Bugera 5W FYI

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notCardio

I walk the line
I had tried one extensively at a local GC and absolutely loved it on single coils. Beautiful creamy distortion down to nicely dirty blues and warm tube clean. For some reason, it didn't sound nearly as good with humbuckers. I tried probably 25 different guitars on this thing. All single coils=heaven, all humbuckers=eh. Just so happened that the other day I tried one at a different GC, and it's like they weren't even the same amp! It got a nicely warm tube tone, but that's all I got, even with the gain maxed out! It should have been screaming. When I told the manager I thought he might have a bad one, he just kind of shrugged and went on with what he was doing.

So just beware: the rumored qc problems are real. If you play one and you like it, better get THAT one. If you play one and don't like it, try another one before you make up your mind.
 
Buddy of mine got one and he loves it with his gear, I always feel like the thing would self destruct on me so I stick with my Super Champ XD
 
He probably got the one off the floor at GC in Castleton, the one I tried and liked. If he decides to get rid of it, let me know. I'm going to try to find another in the meantime, but I might want a backup.
 
He got his over the winter, not sure but I am guessing south side GC which is closer to where he lives... I guess what I wonder is... Is it just lousy tubes in the things or are talking bad solder joints and the thing will crap out when it takes a light bump... I dunno seems like a lot of risk when you look at it. I do like the idea of having reverb and I think if I recall it has EQ right? But for the same money Epiphone makes a nice little combo too just no tone shaping options (gotta just have a really good sounding guitar)
 
I love mine.

I was happy with it out of the box. I took a chance and ordered online since I couldn't find one locally to try out. After a tube swap and speaker upgrade - Jensen C8R and Groove Tubes EL84S and 12AX7R - it's a nice little amp. Very loud too. The attenuator makes for happy neighbors in an apartment or condo complex.

I've seen that a 10" speaker will fit. A guy on Craigslist AR is selling his with the 10" mod. Swap the speaker and you almost have a Marshall Class 5 on the cheap...minus the second 12AX7 of course.

Overall I've had no quality problems and am quite happy with this little guy. Gotta love a low-watt tube amp at full blast.
 
raddo said:
I was happy with it out of the box. I took a chance and ordered online since I couldn't find one locally to try out. After a tube swap and speaker upgrade - Jensen C8R and Groove Tubes EL84S and 12AX7R - it's a nice little amp. Very loud too. The attenuator makes for happy neighbors in an apartment or condo complex.

I've seen that a 10" speaker will fit. A guy on Craigslist AR is selling his with the 10" mod. Swap the speaker and you almost have a Marshall Class 5 on the cheap...minus the second 12AX7 of course.

Overall I've had no quality problems and am quite happy with this little guy. Gotta love a low-watt tube amp at full blast.
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So if it was great out of the box why did it need a tube and speaker upgrade?Why not buy an amp that sounds great from the start?
 
Well...

McMetal:
...Why not? Why not mod it and make it my own? I went in knowing I was going to do that. It was a starting point. Could I have been happy with it as is? Yep. I like getting the soldering gun out and making changes. Do you keep a brand new car completely stock or do you make changes to reflect your personality in some way? Upgrade the stereo? Buy new wheels? Etc.

I'm guessing you've never changed tubes or upgraded the speakers looking for something more or something a little different? Why not play around and experiment?

I have the Peavey 3120 that I like as is with the EL34 tubes. With the V55HD having the 6L6 tubes and the V5 with the EL84 tube I have a nice mix of different tube sounds.

The next two amps I want to buy are the Blues Custom 30 and the Peavey Classic 50. I know I'll change the tubes on the Epi, but I'll leave the Peavey as is. I hear a speaker upgrade to the Epi makes a world of difference.

Anyway, that was my rationale. Could I have saved up and spent the upgrade money on a better amp? Sure. I'm guessing I would have changed the tubes and speaker as well to make it different than stock. It's just me.
 
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So, what did the tube swap in the 5W do for it exactly? More breakup sooner, longer until breakup, more or less volume, etc.? Did it make it more blues-ey sounding, or more hard rock/metal?
 
Just better.

notCardio said:
So, what did the tube swap in the 5W do for it exactly? More breakup sooner, longer until breakup, more or less volume, etc.? Did it make it more blues-ey sounding, or more hard rock/metal?
Click to expand...

I should have done a little before-and-after test recording but...
Maybe I can borrow a stock one and do a comparison for more scientific results.

As subjective as sound is: There's more of a hard rock tone to it now. The tubes seem to complement each other well. The 12AX7R felt just right out of all the tubes I tried.

