Bogner Alchemist 1 x 12 Combo

Ok, just received it for 2 days, so i may post another reviews later.

This combo is big for a 1-12 and weight a lot, but its a tube amp so normal thing.

You know the features...

This amp would be 10 on 10 if they put those things: a switch that come from clean to crunch and from normal to punch on chanel 2. Also a switch that put the level up for solos.

Lot of power for any gigs.

I use a gibson les paul classic and a Peavey wolfgang. I play mostly blues-rock, classic rock and a few of new rock.

Ok first thing to know about this amp if you wanna rock, you may first be desapoint if you open it and eq it like we do normaly...So open your user manual and try those setting. The best rock sound i have found now is this one: Mercury chanel: With the punch, put the treble off at minimum or add a few. Put the mid up beetween 7 and 10 (level,,10 is max) and put the bass off at minimum or add a few. With this setting, you have enough gain to play anything. I put the gain at 2 o clock and its enough. If you put off the punch, put the gain at max and add a bit of treble and you ll have one of the best classic rock sound you can have.

The clean chanel is easy to use and try many settings,,easy to find something good.

ILL GIVE A 8 BECAUSE IF YOU ARE NOT GOOD DOING SOUND,,,YOU MAY SOUND LIKE **** WITH IT.

One thing i have to add, i also have an ORANGE Rockerverb 50 to compare. The orange is a great amp. The Bogner is a more darker sounding and i like the way its dry, i mean you stop the sound and its stop right there. ( im french so i dont know how to explain it in english) The Orange cost the double and the triple but the bogner can fight with it at any point.

Have not try the effect section a lot, but seem to be nice. One thing, if you ajust the delay for a rock solo sound, the delay will probably be too loud for your clean chanel

I play for 25 years and had recorded and gig a lot for fun and with professionnal. I have had a lot of amp, Many Boogie, Orange, many Marshall, Peavey, Rivera, name it i had it. This amp worth all his money. You have to work a bit to find your tone but you will find it. Those who said that this amp cant do metal,,humm try my setting in the sound quality section.

I m a Boogie lover. I have had mark one, mark 2, studio, rectifier, subway rocket...The bogner fight with the best at a lower price...and with more spec.

2 Chan with boost, reverb, delay.

The clean channel is nothing to write home about. I tried it with a Les Paul, Tele, and a Musicman. It would be great if these amp guys would start making the clean sounds on their amps useable. You could prob get away with using the clean channel live in combo with the reverb and delay.

The dirty channel is great. With a Les Paul the sound was a little boxy and compressed to my ears. With a tele it was better. But I was blown away with the sound of my Musicman. I think this amp likes 25?? scale guitars with humbuckers. The dirty channel was heavy with a lot of articulation. Just sounded great. Add in the ducking delay and it was heavenly. Roll the volume back on the guitar and the amp responds beautifully. Very very usable.

I would def gig with out a back up. That is part of what makes gigs fun.

I don't worry about these things. I am relentless when it comes to customer service. I will ring their phone off the hook and fill up their voicemail box. Send them 100 emails. I don't stand for bad customer service. I hate being jerked around.

For the price you can't beat it.

from clean to crunch to full-on distortion, this amp is solid. i have yet to use >50% power on the 40 watt setting, its certainly quite loud.

the tube driven distortion is fantastic & clean can handle any distortion pedal you want to throw at it.

haven't had it long enough to say.

have had one instance with the 4 way switch swapping between channels when all switches were 'on' but the plugs were not entirely engaged (uses XLR type connections for the amp pedalboard). i'll post again if there are continued issues, but i think it was due to the connection alone.

no interactions yet.

I have been playing for about 15 years and this is my first tube amp. I have been going back and forth between Mesa's 5:25 or 5:50 Express, as well as, Marshall DSL 401 and ultimately thought this had the best mix of all options.

I have been using a Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion, Ibanez WH-10 wah, and MXR phase 90 with it successfully.

Sounds great with my Fender Custom Shop Strat and even cooler with my Schecter practice guitar with two humbuckers.

This baby is the realdeal & super versatile. I recommend you check it out.

