Thoughts on the Bogner Alchemist?

[ejecta]

Ok the Alchemist more than held its own tonight in a live gig.


Anyone want an XTC Classic?

 

[Shiny_Surface]

Ok the Alchemist more than held its own tonight in a live gig.


Anyone want an XTC Classic?

 

[jcj]

How did the tones compare to the Shiva?

Well, I'm not real good at comparing like that unless I have both side-by-side. I will say that the "quality" of tone to me was equal to the Shiva. I'm kinda wondering if I even liked the Alchemist more? Not sure.

After hearing "bartmccartman's" Quickrod last night, I'm back in the love/hate thing with the Shiva. I liked the Quickrod more. lol...

I've had both, and imo, the QR smokes the Shiva for what I'm after.... by a huge margin. I'm not much of a clean guy, but I do think the Shiva does clean better, not much of a contest there (for me). I played the Alchemist at the LA amp show, and it was just ok, for me.

 

[Jordon]

Played on one of the combos for a little while tonight. Got to crank it up to a decent-ish volume. Tested with a PRS Singlecut w/stock pickups.

My thoughts:
Channel 1- I dug the cleans a lot. The Deep and Bright switches were both on when I found a clean I dug. And boy did I dig it. Very chimey. I usually set up my cleans so that in the middle p'up position, it's very clean and full, and in the bridge, I can get some breakup when I lay into the strings. This did it very well. In Crunch mode, I was able to get a very nice neck pickup rock tone out of it. Overall, this channel rocked. The boost worked very well with it.

Channel 2- I was able to dial in a mid gain rock sound similar to where Channel 1 left off. Very nice. Here, it's starting to remind me of the few Ecstacys I've played on, specifically the Blue channel. For a heavier sound, I dialed the gain to about 2:30 with the boost on (it's similar to the XTC boost where it doesn't really boost volume but gain. I then engaged the the Punch and Mid Shift switches, leaving the bright off. Treble at 2:00, mid at 1:30, Bass at noon. Very thick and complex, and honestly I could probably play a whole show on this channel alone. It cleaned up very well, and was fairly tight. It was a nice surprise, as I've found almost all combos to be looser in the low end then their head + cab counterparts. I'd love to see how the Head version would hold up in a full rehearsal through my 3/4 Mesa stack w/V30's.

Effects: only messed with the delay a bit, and it was pretty nice for a built in effect.

Wishes - well, if there was a 100 watt version with maybe an overall master, I'd jump on the head. I'm always wary about lower wattage (35, 40, 50) heads breaking up a bit too early when cranked. I like to keep my cleans as clean as possible as described above, and sometimes that's impossible without the extra headroom. A master volume is just something I always like to have on an amp...Just a preference of mine. Maybe even sacrifice the effects for 2 masters and the boost. I kinda missed having a presence knob for the first few minutes, but I got over it fast.


Overall, I really liked the amp, and if they ever come out with a high-wattage version, I'm all over it. Oh, also, to my ears, it really didn't have the typical 6L6 sound to it, it reminded me more of the XTC with EL34s then a 6L6 based amp.

 

[ejecta]

Played on one of the combos for a little while tonight. Got to crank it up to a decent-ish volume. Tested with a PRS Singlecut w/stock pickups.

My thoughts:
Channel 1- I dug the cleans a lot. The Deep and Bright switches were both on when I found a clean I dug. And boy did I dig it. Very chimey. I usually set up my cleans so that in the middle p'up position, it's very clean and full, and in the bridge, I can get some breakup when I lay into the strings. This did it very well. In Crunch mode, I was able to get a very nice neck pickup rock tone out of it. Overall, this channel rocked. The boost worked very well with it.

Channel 2- I was able to dial in a mid gain rock sound similar to where Channel 1 left off. Very nice. Here, it's starting to remind me of the few Ecstacys I've played on, specifically the Blue channel. For a heavier sound, I dialed the gain to about 2:30 with the boost on (it's similar to the XTC boost where it doesn't really boost volume but gain. I then engaged the the Punch and Mid Shift switches, leaving the bright off. Treble at 2:00, mid at 1:30, Bass at noon. Very thick and complex, and honestly I could probably play a whole show on this channel alone. It cleaned up very well, and was fairly tight. It was a nice surprise, as I've found almost all combos to be looser in the low end then their head + cab counterparts. I'd love to see how the Head version would hold up in a full rehearsal through my 3/4 Mesa stack w/V30's.

Effects: only messed with the delay a bit, and it was pretty nice for a built in effect.

Wishes - well, if there was a 100 watt version with maybe an overall master, I'd jump on the head. I'm always wary about lower wattage (35, 40, 50) heads breaking up a bit too early when cranked. I like to keep my cleans as clean as possible as described above, and sometimes that's impossible without the extra headroom. A master volume is just something I always like to have on an amp...Just a preference of mine. Maybe even sacrifice the effects for 2 masters and the boost. I kinda missed having a presence knob for the first few minutes, but I got over it fast.


Overall, I really liked the amp, and if they ever come out with a high-wattage version, I'm all over it. Oh, also, to my ears, it really didn't have the typical 6L6 sound to it, it reminded me more of the XTC with EL34s then a 6L6 based amp.

