Bogner XTC or Marshall JVM

[roodyrocker]

Congrats!!!! Hey thats great!!!

I will someday own a Bogner XTC. not for a while. maybe within the next 5 years. I realize this is kinda non issue for sound, but damn I just cant get into the look of bogner products. I realize they are super high quality in components and craftsmanship, and superior tone quality, but dammit, I just wish they would make them a bit more pleasing to the eye. One cool thing about Boogie, Splawn, and others that allow you to pick the finish options. I just cant get into that tweedy looking front plate and stuff. I realize its Bogner's style, but its not mine. I will just have to grin and bear it.

I think they look classy but still, you don't have to get the tweedy looking front on the Ecstasy or the Uberschall. Both of mine have the Metal front grill option (about a $200 upcharge but a readily available option), they look great IMHO
As far as tolex covers, Bogner can get you the head in other colors too, its just not standard.

[Shawn Lutz]

I didnt care for the basket weave look much either until I paired the 101B with matching Bogner 4x12 cab and the look has grown on me over the years I suppose. Its about the tone, not the look for me although I dont think thye are an eye-sore like the Orange amps are . As Rudy said, you can gte the metal grills or different color tolex.

[tonemonster]

well, when I am in the market for one, if I find the right deal on one, I wont pass it up because of the tweedy grille and ugly look. I agree, its about the tone. If the amp is right for me, and the amp is in great condition, etc.... and the price is right, I wont let the looks of it stop me. I will learn to live with it, or perhaps buy a metal grill afterward for it. OR do something custom for it.

[Racerx2k]

Nice deal, lh! Like some others, I am not a big fan of Bogner's cosmetics. Still, it wouldn't stop ME from slobbering over the chance to own one! the tweed grill, I don't mind so much. I'm not a fan of chickenhead knobs, and cream ones at that. That and the front panel graphics are my peeves, but, again, wouldn't stop me.

Enjoy!

[tonemonster]

I hate chicken head knobs. Fugly as all hell. Knobs are easy and relatively cheap to replace. I would throw a set of chrome dome knobs on it.

[Firebird V]

So I headed over to Pete's yesterday. The Bogner is a tone machine. But I brought my Nitro and we played around with Petes JVM too. I have wanted the Bogner for years. As I said before I passed on a trade for one and always regretted it.

So we paired the Nitro up to a cab that had V30 and Greenbacks in it. Identical speaker config that the Bogner was running through.

Pete and I switched between to of his guitars - An Explorer and an ESP M series.

We played together and switched of each playing chunky fat chords and leads. It was a really good time.

I hate to say this but I like the Nitro better. Much easier to dial in and I think (pete correct me if I am wrong) the Nitro got some really great Bogner-ish tones.

Now we also had the JVM on standby. The JVM is going through a JCM2000 cab with GT75's in it.

The JVM is a tone machine! Lots of reviews on this head but The OD1 Channel and the Crunch channel just rip. The cleans are really nice too and Marshall cleans are usually - well lets just say Marshalls are not known for cleans but this one hangs in there just fine.

So in the end, I love the Nitro (biased of course lol) and really liked the JVM better than the Bogner Ecstacy.

As far as Dialing in the Bogner has tons of options. A bit of a tweaker for sure but there are really no bad tones in it. I just preferred the other two heads tone and for the price of each new you could get a Nitro and a JVM for the price of the Bogner Ecstacy.

The Nitro on the inside is an easy fix amp if something should ever fail with it's point to point hand wiring and simple layout. Did not have the Bogner open and have never seen inside one but I bet it is neat and has a clean easy to fix if something fails layout as well. The Marshall will be a nightmare. It is PCB mounted and from the pics of the inside that I have seen it is boards on top of each other with ribbon cables, everything just tight together etc.

So I ranked 'em.

Best heavy tone. NITRO (OD2 on) / Marshall OD1 / Bogner (red CH)

Best Rock tone. Marshall / Bogner (blue Channel) Nitro (with od2 off

Easy Fix if something fails. Nitro/Bogner

Tweak tones till your ears bleed. Bogner / Marshall / Nitro

Best Layout including footswitch. Bogner / Nitro / Marshall (Pete did not have the

Marshall footswitch out but I found the front layout of the amp to be a bit of a pain to work with maybe if the face plate was color coded or the faceplate lit up on the channel that was selected... i dont know... but4 completely independent CH is awesome.

