It's been a week of heavy use - The Bogner 3534 50 watt IS LEGIT!

napalmdeath

napalmdeath

Well-known member
This amp rocks. Yeah, yeah, I've been down this road, and I'm sure the peanut gallery will have their remarks, but I've had the place to myself since last week, and have played this amp for hours. Loud, and 2-4 hours almost daily since getting it last Saturday.

This amp, boosted, is super tight. And the tones.. Good lord.. As great as the blue channel is, (Very British, all the kerrang of a Marshall, but a boost in the low mids), the red channel is equally satisfying. I've heard and read that the red channel on the 35 is out of control - not so here. And the boost function is more of a clean boost, yet adds adds more low mid punch. VERY usable. I run the gains a bit lower, boost engaged and with all the boosts I own, my new 20th Anniversary Wylde Audio/MXR OD eats it up. It gets downright nasty, focused, and tight on both blue and red. The Hexdrive works well too, as does the SD-1, but the Wylde OD checks all the boxes.

The Loop Master is excellent. You can literally play at mouse fart levels, but I can attest that it's also loud AF. ZERO loop noise, and the Loop Master has a great taper.

The Excursion swtches and 3-way voicing switches really allow you to carve out your tone. Yes, it'll chug, and get as heavy as you want.

I just put JJ KT77's in it, and it's even more chunky. It's an amazing amp, I can't recommend it enough. I see zero negatives, and no regrets on this one.
 
I'm thinking more and more that this should replace my EVH 5150III 50W as my main (smaller stage) gigging amp. I need 3 channels, (or 2 with boost options), including a clean, clean tone.
The one thing that I would miss, is the footswitchable fx-loop that the EVH has.
My other contender, the Driftwood Mini Nightmare (2x 6L6) does have that going for it...

@napalmdeath you also had the 50W Thrasher, right? Did you flip it? Too lean in tone maybe? I recently heard Ola playing one and that's what I thought....
 
I’m torn between a Mesa mark V:35 or a 3534 to replace my smaller 6505MH (I don’t live in an HOA anymore so not needed - the amp is great).
 
Speeddemon said:
I'm thinking more and more that this should replace my EVH 5150III 50W as my main (smaller stage) gigging amp. I need 3 channels, (or 2 with boost options), including a clean, clean tone.
The one thing that I would miss, is the footswitchable fx-loop that the EVH has.
My other contender, the Driftwood Mini Nightmare (2x 6L6) does have that going for it...

@napalmdeath you also had the 50W Thrasher, right? Did you flip it? Too lean in tone maybe? I recently heard Ola playing one and that's what I thought....
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I can honestly say, owning every iteration of the EVH 50 watt, its everything I wished the EVH was. WAY less compressed, a more raw and dynamic blue channel, and the red channel has maybe 25% more gain than blue, and never gets out of control. Red is equally less compressed. It's punchier, and leans more British, less modern.

The Thrasher 50 is a great sounding amp. They've just gotten ridiculously priced, and you do need an EQ in the loop to get the bottom end up to snuff. If you find one cheap, they're great sounding. However, though it says it'll take EL34's, it has one flaw.. They don't bias up unless you get a seriously hot pair. I had to get JJ KT77's with close to a 60 rating to get them to 36mV. 6L6's, no problem. And I've owned more than one, and they were all that way. Definitely a design flaw in the bias circuit.
 
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LPMojoGL said:


Sounds good
Click to expand...

He always runs through a bunch of garbage that degrades the tone. Id never use his videos as a gauge, they suck...

This is about the best one out there and gives a better idea. Probably still IR's, but still better representation of the low mid throaty character.. And how he describes it is spot-on. He dimes the gain when hitting the boost.. I opt to run the gains around 1:00 o'clock and hitting it with a pedal. Tighter and super pissed sounding.

 
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napalmdeath said:
It's punchier, and leans more British, less modern.
Click to expand...
Noice! Definitely what I'm looking for. I'm sometimes still struggling a bit with the compressed nature and sort of plasticky mids that the red channel of the EVH 50W has, even after replacing 3 preamp tubes (2x 5751 to lower the gain in red). And the raw kerrang of the blue channel is what I love, but could also use a tweak in the mids.

Regarding the Thrasher, that's what I feared. On paper it sounds great with LF and HF gain controls, but if the overall tone needs more lows... I'm typically running a vertical 2x12 for most shows and I want that thump. The EVH delivers, also due to the Resonance control on the back.
 
napalmdeath said:
He always runs through a bunch of garbage that degrades the tone. Id never use his videos as a gauge, they suck...

This is about the best one out there and gives a better idea. Probably still IR's, but still better representation of the low mid throaty character.. And how he describes it is spot-on. He dimes the gain when hitting the boost.. I opt to run the gains around 1:00 o'clock and hitting it with a pedal. Tighter and super pissed sounding.

Click to expand...

Disagree. BHG shows off quite a bit more of what the amp can do. I find most of his clips informative and a fair representation of what gear sounds like.

Can't really tell much about the amp in the clip you posted, except it has a stark clean and gained out, fizzy sound.
 
