Re: Orange Rockerverb 50 or Bogner Shiva
Read this before you make a decision... How serendipitous that I JUST A/B/C'd a Bogner Shiva, Orange Rockverb MKII, and Blackstar Series One 100. I suggest the Blackstar S1 because it's as versatile as the Rockverb, "alive" as the Shiva, and a few hundred dollars cheaper than both.
First of all, the Shiva is KING and that's enough said. It feels alive when you play it and everything you play rings out with immaculate musicality. It has a prominent midrange and bass that makes it sound a bit thicker than your average Marshall flavored amp. Compared to the Rockverb MKII and Blackstar S1, it has a little stiffer response. The Orange and Blackstar have a bit of sponginess.
The Shiva isn't a "fuzzy" sound, but I have heard a couple of people describe it like that. I think it's not accurate. What you have in the Shiva is a refined JCM 800 type overdrive and a Fender style clean but with EL34's. It's a little smoother than the Marshall which makes it sound not so buzzy. It has a great midrange growl.
What might surprise you about the Shiva is that it doesn't have a lot of headroom. There is lots of magic in the Shiva clean channel and the breakup is ever so sweet and dripping with honey. However, it does break up pretty quick so you have three options: run the channel volume real low around 9:00 and sacrifice a bit of volume for headroom (fairly loud 80w though), use your guitar volume control, or install KT88's. The Shiva EL34 can run EL34's, KT77's and KT88's. It can even run 6L6's, but it's not recommended because of something about how the transformers don't sound good with them or something to that effect.
Then you have the Rockverbm MKII which in my opinion is the best Orange you can buy. It has everything - multi-channel, reverb, FX loop, etc... It has such a good sound and lots of nice gain available that you would have to be crazy not to consider it when you're looking at any amp in the $2000+ price range. It's syrupy and feels ALMOST as much alive as the Shiva. It costs as much as the Shiva reverb model. I don't really think of it as a "fuzz" sound per se, but it's kind of smooth overall. It can get fairly raunchy, but not as much as a JCM800.
Now you might be thinking that I'm crazy including the Blackstar S1 in this comparison, but you have to consider a few things. Even though it's made in Korea, it's superbly built. You also have to consider that neither the Shiva or Rockverb are handwired. They're all PCB so you're pretty much dealing with similar quality across the board from the way it was explained to me.
The Series One feels ALMOST as much alive as the Shiva. It's a bit spongier and not as bassy. It has a resonance control to give it thicker low end so you have a bit more control. It's a 2 channel, 4 mode amp so it's more versatile than the Shiva. I personally think the "warm clean" is as good as the Shiva clean channel. You can get a nice soft breakup or heavy breakup or totally clean. There is more clean headroom than the Shiva.
The sound is very British (as I keep my ISF on the British side all the time), but you can use the ISF knob to change the character to a Mesa Boogie type sound if you wish. It also has a DPR (dynamic power reduction) which allows you to take it down to 10w, but it's not exactly like a power attenuator that actually changes the volume down to only 10w. However, it does definitely give you a great low volume sound using it. It mostly affects how the tubes react to your volume and gain settings. It kind of gives you more of a soaked power tube saturation with less volume.
Because you can get a better sound at lower volumes, it's an advantage the Shiva doesn't have. It also has more headroom available.
The S1 also has a Marshall-like distortion that's a bit smoother. It's a bit thinner sounding than the Shiva, but it's not a thin sounding amp. The resonance control works great for beefing things up. The S1 is just a ridiculously good amp.
So call me crazy if you want, but I've compared all of these directly and you definitely get the most for your money from the S1 without sacrificing any quality. If you're a REAL tone snob and prefer the most subtly better quality overall then you need to get the Shiva. If you want a sick powerhouse amp with syrupy goodness then the Orange.
I personally think the Series One is the amp you should be checking out.
its personal preference and I prefer the warm fuzzy feeling of orange tone. look into the tv50 too!