Cleans - Marshall / Nitro/ Bogner

So there ya have it. My ears like them in that order.

Keep in mind too that Pete has had time to dial in the Marshall as he has had if for a while and I have had the Nitro for about a year or so too. We are both comfortable with the Marshall tone, which the Nitro does better than any Marshall I have ever owned and the JVM is just about every good Marshall tone in one box.... and maybe if I had the Bogner for a few months opinions will change. So if Pete wants to drop it off and let it visit my house for closer inspection then I might have a change of opinion on my review.

[tonemonster]

Wow great review!!! Thanks for posting!

ya know, its so damn interesting that you found the Nitro more favorable than the XTC. the same thing happened with me when I tried out the Quick Rod next to the SLO. sure, the Soldano was a fine amp, but the Quick Rod walked all over it IMO. unless your playing at lound stage volumes with one basic heavy tone and a marginally decent clean tone is your thing, then the Soldano is your amp. but for features, tone, build quality, price, the Splawn walked all over the soldano. The splawn sounded just as good, if not better, it has the master volume on the loop to allow good tone at home volumes, it has 2 individual channels, each with EQ where the SLO has a shared EQ, its more tweakable than the SLO, and its built better. the SLO did not impress in the build quality catagory, the fuckin knobs felt cheap as hell, and the snakeskin tolex was way cheesy and cheap looking. the hardware on the slo was chinsey as well. very dissapointing for a 4K amp head. you can buy a Splawn for less than half of that and its better all the way around. IS the SLO a bad amp? no. the Quick Rod is just better in my opinion. it suits my needs as a player better. cost was not an option as I would have dropped the 4K if I was 4K impressed. but I wasnt.

So, more expensive is NOT always better. you must try them first.

I really enjoyed reading your amp review man. great post!!

[Firebird V]

Wow great review!!! Thanks for posting!

ya know, its so damn interesting that you found the Nitro more favorable than the XTC. the same thing happened with me when I tried out the Quick Rod next to the SLO. sure, the Soldano was a fine amp, but the Quick Rod walked all over it IMO. unless your playing at lound stage volumes with one basic heavy tone and a marginally decent clean tone is your thing, then the Soldano is your amp. but for features, tone, build quality, price, the Splawn walked all over the soldano. The splawn sounded just as good, if not better, it has the master volume on the loop to allow good tone at home volumes, it has 2 individual channels, each with EQ where the SLO has a shared EQ, its more tweakable than the SLO, and its built better. the SLO did not impress in the build quality catagory, the fuckin knobs felt cheap as hell, and the snakeskin tolex was way cheesy and cheap looking. the hardware on the slo was chinsey as well. very dissapointing for a 4K amp head. you can buy a Splawn for less than half of that and its better all the way around. IS the SLO a bad amp? no. the Quick Rod is just better in my opinion. it suits my needs as a player better. cost was not an option as I would have dropped the 4K if I was 4K impressed. but I wasnt.

So, more expensive is NOT always better. you must try them first.

I really enjoyed reading your amp review man. great post!!

Cool. Thanks!

Funny that you mention the SLO. I have owned 2 in the past and had them both for a few years. I loved them when I had them and they are built bulletproof. I got them each for around the price of a used/new Splawn or I would have never bought them but eventually I realized I needed more out of an amp. They have a great sound loud. But as you said it is a hard amp to tame. I eventually had Mike Soldano build me a volume box that could go in the loop to supress the volume. I still use that box with my Nitro lol.

Anyway I had a love hate thing going on with the SLO and eventually sold both of them and went on an amp buy/try/sell spree. That is how I found a Splawn Pro Mod and evntually got a Nitro. Totally happy with the Splawn.

It really was not a Splawn is better post or Marshall is better than Bogner etc. review but really just a great afternoon of noodling around with some cool gear with a fellow jcf'er and what my ears liked.

