Great review of the Bugera V22 I own 2 and couldn't be happier. I own or have owned at one time 25 different amps from Ampeg's to Dr.Z's and I've got the best tone out of these V22's love the EL84's, and your right about the tube change I run Tung-Sol in one and Mullard in the other what a wide variety of tones I can coax out of these tone monsters. The stock Bugera speakers must be a celestion rip-off they break-up like the greenback G12H 55 watts Thanks SGT Huey Falls USMC Ret.

you ean G12H 55hz? the H magnets handle 30 watts and come in 75hz lead cone and 55hz bass cone (love the bass cone).... I think this is the bugera that's essentially a PCB based Bad Cat Hot Cat 30R... a matchless DC30 with a cascaded triode hi-gain channel instead of the ef86 pentode channel. I should add this to my list of top-boost imitators under a grand. Are the tube sockets board mounted?

By the way, the fenderiness is aprt of the matchless DNA. The biggest real difference between a Matchless or Bad Cat and an old JMI Vox is that the butiques have stiffer, Fender blackface style power filtering. Other than that, all the elements are very Voxy. A guy I know once described the Matchless as an AC30 that quit smoking, gave up drinking and read meat, then started jogging every morning and going to the gym regularly.

see, with a real ac30 or matchless you would not have that EQ problem... you can't get a bad sound, clean or dirty, from the real stuff.... however, this is a 2 channel so try this trick:

get an A/B box, set the clean channel up the way you want and the dirty channel up the way you want and make it a virtual channel switcher. There will be a big volume difference, but whining about that is lame. Louder dirty sound? That's a good thing if you ask anyone from my generation.

Or go one ofmy 2 routes and run the amp flat out with EQ settings for dirty. then use your guitar volume and pickup selector. AC30s compress so heavily as they enter break up that the volume differential won't be great as long as you have good touch on the guitar and you're okay with 'rock n roll clean' that has a little hair around some chords. My other solution is 2 use 2 voxes, or even 3. The 3 amp set-up is intense, but worth it if you want a wide and complex sound. You will want an ac4 for full on dirt, an ac15 or matchless (read: bugera using gain channel) in 1/2 power and an ac30 top boost (read: a 2nd bugera using the top boost channel) at full power. split your signal with a nice splitter to all 3 amps. Get a head switcher and run your 30 watter and AC4 into a head switcher so they share the 2x12 combo cab. Dime the AC4 and get your ideal clean tone at a balanced level through the 30 watter. Those are your 2 main sounds. Your 15 watt amp will be responsible for clean with hair and ltos of hamonics and wills tay on all the time. It doesn't need to level match the other 2 amps precisely. Probably 3 or 4 on the channel volume should be just right for the 15 watter. This 'always on' amp will add a lot of width to your sound on stage and in the room. Your clean sound will have more dimension and complexity and your overdriven sound will get a little clarity (and voxes are already the cleanest dirty amps out there). It will also give an FOH mixer the potential to mix you in stereo if you are in a power trio. If he knows his business he will put a slight delay and maybe a subtle digital pitch warble on your 15 watter through the PA to really widen things and create the illusion of a 2nd dude doubling you. If you are being put through the PA I suggest you aim the 15 watter toward your drummer as a monitor and point the 2x12 that has the amp switcher setup off-stage completely. You won't look as cool but you will be doing everyone, especially FOH, a favor by not beaming a directional 2x12 right at the man's left or right ear so he can't balance your sound. NEVER turn down for the guy mixing you, just move your speakers away from his ears.

WARNING: 3 tube amps will be loud! If you are unused to playing theaters it will surprise you how much stage volume and ambience a pair of open back 2x12s creates even pointed off-stage.

are any of the tube sockets mounted directly to the circuit board?

you won't find many el84 designs that aren't self-biasing. Its called cathode bias and the el84/6bq5 really lends itself to this arrangement electronically as well as tonally.

of course it won't do fender, its a BadCat knockoff... all Vox DNA... that's a good thing.... if you replace it with a Matchless clone with the EF86 pentode channel instead of the high gain channel you will find all the glassiness in there, more than a fender really, but it will never thump like a fender and it has more chime than steely twang set clean.... apples and oranges, don't take a Pickup truck to a Stock Car race... and yes, amps in the vox/matchless camp can even get into metal turf (though old school metal), the gain structure of all the different channels used in these types of amps is just hotter by design than a blackface fender and the phase inverter uses a 12ax7 with a gain of 100 versus a vintage fneer's 12at7 with a gain of I think 80

I don't know..maybe Vox has a little bit crunch bite. Somewhere between Vox and Marchall I'd say.