New Amp Day! Bogner Shiva

[Shiny_Surface]

I never play quiet at home! I play at gig volumes all the time. It's just the room. My Fender Twin with pedals sounds like sh*t in my music room compared to how it sounds on stage. It doesn't even seem like the same rig. I had this same problem in my last house music room. I don't know what it is, but it drives me insane.

That would be cool about the cable too! So Bogner dealers actually carry this cable? I'll contact Eddies here in St. Louis to see if they carry them.

Even with the special cable just make sure you follow this diagram if you haven't seen it already.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

If your chassis is aluminum in the back, it's the older style unless it's been modded to my knowledge. The new ones have a black chassis in the back.

Take a pic of it.

 

[Jdub]

Congrats on a great amp. In many ways the Shiva is my favorite Bogner.

Try this one out if your ears can hang. Dime the clean channel volume and bring the master up to about noon or more. nudge it with a tube screamer or something similiar(your od of choice) it is scary loud, but man it is a killer old school Marshall tone..

I never tried this until recently and I was pretty blown away by the results.

Try it.

Enjoy..

 

[AmpliFIRE]

I thought your demo clip going thru the Einstein's sounds was great.
Ever try Orange?

Thanks! I wish I spent more time with the Einstein. I have never once in my life played through an Orange. All of the clips I've heard sound fantastic, though.

I think you would love the Rockerverb series Chris. It's the perfect 2 channel amp IMO. Great clean, Marshally OD, killer FX loop and it'll sound great at both low and gig volumes.

 

[Gainzilla]

Congrats Chris... Im not much of a Bogner guy but I did enjoy playing Bobs shiva with a boost. I wasnt blown away by it but it did sound pretty good. one thing that was pretty consistent on all of the shiva's that I ever messed with was the cleans, they were always great but I couldnt say the same about the OD. Like I said, Im just not a Bogner guy...

 

[stratotone]

On the fx loop issue - there's a gizmo by EbTech that matches levels. You can run a line level device and change it to stompbox levels, or the other way - stompboxes into line level devices. It's passive and full of voodoo I guess.

I had all sorts of issues with pedals in my Randall amps (line level loop) until I bought one of these. Got mine used at musicgoround for $39 and it was money VERY well spent. Now I wish I had a few of the amps I liked (Soldano HR 50XL + for example) that the loop was funky. That was the real deal killer for me.

Pete

 

[Anonymous]

get a 4/12 with greenbacks. you will then love the shiva.

 

[Rayneman]

I nabbed a Shiva 6L6 reverb head and a OS 2x12 awhile ago when Jerry Cantrell's "Degradation Trip" came out. I'd never really chased tone before, and now I can see why. I didn't like the Shiva at all...it didn't have enough gain or drive or sustain or maybe the voicing was not for me.

I tried some pedals, like a ZVEX SHO or a SD1, but all they did was compress the tone too much, IMO.

However, I wonder if the newer ones are different, and I'd surely like to try one of those "super shivas" and in fact there was a purple one for sale somewhere close (here, or maybe TGP) in the last day or two.

I had an Uber for awhile, it was cool but there are other amps of the same type that I'd personally choose over it. My favorite Bogner is the XTC, I have a 101A which is very neat, and really ended up at and beyond what I had envisioned the Shiva sounding like.

 

[Rayneman]

I nabbed a Shiva 6L6 reverb head and a OS 2x12 awhile ago when Jerry Cantrell's "Degradation Trip" came out. I'd never really chased tone before, and now I can see why. I didn't like the Shiva at all...it didn't have enough gain or drive or sustain or maybe the voicing was not for me.

I tried some pedals, like a ZVEX SHO or a SD1, but all they did was compress the tone too much, IMO.

However, I wonder if the newer ones are different, and I'd surely like to try one of those "super shivas" and in fact there was a purple one for sale somewhere close (here, or maybe TGP) in the last day or two.

I had an Uber for awhile, it was cool but there are other amps of the same type that I'd personally choose over it. My favorite Bogner is the XTC, I have a 101A which is very neat, and really ended up at and beyond what I had envisioned the Shiva sounding like.

I'm having similar results with an OD pedal. I try the Plank Cranker in front of it and it just compressed too much and sucks out some of the punch and low end. That pedals sounds great into a Marshall or other amps, but this Shiva gets waaaay too "squashed" with it. I'm guessing it's like that with other (all?) OD pedals, which kinda stinks.

I want to love this amp, but I dunno...

You've owned so many different amps (as have I) and I think you should try to give an XTC a go. From what I've read here about what you like, the XTC has a "lot" of gain but at the same time doesn't really sound super modern or seem to have any type of "fuzzy" gain like a big Mesa or other modern high gainers. You'd probably live on the blue channel and solo on the red. Still has the lower mid thing going on (which might be a deal breaker) but it has a very lively feel to it.

 

[mentoneman]

after 20 or so years of running live sound off and on, the shiva came across as one of the best live amp tones i've mixed.

divided by thirteen and splawn also ranked high on my personal list.

my mojaves (coyote and peacemaker) were also really killer and very easy to fit in a mix.

 

[mentoneman]

after 20 or so years of running live sound off and on, the shiva came across as one of the best live amp tones i've mixed.

divided by thirteen and splawn also ranked high on my personal list.

my mojaves (coyote and peacemaker) were also really killer and very easy to fit in a mix.

