Grumpyrocker

Judging by all the chat online the Bugera V22 has become a very hot talking point. That’s no surprise given what it offers for the price - so you’d think there would be plenty of reviews knocking around. Alas the big names - magazines like Guitarist - don’t seem to cover Bugera gear. One expects this is either due to pressure from manufacturers of rival gear or a misguided belief that Bugera clones gear in a way you’d never see from Marshall, PRS, Blackstar et al. It would be sad if either of things are true.

But what of the Bugera V22 itself? At first glance it certainly looks familiar. The styling is clearly influenced - if not downright copied - from Matchless. The control layout and options owe quite a bit to Peavey’s Classic 30. Yet in terms of tone the Bugera V22 is clearly its own beast. As Behringer’s Austrialian sales manager Gary Compson explains, "[The Bugera V22] has a clean channel, a distortion channel, a reverb control and not much else to distract you from getting to the business of making music. It’s not a clone either. It has it’s own sound, which is somewhere between a Fender Deluxe and a Vox AC30 - and that’s a pretty good place to be."

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I know I said I'd have a Bugera V22 review online last week, but I didn't get round to it. However that's because I needed to replace a power valve I accidentally broke (because I'm a clumsy idiot).

Anyway I have now replaced the power valves in the amp - EL84s in this case - and rebiased the amp. This is something of a right of passage for me as I've never done this before. But with my multimeter in hand it actually took moments and was no harder than changing a lightbulb.

The amp now has Electro Harmonix 12AX7 tubes in V1 and V2. There's a Groove Tubes 5751 in the phase inverter and a pair of matching Electro Harmonix EL84 tubes in the power section.

I've yet to play the amp at any volume (my baby son is asleep ten feet away from the amp) but one thing I've noticed already is the hum the amp always had in triode mode (half power) has now gone. The hum was always said to be a feature of the Bugera V22 in the half power mode - but it seems with the right tubes it'll go away.

Anyway, more testing ahead over the next few days then I promise I will actually finish my review.

My little dirty blues Bugera V22 demo is now available in YouTube video form.

A brief demo of the Bugera V22 guitar amplifier. The mic was a Behringer XM8500 (at the edge of the speaker cone), recorded straight into a Line6 UX1 and onwards to Cubase Essential. Just a quick improvised noodle to demo more rhythmic type work on the dirt channel. Gain is set just under halfway for the two rhythm tracks panned left (bridge pickup) and right (neck pickup). The lead track in the middle has the gain all the way up. No post- recording fiddling was done, the delay on the lead track came via the Line6 M13 which was set up on the amp using the four cable method. So this particular delay ran through the amp's fx loop. Drums by EZDrummer. The guitar a PRS SE Custom Trem. The amp wasn't cranked - this was recorded at neighbour friendly volume.

A few folks have asked for a demo of my amp, so here it is. This was just something I knocked together in ten minutes this morning - first a quick improv over a looped chord progression, then some dirty blues. My apologies in advance for the terrible playing.

I've never actually recorded an amp with a mic before - so it was a learning experience. The mic was a Behringer XM8500 (at the edge of the speaker cone), recorded straight into a Line6 UX1 and onwards to Cubase Essential. The clean demo has no layering, just one track in realtime. The second demo has three unedited tracks played over a drum sequence.

Clean Demo
A short clean demo of the Bugera V22 amp. The guitar is a PRS SE Custom Trem played through a Line6 M13 effects unit. The Line6 unit was only used for the looper facility. The reverb is from the V22 itself.

Dirty Blues
Just a quick improvised noodle to demo more rhythmic type work on the dirt channel. Gain is set just under halfway for the two rhythm tracks panned left (bridge pickup) and right (neck pickup). The lead track in the middle has the gain all the way up. No post- recording fiddling was done, the delay on the lead track came via the Line6 M13 which was set up on the amp using the four cable method. So this particular delay ran through the amp's fx loop. Drums by EZDrummer.

Heavy
Does the Bugera like pedals? Here's a very quick demo of a heavy patch from the Line6 M13. This is the Line6 Distortion model no other effects in use. The amp EQ is pretty flat, just tweaked on the effect itself and the guitar tone rolled off a little. There's a brief widdle with the Throaty Wah patch at the end. The recording came out a little bassier than it was in person. Clearly I'm not quite ready to produce a multi-platinum album.

Well I finally decided on - and bought - a new amp.

For a while despite the "cheap and cheerful" nature of this purchase - to get it passed the wifey - I did toy with going for something more expensive such as the new 20W Blackstar.

I also toyed with getting a custom build. But the builder I approached didn't seem interested in fitting a feature pictured in nearly every photo on his bloody website, or that interested in my custom at all. You'd think folks would be more friendly when they would be making over £400 wouldn't you?

So spurned by the rude custom amp bloke I returned to the idea of cheap and cheerful. And a larger retail company was much more polite and even price matched for me. So I've taken the controversial move of buying a Bugera V22.

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Here's a bit of advice if you want to get in business selling customised valve guitar amps.

When someone emails with the intention of spending several hundred pounds on your products don't react as though they have pissed on your chips.

Nor tell them that you can't be bothered to do "feature x" even though your bloody website is covered top to tail with pictures of amps you've built with the self same "feature x" installed.

Nor perhaps should you send a prospective customer a photo of their current amp to prove why it's shit, but at the same time show no interest in offering anything better.

Instead why not try to write emails with something other than a "stop bothering me and sod off somewhere else" tone, act pleased someone is interested in your work, or show some comprehension of customer service. Don't just act like a rat.

Thanks for nothing. You've just lost £400+.

Meanwhile I want to say well done to Roy at DV247. After my poor experience with the amp builder mentioned above DV247 was completely the opposite; excellent customer service and even price-matched a rival online store. That's how you do business and retain customers.

Modelling amplifiers are becoming an increasingly common option at the less expensive end of the guitar amplification market. Previously if you wanted to emulate more expensive amps you would have to buy some kind of effects unit and footpedal that you would connect to your amplifier.

Now companies such as Line6 with its Spider amps and Peavey with the Vypyr series are offering all in one solutions that aim to provide guitarists on a budget with a selection of tones they could only previously dream of.

The Peavey Vypyr 75 combo modelling guitar amplifier is an interesting beast. Though it does not feature vacuum tubes it is not a wholly digital device, distortion sounds are created in an analog fashion via Peavey's transtube solid state technology. The practical upshot being that the distortion and overdrive on offer sounds much more warm and natural than many rival digital-only offerings.

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