Speeddemon said:
Noice! Definitely what I'm looking for. I'm sometimes still struggling a bit with the compressed nature and sort of plasticky mids that the red channel of the EVH 50W has, even after replacing 3 preamp tubes (2x 5751 to lower the gain in red). And the raw kerrang of the blue channel is what I love, but could also use a tweak in the mids.

Regarding the Thrasher, that's what I feared. On paper it sounds great with LF and HF gain controls, but if the overall tone needs more lows... I'm typically running a vertical 2x12 for most shows and I want that thump. The EVH delivers, also due to the Resonance control on the back.
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The blue on the 3534 blows the EVH blue away. No contest. And the red channel of the 3534 is a tad throatier than the blue, but still much less compressed than the EVH with much more usable gain, (but still nowhere near the amount on the EVH. This amp's voicing and the gain structures are just perfect. It is not a gained out hot mess. There's enough there to check the metal boxes easily, and hitting the front end, it can get downright brutal.

This is the first amp in a long time that I can't wait to play, and can't stop playing.
 
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LPMojoGL said:
Disagree. BHG shows off quite a bit more of what the amp can do. I find most of his clips informative and a fair representation of what gear sounds like.

Can't really tell much about the amp in the clip you posted, except it has a stark clean and gained out, fizzy sound.
Click to expand...
I didn't really hear fizz, but yeah, he definitely ran the gain much higher than needed.
 
napalmdeath said:
I didn't really hear fizz, but yeah, he definitely ran the gain much higher than needed.
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I have this amp as well. Killer amp. It's voiced like the original 100 series which ironically is where the amp became famous. In 2004 they added more gain to the Red Channel, and then the other variants (classic Anniversary)
 
napalmdeath said:
EVH with much more usable gain
Click to expand...
I don't know if you still have versions of the EVH, but you ought to try putting a bunch of 5751's in V3 and V4. This will bring the gain down on the red channel considerably...I can actually do some 70's hard rock tones on the red channel now, with the gain around 9 'o clock. Before this was already metal city and with the gain past noon, it was insane. Now the insanity kicks in maybe past 2 'o clock....
 
napalmdeath said:
I can honestly say, owning every iteration of the EVH 50 watt, its everything I wished the EVH was. WAY less compressed, a more raw and dynamic blue channel, and the red channel has maybe 25% more gain than blue, and never gets out of control. Red is equally less compressed. It's punchier, and leans more British, less modern.
Click to expand...

I have an older 101b and im finding it to be what I wanted out of the 5150 iterations. Pissed off mids, more complex. It can also get very brutal with a boost.

I prefer the 101b to the uberschall for metal in my limited experience so far.

Im not sure how the new one compares to the older one but im sure they are very simular
 
napalmdeath said:
This amp rocks. Yeah, yeah, I've been down this road, and I'm sure the peanut gallery will have their remarks, but I've had the place to myself since last week, and have played this amp for hours. Loud, and 2-4 hours almost daily since getting it last Saturday.

This amp, boosted, is super tight. And the tones.. Good lord.. As great as the blue channel is, (Very British, all the kerrang of a Marshall, but a boost in the low mids), the red channel is equally satisfying. I've heard and read that the red channel on the 35 is out of control - not so here. And the boost function is more of a clean boost, yet adds adds more low mid punch. VERY usable. I run the gains a bit lower, boost engaged and with all the boosts I own, my new 20th Anniversary Wylde Audio/MXR OD eats it up. It gets downright nasty, focused, and tight on both blue and red. The Hexdrive works well too, as does the SD-1, but the Wylde OD checks all the boxes.

The Loop Master is excellent. You can literally play at mouse fart levels, but I can attest that it's also loud AF. ZERO loop noise, and the Loop Master has a great taper.

The Excursion swtches and 3-way voicing switches really allow you to carve out your tone. Yes, it'll chug, and get as heavy as you want.

I just put JJ KT77's in it, and it's even more chunky. It's an amazing amp, I can't recommend it enough. I see zero negatives, and no regrets on this one.
Click to expand...
This seems like a good amp for you. Im glad the loop works well too. That was my only complaint with the twin I owned. A sexier blue channel is a pretty attractive description.
 
Speeddemon said:
I don't know if you still have versions of the EVH, but you ought to try putting a bunch of 5751's in V3 and V4. This will bring the gain down on the red channel considerably...I can actually do some 70's hard rock tones on the red channel now, with the gain around 9 'o clock. Before this was already metal city and with the gain past noon, it was insane. Now the insanity kicks in maybe past 2 'o clock....
Click to expand...
Been there, done that. All the 5751's really did was make it a little less of a hot mess on the red channel. The EVH has an absurd amount of gain. The red channel was unusable for me, 5751's or not. I hated it.
 
DeathbyButterslax said:
I have an older 101b and im finding it to be what I wanted out of the 5150 iterations. Pissed off mids, more complex. It can also get very brutal with a boost.

I prefer the 101b to the uberschall for metal in my limited experience so far.

Im not sure how the new one compares to the older one but im sure they are very simular
Click to expand...
This one can get brutal too. Heavy, crunchy, and crisp.
 
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