I bought this amp on 1/09/09. I had returned a Fender SuperSonic that had issues and the salesman suggested that I give the Alchemist a spin. WOW!!!! I am no metal head and if you are, this may not be enough, but I play 70's, 80's style rock, Pop, country and various clean and overdriven music and this amp delivers! I don't agree what others say about it being to mid rangey. I realize everyones ears hear something different, so do yourself a solid and demo one for as long as it takes, as may times as it takes with as many guitars as you own. I did and could not be more pleased. I agree with several other reviews that it really does need a volume adjust for the boost. In clean, OK, in OD I can hardly tell the diff!. The reverb and delay are middle of the road, not bad but not head turning either. I really like the footswitch that comes with it. 4 button for channel-boost-delay-reverb. It also uses a mic cord that is way cool. A 40/20 watt switch and the on-off switch is on the front which is good too! Has a parallel loop on the back with a level so it should work well with most pedals or racks. Not an issue for me. Not a deal breaker for sure.

I play a Strat Am. std, a Tele Am Std, a custom PRS, and a Gibson LP. They all have there strong points and weakness's. So far the PRS is leading the way. I find the amp to be on the quiet side and the only issue I have is that if you change from Mercury to Gold with reverb on the spring setting and are playing when you hit the button you will hear a loud reverb wash or pop. I find this annoying but it does not do it in the hall or plate setting, so I leave it on hall, I can hardly tell the diff and it's quiet! Problem solved! The switches on each channel, crunch, brite and deep on the clean ch. and punch brite and mid-shift on the lead channel are very useful and musical and a tweakers delite. I very quickly found some great starting sounds and as I go it keeps getting better! I have a Mesa Boogie Mark 1V, a Mesa DC-3, a Gallien Krueger 250ML combo and a Fishman Performer for my acoustic. I returned a Fender SuperSonic and have owned Marshalls other Fenders, Mesa's, Traynors and others that I can't remember and I must say that this amp is as good or better than all of them! To my ears anyway and thats all that matters right?

This amp seems very well built. I am a novice at amp modding and working with bias and upgrading components. The first thing I wanted to find out was the bias setting and it is not in the manual, big surprise right! I called the Line 6 support line and left a message and they called me back, WOW!!!!!!!!!! Got the bias setting, 35ma if your wondering and also verified the trim pot locations. It has one for each tube. Way to go Reinhold! I was glad to read a previous review by someone very versed and experienced in tube amp construction and component choices and I must concure that just looking at the inside of the amp gave me a very good feeling. VERY IMPRESSIVE!!! Sweetwater doubles the one year warranty so that made me feel better about getting such a new amp with no history, so I hope all goes well!

As I said earlier, they called me back and gave me information. Not many mfg.s do that. Kudos Bogner. Comes with a one year warranty, the industry standard.

I have been playing guitar for 32 years and have a serious G.A.S. problem. If it sounds good I eventually own it. It is the best sounding amp I currently own. I wish it had the level control for the boost but after the warranty runs out I am sure that could be a mod any good tech could do! For my needs I really think it covers all the bases and if lost or stolen I'd take the Ins. money and get another!

I've had this amp for 2 weeks now and have logged about 30 hours of playing time on it. This is one of the most versatile and responsive amps I have ever owned. I've been playing since 1970 and have played them all. If you are playing in a cover band this is the amp to buy.It will give you ANY sound that you could ever possibly need to copy an artist. REALLY!! I'm that impressed with it.The other reviews on this amp confuse me because if you know how to use the controls( very responsive by the way) you can literally get anything from Nashville twang to rip your face off gain!!It has beautiful chime and jangle on the clean channel and smooth hot searing gain on the mercury channel. It's not muddy or loose like so many others are when you "fire it up". And LOUD!!! OMG...I havent been able to get it above a 4 without the whole house rattlin'. And the sustain is endless and in control!! This amp will cut through in ANY small to medium venue with NO problem!! I suppose I should include that I am playing a G&L Bluesboy and a G&L Commanche through this beast.

It sounds AWESOME...but...remember....its a 40/20 watt tube combo....if you are going to play metal...like so many of you kids are.....why would you even be looking at this???? It will fit the needs of anyone who is looking for an amp that will give them the "sound" that they need in "MOST" musical genres....and do it VERY well....I have played this amp for a few of my friends who are very adept in sound ..and they were very impressed by it.

