Bogner Metropolis

i'm not sure what year the amp was made, but you could easily call bogner with the serial number and get that information. i think the date is important, however, because they made a few different versions of this amp where they changed the voicing of the schizo control (more about that later) and the reverb, as well.

first of all, this is a pretty versatile amp--within reason. this isn't a modeling amp, so you can't get a super-wide spectrum of tones, but you can get cover the gamut from very glassy voxy kinds of tones to very marshall things. it doesn't do the fendery stuff, and it doesn't do high-gain stuff. but anyone who is after that kinda stuff shouldn't be looking at the metropolis, anyway.

that said, the metropolis is geared towards the player who wants a simple amp that does great clean and mid-gain sounds that are voiced towards blues, country, and classic rock. it doesn't do metal sounds--look for bogner's ecstasy and uberschall models for those tones.

i got this amp to play around clubs in manhattan where you need to have a portable rig that sounds great and puts out a reasonable, but not excessive, amount of volume. the metropolis is great for that, and it works really well with pedals.

i have the 15-watt version with reverb and a single 12" speaker. it is a single-channel amp with the following controls: gain, schizo, bass, treble, reverb, volume, and presence. there is no effects loop, but there are external speaker jacks--two 8-ohm jacks and a single 16-ohm jack.

it's got a few tubes, as well--two EL84's for the power section, an EL84 for the reverb driver, a 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier tube, and several 12AX7's for the preamp. it's a simple design that works extremely well.

the amp has more than enough power to play your typical manhattan club. if you want bone clean tones with a loud drummer, you will probably run out of headroom, but i tend to live in the clean region where it's just starting to break up. if i need it cleaner, i back off on the guitar volume. if i want it dirtier, i push the amp with some pedals.

it doesn't have a lot of features, but that's not the point of this amp.

the schizo control is a mid-voicing control that basically reshapes/reconfigures the voicing of the amp. it has five positions, and you can basically go from really scooped in the mids to really chunky in the mids. bogner recommends trying the different schizo positions with different pickup selections, and it's a great way to revoice the amp for darker or glassier.

as i said, this amp is being used for classic rock, blues, funk, and pop tones. i'm not attempting to do everything with this amp. i just want a more rootsy kind of sound, and the most aggressive i'll get gainwise here is that modern alternative sound--kinda like matchbox 20 or third eye blind or hoobastank. for that, the metropolis works really well when you combine it with pedals.

as i said, it's a single-channel amp, so you have to use it with pedals to get all these different sounds. i prefer to use mid-gain pedals that tend to preserve the sound of the amp's voicing as opposed to really high-gain pedals that sound the same regardless of the amp used. i use the keeley blues driver and the fulltone fulldrive 2 for overdrive sounds, and i'll be adding a z vex super hard on as a clean boost.

the amp is very quiet--no problems there.

the bogner site has some great soundclips as to how the amp sounds. i'm not sure i could make any better clips than they put up there, and i certainly could not play any better than greg v.!

go here for sounds:

http://www.bogneramplification.com/MP3.htm

tone is subjective, so i'm not going to assign a value. suffice it to say that i love it!

i haven't had the amp long enough to see if it's reliable, but being that the amp is going to bounce around in a cab on the way to a gig, it's going to be transported in a road case.

you just have to be smart with tube amps--bring extra fuses and tubes, and be careful transporting them. treat tubes as if they were light bulbs.

i've dealt with greg v., jorg, sean, and reinhold at bogner many times, and they are always courteous and respectful. it doesn't matter to them that i'm not a high-profile player; they still give me the same attention to detail that they would any world-class player who is using their stuff on tour.

well, maybe i wouldn't get a loaner from them as easily, but short of that i can't ask for better service! bogner stands behind their products for life. i don't think you can ask for much better.

it's another winner from bogner, as far as i'm concerned. i have their first ecstasy 100A and have owned two 101B's in the past. they make great stuff.

i've been playing for 20 years and own a lot of other high-end gear--several anderson guitars, another bogner amp, a bogner 412, two bogner 112 cabs, and a few other things that are on the way. it's easier to just show some pics, which you can find here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/132507024TJfIvI

if i had to get another one, i'd buy one in a heartbeat. it's just a killer amp.

