Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp Black (Used)
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Take your tone anywhere from dignified blues to garage-leveling madness.
The stunning Bugera V22 1x12 Tube Combo Amp not only exudes unbelievable sound, but this 22W amplifier also possesses modern flourishes capable of taking it to any corner of the musical landscape. Perfect for practice, home recording, or small club gigs, the Bugera V22 is a loud lad that channels its mojo from 2 EL84 power tubes. These give it the bratty, breakup-prone power amp compression—especially in the its triode mode—its 6L6GC-equipped siblings can only achieve at high volumes.
The Bugera V22 gives you everything that antique amps deliver—without the bloated price tags. Don't be fooled, though; the V22 tube amp packs a special feature that makes it much more than a tribute to the early days of guitar amplification. To explain, we must take a quick step back in time . . .
Before greasy juvenile delinquents hijacked the blues, guitar amps generally came in 2 species: those with triode (having 3 active electrodes) power valves and those with pentode (containing 5 active electrodes) power tubes. Triode valves, which came before pentodes, provide what a lot of guitarists describe as a "gentler" tone. Pentodes, on the other hand, are decidedly more "in-your-face." The Bugera V22 combo is built for power pentode tubes, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for a singular pentode personality. This Bugera amp includes a Mode switch for you to operate the power section as if it had triode tubes—at roughly 40 percent less power. So what'll it be today—old-school or oldest-school?
The sound of the Bugera V22 tube combo begins with a 2-channel (Clean and Lead) preamp. Plug into either the Bright or Normal inputs, then adjust the 3-band EQ (Bass, Mid, Treble) and Presence control to create a sound all your own. Its 3 12AX7 preamp tubes provide the V22 amp with a feast of fuzz. The dual EL84 valves in the power stage propel its terse cockney tone through a Bugera 12" speaker.
If you need to feed more speakers, the V22 amp's Impedance switch adjusts it to 4, 8 or 16 Ohms—which gives it compatibility with just about any speaker cabinet you can find. You also get reverb, but for utmost durability and sound, this classic effect is derived from a professional quality digital processor. The spring reverb found in antique amps sounded great, but they're delicate and expensive to repair. This modern touch on the V22 gives you a vintage sounding reverb sound that's every bit as beautiful, but a million times less breakable. And if all these features weren't enough, you also get an incredibly durable footswitch to select channels and engage the reverb without stopping mid-show.
Whether you're making a record, practicing, or paying your dues on the dive bar circuit, the Bugera V22 Tube Combo Amp complements your guitar-craft with the gold-standard tones of the past—today!
Features
- Hand-built 22W guitar combo, driven by 2 x EL84 valves
- Way cool vintage look and feel
- Original heavy-duty 12" Bugera guitar speaker for true vintage sound
- Authentic 2-channel preamp design from the '60s featuring 3 x 12AX7 valves—everything from purring blues to mind-blowing crunch
- Integrated high-class reverb with dedicated Reverb control
- Vintage Equalizer section with dedicated Bass, Mid, Treble and Presence controls
- Normal and Bright inputs for ultimate sound character to perfectly match your guitar
- Multi-gain stage Lead channel with Pre, Post gain and Master controls
- Amazing Mode switch to select between Triode or Pentode operation
- Impedance connectors (4, 8 and 16 Ohms) to match virtually any external speaker cabinet
- High-quality components and exceptionally rugged construction ensure long life
Guitar tones from the '60s stand the test of time. Order today.
Review Snapshot®
by PowerReviews(based on 95 reviews)
Ratings Distribution
100%
of respondents would recommend this to a friend.
Pros
- Excellent sound (13)
- Easy to use (11)
- Warm / comfy (11)
- Good power output (8)
- Portable (4)
Cons
Best Uses
- Home studio (8)
- Performances (8)
- Outdoor events / games (6)
- Amateur recording (5)
- Professional recording (5)
- Reviewer Profile:
- Experienced (12)
Most Liked Positive Review
This may be one of the top 5 tube amps.