The amp is built like a tank so I don't anticipate any problems with it. I have looked it over very carefully and it has quality construction even though it is built in China (at the Line 6 plant)

there is a 1 year warranty that is serviced by Line 6

you will never find a more versatile and well built amp for anywhere near this price. The alchemist will blow anything in it's class out of the water NO PROBLEM!!

The Bogner new Alchemist amp is designed in U.S.A and made in China. Probably built in some Line6 factory. Good because the prizes have come to reasonable levels for a Bogner amp. In my opinion the amp is versatile enough for all kinds of music. This also depends on what kind of guitar and effects you are using. I play mostly dance music (pop, rock, blues, waltz and traditional like "finnhits") in a band. The amp has two power modes 40w/20w. The switch is in front. It gives more depth in sound. I have used the 20w mode.
The Alchemist has two separate adjustable channels which are clean/gold and gain/mercury. Both channels include also boost. The settings knobs are gain, treble, middle, bass and volume for both channels. The channel switch board is included. It is very durable and easy to use. The board is connected to amp with a mic/xlr cable so it doesn??t get broken easily. Effects loop is in parallel and has the normal send and return connections and a level knob. This is the only minus that I can think about this amp, because with my effects I couldn??t get good tone with the loop. Of course there are certain pedals that won??t work properly in the loop but I think there could be more information in the manual that which effects are suitable for the loop or how to use it better.
I wish it had a crunch/punch switch in the board because it could give more versatility in playing and not having to go in front of the amp and dial it there. Especially in gain/mercury channel switchin on/off the punch is cool thing and gives more sound options and also on clean. The Alchemist has a true tube reverb and it affects on both channels at the same time. The reverb has one level setting and swich for plate, spring or hall reverbs. There is also a built in digital delay which has a delay and repeats knobs, the 3 settings are for ducking, analog and tape delays. Tap tempo controls the delay time. Cool features.
I use this amp at home for practising and gigging about 15-20 times a year. It is quite loud and even in 20w mode that I use.

I use Fender Stratocasters. I have two electric guitars that I have modded to fit my taste. I also use midi in guitar playing but that is not the issue here. The main guitar is Fender lite ash strat with Seymour Duncan everything axe set. Fingerboard is maple. I also have a extra switch for getting the all possible mic combinations. I have changed the original tuners to Planet waves auto trim set. The other guitar is modded from Squier Deluxe trans satin model and it has rosewood fingerboard. The pickups are also Seymour Duncan but in the bridge I also have the Little 59. This guitar has also switch pot to use single coils and the all-mic-combination switch. Has a more rock sound.
The Alchemist suits very well to my music styles. I had earlier a modeling amp Flextone III XL which was VERY versatile, but on the other hand it had too many options and I mainly used tube kind of presets and got bored with all the fancy stuff I didn??t ever use. Also the computer tweaking was a bit too complicated in the end. Good amp though! My music styles are pop, rock, blues, waltz and traditional hit music.
Bogner Alchemist might turn out to be quite noisy in house environment especially in the 40w mode. That??s why I have only used the 20w mode which gives nice tone and is suitable for room practising. Compared to my only other tube amp Fender Twin 100w "red knob model" that I had about 15-20 ago this has more suitable master volume level environment. The master volumes in both channels aren??t too sensible for losing your ears in small spaces. Straight in front of the wall the sound can maybe get too massive so I suggest to leave some gap between the amp and the wall no to get too bassy kind a sound etc.
In my mind Alchemist can make very broad kind of sounds. With my guitar I get of course Strat like clean and distorted sounds. With clean channel setting adding more bass you can get Fender kind of amp sound. And with crunch and more bright/treble you can even get Vox kind of bell. Depends also which pickup combination you are using. I think the crunch mode in clean is too noisy and I prefer using only the clean and getting more bluesy sounds with the Ibanez Tube screamer TS7 that I have. The other effects that I use are : Ibanez CF7 chorus/flanger, DDL20 delay, PC10 prime dual chorus/flanger, PH7 phaser and Electro Harmonics Pulsar variable shape tremolo. I also have the CryBaby Q95 autoswitch wahwah.
The distortion on mercury channel is very brutal and cool sounding. You don??t even have to use any kind of OD or preamp pedals to get cool rock sounds out of it. Kick the gain to max and that??s it. With TS7 the distortion gets maybe too thick.

