Budda Super Drive 30 212

2007 build that I purchased new around 6 months ago. Very loud for a 30-watt EL84 driven power amp and beautifully voiced although inevitably compromised by only having one tone stack across both channels. However I have to say that, to my surprise, this has not been an issue. The effect loop is very useful as explained later.

I use Melancon, Reverend and Dean guitars and the amp has to deal with single coils, P-90s and humbuckers. On balance I think that it is least happy with humbuckers but that is very subjective and probably because I don't like to change the pre-amp gain settings just because I've swopped guitars. Overall the sound is excellent and I use the guitar volume a lot to adjust the amount of drive. This has been aided enormously by placing a good quality foot volume pedal in the effects loop which allows me to adjust the overall output of the amp without changing the drive level. Works a treat!

For what I play which is mainly blues and rock this Budda nails the sounds I want better overall than any previous amp I have owned....and in forty years of playing I've owned a lot.

No problems to date although I did swop out all the valves for a set of JJ Tesla and it opened up the sound of the amp considerably.

I usually gig with a spare available but have no reason to doubt the Budda. It's a pro piece of equipment.

Contacted the company a couple of times with queries just after I bought the amp and they replied within 24hrs on both occasions.

Like most guitarists I am on a quest for the elusive tone that I hear in my head but not necessarily coming out of my amp. There may be other manufacturers who could get me closer to that sound than Budda but I've already crossed most of them off my list and the ones that are left are either not worth trying or fiendishly expensive.

I see no reason to change the Budda as the balance of tone, power, responsiveness and portability is about as good as it gets. Don't expect instant gratification but if you take the time to get to know one it certainly pays dividends

EL 84s with a chunky clean chime and a plexi gain channel. 30 rather loud watts you know the rest. No reverb. Effects loop. Really its got just what I prefer. I've found that to many varibles on an amp cause me confusion instead of just being able to make music. I'll give it 9 since someone is keeping score.

Here is the reason I am writing this review. I have been playing out since 1961. During that time I have performed with some wonderful amps. With each amp I would have to search for its sweet spot. I have found that the Budda is one massive sweet spot. I can't find a bad sound with this amp. Tone controls have a completely different effect than I am used to. Treble control goes from extra chunky to thinner and almost Fender like. But it sounds good throughout its range. I have always used pedals. Over the years I have collected mostly Fulltone and Keeley pedals. I prefer not to use any pedals with this amp. Its not that they don't sound good, its just that I find that I can't improve the tone of the amp with them. Therefore no comp/dist/delay/reverb/phase/trem/wah/etc. Next. All of my guitars sound good thru the amp. Fender, Zion, Suhr, Gibson, Tele, Strat, P-90s, everything sounds good to me. You know the deal, Fenders sound good thru Fender and Mesa Amps whereas Gibsons sound good thru Marshalls. The Budda seems to sound good thru everything I put in it. There are a few amps that rate a ten re: sound. This happens to be one of them.

I feel that I have used the amp long enough to write a review and I have had no problems so far.

??????? I've had no contact with the company.

It doesn't have the look of my Bluesbreaker or a fifty watt plexi half stack. Can't compare to a beer soaked twin or a ratty bassman. Creme colored Mesas look great on stage but the Budda? So far I think it looks OK but black with a white stripe? I dunno. I guess I'll get used to it. Sound wise its superior with little fuss on obtaining a good sound. Cuts thru the mix with a thick chunky sound. Sound men seem to like it. My bandmates have remarked that I play better with it. I guess it gives me inspiration. My recommendation? I think its a good value, not to heavy to carry, reasonably good looking and so far reliable. Can you do better? Probably not, only different.

Supremely well-thought and constructed amp that is deceptively simple. While the tone controls may not do much, they don't need to. The Modern Mid voicing switch and the pull bright rhythm switch provide excellent tone shaping options and the amp is voiced so well that the channels work together really well to deliver up a wide variety of extremely usable tones. You'd need a pedal for Death Metal but, other than that this amp will shine.

The best Fenderesque, Marshally, true boutique sounds you can imagine. This amp sounds amazing. I've got over 20 guitars and this amp allows each instruments character to come through. It makes a great instrument shine and will reveal the flaws of a lesser guitar with brutal honesty. If you're looking at one of these amps you probably have a pretty decent axe.

Built like a tank. Have never given me any trouble whatsoever.

This puppy is built so solid that you may never need to call Customer Service. I haven't, so I can't say but one gets the feeling from the product itself as well as their website that these are dedicated musicians and technicians that listen to their customers.

I've got a VHT Pitbull, a Dr. Z Prescription ES and I love them both but they don't see a lot of playing time since I got my Budda... I will always have a Budda in my amp collection. I really truly love it. It is an extension of my musical style as much as my amp.

