Bogner Duende

Two Channel amp with Reverb and Trem. Effects loop, comes with footswitch, built like a tank.

I do have a few grips with the features....
I wish the reverb was footswitchable with the included footswitch.
I wish it a a second out put so I could hook up two speakers.

One of the BEST amps I've ever played. The 'Clean' channel has a darker sound than a Deluxe Reverb, kinda like a Brown Face Deluxe, but no quite. If you pull the bright switch on the gain nob it brightens up the amp (like the bright nob on a Blackface Fender Super or Twin).

The Drive channel can get anywhere from a '57 Tweed Deluxe to a Marshall style drive.

Add the trem and reverb and it's the most versatile amp I own.

I had a problem with the trem when I first pulled it out of the box. Bogner fixed it (free of charge, THEY EVEN PAID SHIPPING) and it's been working great since.

Like I said before the on problem I've had they fixed right away and kept in touch to let me know what was wrong and how quick I'd get it back.

I can't call it a fantastic value 'cause it cost so much. I am a working musician and it took me awhile to save up for. That being said, I NEVER regret this amp after I plug in to it a play for a while. It sound AMAZING and covers all my weekly gigs (jazz gig Thursdays, blues gig Wednesdays, and various original rock bands on the weekends) along with my recording duties (background music for radio/cable TV). It's great and I always get complements on how it sounds. I would never sell this amp. I plan to hand it down to my kids.

Critical features are: all tube,class A, including rectifier. For those of you looking for "that sound" it is not only critical to have a tube Rectifier but that it is voiced properly. That is where the sag(light,natural, compression) comes from. Bonus features-two channels, verb, and tremolo as well as a pull bright and extra gain stage on A and B channels respectively. My amp is a 117 serial which means it is one of the second generation. I rate this a 10 in this category not for the amount of features, but for the usefulness, versatility and sheer beauty of the engineering of the features. Just the right amount to give me everything I need without getting in the way. For example: I was really sold on the Mesa Lonestar Special for a while but I found it to be very "fideley" and the controls were hard to dial in. It had lots of features though and looked really cool. The Duende in comparison was almost impossible to get a bad sound out of no mater where you set the controls(including the master volume). The only thing I would add is a LED on the front of the amp to indicate the tremolo speed.

I tested tube amps out for a year and a half. It seemed every time I saved up enough money something else more essential would drain my fund. Three times, months apart, I had the opportunity to A-B all of the Lonestar versions, Buddha, Mark IV, Duende 15 and 30 watt, 65 Princeton, (well you get the idea) as well as all of the Vox, Marshall and Fender reissues. Every time I played the Duende(any model) I immediately started to make music. it was consistent from model to model. The same magic of connectedness and transparency occurred. I plugged in store Strats and Les Pauls one visit. I took my Strat and Paul in on another visit. Same result. All of the other amps seem flat and tweeky compared to the Duendes and each guitar sounded unique and great at various settings. I have never found a usable bright switch on any amp except a vintage Bassman I used for a while. The Bright switch on the Duende is voiced so musically that I leave it on all the time. If you turn the B channel air and body controls all of the way down you get a remarkable and playable vintage tweed sound. As you come up the amp transforms into its own version of vintage goodness to a more modern type sound when you engage the pull boost. A friendly warning : If you are a player looking for an amp for roots, blues, r&B, jazz, or classic rock do not try one of these out unless you plan on spending some big bucks. I have been gigging and recording with mine for three months now and I am still amazed at the joy I get every time I plug in and play. Oh yeah, I have to mention that even the clean single notes, at low volume, sustain for days. Amazing! Also, he reverb has an very musical quirk. When you are over driving the amp it seems to duck. In other words you can set the verb pretty high but when you lay into the notes it seems quieter giving you more clarity on the staccato and quick stuff. when you hold a note or stop it blooms. Also, very low noise even when cranked. I use a route 66 compressor as a clean boost/pick up leveler and the overdrive for an edge sound and alternative lead when combined with the boost and Humbuckers. Even then, I do not use a gate or noise suppression and have had no complaints from my band mates or sound man. I could go on but as you can tell I have found the amp of my dreams. If you would like to hear it I have a demo on the Bogner site. Go to Custom Shop, Sounds, Duende, Robin Snyder, Old School Fusion Demo. If you click on my name it will link you to my Broadjam page where you can hear the complete song "Danger on the Rocks". FYI - I am in no way affiliated with Bogner, he just liked the demo I sent.

I purchased used. I have had 0 issues. I do take a small back up amp just in case a tube goes bad. I can not imagine this amp giving me any quality control or design failure issues. I give it a 10, so far!