Just let me say this amp is well made, the cabinet, pc board, layout and easy to repair if needed. The amp is quiet, with great warm tube sound, from the clean ...Read complete review
Just let me say this amp is well made, the cabinet, pc board, layout and easy to repair if needed. The amp is quiet, with great warm tube sound, from the clean channel, with good sounding digital reverb, no it is not a spring unit, but it inhances the guitar tone nicely. I am a big reverb fan and i can tell you unless you are looking for surf reverb, this is very nice.The tone stack is after the first two tube stages for better tone. very good control on bass-mid- treble. I like the triode switch on the rear panel, if you like a very creamy balanced tone, the triode mode can't be beat. There are a lot of good comments about the lead channel, it sounds good to me but i am a clean player. After reading all the reviews, i can say the speaker is very good, you would have to buy a celestion blue to improve the tone, some might be louder, but not buy much. the tubes that come with it are pretty decent, i change the outputs to JJ'S and heard very little change.Playing though the bright input to me give the amp a british tone less gain, less bass. How can you not like the looks of this amp. I play country, surf, finger style guitar and the amp sounds great for all styles.I am now retired and have also built tube amps. i could not make an amp like this with out spending 3 times the amount of money. I highly recommend musicians friend for this amp.
VS
Most Liked Negative Review
It aint the champ yet, but it's getting there
I play a vintage Tele a Deluxe Strat, a Gibson SG and an Ibanez Artcore, this amp doesn't do any of them a dis-service. At band volume it's clear and cuts really well through...Read complete review
I play a vintage Tele a Deluxe Strat, a Gibson SG and an Ibanez Artcore, this amp doesn't do any of them a dis-service. At band volume it's clear and cuts really well through the mix and at quieter volumes has a really nice creamy warmth in the triode mode. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to any player and in my opinion it just may be the best recording amp to come down the pipe in a long time. I've owned Fender, Traynor and Mesa amplification and this stands alongside all of those.
What more could you ask, the reverb is excellent and has amazing depth, the clean channel is sparkly with no harsh and when you kick this little jewel into the gain/lead channels it compresses, growls and crunches with the best of them.
So far so good in the 7 months I've had it, whether at a practice, gig or just fooling around it's never had a breakdown which seems to be the common complaint for Bugera/Behringer. The controls are sensitive enough that you can really hear the difference between a 3 and 4 or a 8 or 9 setting
Once the word gets out, they'll sky-rocket in price which is always sad, I can hardly wait for the Magician to make it into the market. 85 watts of crazy and I'm going to own one as soon as they're available
Reviews
Reviewed by 95 customers
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Pros
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Good Warmth
- Portable
- Powerful
Cons
Best Uses
- Events
- Home Studio
- Performances
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
I've playeed a lot of various Fenders, and this doesn't sound like them, but still has great a clean channel, almost comparable to a VOX. I've swapped out preamp and power amp tubes, just to experiment, and i'm very happy with the overall sound. my main amp is an Egnater Renegade 65w head with 2x12 speaker cab. this little amp has great tone, plays well with my pedal rig, and doesn't break my back to carry around. Good for gigs in small venues, open mics, and practice. I'm going to install an Eminence Maverick FDM Tone Adjustable 12" Speaker and play around with that for awhile. I mainly play Strats and Teles through this. Single coils sound great through this.
Pros
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Good Warmth
Cons
Best Uses
- Home Studio
- Performances
- Professional Recording
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
Bottom line...the newer ones with the amber jewel light are the ones to own. I played an older one that had some tube rattle and heat problems (these were remedied easily), but what sold me was the clean channel. Plenty of room, loud and clear. Distortion channel, not bad, actually very good for classic stuff. That's it! This amp is well built and even the included pedal is upgraded. Unless you are attracted to labels, look no further...
Pros
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Powerful
Cons
Best Uses
- Amateur Recording
- Events
- Home Studio
- Performances
- Professional Recording
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
Excellent amp, especially for home/ studio use. Incredible clean tones! The crunch channel isn't that great, sounds kinda similar to a fuzz. I play my 97' fender American Standard Strat and 09' Gibson studio through it for mostly blues/ rock and it does wonderful. Also I use a boss me-70 multi-effect in front of it and it works well. Overall a great amp for the money.
Pros
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Good Warmth
- Portable
- Powerful
Cons
- Not So Much
Best Uses
- Amateur Recording
- Events
- Home Studio
- Performances
- Professional Recording
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
One trick pony.
Loud. Blow away the drummer.
Beautiful tone. Jaw dropping tone.
Bouncy bottom end with strong top end.
Dirt channel is worthless.
So much clean gorgeous tone up loud...WOW!
Had this one for a year now without maintenance. Can't get rid of this, it just sounds so good.
