School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
- Thread starter newking70
- Start date
dystrust
Well-known member
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
You are correct. Unfortunately they're LOUD and don't sound that great until opened up a bit. I'm pretty sure Gearjoneser's #1 is an Ecstasy 101B, while I've played a few and can't say I particularly care for them. The clean channel is amazing while the blue channel does an excellent JCM 800 sort of tone. I found the red channel overly compressed and a bit squishy feeling on the low end. I thought the Shiva was similar in terms of feel, if a bit less loose.
You are correct. Unfortunately they're LOUD and don't sound that great until opened up a bit. I'm pretty sure Gearjoneser's #1 is an Ecstasy 101B, while I've played a few and can't say I particularly care for them. The clean channel is amazing while the blue channel does an excellent JCM 800 sort of tone. I found the red channel overly compressed and a bit squishy feeling on the low end. I thought the Shiva was similar in terms of feel, if a bit less loose.
Nightburst
New member
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
Yes it does, I don't even know where to begin. Gearjoneser can explain it best.
Yes it does, I don't even know where to begin. Gearjoneser can explain it best.
Red_Label
New member
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
Having owned a Shiva, an XTC Classic and also had a friend's 101B in the cave for a month, I can agree with all of that. The 101B's strength was its Blue channel. The entire amp was more compressed than the more open Classic, but that's what Reinhold was shooting for when he designed both the 101B and later-on the Classic. The Shiva's cleans were phenominal, but I had to use an OCD in front to get the tight roar out of the gain channel that I was looking for. The XTCs both had superior gain options IMO.
The only Bogner that I still lust after now is the 20th Anniversary XTC. I've never played one, but I've had two or three of the XTC Red and a Blue pedal and those pedals, set to 20th Anni mode, running into some quality Fender tube amps were amazing. So I have no reason to doubt that the real thing isn't even better. The Bogner XTC pedals really do capture the XTC magic when run into quality tube amps with good clean tones. The Friedman BE-OD is the same way.
Speaking of the Friedman stuff... the only amp other than the 20th XTC that I still lust after is the Friedman BE100. I had the same friend's BE100 in the man cave last year for a month and that amp still haunts me. I've had the Taco, Smallbox, and Dirty Shirley... but the BE100 was a different beast altogether. My friend has owned them all (at the same time) and even though his BE has been for sale at the store he runs... he's been thinking about bringing it back home because he agrees that it just has something that his Smallbox and Shirley don't.
Having owned a Shiva, an XTC Classic and also had a friend's 101B in the cave for a month, I can agree with all of that. The 101B's strength was its Blue channel. The entire amp was more compressed than the more open Classic, but that's what Reinhold was shooting for when he designed both the 101B and later-on the Classic. The Shiva's cleans were phenominal, but I had to use an OCD in front to get the tight roar out of the gain channel that I was looking for. The XTCs both had superior gain options IMO.
The only Bogner that I still lust after now is the 20th Anniversary XTC. I've never played one, but I've had two or three of the XTC Red and a Blue pedal and those pedals, set to 20th Anni mode, running into some quality Fender tube amps were amazing. So I have no reason to doubt that the real thing isn't even better. The Bogner XTC pedals really do capture the XTC magic when run into quality tube amps with good clean tones. The Friedman BE-OD is the same way.
Speaking of the Friedman stuff... the only amp other than the 20th XTC that I still lust after is the Friedman BE100. I had the same friend's BE100 in the man cave last year for a month and that amp still haunts me. I've had the Taco, Smallbox, and Dirty Shirley... but the BE100 was a different beast altogether. My friend has owned them all (at the same time) and even though his BE has been for sale at the store he runs... he's been thinking about bringing it back home because he agrees that it just has something that his Smallbox and Shirley don't.
SavageRiffer
New member
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
It's the best amp in the history of the world.
It's the best amp in the history of the world.
Red_Label
New member
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
:laugh2:
Well... it's certainly in the discussion.
:laugh2:
Well... it's certainly in the discussion.
Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
The only way to be schooled is to own one because it's too vast to have it sussed up by demoing it in the store.
As for compression, the amp has one great feature for controlling it. With Bogners, the compression is designed to give it a full throttle cranked sound. The XTC has one presence for two channels, with a second presence you can assign to either the red or green channel. This allows you to lessen the compression on the red channel or add sparkle to the green channel.