I guess I can depend on it well enough. We??ll see in time. I have about 15-20 gigs a year and it gets moved around so I have to make some kind of cover to it. I have also considered to put wheels under it because it is quite heavy for a 112 combo. I would use it without a backup because I also have a keyboard amp that I can use if some kind of tube or power failure would happen. I don??t think that will come but spare tubes is something to think about in general. I quess you??d be able to swich the tubes in break if you know which went off...
This amp has never broken down, because it is so new. Hard to give any prediction, but I??ll give 8 because tubes can break sometimes. The knobs can also get broken without any cover or box because they are in front and the cover is curved on top of them to see the settings better

I have tried twice to contact the euroinfo@line6.com which is mentioned in the http://www.bogneramplification.com/contact.php. I would have asked about the effects loop use that was conserning me a bit. My other email gave me "a bumerang message" so maybe it isn??t online yet or have had some problems. Today I tried also with my main email account and it had similar sending problems. I wish this rating isn??t too bad if they get my messages somehow and then reply afterwards. But because of this I only give 6. Fix your emails Bogner support which is by the way in Line6...

I have been playing guitar and different kind of amps, effects and stuff for over 20 years now. I have descirbed my other effects earlier. I have midi in both guitars and I have Roland GK-2A and GK-3 midi pickups (GK-3 in my main guitar Lite ash). The midi controller is Roland GR-33 which has been pretty amazing for the 200 euros prize that I paid for it including the GK-2A pickup set! The keyboard amp is Behringer 45 Ultratone which is getting a bit weak aside the Alchemist now...
If the amp was stolen or my other stuff as well, of course I??d be sad and maybe then rethink what I truly need for playing. It would take quite a while to build this little personal arsenal that I have managed to get in years :-(
I love the true 100% tube sound of The Bogner Alchemist that I have actually searched for years buing only cheaper modeling amps. Our band sound is getting much closer now thinking of the guitars because our vocalist has also a tube amp. I hate that tube amps have certain kind of massive master tone leveling and in home/practice use most users are forced to use some sort of extra stuff like headphone tap adapters or attenuators to get the overall levels right with the tone not suffering. Some cheaper amps have nowadays a load box/attenuator built in and that is what I hope to come more often in other manufacturer models, too. So built in attenuator is what I wish Alchemist could have. But you can??t get it all in one package and sound is always some kind of compromise between different gears :) But in over all comment I could recommend this amp for anyone who likes good new tube tones!!!

The amp has 2 great channels: Clean has great clean to bluesy breakup sounds. There are bright, clean-crunch, and deep switches on this channel that make it pretty versatile. The High Gain channel has punch, bright and mid shift switches that make it versatile as well. As for effects it has reverb and delay. There are 3 types of each effect that provide any basic sound that you would want. I think it was a great idea to add just reverb and delay to the amp. I don't have tolerance for the modeling pieces of cr@P, but the addition of the delay is very nice since it is all I use aside from a dimebag wah wah.

The sound from each channel is fantastic ... so far. I have only played my Les Paul through it at this point (my son left my strat at his friend's house). I have an Ibanez that I'll be spending tonight with. The clean channel is crystal clear to that beautiful hi-watt kind od break up. Very responsive to change in guitar volume and tone. The gain channel cranks as well. The punch and mid shift features on it are great. There is a boost on the footswitch which changes the tonal color of the clean channel and adds a bit of gain without increase in volume on the gain channel. Both are great. My only reservation with the sound quality is that I usually prefer EL34s and this is a 6L6 amp. But the sound is so good and the reverb and delay functions are so versatile that I couldn't pass it up

Haven't had it long enough

Haven't had to deal with anything yet.

I have been playing casually for 30 years. I have had a peavey, sun, boogie mark 2, marshall valvestate. The boogie was quite a nice amp, but this is lot more versatile, and a lot easier to find a tone. I use Les Paul Standard and an American Standard Strat, both right off the shelf with stock pickups. I also have an Ibanez metal guitar (HSH) with a hot Seymour in the middle and stock humbuckers. I looked around quite a bit to find a nice amp for under 2K that had great clean tube sounds but still got a bit dirty. It also had to have some bit of flexibility, and it had to have reverb. The fact that is has 3 reverbs and 3 delays, and sounds fantastic was huge.
For the money, you can't come close. If I had a ton of money I would have gotten a Shiva for the EL34s, but the other amps that have them in this price range just don't come close.

