Bugera ???? Not so poplular here, but....

[Punchy810s]

I could always get my Bugera equipment to sound good at home, but when it clips out or blows at a gig -- it sort of leaves a lasting impression.

Hard to look forward to gigging when you are always looking back wondering if it is going to blow.

Again, again, again -- not recommended for gigging, period.

 

[Visirale]

lol I bought a Bugera guitar amp today. It really isn't half bad. I figured since I was just buying it to mess around on it didn't have to be anything special.

Hard to get a two-channel 22 watt tube guitar amp for $350 new. Channels sounded good enough to me and it's louder than anything I'll ever need to use it for. But alas, I'm taking it back to get an extension for my new bass amp tomorrow.

 

[bassvi]

I stand corrected. However, Peavey should remove/remake that video, don't you think? I'm one of the goofs (gooves?) who checks to see where things are made. I don't buy essential pieces like amps (a spare of which is difficult/expensive to carry a spare) that are made in China.

Sorry for any confusion.

edit:
how do these Peavey VB-2/VB-3 amps sound?

I really like my VB2, it is a very versatile amp IMO. Lots of power, but you can get tube distortion if desired easily by cranking the gain up while leaving the master down. Can also sound very clean and modern, if you want it to. I like the headroom it has and the flexibility of tones it can do. And it is somewhere in the range of 45lbs, not bad for a 225w tube head.

I also have a Bugera 1960 which I purchased recently just out of curiosity- I'm having a lot of fun with it. It will go into overdrive earlier than the Peavey, but it is quite impressive in it's own right, and delivers a very robust 150w. Sounds killer with a Genz 212Neoxt cab. I don't trust the name enough to gig it yet without backup, but it has a lot of character and I can definitely see using it on a gig at some point. At this time I would still completely choose my VB2 over it, but it really seems like a more than decent amp for what it is. I put some clips up on another thread, since someone asked.

 

[bdplaid]

Thanks for that info. I've never understood the volume thing between solid state vs tube, only that "tube watts" are louder.

having said that, where would you put the VB2 and the 1960 on a volume scale, as compared to something like a 500W SS amp? Specifically, I'm trying to compare this with MarkBass 800W amps.

 

[seamonkey]

I could always get my Bugera equipment to sound good at home, but when it clips out or blows at a gig -- it sort of leaves a lasting impression.

Hard to look forward to gigging when you are always looking back wondering if it is going to blow.

Again, again, again -- not recommended for gigging, period.

Buy from a store with a 30 day trial period.
Then take the amp home and crank it. Crank every knob on it. Blast it out. If it breaks you can return it.

This is not amp abuse, this is part of putting an amp through its paces. The store would not know if it's abuse or normal failure.

Take a video of it blowing up and put it on youtube

Help a fellow musician see if these stories are true or just some repetition of some internet myth.

Get a good shot of a Big Foot while you're at it.

 

[bdplaid]

That kind of burn-in never worked for me. I had a Carvin R600 that worked fine until, out of the blue - all the magic smoke came out when i turned it on onstage. I had it fixed, and damned if it didn't do it again a few weeks later. Never again Carvin for me.

The point is, the amp had a lot of hours on it and was fine, then it just became an unreliable POS.

 

[bassvi]

Thanks for that info. I've never understood the volume thing between solid state vs tube, only that "tube watts" are louder.

having said that, where would you put the VB2 and the 1960 on a volume scale, as compared to something like a 500W SS amp? Specifically, I'm trying to compare this with MarkBass 800W amps.

I've got a LMII and a GKMB-500 in addition to the VB2 and the 1960. The gigs I do are not incredibly loud (11-piece funk band w/horn section, 5-piece classic rock band) I'm currently using the MB-500 for the funk band and the VB2 for rock gigs.

I've used both tube and solid state on both gigs and volume-wise I feel the amps are close to on par. I may have been able to crank the VB2 output slightly higher than the MB500, but I still had plenty of headroom left. For cabs I use a Berg NV610, GK212Neo's, or a GB212 Neo-xt depending on the gig. I'm always having to keep my volume in check so I don't blow everyone away, whichever set-up I use-

I've only had the 1960 for a little more than a week so I am still getting to know it. It's a different animal than the VB2, you only have the 2 channel volume controls on it as the VB2 has seperate Gain and Output controls. It seems sensitive to which cab I pair it up with- with one of the GK212's, it was farting when I played a B hard on the E string at moderate volume. Through the GB 212 though, this was not present at the same level (!) I don't really know why, and in fact lean more towards the GK212 as my personal preference but the 1960 clearly sounds better to me with the GB. With two GK212 cabs hooked up to it, it's a monster and stays clean as loud as I could get it in my basement without torturing everyone else in the house. I chain the low and high channels together, the high channel is very bright so I just barely have it on.

Even though I am digging the 1960, I don't really see it replacing the VB2 for me. The Peavey is cabable of more tonal variety IMO and (I think) it has more clean headroom, but the 1960 is great for what it is. Just my .02.