Also, there's different versions of the XTC.
If you have one with Class A/AB, you've got another whole tonal dimension.
Tubes also play a big role, as with any tube amp. Mine has been dialed in for years, because I spent some time popping pre tubes in and out. I think it's now a combination of EH and Tungsol pre's with JJ E-34L's.
The Ecstasy is loud, but it's got a great master volume. Also, Class A, half power, and FX return give you a lot of ways of taming the volume without sacrificing tone or feel.
The Ecstacy was the brainchild of perhaps the most important amp designer in modern times. There's other great amps out there, but Reinhold Bogner has created a better collection of incredible designs than any other. Where others are hit or miss, Bogner hits it out of the park every time. If money were no object, I'd own a whole bunch of them.
The only way to be schooled is to own one because it's too vast to have it sussed up by demoing it in the store.
As for compression, the amp has one great feature for controlling it. With Bogners, the compression is designed to give it a full throttle cranked sound. The XTC has one presence for two channels, with a second presence you can assign to either the red or green channel. This allows you to lessen the compression on the red channel or add sparkle to the green channel.
Also, there's different versions of the XTC.
If you have one with Class A/AB, you've got another whole tonal dimension.
Tubes also play a big role, as with any tube amp. Mine has been dialed in for years, because I spent some time popping pre tubes in and out. I think it's now a combination of EH and Tungsol pre's with JJ E-34L's.
The Ecstasy is loud, but it's got a great master volume. Also, Class A, half power, and FX return give you a lot of ways of taming the volume without sacrificing tone or feel.
The Ecstacy was the brainchild of perhaps the most important amp designer in modern times. There's other great amps out there, but Reinhold Bogner has created a better collection of incredible designs than any other. Where others are hit or miss, Bogner hits it out of the park every time. If money were no object, I'd own a whole bunch of them.
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Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
Some Bogner porn for your viewing pleasure!
Bogner's Custom Shop in North Hollywood
The final testing area. What a fun job this guy has!
Some Bogner porn for your viewing pleasure!
Bogner's Custom Shop in North Hollywood
The final testing area. What a fun job this guy has!
TwilightOdyssey
Darkness on the edge of Tone
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
Every now and then I think about shifting my Mesa for either a Bogner or Silver Jubilee of some kind, but one of the big things holding me back (besides the fact that I very very rarely use high wattage amps these days) is the impression that Bogner amps are really designed to be guitar > maybe a boost? > amp, and I love pedals way too much for tonal sculpting.
Is this viewpoint wrong?
In a way Budda amps are similar, certainly my EAST amp is that way. I worked around that by putting an ECC834 into the V1 slot to bring the gain down on the second triode. I wonder how this would work with the Bogner.
Thoughts?
Every now and then I think about shifting my Mesa for either a Bogner or Silver Jubilee of some kind, but one of the big things holding me back (besides the fact that I very very rarely use high wattage amps these days) is the impression that Bogner amps are really designed to be guitar > maybe a boost? > amp, and I love pedals way too much for tonal sculpting.
Is this viewpoint wrong?
In a way Budda amps are similar, certainly my EAST amp is that way. I worked around that by putting an ECC834 into the V1 slot to bring the gain down on the second triode. I wonder how this would work with the Bogner.
Thoughts?
Red_Label
New member
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
One thing about the Bogner XTC is that it may take a bit to dial-in for your tastes. I had been rocking an EL34 Shiva (that was pretty quick to dial-in) for months before I took the XTC plunge. I felt that it took me a couple of weeks of tweaking to get things set just right on my Classic. I suppose that it's because there are three channels and so many tonal options there compared to the Shiva. My friend with the 101B felt the same way, and he's much more adept at tone tweaking than I am.
For the most of the tube amps that I've owned, I've been able to get the tones dialed-in fairly quickly, but the XTC is more complex than most of them. It doesn't mean that the XTC doesn't sound good with everything set at noon. But I didn't feel like I had "arrived" at my XTC tones until I'd gotten things just right. That's the price you pay for having so much versatility and tonal options. And it's part of the reason that I've been such a big fan of the various Friedman amps that I've owned where you plug-in, spend two minutes turning knobs, and off you go. The XTC is WAY more complicated to explore than that.
