Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

[Mr 9finger]

I'm looking at the red XTC and the Uberschall. The demo's have been kind of hit and miss. Anyone got some digs on them?

[BloodRose]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

Obviously I've not been around for awhile BloodRose. Is this going to turn ugly or something?

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

There's no controversy over them, I think Bloodrose just means he wishes more people on the forum actually owned one to talk about.

My gathering, based on quick store demos, is that they're basically 'amps in a box' so they sound best on a fat clean tone. If you used one with a gainy amp, you'd probably want the blue one dialed down considerably.

I don't really have a purpose for buying any, since my main amp is an XTC, and when I'm using my clean amps, I'm not looking to turn them into a highgain amp. But if I were thinking of buying one, it'd probably be the red one, since it's one of the best sounding distortion boxes I've ever heard.

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

You wanted honest, I'll give you honest.

Pros: doesn't sound like your average overdrive/distortion pedal. Tons of flexibility with the sound. I dig the overdrive channel on the Ecstasy Blue a lot.

Cons: the boost a) volume can't be set for unity gain as a different color to the overdrive b) the gain cannot be dialed down to be a clean boost, there will always be way more gain on tap than you'd need unless you're a metal player and that's on the Blue which is supposed to be geared towards the lighter gain guys. Even dialing down the overdrive side to a light crunch, the boost will take it to some seriously saturated tones and that's a bit too much gain IMHO.

*My biggest problem with them right now is their lack of customer support. I've tried contacting them over a half dozen times within the last month and a half and they refuse to take care of my pedal which got shipped with quality control issues. Mine doesn't power off 50-100mA, I need to use the higher current output on my PP2+ to make it work. Also, as exhibited with many of the pedals out there, the switch is intermittent (on my boost side I'll have to hit it 3 or 4 times to get it to change state). They claim it comes with a 3 year warranty, but they won't take care of a pedal I spent $250 on 3 months after buying it from an authorized dealer. That pisses me off. There have been other threads on other forums about this problem and they refuse to acknowledge it. One person got a hold of them and they shipped out a pedal with the same switch problems, so they aren't even checking these things before they go out. I went from praising Bogner to hating Bogner and if you've followed my posts about Bogner on here for the last 8 years or so that's a big statement, so take that into consideration.

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

There's no controversy over them, I think Bloodrose just means he wishes more people on the forum actually owned one to talk about.

My gathering, based on quick store demos, is that they're basically 'amps in a box' so they sound best on a fat clean tone. If you used one with a gainy amp, you'd probably want the blue one dialed down considerably.

I don't really have a purpose for buying any, since my main amp is an XTC, and when I'm using my clean amps, I'm not looking to turn them into a highgain amp. But if I were thinking of buying one, it'd probably be the red one, since it's one of the best sounding distortion boxes I've ever heard.

That's a pretty good seal of approval. Of course we wouldn't be having this conversation had my tax return came in 1 freaking day earlier. I was going to buy the white chassis XTC that was on Ebay a couple weeks ago for $2500. Wasn't even going to think twice about it, but plans and options have changed so....

You wanted honest, I'll give you honest.

Pros: doesn't sound like your average overdrive/distortion pedal. Tons of flexibility with the sound. I dig the overdrive channel on the Ecstasy Blue a lot.

Cons: the boost a) volume can't be set for unity gain as a different color to the overdrive b) the gain cannot be dialed down to be a clean boost, there will always be way more gain on tap than you'd need unless you're a metal player and that's on the Blue which is supposed to be geared towards the lighter gain guys. Even dialing down the overdrive side to a light crunch, the boost will take it to some seriously saturated tones and that's a bit too much gain IMHO.

*My biggest problem with them right now is their lack of customer support. I've tried contacting them over a half dozen times within the last month and a half and they refuse to take care of my pedal which got shipped with quality control issues. Mine doesn't power off 50-100mA, I need to use the higher current output on my PP2+ to make it work. Also, as exhibited with many of the pedals out there, the switch is intermittent (on my boost side I'll have to hit it 3 or 4 times to get it to change state). They claim it comes with a 3 year warranty, but they won't take care of a pedal I spent $250 on 3 months after buying it from an authorized dealer. That pisses me off. There have been other threads on other forums about this problem and they refuse to acknowledge it. One person got a hold of them and they shipped out a pedal with the same switch problems, so they aren't even checking these things before they go out. I went from praising Bogner to hating Bogner and if you've followed my posts about Bogner on here for the last 8 years or so that's a big statement, so take that into consideration.

