Re: Tell me about Bogner....
In 95, I made the terrible mistake of going to Make'N'Music in North Hollywood, where Bogner began his company. I plugged into an Ecstasy, and it haunted me for the next several years, knowing that nothing even comes a close second.
I had some nice amps too, because I was endorsed by Blues Pearl Amp Co, who made PTP Fender type amps, and also had some nice Marshalls. Still, the memory of that XTC haunted me, but the price was just too far out of reach.
One day, I came across a recycler.com ad, where a guy claimed to have the best XTC ever made....a loaded white chassis 101B, which IMO is better than the much praised and rare 100B. The guy was a North Hollywood local player who had 4 XTC's, including all the versions of the white chassis model. He was in dire straights, and sold 3 of them, swearing he'd never sell his last one. Well, he listed that last XTC, and listed it for $2250 Firm. I was halfway there financially, and begged him to come down on the price.
I got him down to $2175, so I immediately listed ALL my amps for sale, and the second I had the money, I met him at my rehearsal space.
7 years later, and using it in a couple bands, as well as hearing all other comparable amps, I'm still convinced it's a design that can't be topped. It's the perfect EL-34 channel switching amp.
I really wish people wouldn't write hack-money central.com reviews based on their 10 minutes of playing it in a store. They simply don't know what the heck they're talking about when they have any criticism of it. Particularly the clean channel's supposed short comings. It doesn't have shortcomings....it's not a Blackface 6L6 Fender....it's a huge glassy EL-34 power section that can be manipulated in ANY way, just like the other 2 channels. For instance, If I played the amp in the store for 5 minutes, I wouldn't know that I can use the assignable presence knob to add more sparkle in the highs on either the green or red channel, while assigning the regular presence to the other 2.
I may not know that I can turn either the blue OR red channel into a plexi, leaving the other a more modern sound. I can make the clean channel sound glassy or tweedy.
I can make the blue channel anything from a clean plexi to Metallica. I can make the red channel anything from a clean plexi all the way to something that stomps a Rectifier into the dirt.
All those little switches on the front reconfigure the gain structure or EQ structure of each channel, so you can pinpoint the type of sound you're looking for specifically.
On my particular version, I can assign the channels to different cabs that turn on and off when I change channels......hit the clean, it goes to an open back. Hit the plexi, it goes to a greenback 4-12. Hit the red channel, it goes to a Vin 30 4-12.
Maybe I want it to sound more like a Vox or Dr. Z. I switch it to class A. I can run all 4 tubes in class A, or switch it to half power class A, so it's headroom is more like an 15W Bad Cat.
Lets say I want to mute the amp while I switch guitars....there's a standby on the footswitch.
There's a switch on the back for old/new voicing, which revoices the whole amp.
Also, there's an attenuator loop and line out. The only feature I don't have that some of the early XTC's had is a variac. Oh, one more thing....if a power tube fails, a red LED comes on, and 2 are shutoff, letting the amp continue to run on the remaining 2.
And with all these features and versatility, it doesn't strip the tone dry like a cheaper amp. Each channel sounds as good or better than a single channel amp. And the ground floor hiss is very low, compared to that type of gain coming out of a cheaper amp.....no noisegate needed. That's why they cost the big bucks, and that's why people pay it, and that's why the reviews are stellar, coming from players that have owned countless classic amps.
In my opinion, Reinhold Bogner is the greatest amplifier designer of all time, bar none.
