Bogner 20th Anniv.... Holy shit

[Ventura]

Black tie occasion?? Nice!!!

(...i hear it brings out the mids better too)

 

[LunatiBSW]

Black tie occasion?? Nice!!!

(...i hear it brings out the mids better too)

Ha. Makes the mids a touch more buttery. Like if you take a Samurai sword to a stick of butter

 

[bigangryguitar]

Congrats, I have one too and it's amazing! Does any tone I want damn well and looks sexy doing it! The mod is a lot harder on the reverb models which I have so I never bothered with it.

Just fuck the modding - sorry for the brash approach - but seriously, I've come to realize that Reinhold "does things" the way he "does things" for a reason. These "reasons" only become apparent after for spending some time with the amp(s). This is my realization and I'm sticking to it.

Seems everyone loves unboxing an amp only to box it back up and get the GAS going again for a new and improved box to be returned

Unpack it, stack it, and crank it - play the shit outta it

Mo

Can't argue with that and I realized I never switch modes anyway!

 

[Budlime]

Just got a Shiva 20th Anniversary yesterday....had time tonight to try it out.... OMG!!!! I have found my tone.... I'm in love with this amp! LOL

Seriously.... I love it...

The best clean channel I've ever played and same with the drive channel...

I like the sound better with the master set to a higher level and the channel volumes lower.... The sound just comes alive. WOW!

Can't get the grin off of my face .

 

[kronat]

iphone rec... how to waste time and resources. I *hate* clip recorded like this.

 

[LunatiBSW]

I hate useless negativity.
It says iPhone clip, don't click it, easy!
I was getting a quick clip cause I was excited on the initial tone.
Go be a negative Nancy elsewhere

 

[brianiac5150]

Recently purchased my brand spankin' new Shiva 20th and am loving it. Truly a dream amp, especiailly for my fiscal condition.

I have it sitting on a dual ported Shiva 1x12, which sounds really good with it and looks even better.

Today was the first opportunity I had to put it into my stock Marshall 1960A (G12T75's) and WOW what a huge, huge difference. I truly love how it looks sitting atop the 1x12 (classy as hell), however, now I'm jones'ing a Bogner 4x12. Ugh...just when I thought I'd gotten close to Pepto'ing the GAS.

Shiva 20th is a KILLER amp.

EDIT: Running my Ecstasy Red into the clean is stellar, too. Would love to hear from someone who owns a real Ecstasy and may have some experience with the pedal/Shiva combo as to how it may stack up. An amp sounding better than this is something I've no experience with.

 

[nevusofota]

I've had mine now for about 4 months and I continue to really dig this amp. I think it's a sleeper among the high gain crowd because it has the Shiva moniker. The standard Shiva needs a boost to get into high gain territory but definitely not the 20th. I was shocked with the amount of thick gain this amp can achieve. What's great is it has all the tone of the standard Shiva, especially on the clean channel. Cleans are just amazing. If you need a high gainer, dig the Bogner tone, and need a superb clean all in one box, than this is your amp. I was going to go the Friedman route but decided against it since Friedmans seems to be the new hot flavor in the world of high gain.

Now on the topic of externally switching the amp functions. I have a Musicomlabs midi pedal switcher that I plan on using to switch all the amp functions via an RJM mini amp Gizmo. This includes the boost and Reverb. I have the interface cable coming this week so I'll post how it works.

Also, I've tried it through various cabs and like it the most with either my Marshall 1960BV with V30's (more so than my 1984 800 cab) or Mesa traditional. It just seems to like V30's. Haven't tried any Bogner cabs yet.

WARNING: Bad iPhone clip at whisper volume when I first brought the amp home. It's also going through an EVH 212 which I later found doesn't sound as good as my other cabs. I'm posting the clip to show the amount of gain on tap. I also think the cool Bogner mids are noticeable.

 

[Budlime]

I have the smaller Mesa Stiletto 2x12 cab I'm using with mine and it sounds awesome to my ears but I would like to get a matching Bogner 2x12 cab.

 

[4406cuda]

I have had my Shiva 20th KT88 for almost a year now. It still amazes me at how versatile and great it sounds.

