Does anybody think the Bugera V5 is a good option for a first harp amp? It seems to have the most in it's price range, but maybe this price range sucks. Should I spend the dough and go for something $400+ ??? Any info would be greatly appreciated.
I've been curious about this amp too. It's Behringer's attempt to compete with the Epiphone Valve Jr. It's made in China like the Valve jr., but unlike the valve, it has onboard DSP effects. Price is pretty good, but I have no idea about quality or the actual sound. Everyone seems to love the valve jr's tone for harp, so this one may very well be good for harp. My suggestion is to go down to Guitar Center and give one a try. ---------- ------------------ The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Spend the extra money and buy the Harpgear HG2. It is well worth it, and it will last you a lifetime. Every harp player needs a good 5-watt amp, and the HG2 is perfect.
There was another thread about amps recently. IMO, (and as much of a rule as a rule can be) some "rules" include:
Rule 1 - Do not buy an amp unless you: a - play it first, or.. *1 b - have it highly recommended by some who knows WTF they are talking about, or.. c - buy an amp built for harp, and preferably by a harmonica player.
Rule 2 - Guitar players do not know what amp works best (or well) for harmonica.
Rule 3 - Guitar amplifiers will need to be modified with either an attentuator (for solid state amps) or have the input tubes changed (for less gain). *2
One exception to any of this is if you decide to spend your money to get a small practice amp like the Bugera. I picked up an older Electar Tube10 and it works fine as a bedroom amp or even a small venue amp. On the other hand, I have not plugged it in since I got my Harp Gear.
*1 - Play the prospective amp with your microphone, or one that you would like to buy someday. *2 - An amplifier made for a guitar to be plugged will behave differently when a microphone is plugged in.. Beyond all the issues of tone and frequency balance, feedback is often an issue.
i guess my question would be how long have you been playing and what type/style of music are you into playing,the kind of mic your using etc.I,m not familiar with the little practice combos(made for guitar)that are around these days.I know guys from what I,ve read on the forum have them,did what they could do to make them harp friendly,etc.My opinion,from an owner and collector of many amps through the years,that if you can get your hands on a 60,s Kalamazoo model one or two(with reverb) approx.around $250 to $300.from a high rated e-bayer or from even from the Kali-Man himself Greg H. that if you want that nasty blues growl,these are the real deal.Another great little amp that also has that nasty little growl are the little 5 watt 60,s Lectro-Lab/Sound Projects combos for half the price of the Kali,s.Again said,I hav,nt tried these other little combos that are out there,but just my opinion,I just wish I would have known about these little jewels around 20 yrs earlier.BTW Greg Thanks for your info on your Kali site,much appreciated.
I've only been playing about 6 months, so this is all new to me. I currently use both a Shure 545sd set to high impedence and an Eggomatic. I'm looking to achieve a real blues harp sound that my p.a. does not provide.
I want to apologize for not being specific when refering to Kali,the amp itself is a mid 60,s(stay away from solid state) Kalamazoo/Gibson.As for the HG,if you go onto the Harp Gear site,that will give you the info that you need.If your looking into one of these bad boys or girls for that matter ,it will definetly give you the sound/tone that your looking for,from what I,ve heard via the net.
Thanks alot for the info man. I've noticed Kalamazoo gets a fair amount of attention. I'll check it out. Another thing, I keep hearing arguments about tube and solid state rectifiers. How much does it matter? The Bugera V5 IS SOLID STATE, AS IS THE VOX AC4TV AND OTHERS UNDER $300. That may influence my decision heavily.
I think if you have the money, getting a Harp Gear is the best thing to do.
You don't need to test one of THOSE amps to know if they sound good. I bought mine without testing it. Why? Because it's a frikkin' customized harp amp made by someone who a lot of major pros trust. It's DEFINATELY good. The question is, are you willing to pay for it?
They are not "cheap" practice guitar tube amps that are so damn random when it comes to finding good tone (which is why you always have to test those guitar amps out).
I wouldn't worry about whether its tube or diode rectified if the amp is single ended. I've read that a single ended amp wont have any sag because of the way it is designed. I'd go for for a valve jr and just change the 12ax7 for a 12ay7. Great sound for the money.
The Valve Jr. does seem cool, but I wonder if I would need more than just a volume control. Seems to me a tone control would be a necessity. I suppose you could live without reverb though.
There's plenty of vids on youtube of the vjr in action. I sounds good. If you click on amps for sale then you'll see that even the great Prof. Gussow has bought one. You can always add a tone control at a later date if you felt that you really wanted one.
There are some outboard units delays/eqs etc. that can give you a few more options for an amp with just a volume control.Different mics will also give you different tones.I every once in a while when noodling with some of my smaller less option tube amps,Harmonys,S.Projects etc.I use a Boss AD-3 acoustic simulater.It has a bottom,a top,reverb and chorus.The verb isn,t the best sounding but a slight bit helps if you prefer,and the other settings help to round out the tones.
