Early last year Bugera released a series of amps which included the 6260, 6262 the 333 and the 333XL series. At the time of release many models were available for under $500 for an all tune 120w amp. At this price point these amps were very appealing. Bugera is owned by Behringer and many questioned the quality of these amps.

In recent months there seem be very little complaints about the quality. There also seems to be growing number of guitarists snapping up these amps and raving about the tones. It seems like the Bugera line is gaining some credibility.

I’m interested in either a Bugera 6262 or the Bugera 333XL. The 6262 is considered to be a “5150 II Inspired” model. Unlike the 5150 however the 6262 has a usable clean channel. The amp is a two chanel amp with a clean and a lead chanel. The clean channel also has a switch to engage a “crunch” mode which essesntially makes this amp a three channel ampo with clean, crunch and lead.

There is an effects loop and unlike the 5150 the bugera has a reverb. A footswitch is included which allows you to select between the clean, lead reverb and effects. I would have left the reverb switch off and added the capability to switch on the crunch mode instead.

The 6262 can run either 6L6 or EL34 power tubes and Bugera makes it very simple to select and adjust the bias to run either. This is a nice touch. Also unlike a lot of tube amps the Bugeras sound good at lower volume levels.

Here is a Youtube video which shows the amp in action playing some Van Halen (not me).

Bugera 6262 guitar amp

I know this review is pretty much irrelevant since it looks like is phasing out this generation of the V series amps. Online retailers have slashed the price of this amp to $149.

I was in a Sam Ash and decided to plugin. In a nutshell this amp is a bargain at $149. The only reason I didn’t buy it is because I already have a small tube amp.

I’ll admit that in the past I was a Crate basher. Partly because I remember the total crap they were putting out in the 80’s. However since the Palomino series Crate seems to be gaining some fans.

The V18 is a stripped down meat and potatoes rocker. The amp breaks up rather early so there’s not a whole lot of clean headroom. Crank the gain a bit and the amp starts to growl. I would consider this amp to be voiced more like a british amp than a fender. Kind of Marshally, kind of Voxxy. It actually reminded me of the Peavey Classic 30.

The Crate V18 doesn’t have face melting distortion like a Recto or 5150. However users have reported this amp takes pedals well so you’d be able to throw a Metal Muff or something similar on front to get your grind on.

If you have the chance buy this amp. For a little more than the price of a pedal you get a Class A 18w tube amp. This price point is just silly for a tube amp and a few years back an amp with these specs would have been $750+. If you don’t dig it I can almost guarantee you could sell it for what you bought it for.

Check availability at Musicians Friend

After much hoopla Peavey has finally released the Vypyr series of amps. It seems that Peavey is aiming at the Line 6 Spider and Marshall MG series users as their target audience. The amp comes in 15w, 30, 75w and 100w versions. Later on Peavey plans to release 60w and 120w versions that feature tube power sections.

These amps are affordable. The 75w with a 12 inch speaker is $299. Best Buy had them listed at $209 on their web site and people were able to get Guitar Center to price match. Talk about a deal. Best Buy has since removed the amp from their site. I wonder if the $209 was the wholesale cost?

What makes the Vypyr unique is that it uses analog modeling using Peavey’s transtube technology. I think Peavey has done a nice job in the past with their transtube based amps.

In addition to the amp models there are 11 classic stomp box effects that you can kick in before the amp models just like a real guitar rig.

There are 11 post-amp effects as well. There is some kind of crazy SHARC processors on board to handle the digital effects.

Early reviews are favorable. It’s reported the Vypyr does a nice job of emulating the Peavey amps like the 6505 and XXX. The Vypyr has 12 different amp models. Each model has a clean and distorted version for a total of 24 models. I find it a bit odd there is only one Marshall model yet they model crap like the Krankenstein.

So what’s not too like? Well there doesn’t seem to be a way to model different cabinets or to turn it on/off for the USB recording out. There is an external speaker jack but the built in speaker stays on too. I don’t think there are any stereo capabilities. There is a serious lack of connection options. Peavey should have looked to the Behringer V-ampire to learn a thing or two about configuration options. The Behinger has 15 rear panel connectors that allows you to connect and configure the amp for just about any possible application from studio to live. The Behringer has midi in/out, 125 patch locations, a windows based editor to tweak the hell out of settings, pre and post stereo effects loops, S/PDIF output. All of these features would have been sweet on the Vypyr.

Overall this seems to be the most promising modeling amp since the original Vox Valvetronix series.

I saw Poison a few weeks ago. They are starting to turn into an annual guilty pleasure for me. I can think of a crap load of reasons why I shouldn’t like their concerts but honestly they are pretty damn good. Poison has a lot of energy live and there are plenty of babes in attendance. Musically the band is pretty tight. Brett Michaels really seems sincere to the fans and they tend to keep prices reasonable for their shows.

For the past few shows I’ve noticed CC Deville seems to have an amp off to his side. I think it’s only purpose is a stage monitor.

I got a pretty good look at the setup this time and it’s a Crate Shockwave. That’s right 350W of solid state goodness.

I’m not going to bash Crate because they have put out some nice amps as of late in spite of their reputation.

What’s the deal with CC removing the logos ? I mean if your going to play a crate at least leave the logos on.

The Behringer LX112 comes from the factory in L1 mode which means the cabinet modeling is on. Since you’re playing through a cabinet you don’t want modeling on. I have no idea why Behringer did this.

Here is how to set the Behringer LX-112 V-ampire amp to L2 mode and adjust the “Live” EQ settings. When you set the amp to L2 mode another set of EQ’s is available independent of the regular EQ.

• Press the two config keys at the same time to enter config mode. It is the “D” and “E” above the tone controls
• Push the up/dpwn buttons until the display says “L2″
• Adjust the tone controls and set the
  bass=2 o’clock mid=10 o’clock and treble=2 o’clock
• press the exit button