And then there are the Bugera V22 and V55.

I just recently fiddled with the Bugera V22 at GC @ Totem lake .......definitely cool...needs to have a speaker change out............maybe a re-tube.

I'm not into the Boogies F-30's at all............

If you really want tube and something that takes stomps well the Hot Rod Deluxe maybe a good choice .............Jr's are a little  limited.

The Classic 30's can be very stomp friendly as well.

The V-Ampires will plug into your computer via MIDI and come with a cool little pc interface, there you can do some deeper editing for multiple effect use and save your presets either on your pc or your amp............

As far as the Roland goes  play it will really depend on your use and needed volume?

The 30 is loud but its not going to chug drop tunings with a drummer.

I just recently fiddled with the Bugera V22 at GC @ Totem lake .......definitely cool...needs to have a speaker change out............maybe a re-tube.

 
One of the ten million posts I've seen googling around about amps today was from a guy who said he had spent $350 on new tubes and a new speaker for his V55 and said it was now the equivalent of a $6000 amp.
 
If I were a better human being, I would provide a link.

Well, the gear certainly matters a little.
 
If you are playing a low powered transister amp that is clipping like nuts at the volume you need, its going to take a quite a lot of talent to make up for that horrible constant buzzing sound.  I can guarantee the audience will notice that.

We often use a HotRod type in the studio. It has the ability to get nicely nasty at a reasonable studio volume due to it's extra gain stage in the pre section. I have a friend that gigs out a lot and he uses a Roland Cube (similar to the line 6 stuff). He likes it quite a bit. To my ear many of the amp-sim-amps sound a bit like a recording of a guitar rather than a real amp. My experience is that they actually work pretty well in recordings, but seem a bit tame for stage.

??? If you want to sing, you've got to do it at some point. So what's the fear about.

PH68

You've been there, right?  First time?  I know it's gonna be scary.  I've done plenty of public speaking, and that doesn't scare me at all - now - but I remember what it was like the first time I jumped in front of 150 students for a lecture.  Terrifying.  Good thing I was all prepped up.
 
Deep breaths, don't think about it, just do it.  I'll get by.
 
As for me vs equipment?  Yeah, I'm workin' on the me part every night, and I'll do the best I can.  With the equipment, I'm looking for an edge if I can get it, and if I can't I'm looking for something that doesn't doom me from the start.  And you guys are helping a bunch.

Ron Vogel


You know, I played my first gig when I was 19. A drummer I jammed with had a buddy who's frat was putting on a "battle of the bands" in Omaha, Nebraska. Well, we put together a band and set in 2 weeks, drove several hundered miles to the gig. They were bussing in students, beers were a quarter...there were over 1000 there at last count before we played. Nervous, hell yeah!!!

We won, they were chanting our name at the end of the night. The first song was pretty rough, but we just rolled with it and had fun. Good thing we won, otherwise we wouldn't have had enough money to get home!

Remember, when you play in front of people, they are there to be entertained. Just have fun, and they will too.

Reminds me of the Chi Chi Rodriguez story: some reporter asked him if he felt the pressure at the late holes of some PGA tournament he was leading.  He said "pressure is when you're putting to win a $10 bet and you've got 50 cents in your pocket."
 

Ready to make the move on a Jensen MOD 12-35 replacement speaker.  Any vetos?  I'll leave this up 2-3 hours before I go ahead and confirm the order.

Thanks.  And thanks to everybody for the tips in this thread.  Even though the suggestion for the one I bought came from elsewhere on the web, you guys helped me do most of the thinking.

how do you know you like the sound of the jensen?

you may hate it.

i would never buy ANYTHING without trying it out first.
in the case of ebay, i'd at least go to the music store to demo first.


changing speakers out, can be the most influential mod you can make, for better OR WORSE!!

well, first you play a BUTTLOAD of amps (and actually, SPEAKER CABINETS), over time.

you take notes.

you figure out whether or not you like:
 closed back or open back cabs, high or low watt-rated speakers, alnico or ceramic, paper or tin cone caps, single, dual or 4x12 setups, ohm preference....

you figure out sound preferences based on KNOWNs....
such as the sound of a celestion greenback, against the sound of a celestion vintage 30.....

it takes a LONG time, to be good at assessing these types of things, and you have to start somewhere.


but to just jump in blind, is silly.
don't do that.

do some homework, and never be pressured into making a premature decision.

