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are bugera amps worth it?


mbengs1

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Bugera got a bad rap early on due to a production rush by its parent company Behringer, Kind of a long story, but as the story goes Behringer had a big shake up when a new CEO took over and wanted to change their image of being associated with Chinese made garbage, In which the birth of Bugera also ensued, One big problem though, it backfired, These things were breaking down faster than you could get them out of the box, and most were blatant rip offs of other manufactures designs, In which case the law suits were plentiful, Fast forward a bit and we see Behringer take control of its own manufacturing, Of course still in China but now they can oversee their own quality control and work the bugs of the past out. Today their line up has been streamlined down to a fraction of what was once offered, Due to the lawsuits no doubt, and of course damage control. As in lets just perfect these few and make sure they don't leave us with mud on our faces again, Their Infinium thing is nothing new as self biasing amps have been around for quite some time, They just put a few twists on it is all, Another thing you need to remember is just about all major manufactures build most of their amps in China, and Bugera does it no better or worse than any of them these days, You should hear some of the horror stories about the Chinese made Marshalls, I have a TriRec I bought as a back up, Not that I've had to use it as a backup but some of my buddies have, Yea they were on that Marshall bandwagon too, As to rock and metal it ripped their broken down Marshall a new behind in most cases, Has more of a Mesa triple vibe to it, Which I'm pretty sure is what its trying to rip off, But at least this time they didn't try and make it look like a Mesa like they did with the Magician, Mesa MK4 anyone? Oh and how about that Bugera BC-30, Yea the legal team at Matchless had a field day with that one,

Edited by doublecross
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I bought a couple of 2x12 Behringer amps off a gear snob buddy of mine.

He came over and he was amazed on how good I made them sound and I could see the regret in his eyes.

Bugera amps are good sounding amps, but the customer service is practically non existent, from what heard and read from people and online.

Bugera has a bad wrap like Carvin, Burny, Edwards, Epiphone, Squire, Tokai and others.

I tried a Bugera amp, I think it was 333, I could be wrong, but anyway, the amp had some great drive to it, on the two overdrive channels, but if you put a overdrive pedal up front, you better lighten the gain on pedal and the clean channel was great. Overall, it was a good amp for Hard Rock / Metal.

Edited by AJ6stringsting
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  • 4 years later...
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I have a T50 - 50 watt Bugera head and the Bugera 2X12 cabinet.

Anyone who says these are cheaply made is just plain wrong, and on top of that, it's absolutely one of the best-sounding clean channels I've ever heard!

Chinese price aggressively. Maybe it'll work for them; maybe they'll go out of business, but as much as I'd prefer to brag about a Made-In-USA piece of gear, I still won't hesitate to say this amp and cabinet are very well made and well designed. Ultimately the nail they hit on the head is with what matters; how it sounds. I feel like I should apologize for liking this amp just cause it's made in China, but plug into the clean side of this with any guitar and you'll get past that fast!

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I've had several V-22s, A 1960, a 1990, a V-55 head, a 333XL and still have a 1960 infinium.

They ALL sounded excellent.  The 333XL was one of the early ones that had the "flameout".

It was actually due to the molex connector that was used. Due to the higher heater current of EL-34's over 6L6's 

and using the same gauge connecter it would burn through disabling the heater on the power tubes.

I just soldered the wires from that connecter directly to the pins on the PCB and the amp was bullet proof after that.

The flameout thing was way overblown.    I'm not aware of this happening on any of the lower wattage (V-22) amps.

The V-55's were 6L6 based so I doubt it happened on any of those either.  

As for tone they ALL sound great and there's an amp for all tastes in their line up.

That said I almost NEVER use my last remaining Bugera amp.  Not that it's not great sounding I just moved on from it.

 

 

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After decades of buying gear one aspect has consistently risen in value when deciding what to buy: resale value. A good Marshall, or something like a Matchless, is going to hold it more - a few will even, eventually, start rising in value.

And never forget that there are used buys out there where the condition is higher than the price is.

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On 10/4/2021 at 12:04 PM, daddymack said:

nothing to apologize for, if the amp works for you, then that is all that matters.:thu:

Yeah but, most musicians have only played through a very limited number of amps, so they may not have a full appreciation for what 'works for them'.

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