I have communicated with a tech about tubes. They picked up the phone on the first try. He referred me to their supplier. We also discussed direct recording options in some depth. He did not seem to be in any hurry to get off the phone. A+
I have also communicated via email several times with Jorg. I give a 9 rating only because they seem to be on snail time with email. Probably due to the subject matter which was not critical and the volume of mail versus the amount of people answering it. Although it took about a month to get my demo posted, in comparison, they still do not have the new Goldfinger amp posted on their site and they demoed at Namm several months ago and have been taking orders. They definitely have a different way of doing business. I kind of like it! I am confident that If I need repair I can get it done locally or pay to send it to Bogner. They strike me as a small company who want to make it right.

I did my first gig at ten. I am now 53. I have played just about every style and made up a few of my own. I tend to only get gear when I have a need or I run across something that just fits. I rarely sell anything. I passed on a Gruhn set up 65 strat for 500 bills once in Nashville and have kicked my self ever since. I learned my lesson. My most recent guitar is a 96 Ibanez Tallman pre-production model with p-90's. My oldest is a 69 Les Paul Deluxe I have had since '74. I finally found my Strat a couple of years ago - 87 American Standard EE series. Great Strat. First year they made them in the States again. My last tube amp I owned was my JCM 800 half stack. I sold it sometime in the late 80's. When I started gigging again about 6 years ago I bought a Flextone II. It served it's purpose but was not as satisfying as a performance tool as the POD II was as a recording tool. Hence the search that led me to the Duende. I covered most of why I love and recommend this amp in the Sound category above. As far as value goes, they are expensive but when something fits me as well as this amp did, I had to find a way. I purchased mine on Ebay for $1625.00 + $75.00 shipping. Typically they were going for 2k and above. I bid the week of Christmas. I guess everyone was out of town and out of money. The car didn't break down (It waited until January to do that!) and no one got sick so I had the $. Merry X-Mas to me!

Newer revision Duende. Didn't compare it with previous revision, but it misses some swith on the back.
Two channels, switchable to series.
Very cool set of features as described by other reviewers.
Has all necessary controls and more. Very luxury combo.

I have or had several Bogners, so its no problem to compare it.
It's different from Shiva, but retains some of the family sounds. I liked cleand very much. It has great crunched sounds and variety of sounds is incredible.
Works perfectly with Les Pauls.
Distorted ch. is one of better I heard in such small powered combo and it is loud.
I like it very much and it's not scaled down Bogner, but full-fledge combo that will hold it own.

Quality of Bogners is proven and they are built very solidly.

Never had contact with them.

Overall, I added it to my growing arsenal of amps. I like it in many situation over other Bogners.
It's not low wattage replacement for Shiva or Exctasy, but excellent self-sufficient amp.
Warm recommendations

tons of features. reverb, tremolo, 2 channels blah, blah, blah.

It is okay at best. Kind of his version of a deluxe. Well I say go with victoria. You CANNOT get the reverb to toally be off. There is always a tiny bit in your sound even turned all the way down. Open one of these up and what do you find PCB. On a $2500 amp please. For that price you can get a lower wattage victoria, matchless, bad cat, you name it. These other quality amps will be all handwired of course. Not the bogner though. Truly a discrace at this price. Read his website and he preaches about PCB construction being just as good as point to point. I dont think so. If you want to build alot of amps cheaply PCB is it, but these are far from cheap.

Who knows

They did answer the phone. I called to complain about the reverb and was told if it bothered me that much cut the wires to the tank. On a $2500 amp cut the wires? Are these people crazy. Heres an idea build a better product and people wont have to go hacking up your amps and voiding the warranty. Truly horrible.

If I were given another bogner or found one it would be on ebay that day! Wanna be boutique. Only thing boutique about these is the price!

I bought my Duende new in August '07. It came with red tolex (custom color) that made it cost a bit more but it was the only Duende in stock in the state and it looked pretty cool. It has two channels that you may switch between or combine in chain for even more tones. I play a variety of styles including blues, rock, and country and some jazz/fusion. This amp suits all of those styles quite nicely. I was looking specifically for a small great-sounding channel-switching (and relatively light-weight) amp and found it. It has all of the basic fesatures I need to plug in and play; two channels, variable gain, reverb, and tremelo. It has a very interesting channel configuration and I have had to adjust how I think about setting the tone controls for each channel. The gain and master controls on each channel provide great control over sound. Because it uses both sets of "tone" controls for the "rythm" channel, I find myself setting the "gain" channel's Air (Treble) and Body (Bass) controls first, tuning it in for my particular guitar, sound, and the room, and then when I switch to the rythm channel, only then do I adjust the Treble and Bass controls for my "clean" setting. There are a lot of ways to think about the tone settings though. I have not used the compensated recording output, power amp line output or eextension speaker out.

