Thoughts on the Behringer Bugera BVP5500 Classic 550-Watt? Is it worth considering?

[Parkin92]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at various cab/head options to buy, I noticed the Behringer Bugera BVP5500 Classic 550-Watt and was wondering what your thoughts on it were? I.e is it worth considering? Do you think it will be a quality piece of gear?
Here's a link to a site selling it to help if needed;
Behringer Bugera BVP5500 Classic 550-Watt

Thanks,
Craig

[Arjank]

Originally Posted by Parkin92

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at various cab/head options to buy, I noticed the Behringer Bugera BVP5500 Classic 550-Watt and was wondering what your thoughts on it were? I.e is it worth considering? Do you think it will be a quality piece of gear?
Here's a link to a site selling it to help if needed;
Behringer Bugera BVP5500 Classic 550-Watt

Thanks,
Craig

I have one and it performs just great, nice tone.
The tone can even be improved by swapping the first and fourth tube with Philips NOS 5751 tubes.
You will need a 4ohm cab to make use of the amplifiers power. The rms power is 350watts at 4ohms and 220 watts at 8ohms.
There are people who had reliabilty issues with this amp. But remember, the internet is widely used to complain about stuff. Mine works fine.

[Parkin92]

Thanks @Arjank
Are there any particular cabs you could suggest? I get confused about the effects of different ohms (not got enough experience with amps and so on..) but I'll look into it

By the way, does it sound good with distortion, I use a lot of distortion and fuzz for covers of Muse and other bands, but I find that our guitarts 50 Watt Tube Amp tends to drown me out when I'm using distortion. Which for Muse-style basslines is never a good thing haha.

Oh, and I agree about people just using the internet to complain!

Craig

[seamonkey]

For what?
What are you trying to achieve?
Buy from a local store where you can try it out before you buy it, and exchange it withing 30 days if it doesn't work out for you.

The reason I won't go near one:
1. Weighs too much. Forget the young/old crap - heavy is pain to haul, and in general heavy things that fall get damaged more.
2. 4 tubes, you'll never convince me 4 tubes are better than 1. Or any tube is better than no tube. Really go listen. You'll find tubeless heads that give you all the tone you could want. Less maintenance, and less things to go wrong. (No matter how much people tell you otherwise - tubes are out of other industries, 1 reason being they are unreliable)
3. 1 year warranty. Although it's a exchange warranty for 1 year, which is good. It only lasts a year. Purchasing an 3rd party warranty is a waste of money. Pro geat has at least 2 year warranty.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by seamonkey

2. 4 tubes, you'll never convince me 4 tubes are better than 1. Or any tube is better than no tube. Really go listen. You'll find tubeless heads that give you all the tone you could want. Less maintenance, and less things to go wrong. (No matter how much people tell you otherwise - tubes are out of other industries, 1 reason being they are unreliable)

keep beating that drum, seamonkey. one day you might actually convince a regular tube user of your anti-tube lies and rhetoric.

[Duke21]

Originally Posted by seamonkey

For what?
What are you trying to achieve?
Buy from a local store where you can try it out before you buy it, and exchange it withing 30 days if it doesn't work out for you.

The reason I won't go near one:
1. Weighs too much. Forget the young/old crap - heavy is pain to haul, and in general heavy things that fall get damaged more.
2. 4 tubes, you'll never convince me 4 tubes are better than 1. Or any tube is better than no tube. Really go listen. You'll find tubeless heads that give you all the tone you could want. Less maintenance, and less things to go wrong. (No matter how much people tell you otherwise - tubes are out of other industries, 1 reason being they are unreliable)
3. 1 year warranty. Although it's a exchange warranty for 1 year, which is good. It only lasts a year. Purchasing an 3rd party warranty is a waste of money. Pro geat has at least 2 year warranty.

I can't agree to that. Tube amps will never go away even if some SS devices can sound like 98% the same as the real thing. We will always want the all tube as a benchmark. Even though I'll most likely go for something like the Orange TB which is not all tube, I'll always dream about owning a real old heavy beast such as the SVT CL or the Orange AD200.....
Hey if you give one of these I'll keep it!

[Arjank]

The bvp5500 does have a real tube sound, of course not as creamy as a full tube amp. Since you can hear the difference when swapping tubes I think these amps have it's place in the bassplayers world. The player has another option for tweaking the sound.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

keep beating that drum, seamonkey. one day you might actually convince a regular tube user of your anti-tube lies and rhetoric.

I'm convinced - but then again, I'm not exactly what you'd call a "regular tube user."

[Zoa]

As obligatory per a Behringer post on TB:

Behringer is known to produce unreliable products in a far greater proportion than other manufacturers,

Their customer service is questionable,

And it has been reliably documented that they exaggerate the power their amps produce by ridiculous amounts (such as using peak power instead of the already iffy RMS).

Let's not start a fight. All of this can be backed up by numerous firsthand accounts.

