Bugera

[joshuaman32]

so what is the verdict on this dfegadberinger "distributed" amp

lets hear it. good and bad?


ps i'm thinkg about buying one cause i'm a cheap bastard but i have not heard it in person.

[Sid Viscous]

The question for me is if it would last more than a week. Every Blehringer product I have owned died quickly.

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by Sid Viscous

The question for me is if it would last more than a week. Every Blehringer product I have owned died quickly.

My ada8000 and 8 channel headphone amp have been going strong for nearly 6 years. I also have a bunch of their guitar pedals just for scratch tracking and none of them have ever died. So I guess if they died so quickly as you say then you must have taken advantage of the warranty. I do understand if you're BS'ing a little, people like to do that on this site sometimes. You know, it's fun to jump on the hater bandwagon sometimes. BTW, to the original poster. A buddy of mine has a 333xl as a "practice amp" and backup to his dual rec and roadster. He bought it cause he loves the tone(not as much as his Mesa's but enough to buy one)and it was cheap enough that he couldn't resist. He's been using it 4 hours a day 4 days a week since July with zero problems. Doesn't mean you won't get one that might have a problem eventually or right out of the box. Hell I bought a Marshall AVT50 that was messed up from the day I pulled it out of the box and my Mesa DC-3 blew an output tranny(after almost 10 years) so any brand of amp, or anything for that matter, can have a problem.

[bexarametric]

Behringer sucks

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by bexarametric

Behringer sucks

How insightful. Your contribution to this thread is amazingly in-depth.

[Star Ark]

For the two years I've worked in music retail Behringer has been the most problematic brand we stock.

Two Bugeras out of maybe 8 that we have had in store so far have had faults.

[RiF]

I own a Bugera 6260 and it (almost) works like a charm. It is pretty well built and BTW does NOT have these plastic input jacks like my Marshalls have (which break every few months). I use it in my studio only, so I don't know if it will survive heavy on-the-road abuse. The only thing I find a bit ugly is the fact that it makes a heavily unhealthy KRONK-noise when you turn the power off too early after going into stand-by. I have several Behringer thingies, too. They don't always sound that good but only one of them broke (one channel of my little mixer died after about 5 years).

[Mad-Mike]

My main Gigging Amplifier is a Bugera 333XL I bought this past July, it's been great till recently....Unfortunately, the 333XL has plastic Jacks....the bane of my Amplifier owning existence!

Last night I went almost 100% full blown Kurt Cobain on stage because the god damned thing's speaker outputs came loose and would not output. Then I found out the cable was also a part of the problem....good thing I have a better made (eg. HOME MADE) replacement at home that is also shorter and allows more bandwidth.

The rest of it was all my own dumb fault....getting frustrated and smashing a guitar stand to smithereens, and landed on the footswitch cable, cut all but the white wire (I have a 6262 footswitch that the sometimes cocky and arrogant guy who sold it to me claims is the "right one" for the amp...bull!). Had to rewire that and wrap it in electrical tape.

Many have bitched about the plastic knobs, I speared the midrange knob on the clean channel with the headstock of my Fender Jaguar...well, I can say those passed the durability test with flying colors.

I've never had any real problems with Behringer's stuff, just the Bugera. I'm thinking of working on a "road ready" mod kit for this thing, since it would be a great gigging amp, if only it were not for the shoddy plastic output jacks. Problem will be isolating the hot ground from the chassis, since I think that's the reason for the plastic jacks on the front, but I think I can work that problem out (fiberglass isolators). Still does not reach Peavey crap level, at least my high gain input works despite losing the nut and the external portion of the input jack, unlike my old Peavey Rage 158 that I had when I was starting out, where I wound up cannibalizing it's own Headphone and Line-In Jacks every weekend to get a working input.

Otherwise, there's not much to complain about, I got 6 months with no problems out of the original tubes, and it's been beat around quite a bit in the back of several trucks and still looks new and sounds great. But god, I don't EVER want to go through another gig where my sound cuts out due to bad input/output jacks and cables. I've got enough problems with Chinese made alarm clocks as it is, I don't need guitar gear giving me hell too.

[SLO-MAN]

The other guitar player in our band recently bought a 333XL to replace his truely crappy sounding Marshall Valvestate. He brought it to rehearsal, and it was actually pretty good sounding. Not quite a Soldano, He he, but a huge improvement over the ValveState marshall POS.

Anyhow, he was pretty happy with it for about 3 weeks. At which point, it started making an intermittant crackling sound when the FX loop was being used. It got progressively worse to the point that the loop was unuseable. We changed tubes, and did all the basic trouble shooting stuff. No dice.

He took it back to GC, and they gave him a new one. Once again 3 weeks TO THE DAY, the lead channel decides to quit working. Smack the side of the cab, and it works for a few seconds, and then quits again.

He decides he's had enough, and takes it back for a refund. The sales guy tells him that he won't recomend these things to anyone now because most all of em come back, and it's just more work for them having to deal with a return, and an unhappy customer.

In the end, he got his money back, and bought a used JCM900 for $700 which is like 15 yrs old, and it's still working fine.