That's kind of disheartening to hear bro. I really wondered if there wasn't something going on with them. I don't get on the forums much anymore, but I noticed a lot of restocks and what not on these. Which is really unusual for most any Bogner product. You just don't see a lot of used Bogner anything...even the Alchemist. I think I'll probably hold off on one of these until I see if they don't turn it around and get things right with them.

[superpete]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

i work at a guitar store, and we sell a lot of the red ecstacy pedals. most who have bought the blue ones returned them and got the red instead. i've played around with them and think they do sound good, but are a little overpriced.

[JeffB]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

Canmot help ya with the pedals, but good to see ya around Bro!

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

Hello stranger
Best of luck with the latest hype thingy

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

I think the problem with Bogner customer service is that they're actually a small custom shop with a few guys working there making US Bogner amps. The L6/Bogner stuff is handled by L6, but the Alchemist and pedal lines are outsourced. So when there's problems with those, the small North Hollywood shop isn't fully equipped to handle it, other than sending out a new replacement. The techs there can't be using their time to work on Chinese Alchemist amps and pedals.

They may need to sort this out, if they don't have warranty centers all over the world. Bogner grew so quickly that some aspects of the company probably need to catch up.

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

If they can't (or won't?) do any better than this on the customer service end of things then they shouldn't have gotten into the pedal game anyway.

The size of the company is NO EXCUSE...I've gotten great customer service from very small companies all the way down to 1 man operations, Bogner has enough resources to get these pedals out in MASSIVE numbers to retailers all over the world and to take out full page colour ads in almost every mag I've gotten in the past few months but they can't return an email?!

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

Canmot help ya with the pedals, but good to see ya around Bro!

Hello stranger
Best of luck with the latest hype thingy

What's shake'n guys. I had a talk w/ MJ about some pickups the other day and figured I might well stop in say hi and see if anything has changed. It hasn't.

If they can't (or won't?) do any better than this on the customer service end of things then they shouldn't have gotten into the pedal game anyway.

The size of the company is NO EXCUSE...I've gotten great customer service from very small companies all the way down to 1 man operations, Bogner has enough resources to get these pedals out in MASSIVE numbers to retailers all over the world and to take out full page colour ads in almost every mag I've gotten in the past few months but they can't return an email?!

This is kinda my sentiment on this. It's not like Bogner started 2 years ago. He's been in the business almost 30 years. It's not like he's a babe in the woods when it comes to distribution and customer service. Production mishaps happen. It happens with almost everyone. Fixing it doing right by your customers is the key thing here. I don't know about most people, but if I pay $300 for a pedal, I dam well expect it work or be fixed with little hassle on my end if something goes awry. I'm really put off by this thread. I think I'll skip these until I find one cheap or they get this stuff straightened out.

[ken361]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

I love there pedals with no problems at all, i keep the boost set low and have it on at all times for that thicker true amp feel. Sounds great with my fenders.
Red Dokken riff, not perfect though. My vocal mic isnt the best for truly capturing the tone,this came out a little bassy oh well any ways.

https://soundcloud.com/ken374/dokken

Blue pedal

https://soundcloud.com/ken374/blue-mode-20th-ann-b1

[ken361]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

You have to tinker with the tone pots/boost and gain to dial in your final tone, some complain because they dont use the boost baaawa! leave on man sounds much better more amp like, just set it low. The clarity and note definition is awesome, I was never a pedal guy always bought amps for there gain channel but when Bogner came out with these I had to try. Sold my Mini rec and bought the blues deluxe put a new speaker in now i have great sounding rig. I have red and bought blue for lower gain and higher gain VH type music.

[BloodRose]

Re: Any honest rundowns on the new Bogner pedals?

Obviously I've not been around for awhile BloodRose. Is this going to turn ugly or something?

No bro, not at all.. Joneser hit it on the head. I was sitting back and waiting for the replies you get.. those pedals have me very enticed as well.
Nice seeing you round!