Bugera V55HD questions and concerns

[Chuck H]

Just to reiterate from post #8

If you want a reliable and dependable road tool for shows you need to spend more than $350. By todays market it puts that amp on par with the likes of Kay and Harmony or even Sears store brand amps from back in the day. If your going to be professional you need to be able to finish a show without problems. Sometimes that requires an investment...

Just my humble opinion. I know it's offensive but if your going to be disappointed in a budget product it should be kept in perspective.

[Ozeshin]

What you think sounds good, and what I think sounds good may be two different things, based on each of our experiences. But calling someone a point to point snob in your second post upon joining an electronics forum is bad form, and not appreciated.

You know as soon as I re-read that I thought it may have looked as though I was having a go at YOU and I certainly wasn't.
I apologize if it came off that way because that was not my intent.

[Ozeshin]

Just to reiterate from post #8

That's a fair enough statement.
Particularly because Bugera are aiming at "the professional" end of the market and the QC is very hit and miss.
But not everyone are pro musicians...in attitude perhaps but not always gigging wise.
If an amp dies during "bedroom" use there's little inconvenience but I have had my 1990 die during rehearsals and gigs and yes it's painful when it happens.
The main benefit I see from Bugera's price point is that with the global economic climate the amps we'd LIKE to own are almost always a financial stretch...so yes...spend a little more to get that brand name IF you have the cash but if not...there always has to be alternatives.

[Chuck H]

For the price you might even get two identical amps if you gig heavy. When I did it, if you gigged the amps were Marshall, Fender, Mesa and some odd ducks. Sorry if I skipped any ones favorite. I had two Marshalls of the same model. I bought the second after an on stage failure. That never happened again once I bought the backup though. And I'm glad because my backup didn't sound very good! "Same" amp, never sounded quite right. A problem you won't have with the Bugera. They all sound about the same for equivalent models. So there's something to that at least.

[Randall]

Bugera is not aimed at the professional end of the market. It is aimed at beginners.

[T9c]

I worked on one last week, a combo, but can't remember the model. Anyway the input jack was broken. It's PCB mounted and that PCB has lots of hard to reach screws with soldered wire bundles and radial PC my caps in the way and could barely get that PCB out enough to desolder and replace the jack. The few wire sets that were meant to be removed had been hot glued. I noticed the PCB traces and masks were all black, making this one bitch of an amp if it need heavier repairs. On topic, I would think a Chino made amp would have Chino tubes which, IMO aren't as good as Euro/Russian made tubes. Maybe a retube right off the showroom floor might prove to be good insurance.

[Chuck H]

Because different tubes make the input mount sturdier?

[T9c]

Because different tubes make the input mount sturdier?

If you read my post, you'd notice I prefaced my retube statement with the words "on topic, " which short for referring the reader back to the original post topic.

[Enzo]

Behringer usually glues its connectors to prevent them coming loose. The hot glue is easily cracked away if you hit it with freeze spray first. I am used to pulling the screws to get the front panel boards out. They use a sort of Switchcdraft clone jack, and I replace them with the real Switchcraft version when they are bad. I usually have to ream the panel hole ever so slightly - a couple twists of a 3/8" drill bit - and sometimes I need to grind off a bit of pin width for the pc board holes with my Dremel.

Frankly, the only real problems I see on the Bugera amps are the AC Mains input card with its group of thermistor inrush limiters. They sometimes break their solder. I just resolder the lot of them whenever one comes in, and have not had one come back yet. They recognized early on that the Molex type connector for the power transformer feed to the board was iffy, so they sent out a bulltein to hard wire them, and have hard wired them from the factory ever since. That's it.

To be honest, I am usually more concerned over the quality in new Marshalls than I am Bugeras. I am not a fan of a lot of Chinese tubes, though those 6L6GCSTRM Rubys are some of my faves, They are Shaugangs. The Ruby EL34B has also served me well, not one has come back bad so far. BUgera uses CHinese tubes, yes, but the power tubes are rated, which means they are burned in at least long enough to grade, so I don;t see any more infant mortality in the stock Bugera tubes than I do on most new amps of other brands. I think I'd rather see a Bugera come through my door than say a B52.

[T9c]

6262-212 is the model I had to replace the input jack: BUGERA: 6262-212 INFINIUM
Thankfully, I didn't need to ream out the hole or modify the pins for the Switchcraft insulated 2 cond closed switched pc mt jack.

[Enzo]

Usually my hole reaming is to round out a flat side in the hole for the flatted bushings on some jacks. Good that you did not need to.

[theztovski]

Bugera is not aimed at the professional end of the market. It is aimed at beginners.

I've owned Fender twin reverb (this one was a pain in the a..), Marshall lead, Marshall jcm900, I tell you bugera beat them all.... stop spending your money for the gread of musicstore salesmans who get's 20% on a fender or marshall amp (20% of 1800$ or 5% of 300$), Marshall and Fender are also been build cheap : pcb with all the tubes mounted on the pcb!!! so no difference on quality since all components are also made in china, malaysia, vietnam.... buy the way I'm not a beginner : 30 years I play that strat grtz

[theztovski]

buy the way lol