SLO

[RiF]

Although I don't have any reliability issues with my Bugera, a lot of people complain about the quality. If Bugera would wave spent $50 (how many hours of qualified chinese personell do you get for $50?) per amp into quality control and even charged $50 more than they do now, everything would be fine and the amps would sell like there's no tomorrow.

[Iggy Poop]

And besides all that, it really just doesn't sound that good. I tried it in Sam Ash, not impressed.

[bexarametric]

Originally Posted by Jonboy79

How insightful. Your contribution to this thread is amazingly in-depth.

It was insightful to those who do not know any better. I was right though. Behringer does indeed suck.

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by bexarametric

It was insightful to those who do not know any better. I was right though. Behringer does indeed suck.

They have products that don't suck at all. How exactly are they really any different from any other company building stuff in China? Are they bad because they copy people's equipment? If that's the case then are you pissed at every company not only copying Neve's designs but using the same numbers and initials? Your post didn't help anyone. If you're going to come into a thread and post something like that you should at least state why you think the way you do. That, would be much more helpful to many more people.

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by SLO-MAN

The other guitar player in our band recently bought a 333XL to replace his truely crappy sounding Marshall Valvestate. He brought it to rehearsal, and it was actually pretty good sounding. Not quite a Soldano, He he, but a huge improvement over the ValveState marshall POS.

Anyhow, he was pretty happy with it for about 3 weeks. At which point, it started making an intermittant crackling sound when the FX loop was being used. It got progressively worse to the point that the loop was unuseable. We changed tubes, and did all the basic trouble shooting stuff. No dice.

He took it back to GC, and they gave him a new one. Once again 3 weeks TO THE DAY, the lead channel decides to quit working. Smack the side of the cab, and it works for a few seconds, and then quits again.

He decides he's had enough, and takes it back for a refund. The sales guy tells him that he won't recomend these things to anyone now because most all of em come back, and it's just more work for them having to deal with a return, and an unhappy customer.

In the end, he got his money back, and bought a used JCM900 for $700 which is like 15 yrs old, and it's still working fine.

SLO

That's kind of weird because none of the GC's around me carry Bugeras, none of the salesmen found any in their system and their website mentions nothing about carrying them either. You sure he bought it at GC?

[bexarametric]

Originally Posted by Jonboy79

They have products that don't suck at all. How exactly are they really any different from any other company building stuff in China? Are they bad because they copy people's equipment? If that's the case then are you pissed at every company not only copying Neve's designs but using the same numbers and initials? Your post didn't help anyone. If you're going to come into a thread and post something like that you should at least state why you think the way you do. That, would be much more helpful to many more people.

The difference is that their products are shit and they break. Some companies that operate in China (like Toft) make every board pass through the UK for an inspection before they send it out to the market. I've made techno songs as a joke out of the noises that Behringer boards make when you move the scratchy pots and noisy faders (no shit, they really do suck a fat dick that much). I've never heard of this happening on Neve products.

Don't put words in my mouth. There are great products that are made in China (my Samsung TVs). I never mentioned China (or Neve for that matter). Behringer products do suck. The only usable products they have are headphone amps and crossovers (out of the HUNDREDS of products they make). Bugera is shit. You wouldn't actually tour with one would you? I didn't think so. Nor would it ever actually make it to your top 100 amps if money wasn't an object. Or I could have (and did) just say that Behringer products suck. Nothing more has to be said to be insightful. It will be very clear that you're in the minority here.

Also, why did you jump so quickly on the China comment? What's your agenda here? I made mine clear. I will make it again. Behringer sucks.

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by bexarametric

The difference is that their products are shit and they break. Some companies that operate in China (like Toft) make every board pass through the UK for an inspection before they send it out to the market. I've made techno songs as a joke out of the noises that Behringer boards make when you move the scratchy pots and noisy faders (no shit, they really do suck a fat dick that much). I've never heard of this happening on Neve products.

Don't put words in my mouth. There are great products that are made in China (my Samsung TVs). I never mentioned China (or Neve for that matter). Behringer products do suck. The only usable products they have are headphone amps and crossovers (out of the HUNDREDS of products they make). Bugera is shit. You wouldn't actually tour with one would you? I didn't think so. Nor would it ever actually make it to your top 100 amps if money wasn't an object. Or I could have (and did) just say that Behringer products suck. Nothing more has to be said to be insightful. It will be very clear that you're in the minority here.

Also, why did you jump so quickly on the China comment? What's your agenda here? I made mine clear. I will make it again. Behringer sucks.

It's just that have had and have behringer products in my studio including the ada8000 and have had it for more than 5 years and have never had a single problem. Yet my Digi 002r and Event monitors have both had problems. My made in the good ole USA Mesa amp has had 2 major meltdowns along with scratchy ass pots. I've also lost channels on a 3 thousand dollar True Systems preamp. However my whole point was you should at least state why you think Behringer sucks instead of just expecting someone who has no clue of your experience with them to take your word for it.