[roodyrocker]

Tone is subjective and all three of those amps sound fine I'm sure. I haven't played the Splawn stuff but have heard Splawn modded Marshalls back before he was producing his own amps and I've briefly played the JVM at a store. The Ecstasy still impressed me more but whatever you like you like. Anyway, the next thing to do is try those 3 amps live in a band/gig situation. The only one of the three I've done that with is the Ecstasy and kicks much butt live Also keep in mind I'm not going by what has most gain but what I feel has the tone. If I want more gain I just kick on the OCD pedal or bust out the Uberschall

[tonemonster]

I hear you. I am not trying to dis Soldano either, just saying that its not for me and my needs. there are options out there that suit each one of us better than others. For me, the splawn fits those needs very well. my Mesa Roadking does too. but the soldano was just ear melting loud to get it to sound good. otherwise its too buzzy at low volumes. the splawn doesnt have that problem. and I didnt want to start throwing more money into pedals to make the soldano do what I wanted. it just doesnt make sense to me. the part that turned me off most on the soldano was the value ratio. the bang for the buck factor is just not there. your paying thru the nose for less of an amp. 4K???? I mean if it were 2K I could understand it, but 4K is just far beyond reasonable.

[lhrocker]

Cool review Chris - I think I need more time with the Bogner to make a connection with the amp. It'll take some time as there are so many switches and such. I do like the clean, and would probably have no issues with dialing it in. The red is also awesome. My only concern is the blue channel. It's seems either too low gain plexi or too harsh with the boost. Maybe a new set of pre tubes would help. Maybe I will also try one of my other cabs.

In any case, it's a great amp. All it really needs is independent tone controls for all of the channels.

So I headed over to Pete's yesterday. The Bogner is a tone machine. But I brought my Nitro and we played around with Petes JVM too. I have wanted the Bogner for years. As I said before I passed on a trade for one and always regretted it.

So we paired the Nitro up to a cab that had V30 and Greenbacks in it. Identical speaker config that the Bogner was running through.

Pete and I switched between to of his guitars - An Explorer and an ESP M series.

We played together and switched of each playing chunky fat chords and leads. It was a really good time.

I hate to say this but I like the Nitro better. Much easier to dial in and I think (pete correct me if I am wrong) the Nitro got some really great Bogner-ish tones.

Now we also had the JVM on standby. The JVM is going through a JCM2000 cab with GT75's in it.

The JVM is a tone machine! Lots of reviews on this head but The OD1 Channel and the Crunch channel just rip. The cleans are really nice too and Marshall cleans are usually - well lets just say Marshalls are not known for cleans but this one hangs in there just fine.

So in the end, I love the Nitro (biased of course lol) and really liked the JVM better than the Bogner Ecstacy.

As far as Dialing in the Bogner has tons of options. A bit of a tweaker for sure but there are really no bad tones in it. I just preferred the other two heads tone and for the price of each new you could get a Nitro and a JVM for the price of the Bogner Ecstacy.

The Nitro on the inside is an easy fix amp if something should ever fail with it's point to point hand wiring and simple layout. Did not have the Bogner open and have never seen inside one but I bet it is neat and has a clean easy to fix if something fails layout as well. The Marshall will be a nightmare. It is PCB mounted and from the pics of the inside that I have seen it is boards on top of each other with ribbon cables, everything just tight together etc.

So I ranked 'em.

Best heavy tone. NITRO (OD2 on) / Marshall OD1 / Bogner (red CH)

Best Rock tone. Marshall / Bogner (blue Channel) Nitro (with od2 off

Easy Fix if something fails. Nitro/Bogner

Tweak tones till your ears bleed. Bogner / Marshall / Nitro

Best Layout including footswitch. Bogner / Nitro / Marshall (Pete did not have the

Marshall footswitch out but I found the front layout of the amp to be a bit of a pain to work with maybe if the face plate was color coded or the faceplate lit up on the channel that was selected... i dont know... but4 completely independent CH is awesome.

Cleans - Marshall / Nitro/ Bogner

So there ya have it. My ears like them in that order.

Keep in mind too that Pete has had time to dial in the Marshall as he has had if for a while and I have had the Nitro for about a year or so too. We are both comfortable with the Marshall tone, which the Nitro does better than any Marshall I have ever owned and the JVM is just about every good Marshall tone in one box.... and maybe if I had the Bogner for a few months opinions will change. So if Pete wants to drop it off and let it visit my house for closer inspection then I might have a change of opinion on my review.

