Bugera 333XL

It's a basic amp, nothing too flash. Nothing on it really excited me, but the sound was semi-decent.

The sound was semi-decent. I'd still prefer a Marshall but this is still about half the price of a Marshall.

It's already been replaced twice, so no, I would not buy one again. I've owned it for around 4 months and its died twice. Says a lot doesnt it? Then again I expect nothing less from Behringer.

Takes a long time to get anyone to talk to and they usually pass the buck. "Talk to the store" "the store said to call you" "oh... have you tried another store?"

I'd say its just a shame Behringer are happy to screw their customers yet again. When it was working the sound was decent for the money, but needing to get it replaced twice just makes me think how bad their quality control is. I've got 5 amps including this one, two of them I've had for 20 years, havent broken down once so I obviously know how to take care of them, but this Bugera is just junk.

Mad-Mike gave a great review of the features, I think he pretty much covered it all. The noise gate only works on the lead and crunch channel, which is too bad because a Fender sounds great on the (very nice) lead channel and Fender single coils often need a gate to help with the hum. The XL thing (again, on crunch & lead channels only) adds a bit more grunt to the bass and low-middle range, but not much. I find the gain control on the effects loop to be more useful. But overall this thing has pretty much everything you would expect in a tube head. I give it "only" a 9 because of the noise gate not working with the clean channel.

I use mostly Gibsons and my preferred pickup is the Burstbucker Pro, although I am also using Gibsons with 490/498 and also an Ibanez (I need one guitar with Floyd Rose) with Dimarzio Fred & Norton pickups. All these sound great through this head. I have a Strat and a Rickenbacker 360 also. They sound good with this head also but I think that the humbucker guitars sound best.

I am not into the metal kind of sound. I am after the classic EL34 British sound... but with a "little" more gain than most Marshalls put out. This Bugera has SO MUCH gain, that I get all I am looking for with the gain controls set to 9 or 10 o'clock. The natural tube compression effect is just great and that HUGE, room filling tube sound is there in spades. I use a digital delay in the effects loop for a bit of slapback echo... very nice.

Agree that this amp is LOUD. This is not a bedroom amp. However, this Bugera breaks up easier and at lower volume levels than most Marshalls I've played. Still, it's a loud, loud rig.

I think that this amp, because of the large amount of gain and three channels, is actually one of the most versatile tube amps I've played. I was also looking at a used Marshall TSL 100W (I like the three-channel format) but this Bugera seems to do everything that one does plus more. I doubt I'll ever actually make use of all that gain... but who knows what the future holds.

Well, I have to say that I have a Behringer LX1200H modeling head and a few of their stomp boxes as well. I read about how Behringer stuff is cheap and poorly made and all that... but I just don't have that experience. I've never had a single problem with Behringer stuff. On the other hand, my Hughes and Kettner is a pile of junk...

We'll see how this one does. I've looked inside and it's well made. My day job is engineering manager for an electronics company that you would recognize (not music related), so I do pay attention to design, manufacturing and that sort of thing and I see nothing cheap or questionable about this amplifier. I could care less about the chrome plated plastic parts on the front either way. They look fine. If they got broken, I would take them off. The Peavey logo on one of my other amps broke years ago... oh well. A lot is made about Behringer plastic knobs. Again, I could care less. They'll only break if I do something stupid with the head. In which case I'll put some other knobs (or pots or jacks) on there. Not really a good reason to spend $1000 extra on a "name" brand head that doesn't sound as good or do as much - at least not in my book. But to each his own. Hard to rate the reliability of this Bugera though, because I haven't had it all that long. So rather than just commenting for the sake of comment, I'll claim "no opinion".

The Bugera-amps site doesn't actually answer questions on the amp, you have to go to the Behringer site. I was thinking about swapping out the preamp tubes for 12AT7 to tame the gain a bit (I since decided not to bother, it sounds great just the way it is) and asked the question about the tubes. I got a well thought out answer in about 2 days. I asked a question about another Behringer product a couple of years ago, and got an answer in a day or two also. So I would say that their response is perfectly fine. I have never had a service issue because nothing has ever broken down, on warranty or otherwise. I would have rated them a 10 if they had sent a schematic.