This is a review pointing out some things that potential buyers may wish to know prior to purchase.

First, I bought a brand new, off-the-truck, factory-fresh 1x12 Alchemist from GC; I took it home, powered it up for a few minutes, and there was no sound whatsoever...I tried everything in my 25 years of guitar and amp playing experience short of anything internal, but could not get any sound out of the amp (even with jiggling the cord in and out of the input and yes, I did try several cords). I Took it back to GC and grabbed the operational floor model - so far so good and I'll write a more detailed review after a few months or so with the amp.

Second, this amp is produced in China - lots of good stuff coming out of there, but it is not made in the USA and neither is the Celestion speaker as far as I can tell.

Third, it appears from the manual that the effects are digital versions of Line 6's technology. The reason that I say this is that that it appears that this amp is a joint-venture between Bogner and Line 6 based on the fact that all service is through Line 6 (again, according to the manual and warranty).

None of the above is to imply that this $1200 amp is not a good or even great amp; it's just that you should be aware of what you are getting as sales people are often ignorant of the details, e.g. I was told at GC that the effects are "likely" analog and no mention was made that the warranty is through Line 6 and not Bogner. This may turn out to be a great partnership and a fine amp, but I just wanted to post this for potential buyers to be fully aware of what they are getting.

As far as my experience so far with the floor model: I really like it a lot, but will withhold a detailed opinion until a few months to a year or so. Thanks.

Features. I purchased the amp from Guitar Center after trying out a Mesa Express 5:50 and a Line 6 Bogner. I was looking for a replacement for my crappy Crate GLX1200H Stack. So for the features.

I found a few issues that I thought I would point out. I did end up returning the amp because of the sound quality on the Mercury channel.
For the Bad
I did not like the knobs. They were too large and close together . I kept hitting them accidentally. I think the amp actually is ugly looking. This thing is very heavy IMO for a 1x12. It's quite large. The handle looked a little light for such a heavy amp. I could see it breaking eventually. Also one of the little rubber supports on the bottom broke off just by sitting it down wrong. That actually happened taking it out of the car after buying it. A little wood glue and rescrewed it in.

The good.

This thing is built like a tank. Very solid construction. I had it 3 weeks and it worked well the few times I practiced with my band. The pedal is good. If I was into a softer kind of music I would have kept it.

Ok the clean channel is bright and loud and crisp. There is a lot of buttons and switches to move. I couldn't dial in the sound I wanted using any of them. The crunch on the clean channel was OK but did not have definition. At least compared to the Mesa that I brought home. In fact the clean channel would have been the only reason I kept the amp but the Mercury channel was so bad I couldnt justify spending the money and only have 1 channel. I like to play 70's and 80's rock and metal style. So I do like a good mean distortion. This amp will not do that at least for my amp/guitar combo. It did seem very sensitive to what guitar and pickup combination was plugged into it. The other guitarist in our band plugged in his $600 fender and it sounded better than my Jackson with a DiMarzio Humbucker. Also the mercury channel was very midrange. Very little brightness. I had the bright switch on and the treble to full and still no sparkle on the mercury channel. Just mid range mid range mid range. So if you like mid range in your distortion this is the amp for you.

Depending on your playing style you might like this amp. It seems to be a well put together amp that is loud as hell. Just not a great metal sound.

The reverb on the amp is great. Not too much not too little just a great reverb sound every time. The delay was a waste of time. No way to to acurately set the tempo and it sounded weird when it did delay. It was like it was either not enough delay or too much delay. I couldn't find a good setting. So a waste for me.

One last thing I just remembered about the clean channel. Sometimes after playing the mercury channel for a while I switched to the clean it would not get clean. It was like some breakup was still there in the tubes? It was weird... but did go away after a few mintues and went back to clean.

I think this amp save he handle should last forever. It seems the Chinese made the amp fairly well.

Guitar Center was great. NO problems trading it in for my Mesa. Which was the same price and rocks way more than the Bogner.

Ok so for me... I would need better gain on the Mercury channel, more treble needed. The 20/40 watts selection was very close in volume so no benefit there. The Mesa 5 watt / 50 watt switch is a huge difference in volume. That kinda difference makes sense. So for this amp you will not be able to play it at low volumes very well in the house.

Nice amp for some people I'm sure but I'm guessing nowhere near the previous Bogners.