Budda amps

[Hot Octopus]

I had a chance to play a Budda Superdrive 45 the other day and was blown away -quite literally. At only 45 watts, the sucker is freaking LOUD! I had the volume on .5 and it was LOUD and hitting the egnater cab I was playing it through pretty hard. But it was dynamic and touch responsive and didn't have presence/ density controls bogging it down. It seemed like a great hard rock amp. It had enough gain, but at no point was it too saturated or fizzy. The cleans were kind of meh, but the OD channel was killer. Is anyone here into Budda?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Budda amps

I am! Jeff Bober, the design guru behind Budda, left after Budda was bought by Peavey. His new company is called EAST Amplification. I have an EAST Studio 2 and with 2 'Bober watts'as they are called, the amp is easily as loud as any 18-20 watt head. Zero headroom, of course, so you need to know what you are getting into. But he also has larger wattage amps available.

At $1400, it is by far the most expensive Dollar-to-Watt amplifier I own, but it sounds amazing!

I really like the older Super Drive 30, another insanely loud Bober creation.

[FretFire]

Re: Budda amps

I've always heard great things about the Superdrives, but haven't had a chance to try one. I've been curious if the current Peavey-era amps are any good.

At only 45 watts, the sucker is freaking LOUD!

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Budda amps

I've always heard great things about the Superdrives, but haven't had a chance to try one. I've been curious if the current Peavey-era amps are any good.

They are, but it would take a direct comparison between Bober-era vs a Peavey-era models to compare mojo-levels. Myself, I would get an EAST over a new Budda ...

[DankStar]

Re: Budda amps

I passed up a great local deal on a pre-peavey 18-watt SuperDrive. I should have made it happen.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Budda amps

^ I have yet to see a deal on ANY Budda, but would jump on one in a heartbeat !

[DankStar]

Re: Budda amps

^ I have yet to see a deal on ANY Budda, but would jump on one in a heartbeat !

I think it was like $650 or $750, I forget.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Budda amps

I think it was like $650 or $750, I forget.

Ouch! That makes my heart hurt ... You would never see something like that here. The last used SuperDrive 30 I saw was at 30th St Guitars for something like $1200...

[Hoboman]

Re: Budda amps

I've been gigging Budda SuperDrives for the last couple of years an love them.
My main amp is a Budda SD18 1x12 combo.
I have a SD30 1x12 combo that I bring as a backup.

[speed2dirt]

Re: Budda amps

Hey Twilight, how does the Studio2 compare to the Superdrive tonewise? I didn't know Budda's were hard rock amps. I guess I always put them in the realm of Vox for being loud, dynamic, and very guitar knob sensitive. What hard rock band would you compare the tone to?

[Hoboman]

Re: Budda amps

Hey Twilight, how does the Studio2 compare to the Superdrive tonewise? I didn't know Budda's were hard rock amps. I guess I always put them in the realm of Vox for being loud, dynamic, and very guitar knob sensitive. What hard rock band would you compare the tone to?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Budda amps

Hey Twilight, how does the Studio2 compare to the Superdrive tonewise? I didn't know Budda's were hard rock amps. I guess I always put them in the realm of Vox for being loud, dynamic, and very guitar knob sensitive. What hard rock band would you compare the tone to?

I was unaware that I played hard rock.

The SuperDrive is more comparable to the Club18 or Club30.

The Studio 2 was designed to be a single amp studio solution regardless of your style. It has gobs of front end gain and volume, but very little headroom, so while a dead clean tone is possible, either you have to keep the volume low or use your volume control.

My workaround to this is twofold --
a) I swapped out the V1 for an ECC832. This retains the timbre of Jeff's voicing but cuts the gain way down so I have a wider sweet spot and can use whatever pedals I like for gain and boost

b) I usually play the amp full on and use a Heavy Electronics Descend to clean things up

Tonally, the S2 is a cross between a Budda and an Orange to my ears. The EQ range is subtle but very musical and firmly fixed around a midrange push.

Besides all this the S2 has an fx loop w separate volume and a recording out with its own volume. Both of these are post-power stage so you can slave a larger amp if needed and still get the full tonality of the amp.

Last but not least there is a switch on the back that increases or decreases the input sensitivity slightly called the Clean/Mean switch.

So it's definitely possible to get anything from clean to mild crunch to hard rock distortion with this amp.

The only real downside for most people will be the price, as it costs the same as his other higher wattage offerings. This is not a 2W entry level mass market device, it's a full featured amp with the power section designed so you can wind it up without going (completely) deaf!

[tone4days]

Re: Budda amps

TO has it nailed
gotta give it up for my same state tone source ... Jeff Bober is a guru AND a helluva great guy ... he worked on my amps in the late 80s and i'd buy an EAST in a heartbeat if i needed a new amp today

[LRS]

Re: Budda amps

Another Budda believer here... I run a Superdrive V20 (2x 6V6) for some years now. Fortunately they're quite unpopular here in the Netherlands. The store I bought it wantend to get rid of it and decreased the price from €1599,- to €799,- Nobrainer. The clean channel is quite nice, the OD channel really shines. Very fat, creamy drive without all noise and hiss you often experience with other gain amps. The only thing I changed is the speaker, I swapped the Budda Phat (Eminence Governor, a loud and agressive SOB) for a Celestion Alnico Gold. This baby is a keeper. As others already indicated, for it's 20 Watts, a loud keeper :-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Budda amps

Bober Watts

I run mine primarily with an Alnico spkr as well (Weber) but depending on the situation also have OS Fane Crscendos, Emi Wizard and Emi Swamp Thang.