I've been playing for more than 30 years, and have a LOT of gear that I've amassed over those years. Lots of high end guitars, and Fender, Peavey and Hughes and Kettner amps. As unpopular as it may be, I've had only good experiences with Behringer (can't say that about a lot of stuff out there, some of which costs much more) and wouldn't hesitate to buy more of their stuff. This Bugera seems to be good quality and it sounds great - exceptional, really. In fact, the amps I play the most are this one and my Behringer LX1200H modeling head. Kind of a shame that the big dollar stuff collects dust these days...

The Features List
- Made in 2008, China
- 2 Channels: Clean, Crunch, and Lead
- Dedicated E.Q. for each Channel
- Built In Noise Gate
- XL buttons that increase gain and boost bass presence on crunch and lead channels
- Line Out
- FX Loop that can double as a volume boost for solos
- 4X EL34 Power Tubes, 4X 12AX7 Input Tubes
- Also compatible with 6l6 tubes via Switch, and has proper Bias tools built into the inside of amp
- Bugera 412H-BK 4X12 Cabinet with unknown speakers
- Footswitch with controls for Each Channel + Effects Loop (actually, I'm using the 6505 head's footswitch with mine, which is electronically identical, except the labeling is mismatched. This happened as the salesman did not know the difference between this or the 6505 Manual, oh well).

So far, this is everything I have been looking for in an amplifier for live use, as I like the crunchy Marshall-Like tone of EL34 power tubes, and have wanted a 3 channel amp for 3 different levels of gain, and what's really nice here, is the Reverb and FX Loop are able to be on on one channel, and then off when you change, leaving it dedicated to that specific channel on the amp for when you are using it, which is very useful, since I find Reverb eats up the tightness on distortion channels, allowing me to use a nice etherial reverb on the cleans to beef up the sound.

I'm using this amp with a massive "artillery" of guitars ranging from a 60's Zenta Telecaster copy to a Fender Jag-Stang with EMG pickups and the musical equivalent to a Bazooka (melt the paint off the walls). I'll spare you the long list of 20+ instruments this thing is used with.

For the styles so far, I use it for many types of rock, mostly with a 70's, 80's, and early 90's lean to it. This includes, punk, reggae, new wave, fusion, blues, thrash metal, pop metal, speed metal, death metal, melodic 80's rock, hair metal, grunge, alternative, and whatever other inane labels a bunch of poo-butts in suits and ties use to create a "lifestyle package" for. So far it has done them all with out a single hangup or problem that I am aware of.

Like pretty much every tube based head I have used, this amplifier does have quite a bit of background hiss on the distortion channels un-tameable by the built-in noise gate. It would not be audible in a club/bar type situation, but at practice it's easy to pick up on.

At full on master volume, this thing is RIPPING loud with all the channels on 3 and the volume boost on and up about a 4th of the way on the FX loop. Did I mention it's RIPPING LOUD!?!? It should be plenty of power for most weekend warriors and local scene bands.

As far as sounds, I only really use 3 kinds of sounds the most, a Fender-like clean (think most 80's pop-rock ballads), a Marshall Plexi (think Van-Halen) type crunch, and a Mesa type Smooth Shred sound (think Metallica). Most of these work with all the knobs midway, or slightly tweaked one way or another to compensate for acoustics of the room/venue you are playing. I just use the FX loop as a volume boost.

On the crunch channel, don't expect woe-inspiring Screamo, but rather expect a nice vintage Thin Lizzy/Van-Halen/UFO/Shenker/Scorps/Dio type Marshall sound depending upon the EQ. With the XL switch on, it goes more in a Guns N' Roses/Skid Row direction. Definatley the 80's channel for sure.

The Lead Channel can go either way as well, but has a much more focused,compressed, shredder type distortion. Good for things like Steve Vai or Metallica depending on which way you twist the midrange knob.

The distortion on this thing can go literal balgoth high on the Lead channel, I usually just use it for a bass-enhanced crunch channel though with more gain, though sometimes I like to turn it into a more Dimebag-esque channel with scooped mids for my shredder moments.

I have run this thing through 2 cabinets so far, this one, and a standard Mesa Boogie cabinet that is usually tethered to a 100 Watt Mesa Stiletto at our practice space.

I've had this amp about 3-4 months so far, and I've been pretty rough on it carrying it to and from practice, and so far the only thing I have gotten is a tear in the tolex on my 4X12 cab.

