Bugera V55 55W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp  

The Bugera V55 tube guitar amp captures the musicality of amps from the 1960s that to this day, remain the guitarist's choice for their ability to respond very dynamically to each players' nuances. Bugera's stunning 1x12 combo boasts modern touches that put an even wider palette of vintage voicings at your fingertips.

Bugera went to great lengths to give the V55 tube amp the ability to deliver everything those dusty relics of the rock revolution did—minus the collector-sized pricetags. But in true Bugera fashion this labor of love was taken one step farther to give you maximum tonal possibilities. To explain, let's take a quick detour to the late 1940s.

Before hillbillies began co-opting the blues, amps came in two varieties: those with triode (having three active electrodes) power valves and those with pentode (containing five active electrodes) power valves. Triode valves, which predated the pentodes, provide what many guitarists agree is a "softer" tone. Pentodes produce a slightly more urgent, aggressive sound. This Bugera amp runs on power pentode tubes, but include a Mode switch that lets you run the power section as if it had triode tubes—that is, at about 40 percent less power. This gives you the option of going beyond old-school—straight to elderly school.

The old amps that defined electric guitar tone were often single-channel amps. These amplifiers offer that same vintage clean, but add a second channel for modern high-gain tones. To begin, take your pick of the Bright or Normal inputs, then twist the three-band EQ (Bass, Mid, Treble) and Presence control to sculpt your signature sound. Depending on which channel you choose, three 12AX7 preamp tubes take your tone anywhere from dignified blues to garage-leveling madness.

The Bugera V55's power stage's dual 6L6 valves propel this tone through a Bugera 12" speaker. Need to feed more speakers? Both guitar amps have an Impedance switch that toggles between 4, 8 and 16 Ohms, making them compatible with virtually any speaker cabinet. These amps also have reverb, but in the interest of tone and durability, their reverb is derived from a studio-caliber digital processor. The spring reverb found in their post-war predecessors sound lovely, but they're delicate and expensive to repair. The Bugera V55's modern update gives you an equally mesmerizing vintage reverb sound without the wallet-draining vintage reliability. And if all these features weren't enough—you also get a road-tough footswitch that allows you to select channels and activate or kill the reverb remotely. So whether you're in the studio, rehearsing in the garage or pulling into Champagne-Urbana for a gig that pays two pitchers, the V55 tube guitar amp is able to complement your craft with the gold-standard tones of the past today.