 

[supersonic]

EDIT: Running my Ecstasy Red into the clean is stellar, too. Would love to hear from someone who owns a real Ecstasy and may have some experience with the pedal/Shiva combo as to how it may stack up. An amp sounding better than this is something I've no experience with.

I have a 100B, ATMA, Bogner Blue, Bogner Red and just sold a 20th Shiva with EL34s'. The Shiva is much softer in attack to the XTC and this is evident when using the Bogner Red and Blue pedals. I could not get the Shiva to sound like the XTC with the pedals. The Blue and Red pedals sound very close to the amp in the clean channel of the XTC, a little less 3D. I did not bond with the 20th Shiva.

 

[nevusofota]

EDIT: Running my Ecstasy Red into the clean is stellar, too. Would love to hear from someone who owns a real Ecstasy and may have some experience with the pedal/Shiva combo as to how it may stack up. An amp sounding better than this is something I've no experience with.

I have a 100B, ATMA, Bogner Blue, Bogner Red and just sold a 20th Shiva with EL34s'. The Shiva is much softer in attack to the XTC and this is evident when using the Bogner Red and Blue pedals. I could not get the Shiva to sound like the XTC with the pedals. The Blue and Red pedals sound very close to the amp in the clean channel of the XTC, a little less 3D. I did not bond with the 20th Shiva.

Try a KT88 Shiva.

 

[supersonic]

EDIT: Running my Ecstasy Red into the clean is stellar, too. Would love to hear from someone who owns a real Ecstasy and may have some experience with the pedal/Shiva combo as to how it may stack up. An amp sounding better than this is something I've no experience with.

I have a 100B, ATMA, Bogner Blue, Bogner Red and just sold a 20th Shiva with EL34s'. The Shiva is much softer in attack to the XTC and this is evident when using the Bogner Red and Blue pedals. I could not get the Shiva to sound like the XTC with the pedals. The Blue and Red pedals sound very close to the amp in the clean channel of the XTC, a little less 3D. I did not bond with the 20th Shiva.

Try a KT88 Shiva.

I tried one a few years ago, I think I liked the KT88s' better, it got a little wooly with higher gain. I much prefer the XTC, really liking the tightness of the ATMA too.

 

[Budlime]

I have never played an Ecstasy amp.... (I'd love to but $$$ for me).

I had both the Ecstasy Blue and Red pedals and really didn't care for them. I had a Carvin Legacy at the time and I found that the pedals were really good at lower volumes through the clean channel but when the volume went up to band levels I just didn't like the feel or the tone of them. At lower volumes it was similar to my old Mesa Stiletto Deuce tone that I was getting.

I tried a Mesa Royal Atlantic awhile back and actually brought it home and tried it for a week... It have a very nice clean channel but the Drive channel had too much attack for my tastes and no presence control on the amp....the only way I felt I could tame the attack was to drop the treble almost off and turn on the power soak. I've owned a Mesa MKIV, Lonestar Classic, Rectoverb, and Stilleto Duece and the EQ chain on those amps is Drive then Treble and it drove me nuts.... get it set up then turn up the master volume and then the EQ is different again ( tweaking constantly) . With the Royal Atlantic I found that I had to use my Wampler Dual Fusion and Velvet Fuzz pedals to get a nice solo overdrive to that was smooth. I figured that maybe the amp wasn't the right amp if I didn't like the overdrive tone as much or more than the pedal overdrive....so I took it back. I loved the looks and the build quality of the amp and probably would have kept it but my wife was open to me paying more money to go after the Shiva.

I bought the 20th Shiva and I love that I can get a softer attack with it... I'm more into an Eric Johnson type of tone and I'm finding I'm getting a nice tone with the shift pushed in and the presence backed off.... nice and smooth. I'm not using any of my overdrive pedals at the moment because they sound thin compared to the amps drive channel. Just using my EP Booster - Strymon El Capistan with a bit of the amps reverb and it just kills. I also have an Empress ParaEQ to fine tune and Strymon Timeline, Barber Tone Press.... but am finding that just the EP Booster and El Cap are awesome with the amp. One of the few amps I've ever played where fewer pedals are required for what I like. I do find that like most amps...the Shiva likes the EP Booster.

