Bogen amplifier

[d barham]

I was passing through a town yesterday and stopped in a local music store. As I was about to leave, I spied an old amp under a table. A David Bogen with a couple of sizable transformers. Looked to be from the early to mid 60s to my untrained eye.

My question is, how are Bogen amps generally regarded? And do you think it merits a second look? The clerk at the store didn’t know anything about it. He said it had just came in with some other old stuff and hadn’t been checked out yet.

 

[Engine Swap]

Mostly commercial intercomm and PA gear. Well made, linear, clean. They made both tube and SS models.

OPT may not have the BW for guitar. Also check available output impedance.

Would only be interested if tubes and dirt cheap.

 

[watercaster]

I was passing through a town yesterday and stopped in a local music store. As I was about to leave, I spied an old amp under a table. A David Bogen with a couple of sizable transformers. Looked to be from the early to mid 60s to my untrained eye.

My question is, how are Bogen adiodmps generally regarded? And do you think it merits a second look? The clerk at the store didn’t know anything about it. He said it had just came in with some other old stuff and hadn’t been checked out yet.

I am a retired audio/video tech and we have used Bogen amplifiers for last 25 years. Never had any real issues with any of their stuff. They were located in Mahwah, NJ. Their bread and butter were multi-zone commercial audio amplifiers and they were rock solid.

 

[Greggorios]

Attention K Mart Shoppers!

(I don't know about now but throughout the 60's to 90's they were everywhere.)

 

[W.L.Weller]

If it's a tube PA, it's probably worth a hundred bucks.

 

[John Owen]

My very first guitar amp was a Bogen from the 1950's. It was basically a tweed Princeton. I wish I had been smart enough to hold on to it. Looked like this:

 

[schmee]

If it was a Bogen tube amp, dirty dirty dirty. Used them for many years as PA. It just seems to be a distortion filled design in general. I think I have had 3 versions over the years. The Challenger was an oft used one.
Some good news though is that Woodward-Schumacher trannies were used in some of them and are readily salvageable. Use the chassis and trannies but dont use the design...

 

[bblumentritt]

My first guitar amp was a Bogen 50W school PA amp, my little brother's amp actually, what W.L.Weller posted above, and we played through our home console Hi-Fi 12" extentsion cabinet. It sounded pretty good.

 

[wrathfuldeity]

Currently have 2 old modded Bogens in rotation and think they are the cats meow for inexpensive tube amps...both were about 65$ with great old glass.
1 is a recordplayer conversion Bogen VP12 se6L6, sent to Skip Simmons for a slight voice mod and cap filter job...like a princeton on steroids.

2 is a pp6v6 mono block Bogen PH10 sans pre that is used as low volume tube power amp. Plug my tube buffered pedal board right in to the PI. It sounds decent but need to have some static issue looked at.

 

[bebopbrain]

There were a range of Bogen amplifiers from the nice single ended 1 x 6L6 model CH10 to the MO-200A monster with 8 x 8417 tubes and double output transformers.

 

[archetype]

I have a Bogen Challenger CHA-33 on the project back burner. From the schematic, like @schmee indicated, it's bound to sound like a bulldozer. There are many mods for this model. I'll likely revoice one channel for a bit less midrange, give it a presence control, and convert the 'phono input' to a line in to use my Joyo American Sound as a preamp stage.

The blurry schematic is the dual 5Y3GT version, but mine is the single 5U4GB version. They seem to be putting 480 V. on the plates of the 6L6GBs, which seems like it's about 100 V. higher than their rating, so I may be addressing that issue.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

Terry Kath of Chicago used Bogen quite a bit.

 

[Berndizzle440]

My very first guitar amp was a Bogen from the 1950's. It was basically a tweed Princeton. I wish I had been smart enough to hold on to it. Looked like this:
View attachment 977601View attachment 977602

I have this same amp! I’ve been digging and digging for information on it. I’ve found some but I’ve really wanted to find some owners of these amps and kind of make an “archive” of them. They’re such cool rare little gems. They were made in 55-56 when Bogen was moving from NYC to New Jersey and I’m sure because of that they’re numbers and information are so far and few. If ya have any pics or even have stories Send me a pm I’d love to hear!

 

[JeffBlue]

I have 2 matched pair of Bogen triple rectifier raw PA amps that I need to recap. From the 60s I presume. Would make either a pair of audiophile amps for home audio or a pair of great guitar amps, depending on the component values I would upgrade.

 

[printer2]

Model J-15 that I traded some ferns for.

 

[mediaworksokc]

Better late than never...

 

[Henry Mars]

I remember Bogen amps. Serious history lesson. Not bad amps as I remember.
We had one of their pwr amps back in the day. They were pretty standard for PA systems.
Gear is in fashion then it's not because better, newer and more reliable stuff comes along.