Members timrocker Posted May 14, 2013 Members Share Posted May 14, 2013 I've been amp shopping for a couple of months. Tried out a marshall DSl-15. Not quite loud enough. (my drummer hits pretty hard) Tried out a couple of Fenders. Good, but just not quite what I had in mind. Tried out a VHT lead 20. Very cool, but I like my knobs to face forward. I know, pretty picky. Guitar Center has these Bugera V-22's for $379. I brought it home and love the sound of it. Plan on using my tubescreamer and Carl Martin Plexitone for drives and distortions. Also bought an ep booster, to hit both of those harder when needed. I know people have had issues with build quality, and design. Keeping my fingers crossed, but really liking this amp. Maiden gig Friday night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timrocker Posted May 15, 2013 Author Members Share Posted May 15, 2013 Bueller? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Steve2112 Posted May 15, 2013 Members Share Posted May 15, 2013 the Bugera sould fit the Maiden bill nicely. As for cheap amps....they ain't too bad. Rock it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jhall Posted May 16, 2013 Members Share Posted May 16, 2013 I had one of those for a while and I miss it dearly!! I ended up loaning it to a client who fell in love with it and Ijust told him to keep it. The build quality is quite good actually and the haters just won't accept that.They did have an early problem with spontanious channel switching (not combustion in the V-22, 50 series).It was chased down to a chip overheating and there was a quick fix in the production. For those with the early models there was a fix where you attached an inexpensive heat sink and it worked fine.Mine though an early one had no issues and sounded excellent. The stock speaker was a near perfect match for it too. I aquired a Bugera 333-XL (I'm not a metal head but it is great for metal) that was plagued with the "flame out" problem and I easily fixed it by soldering the power cluster directly to the board. It was a 1/2 hour job and the amp has been perfect ever since. The features on this amp make it just an unbelievable value and I'm pretty sure the newer production of this amp too has been tweaked to not need the "fix".Though the V-22 was a better fit for me I'm enjoying the 333-XL. But I WILL get another V-22 at some point and it will be my main playing around amp forever. Here's a small non-motion video clip of it in action: And here it is on top of a 1970s era Marshall 4x12: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Steve2112 Posted May 16, 2013 Members Share Posted May 16, 2013 Glad to see you liked the Bugera, despite the bad reviews, JHALL. And good to see you're still with us! Hows' things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timrocker Posted May 19, 2013 Author Members Share Posted May 19, 2013 Progress report. Two gigs down and absolutely no qualms about the amp. I've used about half of the volume and had not trouble cutting through. Tone was superb. I did not use the gain channel, hope to try it next time. Didn't want to take the time to run the footswitch this weekend. Dust cover is on the way. Time will tell if it holds up to gigging treatment. Wish I had bought this amp years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members buckethead99 Posted May 21, 2013 Members Share Posted May 21, 2013 The Bugera line are great amps,Who cares where they are made? Glad you like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nagol5178 Posted May 25, 2013 Members Share Posted May 25, 2013 The Bugera's sound good. I got the 333xl when they first came out. It lasted a few months and then it tore up. A lot of them were tearing up back then. I think now they have their quality down better because I don't hear about them breaking all the time. Most of the bad reviews are probably due to people like me who didn't get to have the amp long before it broke. And they are too cheap to spend hundreds of dollars to fix them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jhall Posted May 25, 2013 Members Share Posted May 25, 2013 It was kind of dumb on their part to use that crappy molex connector from the power tranny to the board.I'd swear it's just like one you'd see on a computer motherboard which obviously is designed for a muchlower current draw. I'd be willing to bet that if these amps shipped with 6L6s instead of EL-34s there would have been far fewer failures due to the considerably lower heater filiment draw of 6L6s compared to EL-34s. It was the telltale burnt spot inside of the molex connecter inside the filiment wire section that gave away the cause of the (tubes not lighting up) amp not working when I took a chance on buying it really really cheap. I figured I'd use the trannies (which I consider to be a very strong point on these Bugera amps) for a homebrew. On my 333-XL it was literally a 1/2 hour fix to solder it directly to the header pins.I now have zero issue with it at all. I will say though that you've got to be very careful with the knobs too as the pots are plastic ans connected directly to the board. These would be a bit of a pain to replace. Not impossible but a pain so it would be best to be very careful with these amps as far as moving them around.As far as the quality od the boards and traces the ones I've been inside look as good or better made thanmost any "name brand" PCBs comming out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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