It's amazing I read so many bad comments about certain things....

A lot of people are put off by the plastic trim....what do you expect, this ain't a Marshall or a Mesa Boogie, so don't expect it to have an aluminum panel, metal knobs, and metal input jacks (which are easily installed if you are handy with a Soldering Iron and have a light understanding of electronics anyway). All those metal parts cost more money, and would easily push this amp into the $1500.00 range, especially with all the controls. Also, the plastic knobs can be easily replaced with metal knobs from the source of your choice anyway, I may do so eventually if I start breaking knobs, which still has yet to happen, even after 100 Miles with the knobs leaning on a folded car seat. And finally, the trim, I don't care much about trim, this is a WORKHORSE amp, I expect it to get some tarnished metal, cracked knobs, missing plastic, and so fourth. So far it's doing tons better than any of my other amps ever have with the only exception being the early 80's Peavey amps I used about 5 years ago.

So far, I have not needed any servicing, but I am planning to get an Oscilloscope and proper tools to do a pro-grade re-tube and Bias on this amp when the time comes to do so. About the only problem I forsee there is getting into the cabinet to change tubes.

Well, given the store I bought this amp at gave me the wrong manual, I have to say the Bugera site has been quite useful for procuring the proper manual and registering my amplifier. However, for the most part, I am skilled enough I can be my own customer support when required.

I've been playing 13 years, and own 20+ guitars, a bunch of toy-grade keyboards, and also play Banjo, Mandolin, Trumpet, and pretty much anything with strings or keys for the most part.

As for the good ole' theft question....it'd be hard to run off with it as it is pretty heavy (the head AND the cab both weight at least 50 LBS, many would have trouble carrying that stuff far enough to get away from me first). However, should they actually make it down several flights of stairs running, they'll probably trip and fall, and get squashed by either the amp or the cab, meet the police downstairs, or meet a Telecaster to the face upstairs (and that's being generous).

I have compared this to the two other amps I was considering, the Marshall JCM2000 TSL head, and the Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier 3 channel, and while I like both amps, I'm not well heeled enough to spend $2400-6000 for something that's going to get the hell used out of it in local bands. You can't beat something like this for the price, however, still, the tube-snobs will disagree and scream about their Fenders/Boogies/Marshalls till the cows come home, but hey, if you want to see me with such an amp, you are more than welcome to donate me the $1500+ it would cost for such a setup.

120 watt, 3 channel, all tube head!!
Built in reverb, 4 pad type footswitch,
runs on EL34 or 6L6 power amp valves.
333XL has the EL34s.

Power & standby toggle type switches.
Master volume, presence, noise gate, and
XL push in button on lead and crunch channels.
All 3 channels have volume, treble, mid,
and bass. Lead and crunch channels have
the added gain knob.
High and low gain imputs.
Effects loop/boost with send and return level controls.
Line out with level control.
4/8/16 Ohm impedance select switch.

My opinion, based more on the lead channel, where I spent most of my time playing. I brought my modded Ibanez rx20, Floyd rose trem, with a dimarzio virtual PAF bridge/air norton in the neck, strings 8s. Tuned down a whole step. Playing influences, EVH, Satch, and Vai.

Bugera 333XL has Fantastic tone!! Very transparent sound!! No need for my BBE sonic max. Harmonic rich, abit glassy, super crunchy distortion!!! Alittle class A-ish sounding. Across between, somewhat sound similiar to, my Marshall JCM 800 2204 and my Peavey JSX.

The 333XL in contrast to the other amps I own or played, sound like there is a blanket over them, when playing at lower volumes. Not true with the 333XL!!

Its so important to me that I get my sound at any volume level, with out using any antenuation. Super bedroom / neighbor friendly!!!!
Sounds just as good turned up too!!! The distortion has more meaty-er tone to it than my JSX and more bite than my 2204 without losing note definition.

The over all tone of the 333XL may not be as fat/full sounding as what you maybe used to. Thats something I can live with. For me there is so much right, I Love it!!! I played it on a Bugera cab and a Marshall 1960 slant cab. The Marshall 1960 slant made it sound a bit darker, yet still Great!!!! Cabs make a difference.



