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Bugera 1960 for bass

#61
3toes said:
Reeves Amp

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=575369
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Yeah, but the point is that the Reeves is $2000.00 USD +, the Bugera is about $450.00 USD. If you wait for a 20% off and free shipping deal, you can get it for about $360.00!

For those if us looking to experiment with a tube head, the Bugera price point is attractive. If I was going to spend more than $2000.00 USD, I'd have ALOT of choices.
 
#62
LuvMusic said:
Yeah, but the point is that the Reeves is $2000.00 USD +, the Bugera is about $450.00 USD. If you wait for a 20% off and free shipping deal, you can get it for about $360.00!

For those if us looking to experiment with a tube head, the Bugera price point is attractive. If I was going to spend more than $2000.00 USD, I'd have ALOT of choices.
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Yeah, I was just responding to him saying he wished someone did a HiWatt type of amp, but yeah, the pricepoint is COMPLETELY different. :)
 
#64
bassvi said:
The Reeves looks amazing...... I guess I am just a sucker for cool looking amps!! (It helps when they SOUND awesome, too!)
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I believe that Bass Gear Magazine did a review of that amp (but I haven't confirmed it as I'm stuck at work :hiding:)

I do recall the photo of a missed solder joint though (which completely amazed me...after all, how many solder joints are there in an amp of that style...not too many).

I have a friend (although I haven't seen him in a long time) who was a design engineer for Transformers and Rectifiers in England (the company that makes Partridge transformers). He built himself (among other amps) a 50 watt Hiwatt clone (he designed and built the transformers himself) and it sounded great! I suspect that any other well made clone would too.

I don't recall if I mentioned it earlier in this thread, but "The Tone King" on YouTube has a video where he shows the insides of the 1960 (compared to a reissue Marshall 1959), if you're curious. It'll come up if you search for "Bugera 1960".
 
#66
bazzanderson said:
being a tube noob does anyone know if there are direct replacements for EL34s that would allow higher than 25watts RMS output per tube?

Thanks!
Bazz
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Well, IIRC, the pinout is the same as the 6550 (as is the heater current) but you'd have biasing issues and I don't know what Output Transformer (OT) primary impedance a quad of 6550s looks for compared to EL34s. The power rating of the OT comes into play too.

You may be able to get more headroom out of the amp through a set of 6550s but probably not much more power. Marshall had some 100 watt guitar heads in the '80s with 6550s rather than EL34s.
 
#67
BillyB_from_LZ said:
Well, IIRC, the pinout is the same as the 6550 (as is the heater current) but you'd have biasing issues and I don't know what Output Transformer (OT) primary impedance a quad of 6550s looks for compared to EL34s. The power rating of the OT comes into play too.

You may be able to get more headroom out of the amp through a set of 6550s but probably not much more power. Marshall had some 100 watt guitar heads in the '80s with 6550s rather than EL34s.
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Gotcha....probably not worth the trouble.
 
#71
BillyB_from_LZ said:
In Spain, I have no idea. Here in the US, hundreds of Dollars. You can search for Hotplate or Marshall Powerbrake among others.
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Are you serius? the appealing of this head is decreasing... Someone must create a mod so i can fit a master volume.

EDIT: cant it be built DYI style? i have checked the musicians friend url and well most power atenuators are more expensive than this head...
 
#72
At this price, it would almost be worth the buy for just the hardware and iron. A new PCB or turret board would be inexpensive, so you could install new tube sockets and a board and have essentially a boutique amp.

I played keys in a band where the bass player used a '75 Super Bass 100 into an SVT 810E, and he got a great tone. His '75 P didn't hurt, either :)

For my personal setup, I couldn't use this head - I run a guitar amp in parallel with my SVT-II for dirty tones, and I need more dirt at lower volumes than this amp can give. For a lot of rock bassists, this amp would be a nice choice though.

That spec of 150W peak is just a number, probably based on full output ignoring distortion. The typical RMS ratings on amps are at a specified percentage of distortion, usually 5% THD. So at 100W it would still be pretty clean, definitely clean enough for your "clean tone." At filthy distortion levels, you'd be pumping 150W but the difference between 100W and 150W in terms of sound pressure level is really small.