@ andrew-in the next few days I am getting an Epi V Jr, and Randy Landry(whom I have the good fortune to live near)will be doing this mod to add the tone control etc., and maybe a bit more to it. Lots of folks have done this themselves:
http://www.lonewolfblues.com/projepimod.html
If you've got the clams to throw at a HG, though-you won't be disappointed. I recently played with a HG DoubleTrouble, and that's one badass little amp.
---------- Todd L. Greene, V.P.
Last Edited by on Jan 26, 2010 6:13 AM
Clams are not falling from the sky, unfortunately. So this might be the best option for me now. I would love to hear about the mods after you have them done. I do know a great electonics guy who could do the work for me. He builds pedals and tube preamps, etc. I didn't know it was possible to modify amps that way. Thanks Todd
Yes sir, it is possible, which is a big selling point on those amps. Also note that Randy does not change he 12ax7 along with this mod. I'll put better-quality tubes of the same value in, though. I'm in the same boat, moneywise. ---------- Todd L. Greene, V.P.
I finished the mods this week. Well happy with the result. I bought the amp second hand and the tubes that were in it were an eh12ax7 and a mullard el84. The tone control works well and takes the treble away. The vjr is also much louder than I anticipated.
I'll be getting a new one with the Eminence, and it sounds fine to me. I also like the sound of the extendsion cab they make with the Eminence 12 in it.
I may entertain having a line-out added as well. ---------- Todd L. Greene, V.P.
Last Edited by on Jan 26, 2010 7:28 AM
I don't think so, just the 3 different ohm speaker connections. I'm not sure I really want it. I think it'll be loud enough to mic, which will sound better than a line out because you get the speaker effect, which is part of the tone. ---------- Todd L. Greene, V.P.
ya i know. i saw it. i dont wanna say anything back cause ill just start a fight. basically hes a lier. my emails will prove he did not mail that out 3 days after the auction. after a week he told me he just mailed it, then even days later after that i got an email from ebay saying it was just mailed out. so imma just avoid the whole thing not to start fights in the forum.
Thanks everyone for the info on the Epiphone VJR! If anyone's interested I did go play the Bugera v5 today. Though I don't have much experience with harp amps, this is what I thought.... It's compact and has a strong design. It looks alright I suppose. But generally I don't like things that look vintage that aren't vintage. That aside it can get pretty loud. Not sure I'd have any use for the built in attenuator. I'm looking for tone not lower volume. It has a separate gain control that I thought would be helpful, but when turned up past 4 sounded.....not so good. Reverb...Nice feature when kept under 4. The speaker, however did maintain its sound when cranked. Maybe that's due to the 30 watt speaker. The best tone I got was when I had the volume at 7, Gain at 2, and reverb at 2. Overall it's not a bad little amp, but I think there's a lot of unnecessary crap here. Probably great for beginner guitarists. It seems like tone was not their first goal. Guitar versatility was. After all it is a guitar amp. I now need to find a Valve Jr to compare it to.
I have inserted my behringer gmx212 preamp into my valve junior head via the jacks on the back of the 212...running two 12 inch jensens..the ones from the behringer amp. There is every conceivable guitar or harp sound available using the valve junior as the amp and the behringer as a preamp, using different mics and guitars obviously.
The gmx212 is that way for guitar, but I could not get it to do that with harp until i used its preamp section into my valve junior. It's just too loud in my house for that.
I'm talking about the analog preamp modeling section, not the effect section. For effects, I use the digitech pedal, but the behringer effects are good too. I'm just noting this to say the behringer effects are better than what I've read about them on the web. Less is more with them...it's very easy to overdo it. I have a few behringer pieces from guitar and keyboard amps to PA mixers/eqs/DI boxes. Behringer's track record with me is extremely good (perfect)and I have really beat on all of it live and at home. If I needed a practice amp, I would get the v5 without hesitation based on previous experience with their stuff. I have not found the guitar amps to be bad at all for harp...the 100 watt gmx212 is just too powerful to get the tone I want in my house. I haven't even tried it playing out, but bet it would work just fine. The other patchings listed above i have done in a my 10x14 practice studio and I was very surprised at the wide variety of tones available without feedback issues.
Tone is inside you anyway. The more I play, the less i care about making an exact copy of anybody's tone. I can copy many tones, yes, but Equipment has finally become secondary, nice-to-have tweaks to what I have learned and keep learning.
Jon, I actually like the tone of the EV664 best in your three vids. And nice command of the instrument for a someone who has played only a short time, bro.
ANDREWZAR, I may have mentioned this in another thread, but Gary Smith -- the blues harp guy from the Bay Area with famously monster tone -- told me the Epiphone Valve Jr. Half Stack was the best-sounding small out-of-the-box harp amp he'd ever played. He even gigs with it sometimes. You can't get a much better recomendation than that.
Still, I would strongly recommend the Harp Gear HG2 (slightly more powerful, better built, good line out, tone control, fantastic tone). But if your budget is modest you can find used Valve Jr heads and cabs cheap on eBay and Craigslist (if you are USA).
While you're trying out amps, you might want to pop into Guitar Center (or somewhere) and try a Fender Super Champ XD. It has been on sale for $300. Tubes, clean and distortion channel, 16 "voices" if you're into amp modeling, line out, and effects.