Or on the other hand, I could just drop $50 on this Jensen Mod and see how I like it.  Or on a 25-watt alnico Weber Signature series speaker. 

Seriously, Batsbrew, I'm sure your advice is very good - I mean really, I'm sure it is - but it goes against the grain for me for a few reasons.

First, I'm just not a gadget-fiddler.  I wanta plug my stuff in and be done with it.  For me, changing guitar strings is a project that I need to spend a couple of weeks to get in the mood for.  And I hate shopping.  I find the thought of running all over hell and high water to test amp speakers oppressive.

Second, I have a full-time job and have trouble finding enough time for my music.  And I don't live near an amp store.

Third, I need to have this set-up up and running by mid-January if I'm going to be familiar enough with it to play with it on stage in early February.

Nevertheless, I'm not blowing your advice off.  I'll sit here and stew on it a while.

Maybe a middle way is to go ahead and buy one of the low-end replacement speakers with good reviews and just evaluate how I like the sound of it - do some testing and experimentation over time.

batsbrew


or better yet, just stick with what you got.

Not the worst idea ever, I'm thinking.

Whoa, but that Vibrolox is $1200, not counting shipping.  Sans shipping, even if I buy the jensen or web sig speaker, I'm paying $450 even including the Atrion chorus and phaser pedals (which I already bought on ebay).  That's $400 without the speaker (which I haven't bought yet), or make it $600 if I decide to splurge on the Weber 12A150A.  Eventually I'm thinking about another $150 for a Fulltone ocd although I will at least listen to my amp 1st.

And sure, yeah, I'm probably screwing up but I'm a sucker for get-in-front-of-the-trend type stories, which is what my web research tells me about the Bugera. . . .  The good thing is that, as has been pointed out above, I'm probably not good enough on the guitar for the subtle amp tone differences to even show up!

$599 used on ebay all day long.

And the clean tone is... well, a clean tone.

The Bugera V22 is $350 NEW on musicians friend. I'm sure shipping is cheaper than FEE bay.

Why on earth are you talking about a mod, on an amp you haven't even played?
Why buy an amp sight/played-unseen?

Seem you know something I don't.

No matter, you got an amp. Time to jam.

"I tend to lean on my online research skills for plenty of stuff and it often works out."

Please accept this a friendly way... you haven't learned a thing about amps yet. :-)

What I have learned (after going to a few Bugera fan sites) is that Behringer managed to trim every expense off the manufacture of that amp.... and it will work OK but I would not use it as a foundation for any upgrades.

All the construction details that Behringer worked around effect the tone of an amp... and you have not learned enough to appreciate the details... which is fine... but you should know that there are many people here (including the principal of a tube amp manufacturer) that frequent these forums that do KNOW amps and they did not learn about amps and tone by watching YouTube videos and listening to mp3 samples. They learned by playing lots of amps.

Things you'll appreciate in the future;

Real wood cabinent... no MDF.

Point to point wired circuitry...much easier for repair, maintenance, and mods... actual hand built stuff not that lying like a red faced liar hand built stuff Behringer is talking about. If you really know about amps you can choose to agree or disagree with Randall Smith while discussing the merits of PCB consistency vs the downsides of PCB tone robbing capacitance issues.

Chassis mounted tube sockets... and the irony here is that a guy with chassis mounted tube sockets probably got a amp that comes with tubes that aren't begging to be replaced. Be careful with those circuit board sockets while searching for just the right 12AX7 tube.

Speakers that cost as much as the Bugera amp.... yep they sound like what there are supposed to sound like... so they don't have to be discounted on ebay.

Sturdy 1/4" TS jacks rather than cheesy plastic OEM stuff... a good jack is not hard to find... but many people never get to use one.

That's just a few things... plus the fact that EL84 amps don't really have a clean tone when compared to an amp designed around a pair of 6L6s. That's really the part that caught my attention about your OP and the direction you were going with your decisions.

best,
mike