[Arjank]

Originally Posted by Zoa

And it has been reliably documented that they exaggerate the power their amps produce by ridiculous amounts (such as using peak power instead of the already iffy RMS).

This has nothing to do with the reliabilty of an amp, this is all about marketing.
They say the amps peak power is 550watts at 4ohm, this is actually pretty correct since the amp does approx 350watts rms at 4ohms.

Originally Posted by Parkin92

Are there any particular cabs you could suggest? I get confused about the effects of different ohms (not got enough experience with amps and so on..) but I'll look into it

By the way, does it sound good with distortion, I use a lot of distortion and fuzz for covers of Muse and other bands, but I find that our guitarts 50 Watt Tube Amp tends to drown me out when I'm using distortion. Which for Muse-style basslines is never a good thing haha.

If you want it loud, go for an efficient 410 cabinet rated 4ohms. Maybe someone here at TB cab recommend one.
Here are some options:
http://www.samash.com/p/Peavey_Pro%2...ohms_-49963791
http://www.samash.com/p/Fender_Rumbl...inet_-49948427
http://www.samash.com/p/Ampeg_B410HL...inet_-49969314
http://www.samash.com/p/Ampeg_SVT410...tock_-49958536
http://www.samash.com/p/Ampeg_SVT410...inet_-49972067

I don't know if it sounds ok with distortion, it depens on a lot of things (distortion pedal, bassguitar, playing technique, speaker cabinet, etc....)

[Zoa]

Originally Posted by Arjank

This has nothing to do with the reliabilty of an amp, this is all about marketing.
They say the amps peak power is 550watts at 4ohm, this is actually pretty correct since the amp does approx 350watts rms at 4ohms.

Sorry if I was unclear, I was making three separate points. They are often unreliable (as in fail often), often have poor CS, and use deceptive marketing practices.

This is for Behringer in general. That said, I'll shut up now.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

I'm convinced - but then again, I'm not exactly what you'd call a "regular tube user."

right, well never touching a tube amp hasn't slowed seamonkey down from knowing everything about them...why should you be any different?

[semiprohooker]

I'll jump in to say that I've seen quite a few behringer guitar/bass/keyboard amps "crap out" for one reason or another. In all I've probably seen 40 or so in my life and about 25-30 of those have had done serious issues.

However, I have seen nothing but good things from their PA rack processors. I own 4 of their multi comps and 4 eq's as well. I also had a powerplay headphone amp from them and none of those items have given me a lick of trouble.

So while i would have no problem recommending their rack gear, I would steer clear of their amps.

[Tim1]

Ditto that for their rack gear. We are still using one of their poweramps in the monitor rack plus a sound processor and feedback destroyer - all have worked like a charm and been thrashed for years. But.....their instrument stuff I have seen returned a few times.

[Arjank]

Originally Posted by semiprohooker

I'll jump in to say that I've seen quite a few behringer guitar/bass/keyboard amps "crap out" for one reason or another. In all I've probably seen 40 or so in my life and about 25-30 of those have had done serious issues.

However, I have seen nothing but good things from their PA rack processors. I own 4 of their multi comps and 4 eq's as well. I also had a powerplay headphone amp from them and none of those items have given me a lick of trouble.

So while i would have no problem recommending their rack gear, I would steer clear of their amps.

I don't know how much one should compare Bugera with Behringer.
In the past I did own a Behringer EP2500 poweramp. Reliability was good, but the sound came not close to the Bell 9024 amp I had.
I must say that I have not gigged a lot with the amp, so I can't say anything about reliability. The amp looks "good" inside, it even has a frame with these rubber caps over the tops of the 4 tubes to enhance stability.


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[cheezewiz]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

keep beating that drum, seamonkey. one day you might actually convince a regular tube user of your anti-tube lies and rhetoric.

No he won't.

[cheezewiz]

Originally Posted by Arjank

I don't know how much one should compare Bugera with Behringer.
In the past I did own a Behringer EP2500 poweramp. Reliability was good, but the sound came not close to the Bell 9024 amp I had.
I must say that I have not gigged a lot with the amp, so I can't say anything about reliability. The amp looks "good" inside, it even has a frame with these rubber caps over the tops of the 4 tubes to enhance stability.

Bugera = Behringer. Same company

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

right, well never touching a tube amp hasn't slowed seamonkey down from knowing everything about them...why should you be any different?

Hey! I touched (and tried to lift) a 4 Pro at GC, and I've played a 400+ (and kinda liked it).

[seamonkey]

You can see why I use the Talkbass option "ignore user"
"lies and rhetoric" is nothing but a personal attack.
If that's all he's got, I choose to ignore it.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by seamonkey

You can see why I use the Talkbass option "ignore user"
"lies and rhetoric" is nothing but a personal attack.
If that's all he's got, I choose to ignore it.

I sensed there was a tongue in his cheek (probably his). You seem a bit sensitive.