..Hi Bro's check this out a 5-watt tube amp with all the bells and whistles there are many of us with the Epiphone VJ or the Fender champ-600 our first tube amp nice and cheap a nice cheap entry levale tube amp..well i wish this little sucker was around when i bought my Epiphone VJ with all them bells and whistles theres plenty of room to shape your sound and a real reverb tank to boot made by sister company Behringer..
Thanks for posting this. I wonder what it'll sound like for harp. I really like the fact that it has a gain knob, so you can really dial in the sound (amount of overdrive) you want. I wish more tube amps had that, it's one of the things I like about the Harp Attack pedal. So if you want to you can play at a low volume with a lot of overdrive/distortion, or you could play at a loud volume with just a little bit of overdrive. I personally don't like to have a heavily distorted Chicago sound (except in certain situation), I prefer a cleaner sound with just a little overdrive. I also, for the most part, prefer not to have speaker distortion, so I think that 30watt speaker would work well. I know a lot of people really like the sound of speaker distortion, so they'd probably want to change out the speaker.
I think I may have to get one of these amps in the near future. You can get one for $150, so they're definately affordable. I would like to hear someone play the harp through one first though, I wonder if they have them at Guitar Center.
Last Edited by on Feb 05, 2010 1:30 AM
Ryan and Nasty-Yes, Guitar Center carries them. In fact, I picked up my Epi V Jr last night at our local Gtr Ctr, and I was checking those Bugeras out. According to the salesman I was talking to, they have some shoddy electronic issues. I'd like to go give one a whirl, though, since it has the separate controls, and see what it'll do. 149 bucks, I think it was. ---------- Todd L. Greene, V.P.
From what I read last night, they have had some hit or miss quality control issues. Some people were saying it was kind of luck of the draw as to whether or not you got a good one. They may have gotten this worked out, but I don't think I'd want to get one without trying it out first.
Hi Bro's the only problem seems to be faulty tubes from what i read this will happen with any tube amp in transport,,My First Epiphone i had to take back when i first got it the guy at the Muso shop tweeked the tubes nothing then he checked the fuses bingo it worked,,so I'm guessing there may be some of these problems happenning i can't see the cercuit boards being faulty and like myself being my first Tube amp i didn't know what was happening these may be simple faults,,i like the fact that there is so much control over shaping your sound with this amp,,Give a few months i see this amp getting targeted by the After Market amp building industry there will be all sorts of Hop Up kits avaliable,,This is a Amp to keep an eye on for us Harp Players I thinks,,For you Bro's $149 is a great entry leval amp i will be checking one out when they come to town just to see for myself..but at the moment i got a HPG2 in the pipe line..
Behringer (bugera) has the internet mythological bad reputation for bad quality control. Since the web came along, there is now a world-wide platform for complaining about your personal trouble. A happy customer MAY tell someone else eventually about a product like a guitar amp, when it finally comes up in conversation or at a gig. An unhappy customer, however, will immediately go on the web and broadcast it to the world.
I have spent years reading the tales of poor quality, numerous lawsuits and inflated numbers that would have driven a company out of business if they were all true. Some folks slam them on business ethics, then do all their shopping at Wal-mart to demonstrate their true commitment to business ethics. Others slam them for having a Chinese manufacturing facility, then buy a valve junior...lol. SOme claim they make no good gear at all and it's all throw-away junk. Some claim there is an audible difference in pre-amps on a PA board, until another expert comes in and sets the record straight on preamps. Point is, at the price points they hit, Behringer and bugera are great values if you try them out and buy the ones that actually do what you are looking for...like you should with any amplifier. If you dont try before you buy, you're losses are minimized as you buy behringer/bugera first. I bought most of my behringer gear blind on price/features alone.
My personal experience with numerous pieces of behringer gear from PA items to keyboard amp, to guitar amp has been great. I have not been disappointed yet. Everything I own from this company does more than i expected and saved me money to boot. I own a mixer with 32 channels/24xlr inputs, 100 watt modeling guitar amp, 300 watt keyboard amp, 31 band eq, stereo DI boxes and a 12 channel mixer. Some of this gear saw several hours of daily use for several years and is still working like new.
For the record, the valve junior I love so much has been to the shop once, before I owned it and bought it for a discount and recently needed an at-home repair when the fuse holder on the transformer actually broke in two causing it to malfunction at a gig. The input jack is also loose. I could broadcast the poor quality control of the epiphone valve junior based on my experience with this one amp head, but I choose to play it and enjoy it.
My behringer gear has way out-performed the epiphone in the QC area. If I didn't already have the valve junior, I would definitely get the V5 sight unseen via web order. I'm sure it can be a tone monster if the player is a tone monster.
Last Edited by on Feb 06, 2010 9:44 AM
Good points, Conga. The salesman wasn't quoting any internet blogs, etc., though-he was basing his views upon returns at that store. I'm happy thusfar with my Epi(will be much happier once I get it modded!), but I'd like to play thru the Bugera and that little Vox just for fun and curiosity's sake. I too have never had an issue with anything from Behringer. ---------- Todd L. Greene, V.P.