Overall I think the tubes and the Jensen speaker are a good match. I'm happy with it. It's a fun little amp.
 
This has happened to me more than once, so I can say this with authority ;). I have taken brand new amplifiers from every make, including a reissue tweed Bassman and an Ampeg R212R, that sounded bland in the store, and not like 'others' I played. I use it as a bargaining tool, saying I'll have to upgrade tubes and/or speakers to make that dog sound decent. And every time, I get home and check to find the factory bias is waaaaaaaaaaay cold.
Granted, a 5-watt amplifier is single-ended Class A, but that tube could be 'bad'. Or, the bias may still may be wrong just for that particular tube. Let's say it has a 470-ohm Cathode resistor, and it would sound better with 390-ohm resistor. Rather than change the resistor, try different tubes. One will work better than the stock tube. Me, I got lucky and with a tweak of the bias control, the amp came alive, and I didn't spend an extra dime.
If the 5-watt amp ain't screamin' it may have a bad Cathode bypass capacitor, or that tube may be really 'cold', and a new tube (or lower Cathode resistor) would have brought it around. It should sound close to the other amp you played. A weird idea; maybe the power switch was screwed up? Did you have both amps on 5W? Something was up, and that would have been my bargaining tool. $150? I don't think so. I'll take it for $100! :D
 
raddo said:
McMetal:
...Why not? Why not mod it and make it my own? I went in knowing I was going to do that. It was a starting point. Could I have been happy with it as is? Yep. I like getting the soldering gun out and making changes. Do you keep a brand new car completely stock or do you make changes to reflect your personality in some way? Upgrade the stereo? Buy new wheels? Etc.

I'm guessing you've never changed tubes or upgraded the speakers looking for something more or something a little different? Why not play around and experiment?

I have the Peavey 3120 that I like as is with the EL34 tubes. With the V55HD having the 6L6 tubes and the V5 with the EL84 tube I have a nice mix of different tube sounds.

The next two amps I want to buy are the Blues Custom 30 and the Peavey Classic 50. I know I'll change the tubes on the Epi, but I'll leave the Peavey as is. I hear a speaker upgrade to the Epi makes a world of difference.

Anyway, that was my rationale. Could I have saved up and spent the upgrade money on a better amp? Sure. I'm guessing I would have changed the tubes and speaker as well to make it different than stock. It's just me.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with modding it if that's what you want.It's your money!:D

Yes i've swapped tubes before and swapped out speakers but normally on used gear where the upgrade was needed.

To each his own.We're guitar players and none of us will ever be happy! We're always searching for a better tone.I've only ever bought one amp new though and that was a Galien Kruger250ml solid state.

I found out there was a way to get more gain out of it by turning up one of those wheel thingys inside and sure enough i had it done.:drunk:
 
raddo said:
I should have done a little before-and-after test recording but...
Maybe I can borrow a stock one and do a comparison for more scientific results.

As subjective as sound is: There's more of a hard rock tone to it now. The tubes seem to complement each other well. The 12AX7R felt just right out of all the tubes I tried.

Overall I think the tubes and the Jensen speaker are a good match. I'm happy with it. It's a fun little amp.
Click to expand...

Hmm...

I'm not looking for a hard rock tone, I'm looking for blues, closer to a dirty boogie (the musical style, not the amp).

And Ranjam, I always flip the switch to the 1/4 watt position.
 
notCardio said:
Hmm...

I'm not looking for a hard rock tone, I'm looking for blues, closer to a dirty boogie (the musical style, not the amp).

And Ranjam, I always flip the switch to the 1/4 watt position.
Click to expand...

You may want to check out the Hughes & Kettner crunch machine,a.k.a the Blues Master.

It's a 1 watt tube preamp/amplifier.It has a 12ax7 for the preamp and an El83 for the power section.Tre/mid/bass controls and a bright switch.

Nice clean tone and gets slightly dirty with the gain up.Has tube output knob on the back and multiple outputs for direct recording.Doesn't come with a speaker built in but can power a 4x12.Has the H&K red box cab sim built in.

These were made in the late 80's and early 90's and can be found on ebay from time to time.I have one and it sounds pretty good.I use it together with the H&K Cream machine for recording.I can turn them up and get great tube saturation without disturbing my neighbors at 4 am.

Harmony central has some pretty good reviews posted for these also.For rock and metal the Cream machine has more gain than anyone ever needs.I have the gain set at 4 for metal tones.
 
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