Ok I just bought a new 2007 Budda! It has just the right amount of opts maybe could use a nice reverb other perfect for me! 2 channel EFX's loop tubes are WAY under rates 30 watts of A/B sound more like Class A

Have been looking for a LONG time just the perfect amp I have spent long hrs in music stores and web sites going throught ever amp I could get my little hands on! I was looking for the perfect amp good cleans great drive perfect tone! A amp that could cover metal to pop. Blue's to in your face Balls well needless to say it not out there! I have own Bogner VHT Mesa Marshall Fender Line 6 and back again I have bought and sold 8 different amps in the past 2 months looking for my perfect amp This is very very close to me! I have 8 different PRS's 3 Fender Tele's 2 Gretsch Dual Jets. A Very good amp for all the different tones. No need to really adjust the amp it re-acts well with all the different guitars I own!

1st off NO unwanted hiss! Perfect weight! built like a tank super quality NO Problems.

NO Need

Play this amp and play it again you will find it is well worth the price and I would buy again!

This is an update. This is my second SD30. This one however is PTP series 1. I know Scot has said the PCB amps are quieter and in theory, they might be, but mine makes no noise whatsoever.

Mine also has cab switching. I don't know how useful this would be for gigging but for the studio, its cool. I got to trying my best cab w/ tone tubby's and I must say, they absolutely smoke the Budda speakers (which are pretty good). I'm surprised they don't put TT's in their cabs when they are neighbors. I didn't think the amp could get that much better but its a solid tone improvement in my book. They are not as efficient (loud) but they definitely have more mojo.

I think this amp the PTP sounds a little better than my old one (series II). Could be placebo effect.

You'll go through tubes a little faster as it runs hot. The build is very solid. The PCB (series 2) amps look indestructable too...nice wide traces on a thick board. Those might just be the best builds I've seen (equivalent to Soldano type boards). I can't believe people have been having problems with these.

It's a 9.0 amp. Add a point for the Tone Tubby's and there you have it. 10. Definitely one of the best if not the best EL84 amp. Great tone on the gig! It's not an amp for everyone. Metal heads stay away. It's a rock amp. I use a H&K Replex for reverb and delay (my favorite pedal of all time) in the loop and that's it.

I got this amp 3 years ago and have played it live every weekend since---I play new country (Montgomery Gentry etc) as well as hard rock and even an Elton John tribute band (Yellow Brick Road) and have no problem going from picking clean ringy tones to full out Van Halen type raunch.

I recently switched all the preamp and power tubes from Sovteks to JJ's and it made a huge difference in tone and power--I can blow the walls out of anywhere we play, and I've used it live in front of 6000 people and have the recording to prove its fidelity through a large PA with a sound guy who doesn't know me or my playing--I still cut through the mix with a big old chunky rhythm and searing lead (I only have one pedal, a Cry Baby wah) and all the geetar heroes who talk to me afterwards seem to love it.

I screwed up by leaving the Sovteks in way too long, but will now switch the JJ's every six months or so. I have a set of Groovetubes (which are basically Sovteks or the like) as backups, but probably wont ever need them.

Haven't needed customer support for anything up to now (3 years.)

I've been playing 25 years at home in England through Marshalls, Fender Twins, Hiwatt and H&H and like this better than any of them. I use a Telecaster Highway 1 straight in and use the volume knob on the guitar to control clean and dirty--its really quite simple. I see all these guitar wizards with racks and racks of effects and pedals etc, but I can make this thing rattle and hum and squeal and chime without too much fuss--love it.

This is a pretty straight-forward amp. The shared EQ makes it difficult to dial in good tones on both channels consistently. No reverb which I really wish it had. The longer I have the amp the more I miss the option of reverb. Nice very effective effects loop. 30 watts is plenty loud, I've played it on stage w/50 & 100 watters & never had any trouble being heard. I like the sound of the EL84's.

Play humbuckers through it- Les Paul & 335. Play mostly rock music. This amp is not noisy at all & gets pretty good tones. The shared EQ & no reverb really do limit this amp in the long run. Otherwise it is a good sounding amp. Clean channel can be driven to provide good crunch i.e. AC/DC, the WHO, etc... Dirty channel is good but gets muddy sometimes depending on how you EQ it. This comes from trying to set up a good clean sound on one channel & then switching to dirty. If you set up both channels dirty this is less of a problem but then you really just have dirty & dirtier.

Have had absolutely no problems with it after 2 plus years. It runs hot so keep it well-ventilated & maybe run a fan behind it. Replace tubes as needed & keep it clean & you should not have any problems.

Have never had to use them.