I find that I can get a wide variety of tones with the Duende. At a blues jam night, other musicians called it a "tone machine". The clean channel has enough volume for any normal stage settings in small to moderate sized clubs and can easily be mic'ed for large venues, if necessary. The distortion tones I normally use are of the "creamy" variety and the amp delivers superbly. I traded in a Bogie Mark II that I bought new in '82 for this and don't regret it. I use fender strats mainly but have a couple of guitars with humbuckers (Roman Quicksilver, Godin XTSA, Yamaha 335-style) that sound great with the amp also. I would consider this a great amp for blues, classic rock, country (modern and traditional) and jazz. Extraneous noise ranges from non-existent to minimal, usually dependant on the lighting or other circuitry in the room I am playing in. In no instance would it affect a live gig or recording session.
The reverb is very musical and I love having separate controls for each channel. The tremelo is also very pleasant sounding.

I have no reason to believe that it would cause me problems. I also have a Shiva, which is one of the reasons I looked seriously at the Duende. The Shiva is great but, with the flight case, puts a little more strain on my back when transporting. The Shiva has been rock-solid through extensive gigging and I have no reason to doubt the Duende. I have extra tubes and fuses, just in case (former boy scout: be prepared).

I have not had to deal with the company regarding the Duende but, when I first received my Shiva,I had a problem with some tubes. They immediately sent me a new set and it cured the problem. It comes with a limited lifetime warranty (save the receipt).

I have been playing for forty years. I play several types of gigs in a small community. Besides the Duende, I own the previously mentioned Shiva, a Roland Cube-60, and a Vox Pathfinder amp. I have 3 strats, including one Roland-ready, a Roman Quicksilver w/ RMC, a Godin XTSA, Gibson Songwriter acoustic-electric, Roland GR and VG synth systems, Roland KC-350 amp, a couple of basses and an Ampeg B-2 amp.
If this amp were lost or stolen, I am very sure that I would get another (although I am intrigued with the idea of a Carr Mercury; single-channel, though). I love all of the features on the Duende. The ONLY feature I might add to the amp would be a universal volume, like is found on the Shiva. This is very helpful in matching volumes on the rythm and lead channels and then just tweaking one knob to raise overall amp level for a particular session. It doesn't take that much time, though, to adjust this amp due to its simplicity. I would compare it somewhat to the Shiva but, like others, I guess I would have to say that it has more of that so-called "organic" (woody? round?) sound. The sound shapes you can get are very versatile.

I bought it late October 2006. I have a music production company so this amp is being used mostly for studio gigs. I play anything under the sun (jazz, blues, funk, pop, rock, metal and even some reggae). As the previous users have stated, the features on this 1X12 will blow you away; 2 channels, A+B feature, excellent independent Reverb and Vibrato controls in the back, FX loop, vintage or modern option, etc. Rated at 18 CLASS A Watts, it is loud enough for me.

The only sound you won't be able to get through this amp is the metal shred you can get with the Ubershalls, but other than that it has some serious TONE.

Built like a TANK. I don't expect to have any issues here.

Excellent down to earth communications with the Bogner folks.

I've played through many amps (Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, VOX, Carr, Line 6, Bad Cat, Bogner and others). In my opinion, this amp is very musical and has become a creative tool for me. Its a lot of fun to play with!

Purchased Duende in November 2006. Compared it to, among others, a Dr. Z Maz 18 Junior, a Koch Twintone II, and a Fender SuperSonic, which I was trading in because it hummed, hissed, and popped too much for my tastes. I play mainly blues and light rock, at home -- on a new Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster with S1 switch. The Duende's A+B / AvB setup is the height of versatility, ingenuity, and elegance. While much more costly than many amps, my ears were telling me to get the Duende, to heck with cost. I have to say I am glad I listened. Independent reverbs, tremolo, independent bright switches, dual sets of powerful but smooth tone controls. A filter switch on the power amplifier to heighten sag. Effects loop and a line out. Actually, every switch and knob on this Duende does something smart and useful, which adds to the versatility elegance, and value of the amp. This is also a nice looking little guy.

With all the tone controls in the neutral positions, this amp sounds great. Things only get better from there. Wonderful, complex, smooth, nutty, woody clean tones. The Bogner website attempts to characterize the full range of distortion tones available -- with those wonderful harmonics. I happen to like what distorted sounds this amp can make, finding all of them useable, fun to play, and musical. The smart amplifier design lets you set things up so you can have three distinct and useful tones on tap from the footswitch. You can then add tremolo and (when you are running channel A+B) switch between the two reverbs -- all from the footswitch. That's a lot of flexibility on tap. I play along to a lot of blues records and feel this amp lets me dial in a lot of what I hear.

