Bugera V5 Club

[QUAMV]

Love my V-5. I think single coils sound better than humbuckers on this amp.Pluged into a 12" cab it really rocks.Haven't modded anything, like it the way it is.ex. bang for the buck

[Hartley]

Hi everyone,

I don't have one but I have the V22. A friend at work has the V5 that he likes. Have you seen the video (Toneking?) where he plays thru a large cab? Ironically, the Toneking doesn't have great tone, but I'm sure in person it sounds great.

[Progbusters]

I put the Tung Sol on my Vox. Now I put a JJ 12AX7 ECC83S. The cleans are not as great. They sound dampened. With gain it sounds good with the gain higher and the volume knob on the Tele all the way up. I'm using a Baja Tele. With the S-1 pickup options, they sound not as piercing as usual, a bit more compressed. Same goes for the classic Tele bridge pickup selection. It kinda reminds me of a bluesy humbucker sound. Haven't tried it out really loud though.

[Progbusters]

Originally Posted by Progbusters

I put the Tung Sol on my Vox. Now I put a JJ 12AX7 ECC83S. The cleans are not as great. They sound dampened. With gain it sounds good with the gain higher and the volume knob on the Tele all the way up. I'm using a Baja Tele. With the S-1 pickup options, they sound not as piercing as usual, a bit more compressed. Same goes for the classic Tele bridge pickup selection. It kinda reminds me of a bluesy humbucker sound. Haven't tried it out really loud though.

finally played it loud. Although I still have a rattling issue, it sounds nice with the JJ's. With my Tele, it reminds me of the time I played with a Peavey Classic 30 at the store. It has almost the same tone as the overdrive on my Big Muff Germanium4, a bit punchy compressed and twangy. I can improve the tone slightly with different picks, notably thinner picks and celluloid picks. Out.

[Vladicaster]

Got one for Christas and I love it.

[Tellebelly]

A while back, I went on a 5 watt class A GAS binge. I ended up finally with a Marshall Class 5, A Vox AC4Tv (a good one!), and a Bugera V5. Of the three, the Bugera gets about 80% of my use. ... A Class A amp with a master? Crunchies at any volume? Reverb? A 30 watt speaker in a 5 watt amp? Yes, oh,Yes.

[Progbusters]

recent first impressions...

Before: JJ 12AX7 + stock Bugera EL84 = rattles!!! but sounds bratty, dark and musky

After: JJ 12AX7 + JJ EL84 = less rattle, very clean, "more headroom" feeling, and neutral

I think I like the stock Bugera powertube better.

[Vladicaster]

Originally Posted by Progbusters

recent first impressions...

Before: JJ 12AX7 + stock Bugera EL84 = rattles!!! but sounds bratty, dark and musky

After: JJ 12AX7 + JJ EL84 = less rattle, very clean, "more headroom" feeling, and neutral

I think I like the stock Bugera powertube better.

Clean is what I'm after so which tubes should I swap both of them or just the power?

[Minoan]

I love my Bugera V5. Its the ultimate bedroom amp. I have been using it almost on a daily basis for about a year. I ran it with a Weber alnico Blue Pup for 7 months and swapped it back to the stock speaker just after Christmas. The stock speaker kills the Weber.

I am running an EH 12AY7 and a Mullard EL84(cv2975).

A cosmetic mod I did was to paint the corners the same colour as the front. I think it made an improvement.

[Vladicaster]

Originally Posted by Minoan

I love my Bugera V5. Its the ultimate bedroom amp. I have been using it almost on a daily basis for about a year. I ran it with a Weber alnico Blue Pup for 7 months and swapped it back to the stock speaker just after Christmas. The stock speaker kills the Weber.

I am running an EH 12AY7 and a Mullard EL84(cv2975).

A cosmetic mod I did was to paint the corners the same colour as the front. I think it made an improvement.

How is 12AY7 different from 12AX7? This is my first tube amp so I'm just learning and don't want to spend bunch of money on tubes any advise would be appreciated, what I want is to get cleaner sound from V5. Love the paint job on your amp what kind of paint did you use?