The musician's Friend here (guitar center under a different name) has what any city store has to deal with. Weekend warriors who buy/try/return. It's so bad here in Kansas City that a band will buy a PA for a gig and return it afterwards. There's really nothing the store can do about it. Sometimes the gear is damaged internally or even externally and they take it back and resell it as used or send it back for "factory refurb."
I wish human nature would flip around a little and people who are happy with their stuff would post as freely as those who are unhappy...lol. It would bake buying a lot simpler for the folks just getting into things. Getting what you pay for is generally true to a point, but there are some extraordinary deals out there for people on a budget, if you know which products they are..that's the trick. Every company has a lemon sometimes. The numbers you will read on some forums regarding behringer simply wouldn't hold up in a business model for a company showing the kind of growth they are showing. Speculation based on a little bit of information can really lead you astray.
I have seen something similar with harmonicas and the venerable marine band. So far I have purchased 3...all quite good OTB and very good now. I know a new player who purchased one and has trouble on the hole 2 draw...imagine that. He plays it thin and flat Most of the time until he figures it out. During that time, he is sure there's something wrong with it....lol.
I personally enjoy trying budget-oriented gear if I can afford to live with the consequences of replacing it. In most cases, I have been "lucky" and my budget gear needs no replacement. I still have a folkmaster in Bb I bought to do Gussow lessons on. My wife has one in A and I have some piedmont blues and bluesbands too. They all play fine now, with certain limitations.
I just went down to Guitar Center today, and tried this amp out. My impression: Meh. The Epiphone Valve Jr. Kicked it's ass for tone AND volume, and the Bugera is $10 more. Yes, it gives you more control of the tone (there is a gain, volume, tone, AND reverb) than the Epi (just one volume knob), but IMO, none of the tones I was able to find on it were even close to the natural tone of the Epi. The reverb was really pretty nice, but the rest was just meh... barely okay. You couldn't get it really dirty enough, and it never got really clean either. The epi doesn;t really do clean, but it sure does dirty VERY well. And the Epi on 4 was much louder than the Bugera with the gain AND volume at 10. If your looking for a small wattage OTS tube amp in the $150 range, the Epi is IT. Period. ---------- ------------------ The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
I wish I lived closer to KC so I could do a-b comparisons of gear. It's a 2 hour drive for us. That's good to know about the bugera vs the epiphone. Did you try it on guitar too?
Anyone try that little Vox with the switchable wattage? Thanks for the report on the Bugera, Isaac.
I'm with you on the Epi-still playing my new one stock(to my ears it sounds better with my JT30 than my CM bullet). Haven't even bothered to change the 12ax7 to a 12ay yet, but I will soon, then I'll get Randy Landry to mod it when he's done with his dayjob turnaround. ---------- Todd L. Greene, V.P.
Last Edited by on Feb 08, 2010 8:21 AM
I traded for an AC4TV a couple of weeks ago. It is pretty bright,in my opinion,for harp. I have done a number of modifications to it, trying to tame it down. I disconnected the tone control which seemed to give a better tone to it. As it comes stock, the tone control is not very responsive anyway. I also changed the values of a few of the caps and resistors. It sounds pretty decent now but my 5F1 custom Jaybird beats it by a mile. The attenuator feature is not very usefull for harp. It may be better for guitar. I would like to maybe replace the Output Transformer with a multitap and be able to use a speaker that is not 16 ohms. I probably would not recomend this amp for harp.
I own the Bugera V5 and am very pleased with it. It appears to be very solidly built. HPG2 is a custom built amp. The cost simply is not justifiable for the masses, IMHO. Let's face it, folks. Unless you play in a blues specific venue with a dedicated listening audience, nobody is a:) going to know what they're listening to and b:) give a damn about your tone as compared to that of Little Walter Jacobs. Not trying to get nasty. That's just the way it is. Unless you're a real pro, save your money for the time being. One of these days they'll make an amp with multiple effects for Sonny Boy, James Cotton, etc.
I know this is an old thread but I wanted to make a statement for any new players out there that might read this topic.
Listen to people like Geezer With Harp and you'll be frustrated in your development as a player. You'll also sound like crap when you get to play with grownups.
Tell Wynton Marsalis that he should have spent less money upgrading his horn over the years.
It will cost you a good amount of money in the beginning, but the best gear you can possibly afford will be a better investment over the important early years. Developing good acoustic tone is critical, but if you plan to play amplified harp, you need to learn how to get and control good electric tone.
Quality gear will help you do that and still have tone and power to go further. Crappy gear will only go so far and never be able to reproduce a quality tone from you.
Don't play love-makin music on a toy radio. Don't serve your boss take-out food, and don't make your audience listen to Guitar Renter's Crap of the Month gear.
The Fender Pro Junior is where its at for Harmonica. 15 watts all tube power. Those are very nice. Unfortunately you really have to crank its probably not good for apartment rocking. I have a old Mississippi Peavey Backstage 15 watt that I'm looking forward to playing Harmonica through.
Last Edited by mattfolk327 on Nov 08, 2013 12:42 PM
First off, welcome to the club. Second, good choice on the Peavey. As long as its pre-TransTube, you'll be in good shape. They just lend themselves to better harp tone than the TransTube models. ----------
