The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

Thinking about a new teeny amp for small coffeehouse style gigs (winebar gigs ) Heard mention of Bugera 5W amps here, found one on E-bay that I could pick up locally for about $75. Also saw fender champ 600 for as low as $55. Anyone on here have experience with either one of these babies? Are they worth the money? Are they loud enough?
Update... I found a Blackheart like the one HBL has (before mods) for around $140. More than I really can afford (it will bid higher, I am sure) but I love his tone.
I still need to see if 5W will be loud enough.

BB - I don't know about those amps. But I was reading an article in Wikipedia today on "Guitar Amplifier" and read the following:

"The relationship between perceived volume and power output is not immediately obvious. A 5-watt amplifier is perceived to be half as loud as a 50-watt amplifier (a tenfold increase in power), and a half-watt amplifier is a quarter as loud as a 50-watt amp. Doubling the power of an amplifier results in a "just noticeable" increase in volume, so a 100-watt amplifier is held to be only just noticeably louder than a 50-watt amplifier. Such generalizations are also subject to the human ear's tendency to behave as a natural compressor at high volumes."

I remembered it because I found it so surprising. When I saw your post I thought it might be part of the answer to your question about loudness.

I have the champ 600 (see other post), it's a neat little amp. No extras, just turn it up and play. Load enough to play to a piano, but not for bigger gigs.
It loves strats, they sound much better than my Epiphone. Very clear sound, little overdrive. Several vids and mods on youtube.

5W is loud enough! One guitarist in our band plays 5W Laney amp (12" speaker though), we are not gigging or anything, but there's drums, bass, keyboards and another guitarist... and you can hear him well enough. :) A lot louder than his Tech21 30W modeling amp.

Fender 600 with it's 6" speaker I don't really like. If it had an 8" I think I might.

I agree with 12bar about the Champ 600. It's a lovely 'clean' amp just made for strats and teles. It hardly overdrives, but sounds great with a BD2 and my old (and cheap) Zoom 505. It is plenty loud enough for practice with friends,but for small gigs I'd go for a 15 watt valve/tube amp. Good hunting BB!

Hi Bb

Both the Champ and the Bugera are decent 5watt amp, Bugera V5 has a tone control AND a reverb and an attenuator fitted as standard 5W 1W and 0.24W .. Handy and reverb a plus ... .. Champ is really volume basic one knob tone control and an on off switch and thats it!!! but there is nothing wrong with simple, as long as its fit for purpose .. and both these amps are !!


But they both put out some great all tube sounds ......and a fender Strat or tele through the Champ ............lovely.
I tested the Champ in the shop several times and comapred it with other amps and its a belter , perhaps a bit basic and perhaps needs a speaker upgrade ( or an exteension cab .. both have outputs for one , a bit hard to find on the Champ) for louder volumes ( 6inch is possibly on the small side to get a decent bass at coffee shop levels)

http://www.bugera-amps.com/EN/products/V5.aspx

http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 2330100000

Bugera V5 has an 8 inch speaker as a standard .so it just might have a slightly more gutsey sound ...but I've not tried 'em back to back.

As long as your not playing with a full set drummer I'm sure you'd be fine with either .and at 75 or even 55 bucks they are a steal. ( I wish we ciould pick up stuff like that in Europe ....even 2nd hand they'd be twice that price over here )


Here's a Bugera sound bite .. there's a few on you tube .....just google it, there's a slightly spooky one with a gun on top of the amp ??? Decided not to attach that !!

[youtube]jvmbMGH4J8c[/youtube]

(Hi Mods .. I'm doing something wrong in he youtube atttachment dept .what part of the thread do I need in the brackets pls ??)Hope that link works

good luck

Strummer07 wrote: (Hi Mods .. I'm doing something wrong in he youtube atttachment dept .what part of the thread do I need in the brackets pls ??)Hope that link works

Hey Strummer :) I corrected your youtube link. just do a edit on your own post and you catch the trick (only use the youtube identifier code between the "=" and the "&". select & copy, hit the youtube button and paste...) presto

Just noticed... I'm secret mod agent 00487 hehe, you can't tell I'm still a mod.....

I'm on the hunt and destroy spammers mission

Thanks Mod
this is the bit wot I needed...........................

"=" and the "&".

Thank you .................the Bugera 5W is quite a pretty lill amp innit !!

Mhh not my kinda sound from that amp......

HalfBlindLefty wrote:Mhh not my kinda sound from that amp......

In contrast a 600:

[youtube]jBcIZYoGfd8[/youtube]

[youtube]Y1TGTrXjvd4[/youtube]

Much, Much more to my likings...

I agree .. Fender better sound all round (and better demo guitar playing !!) .. its a really iconic looking amp too ..and I'm told stuck through a larger speaker/ seperate cab it can knock your sox off !!

The only reason I didn't actually get one ( and opted for the Blackstar HT5) was (after several tests runs ) ... no attenuator switch to reduce power for night/home use , no headphone socket and the mains hum on UK power was offputting ..it may well not do that on a US mains source or continental mains ..I think your cycles are sighly different to ours . Anyway it hummed too much for my delicate wee ears !!

All pretty good for a small amp though .and at those prices $55 and $75

Has to be worth buying

I guess I will have to come down off of my mountain and demo a couple of amps. (I hate going into town)
I simply can't buy one without playing through it myself.
The Champ is looking pretty good tho... I think I will borrow my brother's Blues Jr. Whatever I get needs to be louder than my Supro. If I do go amp shopping, I plan to take a guitar and the Supro and play them side by side.

Just to make it even worse : make sure you try a Blackheart.... even though it's more expensive..... viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15&p=708#p703 <GRIN>

Blindboy - I have a Fender VibroChamp XD. It's 5 watts and has a bunch of different voicings that are very good at low volumes. I played it with my jamming buddies about four different sessions while my Egnater Rebel was in the shop, and it's pretty loud when played thru my two 12 inch speaker cabs - with the master all the way up. The bass player still had to use his earplugs. Definitely loud enough for a coffee shop/small venue. Still sounds great with the little speaker too.

I like the different voicings for a small amp. It makes the amp really versatile at low volume. When I get sick of the Marshall sound, I just flip it over to the Blackface or Champ or Tweed or Bassman settings or whatever. It has an acoustic setting too. It really does sound good.

Here's a little vid of the VibroChamp with my ES-339 recorded thru the pinhole mic on my video cam with the amp across the room. I think it was on the Marshall setting. Lousy acoustics but you can hear the Marshall crunch:

[youtube]p2vpE1KuKNk[/youtube]

Sorry I haven't been able to contribute to answering your question BB, but I''m under GAS attack myself so much I don't know what to suggest. Part of the GAS has been released but its still not all gone and it's the 5W tube amp question that's still driving me mental too. If I sort out my thoughts on it enough and go and try any I'll post here and let you know how I get on. Mind, there's not a lot of choice available on these in Edinburgh. Currently though my brain just feels like a rat in a maze trying to solve a puzzle by scurrying round at huge speed and banging its head on the walls.

I'm finding this thread most interesting though. Keep the advice coming in guys!