First of all I just want you to know that I did not purchase this amp and only tested it out in the store for about one hour. I went to check out the Bogner Shiva that I eventually purchased because of its greater versatility and I prefer EL-34 power tubes.

This is a single channel 15 watt, Class A, 112 open back combo powered by a pair of EL84s and a GZ34 tube rectifier and five 12AX7s. Other subtleties include paper core transformers for increased harmonic richness. It features High (used to get the most distortion and drive)/Low (by passes first pre-amp stage) gain inputs and controls for schizo, pre-amp volume, treble, middle, bass, presence, reverb (tube driven) and master volume. The speaker is a 12" Celestion Greenback. The coolest feature of this amp is the schizo knob which is a switch with, I think, 6 settings where each totally changes the voice of the amp. There is also a tube buffered effects loop.

There is also a nice back lit Metropolis logo that comes on with the stand by switch setting. Speaking of switch, there is a single three-position power switch (off-standby-on). For the one I tested, the Bogner logo on the front was gold instead of the normal cream color. Also the panel design is very Art Deco looking. To see a photo visit the following URL -> http://www.fatsoundguitars.com/amps/bogner/images/metropolitan.jpg

I give this category a 9 relative to a single channel 1X12 combo amp. There some out there with more features, but this one has some unique ones that you don't see in the average amp these days (schizo switch which gives you many amps in one, tube buffered effects and reverb, significant/useable H/L input jacks to name a few).

This is an awesome new Bogner with smooth, creamy, dynamic overdrive achievable at reasonable volume. The tone range achievable by varying the schizo switch, tweaking the tone controls and using the two inputs is incredible and covers just about everything--from Vox super clean/chimmy to middy to light brown to heavy brown to black face bouncy clean to extreme overdrive. This would make one incredible studio amplifier because of its tonal versatility. There were some settings that really killed my ears with extremely bright, harsh biting tones. What ever you do, don't place this amp at ear level or you're gonna have some ear pain when you are done twiddling.

This amp, like other Bogner's that I have played, is extra sensitive. What I mean is that it responds nicely to playing dynamics and guitar volume and tone settings. It is also sensitive to changes in the input signal path. I noticed tone changes when connecting different cables and/or effects (in the bypassed or off state)! I now feel I can relate to Eric Johnson when he says that he can perceive differences in tone between different brands of batteries in his effects!

In my opinion, Bogner should also become well known for his reverb. On the Shiva and this amp, the reverb sounds great at all levels--very useable. The sound when it is turned up all the way is a surf rock dream come true.

Bottom line is that this amp can cover just about any style of music!

Don't know enough, but it appears to be built like a tank. On initial viewing from behind it looks a little bit sparse, but pick it up and it density becomes apparent.

Don't know enough.

I have been playing off and on for over 20 years and have owned many pieces of equipment ranging from cheap solid state beginner amps such as a Peavey Pacer (late 70s) to my current favorite a Bogner Shiva 1x12 closed back. I also currently own a Marshall JCM 900 50w 2X12 combo and a Fender Pro Junior. As for guitars I cover the full tonal spectrum from Fender Strat to Gibson ES-335 with PAF pickups to Parker Nitefly (w/Dimarzio single coils) and to a custom guitar with the hottest humbuckers.

If I owned this amp and it were stolen I would buy it again or I would save up more and buy a more feature laden Bogner.

Beside awesome clean and distortion tones, the schizo switch and the reverb are the features that I like best. The only thing I don't like about the amp is the fact that it only has one none switchable channel. also, I personally prefer the sound of EL-34 power tubes.

I compared this amp side by side with the Bogner Shiva which I preferred because of its two channels, closed back cabinet and switching capability.

I apologize if I sounded at all like I was selling or being over the top about this amp, but truthfully I was blown away by the versatility of excellent tones available! I just happened to run into it when going to test out the Shiva. Check it out--you won't be disapointed.