UPDATE as of 3 months. I've had problems with this head unfortunately. One bad output valve which I replaced with a matched set and Thomann refunded me for. Then more seriously it's started blowing pre-amp valves so is being returned to Thomann :(
Well what can I say, simply great, great sound and it's VERY loud.
This isn't my first Bugera, I had a V5 for a while as a practice amp which was a great little blues practice amp but has made way for a Blackstar HT5 which has a wider variety of sounds. My main gigging amp however is a V22 Infinium Head. I love it.
So down to the reason I bought this G20 beastie, my Marshall DSL100h which I use for band rehearsal died. Out of 4 Marshalls which I've had all 4 have had issues with three having major issues. As per my previous paragraph I love my V22 head and as such wanted another Bugera but with a slight difference. Enter the G20.
Build quality
Excellent as per my V22. Only thing that lets it down without opening it up is the plastic jack socket (metal nut though) and the on and standby switches stick out too far and can get banged when transporting the amp. They are all metal though.
Sound
Man this thing is LOUD but in a very good way. It does sound good dialled down but comes into its own when you crank it a bit.
Clean channel - great and really transparent which is a very good thing as there is only one knob for eq. The tone stack and morph control only affect the overdrive channel. The way the tone knob works has been really well thought out and honestly I don't really miss the lack of a full tone stack. Bare in mind here that I use pedals on the clean channel when gigging so the clean channel is very important to me. But I do think that my V22 has a more complex harmonic richness to its clean channel BUT it also has JJ tubes in.
EDIT 11.03.19 I bought a Behringer EQ pedal to open up the tonal pallet of the clean channel. Still not as good as my V22 but I now have a tighter bass and the midrange is tamed.
Overdrive channel - now, as I said, I only use the clean channel to gig with on my V22. The overdrive channel on that amp is good but nothing to write home about. The G20 though is in a different league. Likely due to the EL34s whereas the V22 has EL84s. The sound is freakin awesome. Lots and lots of overdrive goodness with beautiful touch sensitivity and has the same clarity as the clean channel but with the full tone stack and morph knob it really rocks ? it?s so good that when I gig it (it won?t replace the V22 though but will give my sound a different flavour) I?m going to likely try out the overdrive channel as it cleans up so well with the volume control.
EDIT 11.03.19 I've now got JJ tubes throughout and it's even better!!! :)
Would I recommend it? For £200, Hell Yeah! And if the reliability is anything like my V22 it?ll last a good while. Only thing which let me down with the V22 were the standard valves, one of the preamp valves caused an annoying buzz. It now has JJs throughout.
EDIT 11.03.19 As I thought the valves which this shipped with have let it down. One of the output tubes died recently. I've put in some JJs I had on the shelf and Thomann reimbursed me for the cost of these by way of a gift voucher, Thomann you rock :)
Rock on Bugera you've done it again! It sounds fantastic, especially at the price point.