Using an efficient speaker, you can get over 100dB SPL with one watt of power. Every 10x increase in wattage gets you an extra 3dB, or twice the volume. 100W into a speaker that has a sensitivity of 100dB SPL @ 1W @ 1M gets you 106dB, which is pretty loud.

A 15" JBL K-130 would give you 104dB at 1W @ 1M, at 125W RMS, so with this amp you'd get about 110dB full up, that's as loud as a chain saw or being in a steel mill.

Have fun!
 
#73
I think every doubling of wattage gives you 3db, which is not twice the volume. so 64 watts into your 100db spl cab would give 118db, and 128 watts would give 121db.

I may be wrong though!

Cheers,
Liam
 
#74
liam_g said:
I think every doubling of wattage gives you 3db, which is not twice the volume. so 64 watts into your 100db spl cab would give 118db, and 128 watts would give 121db.

I may be wrong though!

Cheers,
Liam
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Nope - 10x the watts is double the volume, or +3dB SPL. A decibel isn't a unit by itself, it's just a way to notate a logarithmic scale.

The real question here being "is the amp suitable for my application?" For me, it's not. For a lot of folks, it probably is. Try one out with your cabinets and bass and judge for yourself. My point with all the math is that efficient speakers work better with lower-powered tube amps than the speakers that most bassists use these days. If I were gigging with a lower-powered tube amp, I'd want cabinets over 100dB SPL @ 1W @ 1M efficiency.
 
#75
pharaohamps said:
Nope - 10x the watts is double the volume
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Right so far, in simplistic terms.

or +3dB SPL.
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Wrong here. +10dB is the correct figure.

+3dB represents a doubling of wattage, which is a preceptible increase. +10dB represents 10 times the wattage, which seems twice as loud.
 
#77
vene-nemesis said:
Are you serius? the appealing of this head is decreasing... Someone must create a mod so i can fit a master volume.

EDIT: cant it be built DYI style? i have checked the musicians friend url and well most power atenuators are more expensive than this head...
Click to expand...

A "post phase inverter master volume" would serve this amp well. I once installed one in a Black Face Fender Twin Reverb that I owned and it was a monster!

I'm sure that there are DIY power attenuators, the parts won't be that cheap though.

When I first learned of the 1960 I was going to grab one and a power attenuator. Then after pricing power attenuators, I decided not to bother. In October, I went on a bit of a shopping spree and bought the 1960 along with a 1990 head for playing guitar through. I haven't tried it with bass yet but suspect it will disappoint as there isn't much low end even with the bass control turned all the way up.
 
#78
BillyB_from_LZ said:
A "post phase inverter master volume" would serve this amp well. I once installed one in a Black Face Fender Twin Reverb that I owned and it was a monster!

I'm sure that there are DIY power attenuators, the parts won't be that cheap though.

When I first learned of the 1960 I was going to grab one and a power attenuator. Then after pricing power attenuators, I decided not to bother. In October, I went on a bit of a shopping spree and bought the 1960 along with a 1990 head for playing guitar through. I haven't tried it with bass yet but suspect it will disappoint as there isn't much low end even with the bass control turned all the way up.
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Ill be checking both options, thx for the info!


EDIT: I've found this Invalid Link Removed doesnt look too expensive nor too complicated.
 
#79
Noob question: Wouldn't the "lack of bass" problems be solved with increase in certain cap values though? It seems that as long as there's discussion concerning add-ons like attenuators and master volumes - adjusting cap values shouldn't be too out of the question.
 
#80
ogunhe said:
Noob question: Wouldn't the "lack of bass" problems be solved with increase in certain cap values though? It seems that as long as there's discussion concerning add-ons like attenuators and master volumes - adjusting cap values shouldn't be too out of the question.
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A switchable bass/guitar circuitry could be interesting too, since these are 400$ maybe there wont be much hessitation to mod them.
 

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