Been playing over 20 years. Own several small old class A amps which I love. Own a Marshall 50 watt head which is okay-not near as good as the Budda. Recently bought a Mesa-Boogie combo which is now my main amp since it has separate EQ for each channel & has reverb. Much more versatile. If this Budda were lost or stolen I would definitely be disappointed since I have over a grand in it but I would not buy it again since it is limited w/EQ & no reverb. Also if I were going to buy one I would probably get the 18 watt version so I could drive the power tubes harder & really I would look at their amps that have reverb. I like the amp but after 2 years I still miss reverb & hate the shared EQ which initially I did not think would be a problem. I was wrong.

All the typical 2 channel features...more control over the difference in volume between the clean and overdrive channels would be better....

The clean channel is really smooth, I like a little grit with the clean channel (like a Matchless or AC30) and the Budda obliges. The distorted channel is too muddy and compressed for my taste. I couldn't dial in the disparity between the volumes of the two channels. Having the master volume up about 10 o'clock and the clean channel at about 12 o'clock, even with the distorted channel pegged all the way up the sound was so compressed that the muddy sound disappeared in comparison to the clean channel volume. I decided to use the amp as if it were a single channel amp (clean channel) and use various overdrive/distortion pedals for the overdrive/boost/solo work. This worked great. BTW I use a Custom Shop Fender strat with Texas Sp. PUs and a Les Paul std. with Seymour Duncan Antiquity PUs.

I had one of the very early made versions (early 2000) point to point wired. The amp wouldn't work out of the box (new from Musician's Friend)....disconnected and shipped the chassis with tubes and all to Jeff and Scot (per their instructions) and they 'fixed' the problem. I get it back and the amp footswitch doesn't work with the amp (no, it wasn't a cord failure) pop the chassis out and send it back to Budda. Get it back and the footswitch only worked to change channels and then stopped working at all (again) a little while later (no biggie as I was using it for the clean channel only anyway). A few months later the amp quit at a gig for about 15 minutes (I guess it overheated) and then the light in the on-off switch began blinking and then failed (now I couldn't look to see if the amp was on, nothing visually verified that it was on) the amp quit on me a few more times at rehearsals until I learned to switch it on and off right before I was going to play (not good for tubes or tone) and into standby often. This was beginning to be a major high maintenance amp.....so I sold it and bought a Fender Vibro-King with absolutely no problems over 2 years.

The guys are nice enough (I dealt with Scot and Jeff, I guess salesman and designer) But I think a little more thought needs to go into the design concerning reliability, they have the tones and the sound down it just isn't reliable...(guys if you promise me you have these issues solved then I will buy another SD30 and call it my main amp because I love the tones and mojo this thing can put out, that is why I put up with so much crud (see 'reliability') for so long)

The Budda SD30 is like a really beautiful woman that you love and are attracted to but she just isn't faithful and you can't trust her...

Top Boost function strikes gold? adds beautiful upper-harmonic sparkle. Wish there were seperate eqs for both channels. The mid-scoop does the trick, if that's what you're looking for.
The main feature problem is probably the best kind to have if you want an amp that SOUNDS good? I think the Budda LOOKS really ugly. I just can't get into the purple.

Sounds beautiful with teles, strats, jazzmasters and other single-coils. Needs to be relatively loud to get the good sounds. The clean channel is to die for if your looking for harmonic richness and overdrive relative to pick pressure. It cleans up nicely as mentioned numerous times above, but won't ever be completely "fender" clean.
The distortion channel is huge and lush--and refuses to ever sound harsh.
Amazingly quiet for a tube amp.
Tons of volume---can't believe how loud it can get.

Too new to tell.

As mentioned above, the people are fast to respond and very accomodating.

I'm super stoked about the way this amp sounds. I love that it's lighter than the bogners, and less expensive, and that it sounds voxier. I do think the bogners are easier on the eyes, though.

2 channels with a/b box type footswitch for switching cabs. Never use it. Effects loop good. Nice to have some reverb.

This is the closest thing to a Bogner I've heard with a price tag under 2k. Strats and single coils rule in my world and it's hard to get a good humbucker sound when the amp is set for singles, but all amps are like that. Everybody is raving about the clean tone, however I think it breaks up way to easy. It's hard to get crystal clean at stage volume, and I'm talking single coils here. The gain totally rocks. Beautiful.

Most unreliable amp I've ever owned. So much so, that I've stopped using it live and have relegated it to recording only. Is that worth $1700, not in my book. You can fry an egg on the damn thing. Why they didn't build a cooling fan into it I'll never know. It's pooped out on me twice at big shows because of overheating. Totally unacceptable. If you can't use an amp right out of the box in any reasonable situation what good is it. Totally unsatisfied in this regard.

They've always gotten back to me in a reasonable amount of time, and you get to talk to the big boys. However, in regard to my overheating problem, they're best advice was basically, blow a fan on it.

I compared this thing tit for tat with Bogners, Boogies, Soldano etc... and for the money, it was the best buy. However, it's unreliability has relegated it to my studio only. Would I buy another one? No way.