20th Shiva different enough from 20th XTC.......to have both

[richedie]

I love my 20th Shiva with EL34s and PWE Event Horizon tons and was close to buying a modded Mesa Dual Rectifier or a Splawn Quickrod. However, knowing what a Bogner freak I am, I decided that maybe I should save for my dream amp, a 20th Ecstacy. Thoughts and comments? Does this make sense with the amp I already have?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[richedie]

I decided to go the modded Rectifier route.

 

[electrikshadow]

Quite a bit of difference. first which year is your 101b? pre or post 2004. I have a 1998 with wima caps, rubicon filter caps and 1% mil spec parts throughout. I bought it new and nothing touches it. Yet I work for a Bogner dealer now and have discovered many new tonal colors and shapes within the 20th anniversary. they switched the corner frequencies on every channel. they have put giant filter caps next to the preamp tubes. As I noticed the amp was thicker across the entire bandwidth, the Plexi mode is incredible for the big wide open AC/DC tone. It will take you much further into softer clip if the gain is brought back which gives you the plexi bark. The red channel is tighter, less compressed. The build quality is amazing. The pots feel like 1million rotation pots. The clean channel has been re-voiced to sound more simular to a Fender all though I was able to get chime out of it or a very brit warmth with or without using the the b1 and b2 switches. I spends hours moving things around and consider myself an expert on their amps. I have done a fair amount of modding to my amp along the way to discover different potentials. A pre 2004 101b has the best blue channel in my opinion for my style, while the 20th has a lot more gain available to the end user if needed. I used a suhr strat, V.O.S Les Paul R8 (a mans guitar) and various Rics Tom Andersons Prs ect. The 20th anniversary ecstasy in my opinion is a must have but do not get rid of your other 101b because they are both two completely different amps and worth every penny.