Trust me if you set the clean channel up to be really clean then it wont break up much if any at all even with the volume cranked so I've not noticed it breaking up too early. I played it in a band situation last night A/Bing with my Classic and the 40 watts vs 120 of the XTC wasnt even an issue. Im going to make a video tonight hopefully and you'll be able see for yourself. BTW the head and cab IMHO is the way to go. I agree with you about combos. Thats why Ive gotten away from using them and using a head and 2x12.

 

[Variable]

Played on one of the combos for a little while tonight. Got to crank it up to a decent-ish volume. Tested with a PRS Singlecut w/stock pickups.

My thoughts:
Channel 1- I dug the cleans a lot. The Deep and Bright switches were both on when I found a clean I dug. And boy did I dig it. Very chimey. I usually set up my cleans so that in the middle p'up position, it's very clean and full, and in the bridge, I can get some breakup when I lay into the strings. This did it very well. In Crunch mode, I was able to get a very nice neck pickup rock tone out of it. Overall, this channel rocked. The boost worked very well with it.

Channel 2- I was able to dial in a mid gain rock sound similar to where Channel 1 left off. Very nice. Here, it's starting to remind me of the few Ecstacys I've played on, specifically the Blue channel. For a heavier sound, I dialed the gain to about 2:30 with the boost on (it's similar to the XTC boost where it doesn't really boost volume but gain. I then engaged the the Punch and Mid Shift switches, leaving the bright off. Treble at 2:00, mid at 1:30, Bass at noon. Very thick and complex, and honestly I could probably play a whole show on this channel alone. It cleaned up very well, and was fairly tight. It was a nice surprise, as I've found almost all combos to be looser in the low end then their head + cab counterparts. I'd love to see how the Head version would hold up in a full rehearsal through my 3/4 Mesa stack w/V30's.

Effects: only messed with the delay a bit, and it was pretty nice for a built in effect.

Wishes - well, if there was a 100 watt version with maybe an overall master, I'd jump on the head. I'm always wary about lower wattage (35, 40, 50) heads breaking up a bit too early when cranked. I like to keep my cleans as clean as possible as described above, and sometimes that's impossible without the extra headroom. A master volume is just something I always like to have on an amp...Just a preference of mine. Maybe even sacrifice the effects for 2 masters and the boost. I kinda missed having a presence knob for the first few minutes, but I got over it fast.


Overall, I really liked the amp, and if they ever come out with a high-wattage version, I'm all over it. Oh, also, to my ears, it really didn't have the typical 6L6 sound to it, it reminded me more of the XTC with EL34s then a 6L6 based amp.

Good to hear that the combo sounded good. Was that the 1x12 or 2x12? I'm thinking of trading in my Nomad toward one (assuming I get a fscking job in the next week). I'd go for the head, but I've already got avenue covered with the Guytron, and I'm looking for something more portable.

 

[Jordon]

It was the 2x12. A day later and I'm still thinking about this amp haha

 

[romanianreaper]

I just spent a fair amount of time with a Bogner Alchemist head into the matching open-back 2x12" cab and I'm very impressed. Basically, my experience is different than a few posts in this thread. Like total opposite.

I thought it sounded badass. I thought the reverb and delay was excellent and not too "digital" sounding. I thought the FEEL of the amp was amazing! Real fun to play. I thought about buying it, then I realized there's a parallel loop. As far as I know, that won't work right if I want to put an EQ pedal in there for lead volume boosts. So that's a deal breaker right now.

I also had the Tourmaster 4100 rocking hard. Much better sounding than other times I spent with it.

Exactly my experience. Maybe they had a great one at the store. It sounded killer in my opinion.

 

[Variable]

I just spent a fair amount of time with a Bogner Alchemist head into the matching open-back 2x12" cab and I'm very impressed. Basically, my experience is different than a few posts in this thread. Like total opposite.

I thought it sounded badass. I thought the reverb and delay was excellent and not too "digital" sounding. I thought the FEEL of the amp was amazing! Real fun to play. I thought about buying it, then I realized there's a parallel loop. As far as I know, that won't work right if I want to put an EQ pedal in there for lead volume boosts. So that's a deal breaker right now.

I also had the Tourmaster 4100 rocking hard. Much better sounding than other times I spent with it.

Exactly my experience. Maybe they had a great one at the store. It sounded killer in my opinion.

Are there any clips hiding out there other than what's on Bogner's site and Youtube? The MP3s on Bogner's site sound like shit IMHO; like someone jammed an SM57 up the Alchemist's ass...

 

[King Crimson]

There's a big thread on TGP about it, but it turned into a "You should only buy USA" bitchfest with little info about the actual amp

It makes a good rice cooker...

 

[ejecta]

Are there any clips hiding out there other than what's on Bogner's site and Youtube? The MP3s on Bogner's site sound like shit IMHO; like someone jammed an SM57 up the Alchemist's ass...

I messed around this weekened with doing a video clip but playing wise I was bit embarassed to post it. It's like a kid who didnt take his Ridalin. Riffs that are all over the place.

Also.... while they both sounded simular in the room I found the XTC recorded a bit better. Need to play around some more.