#1 · Mar 30, 2009 15:57 UTC
Welp, my name is derek and I'm an alchy, glad to be here, lol. :P
I tried the Bogner Alchemist 'head' at GC and really liked it, suits my style well and fills the two areas I need most (lead and cleans). I first tried one of the combos and wasn't initally 'wowed', but that might be unfair to say, didn't spend much time on it, had my eyes on the head all along and wanted to get to it, and boy was I happy then, fired it up through a 4x12 cab (loudly even, place was dead) and that was a different animal all together!
I can see why some don't fall in love these right away though, really can, the knobs work together in such a way, well, just seems unique/different (IMO) vs more common amps I've owned (to me at least), not to mention it sounds SO good/better cranked, and how many in the store play stuff beyond low, safe volumes.
There seems to be a small learning curve - its not like say the Marshall or Peavey, where you can slap the low/med/high/prez knobs at noon, turn the pre gain up and its already a great, meaty rhythm tone, just tweak to taste from there, etc, and then, without changing channels, you can simply crank the gain more, kick a boost pedal on and its suddenly a nice lead tone - this Bogner does not work that way...I first went right to the high gain channel and started trying to chug out rhythm stuff and it sounded poor, muddy, not much low end, not much sizzle/sparkle - well, duh, its the LEAD channel, and they MEAN IT, lol, its a more balanced voicing, nice and round, already tailored purfectly for leads, single notes are chewy and have character (most importantly, no fizziness, no buzz, very smooth sounding gain), bottom line, the beefy rhythm sound aint gonna happen on that channel, at least not good/proper, you'd have to turn off the "punch" button, experiment with the "mid shift" switch, etc, but of course, the true crunch channel (the clean channel with the crunch switch engaged) works great for that, suddenly the low and hi end are there, thick and fresh! The cleans are also great IMO.
BTW, the main knock I'm seeing often is that people dig the amp, but that its not worth that much bacon, that may be so for some, dunno, for me it is, I got it for $897 out the door! It was NOT a green tag/sale item (though oddly, all the Alchy combo's and cabs were), but it was the only one they just got in and on display, so it was priced much better ($1087, tis otherwise $1247 - now THAT is too high for this amp), considered an 'open box' item, then the guy was super cool and allowed me to apply the $50 off coupon that was "supposed" to only be used on GREEN TAG items of $350 value and up, then the $190 cred for the HT pedal return and bang, suddenly the head was <$900 total! ;)
I tried the Bogner Alchemist 'head' at GC and really liked it, suits my style well and fills the two areas I need most (lead and cleans). I first tried one of the combos and wasn't initally 'wowed', but that might be unfair to say, didn't spend much time on it, had my eyes on the head all along and wanted to get to it, and boy was I happy then, fired it up through a 4x12 cab (loudly even, place was dead) and that was a different animal all together!
I can see why some don't fall in love these right away though, really can, the knobs work together in such a way, well, just seems unique/different (IMO) vs more common amps I've owned (to me at least), not to mention it sounds SO good/better cranked, and how many in the store play stuff beyond low, safe volumes.
There seems to be a small learning curve - its not like say the Marshall or Peavey, where you can slap the low/med/high/prez knobs at noon, turn the pre gain up and its already a great, meaty rhythm tone, just tweak to taste from there, etc, and then, without changing channels, you can simply crank the gain more, kick a boost pedal on and its suddenly a nice lead tone - this Bogner does not work that way...I first went right to the high gain channel and started trying to chug out rhythm stuff and it sounded poor, muddy, not much low end, not much sizzle/sparkle - well, duh, its the LEAD channel, and they MEAN IT, lol, its a more balanced voicing, nice and round, already tailored purfectly for leads, single notes are chewy and have character (most importantly, no fizziness, no buzz, very smooth sounding gain), bottom line, the beefy rhythm sound aint gonna happen on that channel, at least not good/proper, you'd have to turn off the "punch" button, experiment with the "mid shift" switch, etc, but of course, the true crunch channel (the clean channel with the crunch switch engaged) works great for that, suddenly the low and hi end are there, thick and fresh! The cleans are also great IMO.
BTW, the main knock I'm seeing often is that people dig the amp, but that its not worth that much bacon, that may be so for some, dunno, for me it is, I got it for $897 out the door! It was NOT a green tag/sale item (though oddly, all the Alchy combo's and cabs were), but it was the only one they just got in and on display, so it was priced much better ($1087, tis otherwise $1247 - now THAT is too high for this amp), considered an 'open box' item, then the guy was super cool and allowed me to apply the $50 off coupon that was "supposed" to only be used on GREEN TAG items of $350 value and up, then the $190 cred for the HT pedal return and bang, suddenly the head was <$900 total! ;)
