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Old 04-20-2018, 07:23 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Staten Island, NY - for now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by seannx View Post
Thanks for all the advice. None of the local stores in my area had the Bugera or VHT in stock, so I stopped by the Sacramento GC on my way back home from Nevada City. They had a Bugera V5 Infinium on the floor, and I played an SG with the setting at 1 watt. Was just the sound I wanted, and I could see that it will work just fine. It was the only one they had, so it was 10% off.
Advice from a happy owner:
  • As you take the time to play with it you'll find that it gives you just the "sounds" (plural intended) you wanted, especially if you're a more-than-one-guitar man; FYI the gain/tone/volume controls are highly interactive - far more so than on any other amp I've played in the last 55 years - and as you experiment with different settings, in combination with the power attenuator and different guitars (solid/hollow/semi)/pickups (humbucker/P-90/mini-bucker/Fender single-coil), you'll find yourself drawing out a surprising variety of useful tones, all at levels that won't have the neighbors gathered outside your door with torches and pitchforks. Forget modeling amps: this is the way we did it in the old days, and there's a wealth of tone-building knowledge to be obtained as you experiment - besides, there's no substitute for a team of little glass bottles singing their hearts out when it's all about tone...
  • Since we're on the subject of tubes, a two-tube single-ended amp is a wonderful - and relatively inexpensive - way to get acquainted with the characteristics of different manufacturers' offerings (believe it or not, nominally-identical tubes can be dramatically different in terms of tone, headroom, onset of breakup, etc.). The good thing about the Infinium circuitry is that it allows you to use any compatible power tube (in this case EL84 or equivalent) without rebiasing: plug in a low-headroom power tube with a high-gain 12AX7 for some thrash madness, match up a "tighter" preamp tube with a high-headroom 7189 for country or cleaner rock styles, swap in a 5751 preamp tube for some sweet recording-level chord-solo jazz tones - or mix-&-match to create your own unique signature tone; I've been using these for the last year with great success:

    http://www.thetubestore.com/Shop-by-...remium-Package

    FYI those are pre-Glasnost Soviet mil-spec tubes, BTW - the Russian equivalent of those American JAN tubes the hard-core Fender guys would sell their 'nads to get; I've been running the full package in my Bugera V22 since 2010 with nary a problem - using it on a gig tomorrow night, BTW - and if longevity/durability are paramount in your book IME you're not likely to find anything better at any kind of reasonable price...
Use it well, often, and (not too) loud...
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