nuke. The ones I can find on youtube are really lacking.

Anyone keen?

[Johnny Crab]

Originally Posted by Pills Are Yummy

Considering keeping it. Still a pretty good power amp for that price

Power amp with a crossover.
If you use model gear for 6+ years, a CLEAN amp is what you expect and want. Why else would I have QSC, ACME, and SWR? The Line 6 stuff, using models of gear I KNOW, "uncleans" it if that's what I want.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by 5port

For less money than I paid for my MB200 it really is a good deal. I couldnt deal with a 44lb head...

After lugging a DB750 or Heart-Rock around (each over 50 pounds in the rack), I'll stick with my five-pound MB800 or two-pound MB200, regardless of price.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by 5port

Sounds like LOUD decided to "maximize profit for the shareholders". This translates to:

1) the employees will suffer

2) the customer will suffer

And the head idiot of LOUD and his band of morons also suffered, because he and they got the axe 5 years ago. The current head of LOUD now actually cares about having great CS and happy customers and the products are a lot better. It's not the same company Steve dealt with by any means.

[JimmyM]

Actually you can do arenas with those micro amps, too. I have. I just played last evening outside in front of about 3000 people using a 35w practice amp. Had PA, but still...

[Pills Are Yummy]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Actually you can do arenas with those micro amps, too. I have. I just played last evening outside in front of about 3000 people using a 35w practice amp. Had PA, but still...

I understand that that works for a lot of people, but certainly not for my genre of music. this guy has just been bashing this amp throughout the whole thread on absolutely no basis whatsoever. If he doesn't have anything useful to say, than what is his business even being in this thread?

[Chef]

He's expressing his opinion, politely, which he is, in fact, allowed to do.

[Troph]

Originally Posted by Pills Are Yummy

This amp is a particular case. Because it draws such a high wattage, it uses an 18 amp circuit.

This is electrical jibberish. A device may be rated to draw 18A of current at max load. Or (more likely), this amplifier may use an 18A circuit breaker or fuse internally for overload protection. But there is no such thing as "using an 18 amp circuit".

Furthermore, this device appears to use a standard IEC C13/C14 connector. The IEC standard rates these connectors at 10A RMS, or 15A peak. Power cords which use this connector are almost universally rated to only 15A or less. It is therefore extremely unlikely that this device actually expects to draw more than 15A for sustained periods, or it should have been designed to take a different power connector actually rated to carry > 18A of current, like an IEC C19.

Originally Posted by Pills Are Yummy

Most standard homes are equipped with 15 amp circuits. A lot of people are plugging their bugeras into 15 amp circuits and blaming bugera when it won't turn back on

This explanation doesn't pass the sniff test. Even if the amp did draw more than 15A for a sustained amount of time (very unlikely), all that would happen is a tripped breaker. This shouldn't harm anything, and it isn't difficult for the user to figure out what happened, so it's not likely they'd blame the amplifier.

Once the breaker is reset, any properly designed amp would go back to normal operation and wouldn't suffer any permanent damage.

[Olde Axeman]

Well, here's a question for you guys...

Let's assume you're using a pair of Peavey Headliner 1,000W peak-rated 1x15's cabs (500W nominal) with this Bugera amp. So long as you keep the volume down to within the excursion limits of the speakers, shouldn't this combination perform safely and still have plenty of power for small-to-medium venues?

Said another way, so long as you are not using more than 500 watts per channel out of the available 1,800 watts per channel one should experience no equipment damage. Right or wrong?

I realize the above scenario requires restraint and judicious knob turning. It's just that "correct" cab choices for this amp head are both scarce and expensive.

[JimmyM]

Olde, you are correct.

[georgestrings]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

And the head idiot of LOUD and his band of morons also suffered, because he and they got the axe 5 years ago. The current head of LOUD now actually cares about having great CS and happy customers and the products are a lot better. It's not the same company Steve dealt with by any means.

If they really cared about "great CS and happy customers", they'd start offering a fully transferrable warranty like Genz-Benz and Mesa do - just sayin'...


- georgestrings

[dmusic148]

Doesn't anybody realize that the whole '20 amp' thing is a marketing ploy? To make us want this big, powerful amp? Marketing.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by georgestrings

If they really cared about "great CS and happy customers", they'd start offering a fully transferrable warranty like Genz-Benz and Mesa do - just sayin'...

Good on those who do, but the amount of companies who offer transferable warranties are few and far between in comparison to those who don't. If that's important to you, then vote with your dollars. It's not important to me, though, because I don't buy new amps just to flip in a few months, and I've only done it once in my life. Plus whether the warranty's transferable or not, I still have to live with the sound of whatever I buy, and that's always my prime motivation over a transferable warranty.

[georgestrings]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Good on those who do, but the amount of companies who offer transferable warranties are few and far between in comparison to those who don't. If that's important to you, then vote with your dollars. It's not important to me, though, because I don't buy new amps just to flip in a few months, and I've only done it once in my life. Plus whether the warranty's transferable or not, I still have to live with the sound of whatever I buy, and that's always my prime motivation over a transferable warranty.

Nice spin - I'll stick with my statement... You *were* talking about "customer service", but have now shifted to "sound" - that's called moving the goal posts...


- georgestrings