Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp  

Features are pretty standard, except for the fact that it has an effects loop which is a nice feature for those who need it. I don't have any effects to run through the amp so i never use it but once I get a decent echo or delay I will probably start using it.

The quality is nice, I like the sort of leatheresque covering/tolex. It's not really tolex though, I imagine that it's easily damaged it seems like it might not be the sturdiest material to cover an amp with but I've taken pretty good care of mine. The tubes are garbage but I didn't realize that until I had to replace the V1 position tube because it became microphonic. Also, at higher volumes the tube cage causes some rattle but it's pretty easy to remove. Other than those things, quality is fantastic. I've had it for almost 2 years now and I haven't had a single problem with the channel switching or otherwise.

I think for the price and even for the price I paid a few years ago when it was new it's an excellent value. Great tube amp to get your feet wet with. This is my first tube amp unless you want to count the silverface Twin Reverb I rented for a church gig for a few weeks. That thing got me hooked on the tube tone (even though it's a 6L6 amp) but I didn't have the budget for one. I decided on this amp mainly because of the footswitchable channels and reverb.

I haven't commented on the sound yet so I'll do it here. At first it was very VERY ice picky. The treble was just too much for me. I was really quite dissapointed by that at first. After the next month or so of owning it and playing it very often and for hours at a time either I learned to dial it in or the speaker broke in some. Now it sounds great. Treble can still get ice picky with my Strat when the treble is up past around 6 or 7. I got an Agile Les Paul almost a year ago now and this amp just LOVES humbuckers on both channels. It sounds great with my Strat too, but it sounds fantastic with humbuckers. Either way you really can't go wrong.

I've heard lost of people complain about the dirt channel feeling sterile and to that I just have to say the stock tubes are crap and usually not biased correctly. I biased my V22 recently becasue I got a multimeter and put it at 15.0 where I've heard is the sweet spot for this amp and it sounds loads better. There's an RCA jack near the power tubes and a potentiometer for adujusting the bias right next to it so even thought it's not the most accurate thing in the world it's very easy for anyone to adjust the bias on it.

All in all, great amp for the money. Bugera appears to have taken care of all the reliability issues. Hopefully they have, I hope this amp lasts for a while longer. It's really a nice amp. I plan on getting the V55 head soon so I can leave that at my band's practice space and leave my V22 at home for practice. If it was stolen I would definately go get another even with Bugera's less than stellar reliability. Mine's definately treated me good so far.

I have waited 3 weeks before posting a review to give time to really get to know this amp. I lived through the tube era and played back then so I am very familiar with tube amps. After the first week I loved the sound but the tube rattle was terrible so I opted for JJ's and replaced all the tubes which where cheap and got to me fast through Musicians Friend. After about 20 hours of playing the tubes really baked in and the sound is great. I can go from sparkly Fender to Marshall growl with ease. The amp is responsive to the touch cleaning up nicely rolling back the volume and gets nasty fast when you dig into the strings. Rated at only 22 watts it still gets very loud, as load as my 75 watt Line 6 and has no problems keeping up with full group settings. I am not sure about the speaker. I have a 1962 supro cab with 2x12 inch Jensens that I like to run it through. I read that there is a break in period for the speaker and they sound fine after that. Reverb is better than many spring verbs I have heard.

So far so good. I have only had this amp for 3 weeks but have logged at least 2 hours everyday and many times 4 hours a day on it. I have not seen any of the peddle issues that I read about from older reviews. I am not sure about the speaker. It sounds great with my Music Man Super Sport but brittle with my Gibson Bluehawk. Les Paul sounds great as did my tele. I will give the speaker a little more break in time as I have used an external cab for a lot of my playing time on it. The cosmetic's and build quality are top shelf. This is one of the best looking amps I have seen in a long time. The one thing that really looks cheap is the cable from the foot switch. I can see that I will replace that sometime.

I would challange anybody to find a better deal than that. I have owned nearly everything out there from Fender Marshall Sound City and Hi Watt. The V22 more than competes in sound and at a fraction of the cost. This is by far the best value in a tube amp that can be had.

Great amp. Change the tubes and you will have amp that competes with the best of them for a fraction of the cost. If you are on the fence about this amp don't be. This amp is addictive once you turn it on and start playing with different sounds you will know what I am talking about. If you love classic tube sound this is the amp for you. Do not expect it to sound like a Mesa Boogie but if you like 80's Marshall like distortion and Fender like cleans you can't go wrong with the V22.

Loving this amp so far.  Only had it a couple of weeks, and it does not yet seem to be plagued with many of the problems anymore that you may have read about with earlier models.  Crossing fingers on having no problems.  It has some really fine tones.  One thing I really like, compared to other amps of this size is the volume control.  You don't have to keep the volume level under "2" to play at home.  You have a full range of volume control without blasting the whole house.  I'm loving the tones I can get out of this thing.

So far, so good.  No issues.

Excellent bang for your buck!

Like it a lot!

-powers an extra monitor/cabinet/speaker aside from its own.  I have it powering a 12" monitor with a horn.

-clean/distortion channels.  master volume.  presence, reverbs, low, mid, treble EQ.

-small useful footswitch that has a reverb & channel button

-very warm, clean, bright tone.

-built solid

-for the price...you can't beat this amp if you're looking for a clean tone.

I bought this amp because I can't always haul around my JVM410H head & stack.  I wanted a warm/clean tube amp with reverb and that could power an external speaker/monitor.  This amp is perfect for band practice/gigs.  I mic my amp and run it through our PA so volume isn't an issue...though it can get loud.  I adjust the volume according to how loud I want my monitor.  I was very happy with the warm/clean tone it offers.  EQ is solid, EXCELLENT REVERB.  I have plenty of dirt pedals...so I'll never use this amp's distortion (it's ok, but sounds best with a light distortion for blues).  I strongly recommend this amp if you're a clean player or if you're like myself, a pedal guy, and want solid tone/reverb and need to power a monitor.

The only thing I have to say is change the tubes!

The Chinese tubes are junk and Sovtek tubes are not expensive and have less microphonics.

I'm disabled and need to stay close to the amp when I play.

I also got rid of the tube cage and now the amp is totaly clean with no tube rattle or microphonics at ALL!

I changed the speaker to a 75 watt Jensen Lightning just because I had one on hand.

I feel better with the Jensen since I have always used them in the past for replacement.

The Bugera speaker was good but the Jensen makes this amp sound the way I want it to sound.

I've tried 10 Guitars through it, mostly my custom Super Strats and 2 Telecasters.

I also tried 2 strats with active pickups and a Hammer with split coil EMG pickups.

The pickups for the Strats were 3 with Fender 69's and the rest were custom made level ALNICO 2's.

I've had a lot of tube amps in the past mostly Fenders, but sold them.

This amp is cheaper than the Fender solid state and Hybread Amps I have now and I had to have one just to play with it.