Bugera - is it the name?

ZEEGLER

ZEEGLER

Well-known member
I have this Bugera 6262 Infinium. I only bought it because it popped up locally for about half the price of a new one, and it was basically brand new in the box. Looks like it's never been used. Not a mark on it. I'd been looking for a 5150 variant for a while, but every time something popped up, I had recently blown my gear budget. So when this came up, I figured WTF not.

Anyway, I've been playing it a lot, and it's really quite impressive. I have an OG 5150 here, and the Bugera sounds very close to it, but noticeably cleaner and quieter than the Peavey. I don't mean less gain, or less volume obviously. It just has much better note separation and clarity, which could be down to the tubes? Either way, I could plug into the 5150, but choose the Bugera every time. I haven't bothered to take the chassis out and examine the innards yet, so I can't speak to the build and component quality, but from the outside, it sure seems like it's nicely built. The power switches are nice heavy duty metal toggles. So, it got me wondering why they aren't more popular. They are still one of the cheapest options for a new 100 watt tube head. Cheaper than an EVH Iconic, or a Blackstar HT100. The only thing at Long & McQuade that's cheaper is the Marshall DSL100HR which is about $150 less (Canadian). I realize that Years ago Bugeras kinda had a reputation for catching fire, but as far as what I've heard, that problem was fixed long ago.

So what keeps people away from these? Is it the name? It is a stupid sounding name IMO. "Yeah let's name our amp line something that reminds people of nasal mucus and anal sex".

I never hear anyone mentioning Bugera amps any more.
 
I picked up a Vintage 22 1x12 combo here about a year ago for around $150. None-infinium model. Did a couple of things to it, not because it needed them but I thought I'd play around with it. Put a different speaker in it, nothing major just an old Carvin GT75 I had laying around, put new tubes in it and biased it up and it's a great little amp for the money. Not sure if I'd trust it to seriously play out, but it sounds really good. To my ear at least.
 
ZEEGLER said:
I have this Bugera 6262 Infinium. I only bought it because it popped up locally for about half the price of a new one, and it was basically brand new in the box. Looks like it's never been used. Not a mark on it. I'd been looking for a 5150 variant for a while, but every time something popped up, I had recently blown my gear budget. So when this came up, I figured WTF not.

Anyway, I've been playing it a lot, and it's really quite impressive. I have an OG 5150 here, and the Bugera sounds very close to it, but noticeably cleaner and quieter than the Peavey. I don't mean less gain, or less volume obviously. It just has much better note separation and clarity, which could be down to the tubes? Either way, I could plug into the 5150, but choose the Bugera every time. I haven't bothered to take the chassis out and examine the innards yet, so I can't speak to the build and component quality, but from the outside, it sure seems like it's nicely built. The power switches are nice heavy duty metal toggles. So, it got me wondering why they aren't more popular. They are still one of the cheapest options for a new 100 watt tube head. Cheaper than an EVH Iconic, or a Blackstar HT100. The only thing at Long & McQuade that's cheaper is the Marshall DSL100HR which is about $150 less (Canadian). I realize that Years ago Bugeras kinda had a reputation for catching fire, but as far as what I've heard, that problem was fixed long ago.

So what keeps people away from these? Is it the name? It is a stupid sounding name IMO. "Yeah let's name our amp line something that reminds people of nasal mucus and anal sex".

I never hear anyone mentioning Bugera amps any more.
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I’ve never got a chance to try one of their 5150 amps but several years ago, I demo’d a Tri-Rec that was at a GC and I thought it sounded pretty good.
 
skoora said:
I’ve never got a chance to try one of their 5150 amps but several years ago, I demo’d a Tri-Rec that was at a GC and I thought it sounded pretty good.
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Yeah, I had a Tri-Rec several years ago. Nice sounding amp. but if memory serves me, it sounded more Marshall than Mesa. That's been a LONG time ago though, so my memory might be a bit fuzzy.
 
War_in_D said:
Yeah, I had a Tri-Rec several years ago. Nice sounding amp. but if memory serves me, it sounded more Marshall than Mesa. That's been a LONG time ago though, so my memory might be a bit fuzzy.
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Mine too. It was a good hard rock/metal tone but tighter and more mid forward than a Rectifier, which some might assume it was copying.
 
