Bogner pre 2004 XTC cabinet speakers ya using?

H

hopkinWFG

Well-known member
Howdy !! I manage to getta XTC at a nice nice price from a gentlemen here ! Thanks buddy !!

I would wanna know whats ya settings on ya presence A with celestion V30s when tuning ya setup for metal? Supposely red channel... ?

I read about some tweak on the presence knob for a better usable presence feature but i halted abit and was wondering if the Audio pot on these XTC were to cater for different set of speakers? Ie V30s which has a harsher top end and the audio taper would tame the V30s abit?

I run thru mine with Fryette P50es and am currently on 1500Hrs hitting the pre.A knob... not sure the V30s campers out here would hit their Pre.A knob at merely 1300hrs?

I am also wondering if i would wanna take this chance to experiment on the OT abit as i be sourcing for a PT for 240V mains change...?
 
Presence knob 'working range' is around 2.30 - 3.30 But V30's aren't my favourite with XTC. I swapped two top spekers for Scumback J75 65W and it sounds much fuller, smoother, muscular.
Another thing with XTC...the voicing isn't suited for metal at all, even with boost. Red channel is dissapointment in this price range.
 
I use 25W Greenbacks with my amps including the Bogner 101B. Agreed in that it is not a metal amplifier at all, more rock or soloist type. It does have more than enough gain for metal but it’s not controlled gain. With the help of pedals and a parametric EQ, you might be able to get there.

I keep my presences around 2:30 for both channels, otherwise it’s too dark.
 
hopkinWFG said:
Howdy !! I manage to getta XTC at a nice nice price from a gentlemen here !
Click to expand...

Quick notes from my own experience.

- Let your ears be the judge when setting all of the switches at first, and then just try to forget about them.
- In the link I posted above, I basically followed his directions for the green channel and it ends up a gorgeous blackface tone.
- I was never able to find a good balance between the red and blue channels if I turned on the plexi mode so I never used it.

Great amp and it's easy to see why it's such a classic. All three channels are good enough to be their own amp imo.
Now I miss mine.... :mad:

ENJOY!
 
I see ! But this amp rocks Mercyful fate well and does early trash nice enough imo.. and i felt this amp is more expressive on harmonics and tone.. !!
 
I think I like the blue channel boosted with an SD-1 more than I do with the red channel by itself. All personal preference of course
 
[ Donnie B. ] said:
Quick notes from my own experience.

- Let your ears be the judge when setting all of the switches at first, and then just try to forget about them.
- In the link I posted above, I basically followed his directions for the green channel and it ends up a gorgeous blackface tone.
- I was never able to find a good balance between the red and blue channels if I turned on the plexi mode so I never used it.

Great amp and it's easy to see why it's such a classic. All three channels are good enough to be their own amp imo.
Now I miss mine.... :mad:

ENJOY!
Click to expand...

Thanks !! Have yet to experiment on the green channel... i dont really play clean at all lol... but i find blue still lack of gain as i have da turn the gain up all the way for a sweeter spot, i set excursion on Tight as always red and blue and pre EQ red on B1 for more attack for more early metal tones, pre EQ ch 2 on B2 for rock tones acdc kinda thingy.. never switch to N yet but its way sag and bloomy..
 
Now for a more technical part of it... do you guys think it be better to give it a go on changing its OT for a more facefront effect? Have exchanged some emails with the XTC guru here and think he did an extensive mods on his but i try not to mess with the original and maybe could getta better tone by changing the irons towards the MM ?

Will i lose the value of the XTC ?
 
hopkinWFG said:
Thanks !! Have yet to experiment on the green channel... i dont really play clean at all lol... but i find blue still lack of gain as i have da turn the gain up all the way for a sweeter spot, i set excursion on Tight as always red and blue and pre EQ red on B1 for more attack for more early metal tones, pre EQ ch 2 on B2 for rock tones acdc kinda thingy.. never switch to N yet but its way sag and bloomy..
Click to expand...

Set the green like the guy says (putting the mid on @10:00 and then not using it is key)
and then strum me cowboys chord with a little reverb.

Don't care what your main style is, anyone can get lost for a bit with that tone!
 
hopkinWFG said:
Will i lose the value of the XTC ?
Click to expand...

Most probably. If you like what you're hearing, why take the chance of doing all of that disruptive
work to the amp only to possibly like the results less than stock?

Too much risk, too little reward.
 
[ Donnie B. ] said:
Most probably. If you like what you're hearing, why take the chance of doing all of that disruptive
work to the amp only to possibly like the results less than stock?

Too much risk, too little reward.
Click to expand...

Setneck done it... cause going to getta MM bogner direct drop in replacement on the PT for 240V mains and was thinking why not try getting the OT change as well.... but ya made a sensible point here!!
 
If you're upgrading with Bogner parts, that's different. Balls to the wall!

You going to do the filter caps too as long as you have the hood open?
2004 = 17 years of road miles...
 
[ Donnie B. ] said:
If you're upgrading with Bogner parts, that's different. Balls to the wall!

You going to do the filter caps too as long as you have the hood open?
2004 = 17 years of road miles...
Click to expand...

No not original Bogner PT but perhaps made to specs for XTC from Mercury magnetics... Bogner dont support tranny change for mains :(

Mmmm not at the moment yet and i just didnt wanna risk taking the PCB out, it could be a task ... thankfully Bogner make this amp easy for transformer change without having to uproot the PCB ... haha..
 
With an Ecstasy, most forget that even though BLUE and RED share an EQ you can mold the input top end via bright caps (3 position switch on both) and output section low end and top end via assignable presence (NFB style) and resonance (via 3 position switch). Start with the shared eq at 6/6/6. Then, give the BLUE channel a BUNCH of presence. Like 3:00/7 out of 10. Use B1 for the bright switch. Then, put it on T for resonance. I assign the GREEN and BLUE to share the Presence/Resonance.

For the RED now you can tame it. Dial the presence back to 9:00/3 out of 10. This adds NFB to calm the beast. Try N on the bright and M on the resonance.

This is only a starting point, but it allows for having a very "alive" GREEN and BLUE and a more controlled RED with all the gain.

You may want to switch the BLUE resonance to M and the RED to T if you like to tighten up the bottom, but this will mean the shared EQ isn't as flexible.

Also, taking the loop out on the RED channel tightens it up as well.
 
To my ears my mid 90's 101b sounds great with v30's and also 70th anniversary mixed with v30 in an x pattern.
The amp will do metal it has plenty of gain it just is a smooth refined gain.
Great amps like a Swiss army knife.
 
I used a Bogner slant 412 with a V30/G12H30 mix. It was great.

Nowadays, I'm mostly using a Mesa horizontal 212 and I also love it lol
 
You're not getting a custom spec anything from mercury magnetics, made to Bogner's specifications, without being a Bogner certified repair center of which there are few and far between.

Sounds to me like you need to sell the amplifier. When you can't get the tone you want and need to start changing transformers, one of the most expensive items installed, it's time to sell for something that is closer to your end goal.

I don't know why people either think transformers are the first thing to go wrong in an amplifier, or the most dominant tone source in the signal chain. It's a part of the pie like everything else and IMO you're going to get less of a tone change going from high-quality OT to high-quality OT than going from garbage OT to high-quality OT. It's not as drastic as you believe and the details are only more apparent at band volumes and after hundreds of hours of playing.
 
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