No kidding? As I said earlier (not sure if you saw it), I used to lust after that dudes tone in the house band on that Rockstar singer show and he plays a Shiva. His tone was KILLER! Also, my buddy saw a local band with a guy that had a Shiva and he too said it was awesome sounding.

I'm confused. I should love this amp, but I haven't hit that point for some reason... Very confusing to me.

afterward i asked the player what he was using...

shiva head, clean channel, into vht 1x12 w/ v30.
he got the dirt from an analogman ts-9 mod in a small bradshaw pedal rig. said he didn't like the lead channel as much as clean channel w/ pedal. he played the lead channel and it was a little too coarse for my taste.
but his pedal lead tone was huge, dynamic, chewy, fat, and cello/horn like.

grosh, anderson, and tyler strats.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

afterward i asked the player what he was using...

shiva head, clean channel, into vht 1x12 w/ v30.
he got the dirt from an analogman ts-9 mod in a small bradshaw pedal rig. said he didn't like the lead channel as much as clean channel w/ pedal. he played the lead channel and it was a little too coarse for my taste.
but his pedal lead tone was huge, dynamic, chewy, fat, and cello/horn like.

grosh, anderson, and tyler strats.

Mentoneman has unlocked the mystery.

Makes so much sense now after reading that and from watching the show.

 

[stratotone]

On the fx loop issue - there's a gizmo by EbTech that matches levels. You can run a line level device and change it to stompbox levels, or the other way - stompboxes into line level devices. It's passive and full of voodoo I guess.

I had all sorts of issues with pedals in my Randall amps (line level loop) until I bought one of these. Got mine used at musicgoround for $39 and it was money VERY well spent. Now I wish I had a few of the amps I liked (Soldano HR 50XL + for example) that the loop was funky. That was the real deal killer for me.

Pete

Ya know Pete, I bought one of those back when I had that Soldano HotRod 50 for a while. The loop on that amp is for rack stuff only and I'm not even sure it does that well. Anyway, I bought one of those things and it didn't help, so I've been reluctant to even think about those again.

But it works well for you, huh? Have you tried comparing the amp volume with nothing in the loop to the volume with pedals and the EBTech thing in the loop? Any drop or is it right on the money?

Worked great with my Randall amps, what I did was swap cables around until the volume was loudest through the loop. I don't think it 'looked' right either, when I hooked it up the way you think it should go it didn't work well.

I also have a thing that the seller threw in when I bought my brown note dumble clone - it was a solid state copy of a dumbleator, basically you put this thing in an effects loop and it allows you to run damn near anything in it. I still need to try it, looks cool.

Pete

 

[ejecta]

Chris do you have a way to try it with V30'S?

 

[ejecta]

Chris do you have a way to try it with V30'S?

Nah, I sure don't. I just made a couple of video clips (one with the LP and one with the McCarty) and let me be the first to say that the tone is freaking awesome. I thought for sure it would record like crap for me, but it sounds ALOT better on the videos than it does in the room.

I'm now convinced it's not the amp, speakers, or guitars. It's the room that I'm not liking. This just gave me renewed hope! Vid clips to come in the next 30 minutes or so in a different thread.

My personal tastes with the Bogner stuff is through V30's by far. Other milage may vary but that said.... I know what you mean by Rafael on that Rockstar show. Me and good friend of mine in Nashville who plays watched that show and we both agree his tone was wicked, we used to go on and on about it. I mean it was thick and cut like crazy. The other dude who layed the Bad Cat and Matchless stuff's tone wasnt bad either but I prefer Rafael's I wish I lived cloer than 3 hrs or Id bering my Bogner 2x12 with v30's and lt you try it out with your head.

I dont know if you have seen this. He uses v30's too so that may be worth looking into.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfKS-CZ3aNw

 

[Anonymous]

are you keeping the master at 8 to 9 0clock and the individual channels/ volume and gain to taste? cranking the overall / i did not like on my shiva which was a 1997 model.

 

[Anonymous]

i found cranking the global made it harsh. bogner does some weird stuff. i guess thats why i went back to marshalls in 2003

 

[Anonymous]

hey i want that jakem shakem can i offer you cash?

 

[Shiny_Surface]

Mentoneman has unlocked the mystery.

Makes so much sense now after reading that and from watching the show.

I don't think he's talking about that Rockstar show. I think he's talking about a show where he ran sound. (or did I totally get lost?)

That guy on Rockstar used more distortion than you'd get from an OD pedal.

You could very well be right I was pretty blasted last night when I posted that...

 

[Drew]

after 20 or so years of running live sound off and on, the shiva came across as one of the best live amp tones i've mixed.

divided by thirteen and splawn also ranked high on my personal list.

my mojaves (coyote and peacemaker) were also really killer and very easy to fit in a mix.

No kidding? As I said earlier (not sure if you saw it), I used to lust after that dudes tone in the house band on that Rockstar singer show and he plays a Shiva. His tone was KILLER! Also, my buddy saw a local band with a guy that had a Shiva and he too said it was awesome sounding.

I'm confused. I should love this amp, but I haven't hit that point for some reason... Very confusing to me.

Rafael from the RockStar shows loves his Shivas. He does occasionally use a tube screamer for a boost. Between that and the delay he uses, it sounds like he has more gain than he does. When I played his rig, I really struggled with it as I was expecting more gain.