One thing about the Bogner XTC is that it may take a bit to dial-in for your tastes. I had been rocking an EL34 Shiva (that was pretty quick to dial-in) for months before I took the XTC plunge. I felt that it took me a couple of weeks of tweaking to get things set just right on my Classic. I suppose that it's because there are three channels and so many tonal options there compared to the Shiva. My friend with the 101B felt the same way, and he's much more adept at tone tweaking than I am.
For the most of the tube amps that I've owned, I've been able to get the tones dialed-in fairly quickly, but the XTC is more complex than most of them. It doesn't mean that the XTC doesn't sound good with everything set at noon. But I didn't feel like I had "arrived" at my XTC tones until I'd gotten things just right. That's the price you pay for having so much versatility and tonal options. And it's part of the reason that I've been such a big fan of the various Friedman amps that I've owned where you plug-in, spend two minutes turning knobs, and off you go. The XTC is WAY more complicated to explore than that.
Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
Some players think of a 3 channel amp as one where you switch between all the channels in a song, and some 2, and some use one channel per song.
With multi channel amps, you soon learn how you're going to do it.
With the XTC as your rig, you definitely don't need a bunch of dirt pedals. The amp has 2-3 gain floor levels, plus a it's own boost.
Some use the blue channel for rhythm and the red channel as their lead channel, some use the red for high gain rhythm with boost for lead. Some do it both ways. The green channel can be Fender, Dumble, or HiWatt, depending on what you want.
What I like about the amp is that you can set it up for any style of music. It's so versatile, you can set up the blue channel as a huge high gain lead tone, while dialing in the perfect plexi tone on the red channel.
No other 3 channel amp is that versatile and still sounds as great as three single channel amps lined up next to each other.
Bogners are expensive. People wouldn't pay those prices for 25+ years if they didn't deliver. Flavor of the month amps are popular for a few years. Bogner is sticking around like Marshall and Mesa.
Some players think of a 3 channel amp as one where you switch between all the channels in a song, and some 2, and some use one channel per song.
With multi channel amps, you soon learn how you're going to do it.
With the XTC as your rig, you definitely don't need a bunch of dirt pedals. The amp has 2-3 gain floor levels, plus a it's own boost.
Some use the blue channel for rhythm and the red channel as their lead channel, some use the red for high gain rhythm with boost for lead. Some do it both ways. The green channel can be Fender, Dumble, or HiWatt, depending on what you want.
What I like about the amp is that you can set it up for any style of music. It's so versatile, you can set up the blue channel as a huge high gain lead tone, while dialing in the perfect plexi tone on the red channel.
No other 3 channel amp is that versatile and still sounds as great as three single channel amps lined up next to each other.
Bogners are expensive. People wouldn't pay those prices for 25+ years if they didn't deliver. Flavor of the month amps are popular for a few years. Bogner is sticking around like Marshall and Mesa.
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Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: School me on the Bogner Ecstasy 101b.
There will always be players who like the throaty low mid Bogner roar, but yearn for the crunchier high mid grind of Marshall and Friedman. I wouldn't disagree.
That's why I own other amps like Marshall, Orange, Gibson Goldtone, Matchless, and Fender.
Today, I finally tried the Friedman BE-OD pedal. If I threw that in front of the Bogner XTC, it would be like switching over to a Friedman BE-100 head, and visa versa with a Bogner pedal in front of the Friedman clean channel.
I'm a big fan of the Bogner and Friedman pedals.
If you can't buy a 4K amp, just put one of those pedals in front of any clean tube amp. Pedals have finally gotten to the point that they sound great.
There will always be players who like the throaty low mid Bogner roar, but yearn for the crunchier high mid grind of Marshall and Friedman. I wouldn't disagree.
That's why I own other amps like Marshall, Orange, Gibson Goldtone, Matchless, and Fender.
Today, I finally tried the Friedman BE-OD pedal. If I threw that in front of the Bogner XTC, it would be like switching over to a Friedman BE-100 head, and visa versa with a Bogner pedal in front of the Friedman clean channel.
I'm a big fan of the Bogner and Friedman pedals.
If you can't buy a 4K amp, just put one of those pedals in front of any clean tube amp. Pedals have finally gotten to the point that they sound great.
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