Looking for experienced advice on Bogner Shiva or Hughes & Kettner Duotone

JahRock

JahRock

New member
I'm in the market for a new amp. Right now I'm looking at either a Bogner Shiva or a Hughes & Kettner Duotone. I'm leaning towards a Bogner with EL84 tubes, though not because of the price difference. I need some tonal flexibility, but not a 6 channel amp. I play Reggae music, so I like a chiming, articulate, clean channel, and enough punch and growl from a high gain channel at lower volume levels. I don't use much effects... mostly just a tubescreamer to better push the natural distortion of the tubes. Anyone have opinions or experience with either of these amps?
 
Re: Looking for experienced advice on Bogner Shiva or Hughes & Kettner Duotone

Bogner, Hughes Kettner shmetner, they both suck, just ask the Line 6 people.
 
Re: Looking for experienced advice on Bogner Shiva or Hughes & Kettner Duotone

Hi there,

Do Bogner do an EL84 Shiva? -perhaps you're thinking of the metropolis?

-I've only played an uberschall (which did what it did amazingly), so I'll leave the bogner describing to those more qualified.

I tried the H&K Duotone a couple of months ago at a gig I did for MTV. I thought it was overly bright and a bit hard sounding, and the knobs were impossible to read on a darkened stage. I couldn't recommend it as an amp for a nice chiming clean.

Given the choice, and based on the clips/TV stuff I've heard of the Shiva, I'd go for the Shiva.

There are other options in the mid-high price range for what you need:

Check out the mesa lonestar special for an amp with nice chime and flexibility. The new 6l6 mesa express is a pretty cool amp with more of a fender-esque clean. The fender supersonic is also pretty cool, though I prefer the bassman voicing on the clean channel. Great low/mid gain tones in that amp, though the high gain got a bit too 'early boogie' for my tastes.
 
Re: Looking for experienced advice on Bogner Shiva or Hughes & Kettner Duotone

Youre right, the Shiva that I was looking at had EL34s. I've thought about the Lonestar, but didn't follow up much on it, I'll have to check it out.
 
Re: Looking for experienced advice on Bogner Shiva or Hughes & Kettner Duotone

I only have one sentence of advise. Before buying any other amp, save your money and buy a Bogner.
 
Re: Looking for experienced advice on Bogner Shiva or Hughes & Kettner Duotone

Just to clarify here, Bogner did release an EL-84 Shiva, however, it is a very rare amp. The EL-34 is what you're looking for if you want your cleans to stay clean (which I would imagine is what you're looking for for reggae). The overdrive is great on its own (doesn't really need a pedal unless you're looking to do really high gain stuff). What I really like about the Shiva is that it sounds great at lower volumes thanks to the well designed master volume. Obviously, to really enjoy what the amp has to offer you want to get those tubes cooking a little bit and it does open up as you turn it up, but at low volumes, it does surprisingly well.

I also owned a Hughes & Kettner Triamp at one point (it has two channels that comprised the Duotone - Channels 1a and 3b). The cleans are good if you have a humbucker guitar, but are lacking if you like single coils because the clean channel is a bit on the thin side (although it is sparkly and articulate). The overdrive is a bit thinner than the Bogner, but it's more aggressive (it can do high gain without any pedals). The Duotone, like the Triamp needs to be pushed to give up the goods, but it sounds decent at lower volumes.
 
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