[Progbusters]

Originally Posted by Vladicaster

Clean is what I'm after so which tubes should I swap both of them or just the power?

both

[Minoan]

Hi Vladicaster, a 12AY7 will give you more clean headroom.

http://thetubestore.com/gainfactor.html
Surf the site and the different descriptions of tubes.

I also used a 5751 for a while. Buy one of each and see what your ears like. Unless it rattles, leave the stock EL84 alone. Its actually a very good sounding tube.

For the paint, I used ordinary spray paint. I pulled off one of the knobs and went to the hardware shop and got the closest match. I used a paint with a satin finish.

[Vladicaster]

Originally Posted by Minoan

Hi Vladicaster, a 12AY7 will give you more clean headroom.

http://thetubestore.com/gainfactor.html
Surf the site and the different descriptions of tubes.

I also used a 5751 for a while. Buy one of each and see what your ears like. Unless it rattles, leave the stock EL84 alone. Its actually a very good sounding tube.

For the paint, I used ordinary spray paint. I pulled off one of the knobs and went to the hardware shop and got the closest match. I used a paint with a satin finish.

Thanks for the advise Minoan I will be ordering 12AY7 for starters, EL84 are just fine no rattling.

[jimbolaya]

Today the wife and kids were out and I hit the basement... played my 07 mim tele through my V5..just using a boss blues driver. Very fun and great tone. I am proud to have this inexpensive yet great sounding amp! Keeping it stock so far... being a beginner I am not sure if I would be able to hear much difference in changing tubes. Sounds like some here are happy with stock while some choose others. All in the v5 club keep rockin it....Jimbolaya chitown

[Davo17]

Add me to the club! Ive had mine since the Christmas before last. I put an ANOS 12ax7 in the preamp slot, a Saratov power tube (mil spec soviet tube with great tone), and I did try a weber sig 8 in the thing, but went back to the stock speaker.

[FirstBassman]

Originally Posted by jimbolaya

Very fun and great tone. I am proud to have this inexpensive yet great sounding amp! Keeping it stock so far... being a beginner I am not sure if I would be able to hear much difference in changing tubes. Sounds like some here are happy with stock while some choose others.

Same here. For my level of playing, everything stock sounds good enough for me.

But I think some day I will change tubes just to see if I do hear a difference.

[feldkeen]

I was trying to get a really clean sound by turning the gain way down. It is super quiet with gain set to 1 even on the 5 watt setting. Is that normal? Of course at 5 its loud as he!!. The tone is awesome though, it has some real grit to it.
I'm pretty novice at messing with amps settings, I guess turning the gain way down is not like changing to the clean channel. It seems to need to be set above 2 or 3 to have the proper volume.

[Davo17]

Originally Posted by feldkeen

I was trying to get a really clean sound by turning the gain way down. It is super quiet with gain set to 1 even on the 5 watt setting. Is that normal? Of course at 5 its loud as he!!. The tone is awesome though, it has some real grit to it.
I'm pretty novice at messing with amps settings, I guess turning the gain way down is not like changing to the clean channel. It seems to need to be set above 2 or 3 to have the proper volume.

For the cleanest cleans, max out the volume and use the "gain" to control the volume. Also the tone control does knock back the volume, I usually run it wide open. Are you sure its on the 5 watt setting?

[feldkeen]

Originally Posted by Davo17

For the cleanest cleans, max out the volume and use the "gain" to control the volume. Also the tone control does knock back the volume, I usually run it wide open. Are you sure its on the 5 watt setting?

Yeah, I've toggled between 1W and 5W. It's really the same both ways. Maybe I was just used to toggling channels between clean and gain on 2 channel amps. And it's not the same thing as turning gain way down to 0 or up to 5.

I'm liking the tone so far. But, I need to roll back a lot on the tone knob or my ceramic single coil sounds shrill.

[Sharkblues]

I've had one for about a month and really enjoy it! Had a Champion 600 and a Epi VJ, but this one is my favorite of the 3. I'd like to compare it to the Vibro Champ sometime.

I've thought of tube and speaker mods, but from info in this thread it doesn't seem necessary.