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Bugera 1960 for bass

#141
I'm almost certain that those pedals would work swell for you. I personally like a tone that's so over driven it borders on fuzz hence why I had to use a pedal. The amp may suit your needs just fine as is with a 4X10 or Smaller. I never had the chance to run a small cab with the amp...
 
#142
Just an FYI, an updated version of the 1960 was announced at Winter NAMM. The updated version has a master pot on the back so you can use the front mounted volume pots for gain. Here is a link with additional info and pics of both the front and back of the amp.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#144
Just ordered one of the original (non-infinium) ones. MF is clearing them out for $350 right now and till Tuesday 9/20, there's a coupon for $50 off if anyone else has been eyeing these as long as I have without pulling the trigger.

MF orders usually get to my house in two days, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can try it out by Wednesday. We'll see how much I love this with my 2x15.
 
#150
Any update on whatcha think?


bigchiefbc said:
I just got mine in yesterday, and I haven't even played it through my full rig yet. I'll definitely have some opinions after practice Monday night, but clips will be rough for now. I don't really have a decent mic to get clips yet, so it would just have to be the crappy mic on my cam.
Click to expand...
 
#151
carbonfold said:
Any update on whatcha think?
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Yeah, it sounded great. Plenty of low-end, good amount of grit. I had it just on the edge of breakup with the volume between 3 and 4 on the normal channel. However, this is still running at half power as I received the amp without 2 of the power tubes (which I'm waiting for right now). Once I have it running at full power, I fear it may be a bit too loud to get the nice breakup in the size bars my band normally plays, but we shall see. But it definitely has enough low-end to be a good bass amp, IMO.
 
#152
I did find some clips of someone playing the Bugera 1960 on bass (limited clips) but curious to hear some more (someone please mic up or something! haha).

I'm actually caught between picking one of these up or getting a Streamliner 900. Of course if I go the Bugera 1960 route, I'll be looking for a 810 cab. If I go Streamliner 900, I'll be going to a 412.
 
#154
Just resurrecting this thread a bit as I decided to go ahead and purchase one the these (the non-infinum). Found a new one for under $400 shipped and decided to pull the trigger.

I don't plan on using it as a primary gigging amp (yet) but if it proves to be reliable enough then its possible. For now It will serve as a practice amp for a garage/rock/punk band I'm in powering an older SVT610HLF.

Hopefully it'll arrive this week and I can provide some impressions and sound clips.
 
#156
krdavis32 said:
Mine should be here Monday. This will be my main gigging rig, I have a Laney 1x15 and 2x10 cabs. The 1960 I found is the non infinium but has the master mod.
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Mine is supposed to arrive Monday too! I'm not initially planning on it replacing my SVT for gigs, but if it proves reliable it's possible for some situations. A 40lb amp is going to seem like a micro head to me!
 
#158
The UPS man came knocking today, and my 1960 has arrived.

After a quick unboxing, I examined the amp and everything seemed to be in order, tubes looked good etc, so I decided to take a little trip down to one of my rehearsal spaces to check it out.

This particular space is where my usual gig rig (76 SVT into a Mesa PH4X12) lives. The Mesa is not the cab I bought this amp to power; rather, I plan to run it into a de-horned SLM-era Ampeg SVT610 that resides at my other band's space.

I'd say this amp weighs about half of what my SVT does, so setting it on a tall cab is a comparative breeze. However, it is a wide head, and the feet JUST fit on top of the Mesa without hanging off.

After switching the impedance to 4ohms I fired it up on standby for about five minutes; all the tubes lit up just fine. A relief when receiving any amp in the mail.

Flipping standby off resulted in tone, but not the kind I wanted. All treble, no bass. It took me a few minutes to realize that plugging into channel one is the realm of guitarists. As soon as I wised up and plugged into channel 2 I started hearing what I wanted to hear.

Running my 04 American P-bass with Rotosound rounds and a Quarter Pounder pickup, the Channel 2 low input seemed the best choice, as Channel 2 high was a little aggressive-sounding.

Within just a few minutes I was able to dial in a nice Geezer-type tone with the presence off, treble and bass on 2, and mids on 3. I ran the volume between 2 and 3, which through this cab is enough to blow heads off at any loud rock gig I'll ever play. Plug into channel 2 high with these settings and you'll want to play Motorhead songs. If I don't dig in too hard on channel 2 low it will stay fairly clean at gig volumes, but definitely will break up if I lay into it (why else would I want a tube amp?)

What I've gathered so far:

1. Very different midrange character than an SVT, as expected. Not bad, just different.

2. You can play completely clean or you can play loud. Pick one.

3.If you like a little dirt, 100 watts provides more than enough volume.

4. A very modern-sounding cab like my Mesa is not the best match for this head. Although still a ported cab, I think my Ampeg 610 will be a better match for this amp's midrange character. I'll find out on Thursday.
 
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#159
I just realized that I never came back to give my more developed impressions on my 1960.

I've played it for 3 rehearsals now. I'm using a Carvin 4x10, and I'm also mic'ing it and sending it through our PA and subwoofer.

At this point, I absolutely love the tone. When all tone controls are set flat, it is very mid-heavy and cuts through the band mix like a knife. Crank the bass up a couple spots and it has an impressive amount of low-end. It goes much bassier than I like it personally (I'm more of a grindy/middy guy).

I agree with MikeyThrottler that it is very clean at low volumes. To get any real dirt out of it, you need to crank it up quite loud. Since I mainly got it to have a slightly dirty tone, this is a bit of an issue for me. My band likes to keep it pretty quiet on stage and let the PA do the hard work, so I'm probably going to have end up getting a power soak to bring the output volume down.

For now, I pulled out the middle two tubes and then flipped the impedence down to 4 ohm (my cab is 8 ohm). In this configuration, it gives me exactly what I wanted. With the volume at about 3, it is sort-of clean when I play softly, and dirties up great when I really dig in.

Bottom line, it is exactly the tone I was looking for in a tube amp, except just a bit too loud at full power. I'll run it at half-power until I decide whether to get a power soak or not. I'm not overly worried about the amp torpedo'ing because I know a lot of guitarists do the same thing pulling tubes, and very few of them have issues. Also, it's not like this amp cost a fortune, either.
 
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