 

[bdplaid]

thanks for the info. I also have a GK212 Neo (plus a couple of single 15s which are my preference), so that's a dead-on comparison for me.

I may look into it, but gotta say, it's a stretch, trading 6lbs for 45lbs in an amp! but i'll look out for one in a store to play through.

thanks!

 

[Punchy810s]

Buy from a store with a 30 day trial period.
Then take the amp home and crank it. Crank every knob on it. Blast it out. If it breaks you can return it.

This is not amp abuse, this is part of putting an amp through its paces. The store would not know if it's abuse or normal failure.

Take a video of it blowing up and put it on youtube

Help a fellow musician see if these stories are true or just some repetition of some internet myth.

Get a good shot of a Big Foot while you're at it.

Nah -- I'll just move on and get a life with my GK equipment -- no worries and great sound, at home, at practice and especially at gig.

Bye Bye Bugera!!!

 

[bdplaid]

I'm a believer. I played a VB2 today. It ain't your daddy's 225 watts. Loud as hell, feels like 400-500 SS watts. and sounds like a true tube amp, because it is. It's punchy, gritty (or quite clean), and generally a really great-sounding rock amp. I don't think I'd use it for jazz, but i didn't get a chance to play with it for long.

The VB-2 is a winner, and might be Peavey's best-sounding amp.

 

[johnny6644]

My two cents:

My first amp was a Behringer head (solid state) with a Behringer cab. Obviously price played a huge part of that decision. Meh. No character. Just kinda flat. Thumpy.

But my ears perked up when I saw those Bugera tube amps. I wonder how many people know that they are Behringer products. Probably too good to be true. I'll wait until those guinea pigs out there report back in.

 

[HookerRoad]

If Behrbug's reverse engineering involved parts, practices, and QC equal to that of top euro and USA builders then they wouldn't have such a bad rep. and since it's made in China it would still be cheaper.

in other words..."they're doing it wrong"

How strange it is that almost all of the people that badmouth Behringer have never owned one. I've got nothing but good things to say about the company. Things may change since they no longer have an office located in the US. I'm sure that's because the US economy is in the tank and soon we'll all be so poor our money won't matter anymore. When that happens... then China will be locating their manufacturing to the US for cheaper labor.

 

[HookerRoad]

Ok... I bought the Bugera Nuke bass head. Out of the box I was really impressed with the tone of my high notes. They seemed to sing. You could get all the low end too. It took some playing to figure out if I wanted to go mono bridged or bi-amp. I decided the bi-amp was the way to go with my SWR cabs. I have the 1x15 Son of Bertha cab and the 4x10 Goliath III cab. Makes a dynamite bass rig... clean as it gets. I can't get any distortion or grit out of it at all... Just pure bass.

Then I read the manual. It suggests using the Behringer Virtualizer Pro FX unit in the FX loop. Well, I just happened to have one in my studio... cause it's an awesome FX unit... Best $100 you can spend IMO.

Holy Cow! I got it all now baby. I got that tube distortion if I want... I like it clean, but just a touch of dirt is sometimes just what you need. Some of the best bass chorus I've ever heard. Anything I want, I got it.

Is it 3600watts of raw bass power? Nope. But it sure does push the hell out of my SWR cabs and my drummer can't believe the tone that is coming out of my rig. He just turned 54... so he's been around a while and IMO the best drummer I've jammed with, and I've jammed with some good ones. To be a name dropper, Mickey Shine was one of them. You know, he played with Hughey Lewis in a band called Clover. He then moved on to other acts like Elvis Costello and Tommy Tutone. Just so you know I'm not a slouch musician myself. Never made it big, but I can play big.

I use a 5 string Hohner for my cover band, but when I do my own stuff I prefer my own custom 4 string basses.

The Nuke replaced a GK800RB head. I much prefer the sound I'm getting out of the Nuke. I play lots of fast notes and the Nuke lets them all come out clear even when I punch up the bass frequencies. I don't care about cost or reputation... I just want my bass to be heard the way I intended to be heard... clear and straight at ya.

 

[Alex Xander]

Being an Aussie, I have no issue at all buying Chinese made stuff; after all we sell them all the iron ore and coal that we can produce. We also survived the GFC

My rack setup is all Behringer bar an Acoustic Image Focus II which I use as a poweramp -

Tube mic preamp (2 channel, one for a fretted, one for a fretless)
Parametric EQ for ch1
Parametric EQ for ch2
2 channel compressor
2 ru RTA.

It offers amazing versatility in tone with as many adjustments that I care to make, and the RTA will tune the output to get rid of room modes and other nasties like cabinet resonances. You can also dial in the curve of, say, an ampeg 810 should you wish An abstract way of assembling a rig, but it works very well for me.

I can afford expensive gear (though I'm no Tom Bowlus) but simply don't see the need for it. If something in my rack breaks, I'll throw it out and buy a new one. With that said, in 2 yrs the only thing to go wrong is that the plastic surround on the compressor's on/off switch fell off.