I’d love a 1960. Last I checked there were still new 1990’s for $699 I was tempted to try
 
I can only speak for myself but for me the Bugera name is a non starter. Of course when I was 26 and had no money I prob would have thought differently
 
tallcoolone said:
I can only speak for myself but for me the Bugera name is a non starter. Of course when I was 26 and had no money I prob would have thought differently
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Right? That's what I'm saying. If my band starts playing out again, I would definitely hesitate to gig this amp. It's not cool. I know I'm too shallow and concerned about image. :p
 
I purchased a brand new Bugera 1960 Infinium and a coverslip for about $600 Canadian. I used it for 7-8 years at home a few hours a week and took a small loss when I sold it in excellent shape about a year ago. Never had one issue. Loved the auto bias for power tubes and wished I experimented more mixing and matching power tubes but I was too cautious and mostly stuck with excellent sets of EL34. The way it's wired up with the 4 inputs gives a lot of tonal options because it had something like a RR mod. The MV on it was passable but it sounded best loud. I'd recommend an attenuator or a place you can open it up to enjoy it otherwise I wouldn't go near that amplifier. Loud.

Compared to a Marshall 1959 I thought it was similar tone wise but with better features and at a fraction of the price. Owned a 1987X for 5 years and a JMP 50 watt for a few days prior to this. Definitely not a Marshall expert. I don't think they're the ideal amp for my playing either. Currently have a Stiletto Trident to get my fix for those types of tones.
 
ZEEGLER said:
I have this Bugera 6262 Infinium. I only bought it because it popped up locally for about half the price of a new one, and it was basically brand new in the box. Looks like it's never been used. Not a mark on it. I'd been looking for a 5150 variant for a while, but every time something popped up, I had recently blown my gear budget. So when this came up, I figured WTF not.

Anyway, I've been playing it a lot, and it's really quite impressive. I have an OG 5150 here, and the Bugera sounds very close to it, but noticeably cleaner and quieter than the Peavey. I don't mean less gain, or less volume obviously. It just has much better note separation and clarity, which could be down to the tubes? Either way, I could plug into the 5150, but choose the Bugera every time. I haven't bothered to take the chassis out and examine the innards yet, so I can't speak to the build and component quality, but from the outside, it sure seems like it's nicely built. The power switches are nice heavy duty metal toggles. So, it got me wondering why they aren't more popular. They are still one of the cheapest options for a new 100 watt tube head. Cheaper than an EVH Iconic, or a Blackstar HT100. The only thing at Long & McQuade that's cheaper is the Marshall DSL100HR which is about $150 less (Canadian). I realize that Years ago Bugeras kinda had a reputation for catching fire, but as far as what I've heard, that problem was fixed long ago.

So what keeps people away from these? Is it the name? It is a stupid sounding name IMO. "Yeah let's name our amp line something that reminds people of nasal mucus and anal sex".

I never hear anyone mentioning Bugera amps any more.
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I think some people don't like it because of the behringer company.

And if people are interested and google it they come across fun topics like fire hazard, amp catching on fire, etc. Even if it was an isolated incident. Hard to move past that
 
I'm sure they are fine these days, and I really liked the tone of those amps. If you are of a certain generation however, you knew people that had issues with the amps. It imprints an impression in your brain.
 
Bugera are pretty good for what they are. Which is just a nice way of saying they're the best smelling turd in a room full of shit. :LOL:

In all seriousness though they do have good sounding models, but they cut corners on quality to save on costs and likely won't stand the test of time. The individual resistors, capacitors, and other electronic components are probably fine. For all their copycat models they rework things to a more modern design, but seem to stay faithful to the original circuits. I'd be a little iffy on the quality of their transformers, but hell even Marshall is using cheaper transformers now. They do cheap out on build quality; MDF shell, cheap vinyl covering, flimsy chassis, pot metal mounts/screws, thin PCB's, etc. One light tumble and the amp might be toast. So good tones on the cheap, but you probably wouldn't want to gig with it or keep it around for the long haul.

This video pretty much sums up Bugera. It's also an interesting overview of the 1960 in terms of design and circuitry.
 
ZEEGLER said:
Right? That's what I'm saying. If my band starts playing out again, I would definitely hesitate to gig this amp. It's not cool. I know I'm too shallow and concerned about image. :p
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just have a Cameron amplification nameplate made and stick it on there...you'll have the boutiquiest of the boutique amps then!

lol
 
Erock said:
I'm sure they are fine these days, and I really liked the tone of those amps. If you are of a certain generation however, you knew people that had issues with the amps. It imprints an impression in your brain.
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Yep. When they first came out, lots of 'up in flames' literally with the plastic connectors melting, catching fire.
No thanks.
 
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