NAD—Bugera content

[Diamond_Dave]

Merry Christmas to all; peace and well being no matter your faith!

So I’ve had this old, dusty bass cabinet sitting around forever with a 15” EV in it. Used to be a Crate amp before the head died. I figured it was time to either use it or put it on the curb, so the missus got me a little Bugera 5w tube amp for Christmas.

I had no idea! The warmth, the midrange. The VOLUME! How do 5 watts drive that big ol’ speaker?!

I’m hooked. Haven’t tried any pedals through it yet. It breaks up a little at high gain and volume, but I’ll looking forward to seeing what my Tube Screamer does.

Thinking about a better, smaller cab (the EV/Crate cab is on casters, so heavy she be) and maybe better tubes. Such a consumer…

Anyway, had to share. Hope y’all have a blessed day today.

 

[Stevem]

EVs are very efficient speakers in terms of watts going in and sound pressure ( DBs ) hitting your ears.

It all works this way with the Human ear.
If you where pumping 1 watt of power into a speaker and then wanted to hear your guitar twice as loud you would have to step up to a 10 watt amp, if you had a 10 watt amp and wanted that sound to also be twice as loud to your ear, then a 100 watt amp is what you would need.

Conversely if you where playing thru a speaker who’s efficiency was rated at 94 Db and then played thru let’s say that EV speaker and it’s rating happened to be 100 Db, then to your ear that would be twice as loud.

Also I would have to look up the specs, but if that is truly the bass model EV then it’s reproductive frequency range only goes up to about 4000 hz, where a true guitar speakers will go to 6000 or a bit more.
This is why that EV 15 is giving you such a smooth mid range.
If it sounds beautiful to you that’s all that matters, but possibly some of the top end shimmer and harmonics are now lacking, I just can’t say .

 

[NobodyReally]

Bugera makes really good stuff now. As I understand it, they had some issues years ago getting started but they've since sorted them out. I have a V22 combo and I'm in love with it, despite so many warning me against it. For the money, I don't think there's better out there.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

I was sold when Anderton’s reviewed the Bugera T5 and basically said they were expecting ****e and were amazed by the sound. Of course, they aren’t going to say anything too bad, but then again, they didn’t have to put the review out at all. And they’re usually pretty straightforward about what you should expect. They never say a great Epiphone is a Gibson. They intentionally say it’s a great Epiphone for 1/3 the price of the Gibson.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

So, yesterday the front orange LED on my amp began flashing, and the rear red “replace tube” light came on. I put in a ticket with Bugera customer support and ordered a new set of JJ tubes from tubedepot.com. It takes a 12ax7 in the pre and an EL84 in the power. This is about 110 days after the amp was purchased, or about 20 days after the warranty on consumables expired.

I received a fast response from Bugera:

I hadn’t seen that warning in the quick start manual.

I’ve mostly used the amp at 5 watts on the attenuator, usually with an OD pedal on, and the gain at about 3 o’clock, but not at high volume. I have no idea how that affects the tubes, which are the original Bugera-branded ones. Last night I switched the attenuator to 1 w and dialed the gain back. No flashing lights or replace tube light.

Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes when the new tubes arrive.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

SO, the post office says my tubes are in my mailbox as of 10 AM this morning. Tubedepot's shipping link says they're arriving Friday. I don't fault Tubedepot.

I'll let you know if the JJ's solve the problem.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

The JJ’s seem to have done the trick. Very quiet and they sound great. And no flashing lights at full wattage!

 

[NobodyReally]

I been really thinking about retubing my V22. It's an amazing amp bone stock. The idea that it could be even better with some good tubes, perhaps a celestion speaker, absolutely intrigues me. I think you just made up my mind. Lol

 

[Diamond_Dave]

I don’t know jack about tubes, except that they’re consumables, like really expensive guitar strings. Not quite cheap enough to experiment with like strings for sure. But your V22 came with inexpensive rebranded Chinese tubes I’m sure, and given the fact that one’s going to go bad sooner than later, it doesn’t hurt to drop a little cash and retube your amp now. Advice from a tube noob!