Thanks for all the comments guys.
Glad you guys gave it a positive cause I went ahead and picked it up earlier today before reading your comments.
It's in excellent cosmetic shape. Dude said he bought it on closeout about 1.5yrs ago when they were selling these off.
He got it new for $500.
I got it for $375. I think that's an excellent deal cause I've seen these on GC lowest at $450 and that one didn't look as good as this one.
BUT, there's always a "but", he had it set up and ready to try out. Clean channel sounded very nice, but, when he switched over to the high gain channel there wasn't that gain I had heard on YT video's. He even wondered what was up. I don't know if he really knew there may be a problem cause he wanted me to try it out before taking it. I was just gonna give him the money and go.
He told me during our initial email exchange that he hadn't played the amp in a long time, and he was selling it cause he needed the cash. He said he played it earlier in the day to make sure everything was working properly, and the high gain sounded much better when he played it earlier. The only changed was that he brought the amp down to the lobby of his building, with his EPI ES335 Dot so that I could try it out. It's possible that something got jiggled around when moving it cause when I got home I found the V1 cover and tube not seating properly. More on that below.
It was odd cause this amp has GREAT articulation and I could hear it "in there". I thought, hopefully, "pre tubes".
This amp uses 3-12ax7 pre's for the gains, 1-12ax7 PI, and 1-12ax7 for the effects send.
There was gain but not that "high" gain I was expecting.
So I told him I'd take it and that I would install new pre's and give it a shot.
He was cool about it and said if the problem is still there, then I can bring it back.
For $375 I took the chance.
Got it home and plugged in. The high gain sounded fantastic....for about 5-10 minutes. Then I could hear it going out.
It's gotta be something happening due to heat expansion. As bis as this is the electronics are packed in there.
I went to work changing the pre's. First thing I noticed is that the cover to V1 was cocked and not sitting quite right.
Took it off and the V1 tube was not in all the way. So that was good news.
4 tubes were 12ax7 Ruby HG "high gain" I'm guessing, and the PI 12ax7 was not labelled Ruby just "Chinese".
I had bought some JJ's, 1 high gain PI, 2-high gain 12ax7's, and 1-12at7 that I got for my B-52's reverb.
I installed the JJ's except for the 12at7, cause this amp has digital reverb and delay.
Plugged it in and YES, high gain heaven....for about 10-15 minutes, and then I heard just a slight decrease in the gain.
So, I toggled the heck out of the "boost" toggle and another little toggle right under the gain knob.
Then switched back and forth between clean and high gain a number of times.
All is great. I just played for like 1.5 hours cause this amp is sooooo sweet.
I don't know if it was the pre's, V1 not set properly, or dirty toggles, but now it's all there.
The high gain is richer and smoother than with the Ruby tubes that worked for about 10 minutes, so thumbs UP for JJ's high gain 12ax7's. The beauty about this amp is the sensitivity and great articulation even at maximum gain.
Some don't like the high gain on this amp, but I really like it. There are a lot of tone shaping mini toggles on this amp and you can get a wide variety of tones using those along with the standard set of BMT tone stacks, separate set for each channel.
I really like my B-52 AT100 head. It has more gain than the Alchemist, but, the Alchemist's touch sensitivity kicks the AT100's butt in that regard.
The amp's response to guitar volume, tone, and pup selection is fantastic. Every position of my Strats 5 settings is translated beautifully through this amp.
Harmonic content is crisp and plentiful. Pinch harmonics are so easy to do even an newbie could do them with this amp.
The clean channel is also has a wide range of tone shaping.
If you like Classic Fender clean tones, this amp has cabinets full of them. In the owners manual there is some info written by Bogner and he even states that the clean channel is voiced like Fender amps, IIRC, in particular the "Blackface" amps and the "Bassman".
The cleans can be set VERY clean or have some breakup. Tones are clear and chimey and it sounds classic with my
Strat Plus Deluxe with Lace sensor pup's.
I will say this though, the Egnater Rebel 30 I had for a bit, before it pooped itself, has BETTER clean tones. In fact every Egnater I've played I prefer those clean tones. Egnater's clean is like creamy butter slathering my ears.
That's not to say the Alchemist's clean aren't great also, it's just a different flavor.
The "mids" control has limited effect with certain toggle positions, and in certain settings it has greater effect, but it still can't quite get that really pronounced Egnater creamy mid. But I'll keep working at it.
The 3 types of digital reverb are really great, and the 3 types of delay come through quite nicely, and cleanly with no odd coloration.
I still prefer a proper and great analog spring reverb, cause I like how the spring reverb "hangs" in the tone with just a slight touch of being behind the original tone. Still, the 2 effects in this amp and great.
The other impressive aspect is how quiet this amp is even at full high gain. Granted I couldn't really crank it this evening, but it's pretty impressive. Maybe the JJ's are helping there as well.
And this amp is GREAT at low volume. Set it to the 20 watt setting and even at very low volume the articulation, touch sensitivity, and tone are wonderful. Looking forward to cranking it up.
The major failing in this amp is the cabinet. It's so sparse and BIG. It's nearly the same size as my B-52 ST6012 2x12 combo, but the Alchemist has only 1 speaker. It's a good one though, Celestion V30. Problem is it's just mounted to the front panel with a very open back and there is nothing on the cabinet walls. I don't see why Bogner used such a big box for a 12" just to hang it on a piece of front panel wood. I may try some dampening material and put on a back panel to beef up the low end.
That's what's lacking in this amp, low end, and that could be why some folks don't like it.
It looks big, like it should be ballsy, but its' not.
I plugged it into the ST6012's 2-V30's in that cabinet and the tone was easily richer, bassy-er, and fuller.
Granted it's 2-12"s instead of one, but that cabinet is also nicer, made of birch with a semi closed back.
All in all, so far I'm very pleased with this amp, and the price was right.
Tomorrow, if the high gain issue doesn't rear it's ugly head, I'm going to put in a pair of SED winged C 6L6's that I bought a couple of weeks ago. They did some tonal magic to the ST6012 so I'm hoping to sweet cream the Alchemist with them.
Some people say that power tubes don't make much difference in an amps tone unless you crank it up, but in my experience, I say that is not true. I didn't play the ST6012 at high volumes, but when I put the SED's in there the overall tone became very noticeably sweeter with richer harmonic content and a welcomed "warmer" tone. And that's at low volume too.
Whew! That's a long post, but hopefully someone interested in an Alchemist will appreciate it.