[lhrocker]

What do you think of the roadking 2? I've had a dual and triple 3 channel rectifier. I'd like to give that a try, unless it sounds like the dual/triple rec.

my Mesa Roadking does too. but the soldano was just ear melting loud to get it to sound good.

[tonemonster]

What do you think of the roadking 2? I've had a dual and triple 3 channel rectifier. I'd like to give that a try, unless it sounds like the dual/triple rec.

well, according to Mesa/boogie the roadking is not identical to the dual/triple rec. its got slightly differnt voicing on the channels that make it a different monster.

I have had the RK for aobut 7 years now (wow, time flies) and I have really evolved with the amp. meaning I have changed in respect to tone. I have tried alot of options with the amp, pedals, settings, etc... THe RK truly is one helluva great amp. but be warned.....it has a shitload of options, therefore it takes a bit of time and effort to dial in YOUR sound on it. the amp really is heavily feature laden, and some folks are scared off by all the buttons, knobs, and switches. I have a friend that has one and he is not a gear freak, he is more of a plug and play type, so he suffers a bit with the amp. we jammed once at nother friends house, and he had his amp, and was griping a bit about it, so I said let me twist knobs for a while. In about 5 minutes I had the amp sounding how he wanted it. it dont take much once you get a feel for the amp.

I will say this, I learned this on the splawn forum, when you set up an amp, listen with your EARS and not your eyes!!! I have what I think are some killer settings on the RK, so if your intersted, PM me and I can get them to you (or anyone else for that matter) and another piece of advice for any amp. try to get a guitar buddy or friend or wife or girlfriend to help you. you plug in and stand in front of the amp at a normal distance, and have your assistant sit and twist knobs. that way you cant see what the settings are, just call for "more bass" "less mids" "more gain" etc...... and let your ears set the amp. it worked miracles for me. I also found a real practical setup for pedals too. I got rid of most of my pedals and got a much more real tone out of it. just more organic and real. not fuzzy or "processed" sounding.

if you want to know anymore about the RK, just PM me.

[Firebird V]

Hey Pete, yeah maybe try it with some other speakers but by no means did it sound like crap through what we were using. It has a smooth gain and I love that quality in an amp. ZI think with more time spent with it dialing it in we would have found even more great tones and maybe even "the tone" that both the Marshal and the Nitro lack. THe red Channel is where the instant dial in tones are and If you could get the red and lue channel to have separate eq sections (same problem I have with the SLO - but I guess you could buy the decatone) then it would be a killer amp for the money.

I have yet to try a RK but tonemonster has peaked my interest. I am a Marshall kind of tone guy at heart though... lol

[tonemonster]

I have yet to try a RK but tonemonster has peaked my interest. I am a Marshall kind of tone guy at heart though... lol

well, dont write off the RK just yet.....channel 4 is recto boogie to the core. its heavy and totally deep and ballsy. but Channel 3 in vintage mode is where you wanna be. that setting aims at a modded marshall. again, if your going to try one out, PM me and I can give you some recommendations for tone settings and stuff. I have spent years with mine, so I can probably put you on some settings that will please your ears without a bunch of knob twisting. there are SO damn many options on these with tubes, rectifiers, modes, loops, also, keep in mind that you have the option of a "variac" on the RK, it has a reduced power switch on it that allows you to get more into the brown sound area. not that it only does brown sound, but it gets you in that league if you wish to be there. Channel 2 is what I call the bluesy channel. you can get into the slight break up tone here. its got a "brit" mode which is kinda based on a plexi tone. its really effective. channel 1 is clean, and you can probably get some cool cleans out of it is your a clean tone afficianado, but I just like a basic clean, nothing poppy or twangy, so I just try to get as close to a recorded clean as I can get. but there are options there to get other tones. but the RK is not just textbook "recto" tone, its much much more. it will do tons of shit, you just need to give it some time and knob twisting and you can get alot out of it. I have mine to the point where if someone plugs in and plays it, the reaction is "wow". its a great amp.