Hot _Grits
Buttery Toneologist
...at long last, the Bogner shipment finally arrived at my part-time work: a V30 loaded 4x12, an Uberschall head and uberkab, a Duende 1x12 and a Shiva 2x12 EL34 reverb.
The Uber is the only model I have previous time on, and it sold the morning it was unwrapped to a local kid. It stayed around so a few dudes could demo it over the weekend, so I had the 'pleasure' of hearing a grindcore dude do his thing for three quarters of an hour. It's really not an amp that is designed with me in mind, but it does what it does really well. The uberkab works very well with it too. I like the black cloth grille with silver piping this one came with, too. Never been a fan of that jagged metal look.
The Duende was a little cutie. Not a whole lot of volume, which suggests to me it's best for quiet giggers and home/studio players. I was really impressed by the clean sounds, which reminded me of my old vibrolux in terms of midrange character, despite it running a G12H30 rather than 10s of any kind. The reverb was very nice, and the trem was very good, if a little more towards the helicopter chop end of things. The clean channel also had some nice pushed drive sounds. Overall, this channel reminded me of a slightly dark, thick BF deluxe reverb.
The Duende's overdrive channel was a mixed bag. Things got a bit woofy and suffered from being perhaps a bit too throaty as the volume and gain is pushed up. Reinhold has done a great job of restraining the wilder characteristics of the 6V6 under overdrive (probably a big reason for the restrained overall volume output of the amp), but in it's stock 1x12 configuration i felt the overdrive was a tad muddled sounding.
The Shiva was a very different beast. I can totally see why this amp is the end of the road for many players. The clean channel was fantastic, with even better reverb than the Duende. EL34s, channel switching and V30s is usually a recipe for a very uninspiring clean, but this amp has one of the nicest blackface-voiced cleans of any amp I've heard. The overdrive channel was again was a mixed bag. I really disliked the overall tone with the bright switch disengaged, regardless of what guitar I used. It seemed like there was this weird midrange peak that made the amp sound like it was barking, but not in a good old marshall kind of way. This didn't change with brighter guitars either.
Switching the bright in made the overdrive channel come alive and sound more natural. Set up like this I heard a modded marshall character overall, more toward the 80s camp than the 70s camp. The tone was more direct than woody, more Van Halen than Humble Pie. The chunk on the overdrive channel is superb sounding: muting power chords was very fun indeed. I couldn't really dial in a warm enough tone for my tastes, though, even with Soldano-like low presence and treble settings. I felt like I needed to switch the bright off, but when I did do that the weird midrange thing popped up again.
Overall, I can see the appeal of the Shiva. It would knock a lot of top 40, classic rock and modern rock players' gig requirements out of the ballpark, all while sounding and playing great. For me, the tones aren't quite the voicings I'm after, but I'm sure there are TONS of players out there looking for a great blackfacey clean and a slightly Van Halenesque drive in one box. Especially in the States.
One thing I've gotta say about the Duende and Shiva: they play amazingly. I don't know what he does, but the feel of the amps as you play is VERY seductive. It's like there's a hidden talent/chops boost switch or something. I imagine a lot of players fall in love with the feel alone. it's something I've not experienced in any other amps apart from some models in the Victoria line.
So in the end, They turned out like I expected: really nice amps, but not quite for me. I don't want to use that classic Gear Page backhanded compliment of 'nice for a channel switcher', as the sounds are top class, but I definitely prefer the slightly rootsier, wilder tones of simpler designs.
So, due to the probable sale of two Ubers, next order will hopefully bring in an Ecstasy, which would be a good move while the US promisary note is so weak. I can't wait to hear what that amp can do.
Meanwhile, a very early run MI Audio revelation will turn up before that. MI's head desgner/owner dude is an Ecstasy owner and a friend of Reinhold's, and my friend/boss visited them in Sydney last weekend to check it out. He said that alongside the Ecstasy the Revelation sounded very impressive and held it's own extremely well, whilst still having it's own thing. Should be interesting.
The Uber is the only model I have previous time on, and it sold the morning it was unwrapped to a local kid. It stayed around so a few dudes could demo it over the weekend, so I had the 'pleasure' of hearing a grindcore dude do his thing for three quarters of an hour. It's really not an amp that is designed with me in mind, but it does what it does really well. The uberkab works very well with it too. I like the black cloth grille with silver piping this one came with, too. Never been a fan of that jagged metal look.
The Duende was a little cutie. Not a whole lot of volume, which suggests to me it's best for quiet giggers and home/studio players. I was really impressed by the clean sounds, which reminded me of my old vibrolux in terms of midrange character, despite it running a G12H30 rather than 10s of any kind. The reverb was very nice, and the trem was very good, if a little more towards the helicopter chop end of things. The clean channel also had some nice pushed drive sounds. Overall, this channel reminded me of a slightly dark, thick BF deluxe reverb.
The Duende's overdrive channel was a mixed bag. Things got a bit woofy and suffered from being perhaps a bit too throaty as the volume and gain is pushed up. Reinhold has done a great job of restraining the wilder characteristics of the 6V6 under overdrive (probably a big reason for the restrained overall volume output of the amp), but in it's stock 1x12 configuration i felt the overdrive was a tad muddled sounding.
The Shiva was a very different beast. I can totally see why this amp is the end of the road for many players. The clean channel was fantastic, with even better reverb than the Duende. EL34s, channel switching and V30s is usually a recipe for a very uninspiring clean, but this amp has one of the nicest blackface-voiced cleans of any amp I've heard. The overdrive channel was again was a mixed bag. I really disliked the overall tone with the bright switch disengaged, regardless of what guitar I used. It seemed like there was this weird midrange peak that made the amp sound like it was barking, but not in a good old marshall kind of way. This didn't change with brighter guitars either.
Switching the bright in made the overdrive channel come alive and sound more natural. Set up like this I heard a modded marshall character overall, more toward the 80s camp than the 70s camp. The tone was more direct than woody, more Van Halen than Humble Pie. The chunk on the overdrive channel is superb sounding: muting power chords was very fun indeed. I couldn't really dial in a warm enough tone for my tastes, though, even with Soldano-like low presence and treble settings. I felt like I needed to switch the bright off, but when I did do that the weird midrange thing popped up again.
Overall, I can see the appeal of the Shiva. It would knock a lot of top 40, classic rock and modern rock players' gig requirements out of the ballpark, all while sounding and playing great. For me, the tones aren't quite the voicings I'm after, but I'm sure there are TONS of players out there looking for a great blackfacey clean and a slightly Van Halenesque drive in one box. Especially in the States.
One thing I've gotta say about the Duende and Shiva: they play amazingly. I don't know what he does, but the feel of the amps as you play is VERY seductive. It's like there's a hidden talent/chops boost switch or something. I imagine a lot of players fall in love with the feel alone. it's something I've not experienced in any other amps apart from some models in the Victoria line.
So in the end, They turned out like I expected: really nice amps, but not quite for me. I don't want to use that classic Gear Page backhanded compliment of 'nice for a channel switcher', as the sounds are top class, but I definitely prefer the slightly rootsier, wilder tones of simpler designs.
So, due to the probable sale of two Ubers, next order will hopefully bring in an Ecstasy, which would be a good move while the US promisary note is so weak. I can't wait to hear what that amp can do.
Meanwhile, a very early run MI Audio revelation will turn up before that. MI's head desgner/owner dude is an Ecstasy owner and a friend of Reinhold's, and my friend/boss visited them in Sydney last weekend to check it out. He said that alongside the Ecstasy the Revelation sounded very impressive and held it's own extremely well, whilst still having it's own thing. Should be interesting.
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