I do wish that the clean channel had a gain function... the Royal Atlantic seemed more versitile that way. I like to be able to get some break up when I dig into it. But to me...the Clean channel is about 20% better than the Royal Atlantic I tried and the drive channel is smoother with the Bogner character which I prefer to the Mesa drive character. All personal preference of course.

 

[nevusofota]

Hmmmm. The clean does have a boost function on the 20th that does add some plexi style grit. Or, click on that EP booster, sounds great on the clean channel also.

 

[Budlime]

I run the EP Booster as an always on pedal...at about 1 o'clock and the boost on.... Still doesn't break up like the Royal Atlantic...
Might get an RC Booster to kick it a bit more.

 

[brianiac5150]

EDIT: Running my Ecstasy Red into the clean is stellar, too. Would love to hear from someone who owns a real Ecstasy and may have some experience with the pedal/Shiva combo as to how it may stack up. An amp sounding better than this is something I've no experience with.

I have a 100B, ATMA, Bogner Blue, Bogner Red and just sold a 20th Shiva with EL34s'. The Shiva is much softer in attack to the XTC and this is evident when using the Bogner Red and Blue pedals. I could not get the Shiva to sound like the XTC with the pedals. The Blue and Red pedals sound very close to the amp in the clean channel of the XTC, a little less 3D. I did not bond with the 20th Shiva.

Excellent info, supersonic. Thanks for your response!

I sold my Atma and a few other things to move to the Shiva. That Atma is also a great sounding amp and pleasure to play. Pretty tight sounding, as I recall, whereas "woolly" is a good Shiva (I have the KT88 version) descriptor.

Me and my credit card on on the FX8 waitlist and I'm really looking forward to putting some of their boost technology in front of the Shiva.

 

[nevusofota]

I understand the "woolliness" of th Shiva 20th. You can definitely make it tight though. It's what I like about the Shiva, with time and tinkering of the controls you can get just about any sound. The mode switch and the mid knobs are powerful. I've never had a mid control do so much in any previous amp. To get it tight crank the master past noon, decrease the channel volume to below 9:00, and increase the mid past noon. These settings along with an EP booster make it very tight. I spent about 2 hours with it last night and came away with a sound I really dig and many more options that I didn't know existed in the Shiva. For low volume practice tones I use the mode switch and turn master down, channel volume about 11:00, EP Booster, and excursion at 3:00. It was so much fun playing at low volume through a Marshall 1960 BV cab. Thick gain for days with this tons of sustain. I never liked mid scoop switches on amps and the mid switch on the Shiva is no different. I think they're unnecessary. I'll admit, the Shiva for me wasn't a plug-in-to-perfect-tone amp. I did have to spend some time with it. But that's what's great about it. It can do pretty much all genres, it's definitely more than a one or two trick pony.

 

[Ventura]

Just gonna stick my neck out here and, well perhaps it's a question of semantics and descriptors, but WOOLY and 20thA Sheevs DO NOT belong in the same sentence. Or paragraph.

I've said it since day one and nothing has changed since then, this thing cuts like a razor; drops heavy metal tone better than some "heavy metal amps" ever could; has cleans that make Fender wonder who their daddy is; and does crunch, rock, and chuggah aplomb. Small head - maybe it's a size thing. but the fucker rips many other comparable amps to shreds - and doesn't get weird, wooly or lost in the mix!!

Just saying.

 

[supersonic]

Just gonna stick my neck out here and, well perhaps it's a question of semantics and descriptors, but WOOLY and 20thA Sheevs DO NOT belong in the same sentence. Or paragraph.

I've said it since day one and nothing has changed since then, this thing cuts like a razor; drops heavy metal tone better than some "heavy metal amps" ever could; has cleans that make Fender wonder who their daddy is; and does crunch, rock, and chuggah aplomb. Small head - maybe it's a size thing. but the fucker rips many other comparable amps to shreds - and doesn't get weird, wooly or lost in the mix!!

Just saying.

This pretty much how mine sounded, listen 1:20 - 2:12. "Woolly' is my best description. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f3ANIms07U