Nothing is perfect. The Duende is close but I am lately hearing some minor hum, even with the amplifier filter switch set to "modern." This is with nothing plugged into the amp. I also am hearing a few minor ticks or pops when operating the various switches. Up until now, the amp did seem perfect. The 1966 Ampeg Gemini II I recently purchased (Weber Michigan 15) is even more quiet than the Bogner. The Ampeg was a more recent purchase, and its silence is surprising. But I understand that's how Ampeg did things back then. The Bogner starts to hiss just a bit on Channel A (clean) when you want to turn the clean sound up. That's a gripe on my part. I would like a little louder clean tone available.

I've called Bogner a number of times. By and large they have been helpful, knowledgeable, and courteous.

Although I am 52, I have been playing electric guitars through tube amplifiers only a short time. I am very picky about sound, and I like amplifiers to be mainly silent except for the signal generated by my fingers. (A lot of acoustic playing) I chose the Duende based purely on sound, not realizing its price until I was hooked. In retrospect, I feel the amp is a good value. It not only sounds great but offers a generous array of features and a connection between the sound and the instrument that makes me want to play and play and play. If the Duende were stolen or lost, I would want another one -- and would hope not to have to wait too long. I gather people are anxious to hear one of these little gems. And I am interested to know what others think about it.

Brand New 2006 Duende that I was lucky to get my hands on. 2 Channels that can be chained together. Reverb is lush and available to both channels and it has outstanding tremolo as well, although it steals a bit of power. I am mainly a fender blackface guy and this amp has those sounds and more. This combo is really a combo. The treble and bass controls are extremely sensitive and the number of tones are unlimited. Gain and volume combinations are equally as impressive. Don't let the 15watt output fool you. This combo has plenty of power for clubs. Break up is sweet at low volume using the gain control and chimey and rich using reduced gain and more volume.

Chimey clean to nice and grungy especially for 6v6's. I play an 83 tele with bill lawrence pickups and a 56 les paul jr, both sound great. I am stratless at the moment so I can't comment there but would surmise sweetness there also.

Soft and Sweet. Loud and Sweet and Loud and Grungy. I cannot ask for much more.

Bogner is known for their quality and craftsmanship. It has a lifetime warranty to the original purchaser, so I would venture to say reliability is high. But as always, it pays to have a backup because tubes are tubes.

Don't know, haven't heard anyone else complain much.

Overall rating is great. These things are hard to come by at the moment....long wait times. I was lucky this time. If it was stolen, I would cry real tears and wait for another one. I have played a shiva and Metropolis both and would love to have a Metropolis but the duende offers a bit more versatility and will provide the sound I am looking for. I guess there are other things if you're a shredder or metal head but for an all around combo, this one is nice. Other amps are:

82 Super champ
64 Deluxe reverb
94 Chieftan 30 2x12

They are all nice but the Duende can sound pretty much like all of them .

Made in 2006 and ordered about 8 months ago. dual reverb - tremelo - Effects Loop - 2 Channels - Swamp and Modern Switch. 6v6 Tubes - Air and Body contols for treble and bass. Footswitch controls channel switching -trem/reverb and you can run both channels together Incredible. Purchased from Stu at Fat Sound Guitars. Thanks Stu!!

I have been a Bogner user for quite sometime. My friend put me on to them with his ecstasy which I only somewhat like but found my home with the Shiva. I have been a fan ever since. When I heard about the Duende I had to have one so I waited 8 months to get it. If you are a Bogner fan this is a must have. The clean channel is incredible like the Shiva but can get that grind if you wish that the Shiva just does not have. Roll the volume back and more shimmering clean. THe gain channel was a shocker for 6V6 tubes. I have always used my Shiva mostly for channel one and used pedals for my gain, but that is all about to change this gain channel is incredible not over the top metal just full of personality for rock players. I am running a Les Paul - Strat and Campell Americans and I cannot find a guitar this amp does not like. As far as the Reverb and Tremelo they are top notch and the tremelo goes to an amazing speed for new style music if needed. I have the 60 watt Shiva and this amp is rated at much less but I tell you what it is absolutely louder than I expected so do not let the power rating sway you from this purchase it will gig just about anywhere. This amp is ready for any country - blues or rock gig you can throw at it.

This amp is new to be but my past experinces with Bogner have been bullet proof. I have been a Bogner player for 6 years and knock on wood no problems!! I would always have my other Bogner as a backup. I would not want anything else.

I have only talked to them on a few occasions. They were always very willing to help with any questions I had. I think they do a great job considering how busy they are!

I have been playing for about 20 years if this amp were lost I would get another one asap. If you are in the combo market this amp is a tad different and more open. I think the Duende sounds best through a closed back cabinet of some sort, but you be the judge. The only thing I wish it had was my grill cloth in black that I ordered instead of wheat but being the boys forgot me on that I will look over it. I have owned everything almost Bogner,Cornford,Marshall,Matchless,Bad Cat etc.. and the list goes on this is in my top 3 amps of all time and will not leave my possession as onlg as it proves to be as reliable as my Shiva. Bogner has struck Gold again!!!