Pros
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Good Warmth
- Powerful
Cons
- Bigger Than It Looks
Best Uses
- Easy To Get A Sound From
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
You can spend a whole lot more and not get the sound that this amp projects. This is a quality machine that was well thought out and designed. It's sturdy and well built. It projects a great sound at low volume as well as high. Simple to use and calibrated for 0 to 10 increases. I play a Strat and LP Studio through it and can get anything from a crystal clear sound to dirty as I want. The only drawback is it's size as it is bigger and heavier than it looks. However, it's size does add sound. Move over Fender, Bugera has arrived.
Pros
- Bass
- CLARITY
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Good Warmth
- Powerful
- Tone
Cons
- heavy
Best Uses
- Anywhere
- Church
- Home
- Studio
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
I bought this amp a year ago brand new. It still looks and sounds exactly the same, tubes are still great. My concern is that it is a bit heavy, other than that, this is my dream amp, clear sound, good bass on the lower notes, excellent build quality. I wouldnt be concerned about it if it bumped something, rather if whatever it hit was damaged. Overall. This amp is an amazing amp, I would still buy it if it was twice as expensive without thinking. Great buy!
Pros
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Good Warmth
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
This is my first tube amp, and I was shopping for one to play at church. I play both a Gretsch G5120 and a PRS se 245 thru it. This amp has terrific clean sound. I run a pedalboard in front of it and actually use the footswitch that came with it for a boost with the gain set low, use the pedalboard for everything else. it mics well and is not toooo bad to lug around since its open back. Its kinda handy to throw your cables, bible, etc..in the back of the amp. I was really torn between this and the Vox AC15, however my budget would not allow the vox. The gain gets dirty pretty fast with a solidbody guitar, but is more versatile with the hollowbody. Hope this helps anyone thats on the fence about the Bugera. Reverb is not bad, controls are responsive, and the footswitch is an added bonus. btw, I bought a used one from MF, the only gripe i had was that the light on the amp was orange instead of blue, but who cares.
Pros
- Excellent Sound
- Good Warmth
Cons
- Gain Is So So
Best Uses
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
I recently purchased a pre-owned Bugera V22. I was a little hesitant due to some of the quality issues I read but most reviews were very positive. I am home musician who likes to play with friends every now and then. I don't gig so I can't comment on this amp for performance purposes.
I was able to demo a used V22 at a local store and it sounded really good. I could see the tubes were all Bugera brand so I assumed they were original. I did change out the tubes a few days ago (JJ EL84's for the power tubes and Sovtek 12AX7WA for the preamps) and the sound is amazing.
Bass sounds rich and deep without being muffled. The mids are warm and the highs crisp but not overdone. The gain is also much better sounding since changing the tubes. It was a bit too crunchy before but is now solid. I do prefer to use a Boss Blues Driver instead of the built in gain channel. I am able to dial in just the right amount for whatever style I am playing.
I compared this to the Blues Jr. III which is also a great sounding amp but could not tell a difference in sound quality. Given the numerous controls of the V22 and included foot pedals, this was a no brainer. Great value and amazing sound.
Pros
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Good Warmth
- Portable
- Powerful
Cons
- Limited Tone Knob Sweep
- Weak Reverb
Best Uses
- Amateur Recording
- Events
- Home Studio
- Performances
- Professional Recording
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
Owned this amp for about a year. No reliability/performance issues thus far. The clean channel is pretty good, somewhat of a cross between a fender clean and the normal channel on a vox ac15. The dirty channel is pretty cool, it's a very old-school rock guitar tone and will probably do well with blues players. I found that it's a little flabby for use live. The reverb is good, add a little something extra to your tone but will never, ever be confused for fender reverb. All the knobs are somewhat limited, I can go from 3 to 8 before I hear and significant change to the sound. My amp has a weird rattle to it that you can only hear when close-mic'd in the studio. The tubes are in a nice protective cage and though the amp seems to be made of some pressboard composite, it is thick-possibly two inches around the majority of the amp. So this amp can definitely take some abuse. I hade a celestion greenback in my garage from another cabinet and put it into the bugera, definitely helped tighten up the low end. Nothing wrong with the stock speaker, however. If you're looking for a solid tube amp for your studio or as your first inexpensive foray into the tube amp world, the Bugera V22 is for you!
Pros
- Easy To Use
- Excellent Sound
- Great tone
Cons
- Needs Separate Eq Per Ch
Best Uses
- Home
- Small stage
Comments about Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp:
I have had it for about a week and am really digging it so far.
I think it can do the Fender thing pretty closely.
I don't however find it as loud as everyone has said. It gets the job done on stage at our church... but without a lot to spare so to speak. Maybe we're just loud tho ;)
I put a Joyo Ultimate drive in front and it sound Superb!!