[TehGuitarist]

I have the 333xl head, ok first i wanna say its a GREAT sounding amp that is perfect for my tone.

However the thing about faults is right, check the grounding, you may want to change the connectors etc, and if it screws up, send it to a real tube amp repair guy. The people who repair it under warrantee left my amp with more problems than before, they didn't ground it and they screwed the preamp stage somehow.

I'm just waiting to get mine back and im expecting great results.

[jonnathaniel]

I have the Bugera 333XL head. I really like the clean and crunch channel, the lead is to buzzy or 'modern'' or whatever. So far everything good except a blown capacitor. That was an easy fix. However, I reccomend a good technician to check it for problems. It is what it is and for 500 eur its OK. Oh and 120W is an overkill. 30w series would be better for my taste.

[buscemi]

I picked up a Bugera 4x12 stereo cab for next to nothing and it hasn't been so bad. Sounds pretty good, convenient enough to fire my Tiny Terror through one side and Blues Junior through the other. I thought it even recorded pretty well for rough tracks but I'd use my other cabs/speakers for most recordings (Avatars with V30s or G12H30s).

[mrhenry76]

A friend of mine replaced his crappy Marshall valvestate with an Orange Tiny Terror Combo and a used 120 Watt Bugera Combo!
we made some A/B tests and the result is that the Bugera is not a bad amp ( I don't like the lead channel, too mid scooped and undefined ) but the Tiny Terror blows the Bugera away even at 7 Watts!!!

[valvusmusicus]

Bugera BVP5500 fault

I bet there are loads of you out there with 5500's that go into meltdown, or start spluttering and farting once they get hot! Saying that, they seem to run very hot, fry an egg on it hot, it seems to me!!
I think this is because the quiescent (standing) current is too high for the MOSFET output devices-or even that the power rail voltage is too high for the chosen output devices
Does anyone know of a way to lower rails by about + and - 10v, without changing the secondary of the PSU transformer-which means fitting a new one
Not possble with a potential divider is it, as amp needs to see a low impedance from the PSU??? Dunno!!
SO I guess its change the Traffo, and reset the standing current-BUT I cant see a preset to do this. it may be possible to keep the existing traffo, and just lower the standing current-this may increase xover/ other distortion a little-but this may far outwiehg a meltdown situation=or farting and spluttering.

Any thoughts??

[RiF]

My Bugera 6260 sounds great (stock tubes) but I cannot say anything about reliability, because it's used in my studio only. I aquired a Mesa Dualrec recently and it's still a head to head race about which amp I like better.

[jimmiibass]

There are very few behringer products i havent killed over the years. they are great for studios, beginners, places where they arent going to get used much. their stompboxes are crap, there are several burnt out channels on my rack DI box, i could go on.
comparing them to companys who make quality products like mesa is complete garbage. yes, occasionally, stuff gets through quality control, or actually breaks. its not uncommon. but bugera stuff is built with the lost quality parts you can physically find. there quality control is nonexistant at best. put garbage in, get garbage out.
honestly, if your going to buy one of these amps new, i would take your cash, hop on ebay, and and get yourself something used that will last longer.
behringer sucks.

[dobz]

As someone who repairs amps for a living, I would say don't buy a bugera!
granted they sound similar to the amps the are copies of but there build quality is some of the worst I've ever seen.

Most of the time you can get a second hand amp that the bugera is a copy of for roughly the same price anyway.

They are made with some of the cheapest parts you'll every see and there failure rate is shock. There is only one other amp that I've seen with a equal fail rate.

In short don't buy one.

[nedorama]

Originally Posted by Jonboy79

It's just that have had and have behringer products in my studio including the ada8000 and have had it for more than 5 years and have never had a single problem. Yet my Digi 002r and Event monitors have both had problems. My made in the good ole USA Mesa amp has had 2 major meltdowns along with scratchy ass pots. I've also lost channels on a 3 thousand dollar True Systems preamp. However my whole point was you should at least state why you think Behringer sucks instead of just expecting someone who has no clue of your experience with them to take your word for it.

then consider yourself lucky - google ADA8000 and frying eggs and you'll see that while a lot of people bought ADA800's as a cheap ADAT converter, many do go south and end up making a frying egg sound. This is a known defect on this unit. If you like yours and use it in the studio, you may want to buy a spare if you can't afford downtime.

Some of the major companies do have problems from time to time, but no one cuts corners to save costs like Behringer. They've decided they want to be the low-cost provider, which means spending an extra $50 on an amp to keep it from breaking is out of the question.

While others have copied out-of-production items such as Neve preamps and EQs, usually people are improving on something or something that was out of production or not meant for home studios - it wasn't too long ago that if you wanted a Neve 1073 or 1082, you had to go to Brent Averill or others and have him rack up one plucked from a mixer.

Behringer, on the other hand, has no problem copying existing products in the market with little to no improvements, except subsituting cheaper parts that are out of spec.

Again if you've bought their products and are happy, great, but there are as many if not more people who were disatisfied with a Behringer/Bugera purchase.


You also didn't mention - what did Mesa do about your amp? What did True systems do about your two channels that didn't work?