I went to play and buy a Bogner Extasy 101b head. I was disappointed it did not have the A/AB feature. While I was there, they recomended I play the Bugera 333XL. Both of these amps gave me the same feeling that the notes I played, were flowing off the fret board into the amp effortlessly!!! Never had that feeling before, and I had it twice with 2 different approaches to amp building.

Heres this amps catch;
low grade/quality appointments.
Meaning the knobs, stems, input jacks, face plate,
from what you can see.

What you hear and what you see are 2 totally different amps.
I guess this was done to keep the price down. I have had no trouble or problems with mine. Just had it almost a day. lol!!!

My suggestion would be if you like to buy a Bugera, buy it from a dealer that offers an extended warranty and take it.

After the warranty is up, and if I would have any problems, I would just take it to an amp tech and have these things upgraded with out losing its tone magic!! To me, its that good!!!

One day is not enough time to say a rating.

The warranty is one year.
No problems with it.

Been playing guitar since 78. Changed my style of playing to that of EVH, Satch, and Vai since 2003 to current. Before more Beatles style.
I have played or owned my share of amps searching for my tone, a sound that compliments my playing, as well as meets my needs. This Bugera 333XL does that and more!! It does have soul!! Also a descent reverb to boot!! Not dark and un-noticable like Marshall.

I gave it an overall rating of a 10, dispite the low grade parts, because of the sound, price, and bedroom / neighbor friendly.

Sure there are better quality made amps out there, yet they all seem to have this in common: they have to be turned up so loud to get the tone from them. No overall master volume. My JSX was the first tube head I could enjoy at the lower volume levels, yet the Bugera has a more meaty tone than the JSX!!

This amp has great features, I play cover tunes so... that should tell you something about the versatility. I need to go from Free Bird to War Pigs, from Eddie Money to Eddie VH. and from Tom Petty to Green Day, all in the same night. (Yeah, I sold out and sometimes play **** I hate)

3 channels, Loop, every feature possible except footswitchable reverb.
Damn, I wish it had an accutronics reverb tank, that was footswitchable if it did 9.5 easy.

That is one thing would change all those attitudes about this amps clean tone falling short of that great blackface sound.

I am going to buy a reverb unit with the tray built in and loop it last in my chain.

If this amp had that.. unstoppable!!!

I would pay 1500-2000 for that. Don't get me wrong, the reverb sounds good and to get a half stack for under a grand wow!

I play Gibson Pauls with Burstbucker 3 pups in the bridge and duncan jazz in the neck.

The noise gate is nice but the amp will squeal if your close at high volumes. (Most high gain monsters do that anyway.) The 333 minus the xl does not have this feature and it was too noisy for me. Some folks don't care about that but I do.

You have three choices depending on the kind of player you are.

1. Lower the bias about a 1/3 and use the High Gain input.
2. Deal with the feedback churn and burn and use your volume knob with great tact and skill.
3. Play low gain input and reduce the bias slightly until your clean is clean and you lead channel is tamer but still hot. (It's possible use your ears.)

Also, get those Chinese preamp tubes out of there! This thing likes GE and RCA tubes! I know they NOS but they are way better. However, tube swapping is very important but don't overdue it, sometimes it is a crap shoot and a money trap! For example, Ei Elites, Tungsol gold, Groove Tubes 5751M, Sovtek (Mesa)12AX7A, Jan Phillips 12AX7WA, T.A.D. 7025, Ruby 7025 etc.

This amp runs the best on Jan/Phillips 5751 and GE 5751 triple black mica in V2. However if you are looking for a quasi attenuator and have zero regard for a clean tone or headroom, throw a Mullard AT7 in V1!

If you want a good tone but a cheaper alternative use sovtek 5751 in V1 and use sovtek 12ax7wa in the other slots.

I also tested it with 6L6's Nos GE 6L6GC black plates! Nice sound more of a Fendery clean tone if you bias it colder! However lost that Marshall vibe on channel 2. Channel 3 got muddy.

I spent weeks swapping tubes, moving around the bias and rehearsed and gigged with this amp so I am not in the honeymoon period. I also owned a 5150, and a Fender Concert, this amp wins! It also outperforms my band mates JCM800. He is drooling with jealousy.

Value amazing!! The Bugera speakers are excellent don't get stuck in that money trap!! I plugged in my buddy's Marshall cab, and Randell cab the Bugera sounded the best and the cab is inexpensive.

I plan to try a hybrid quad of JJ KT77 and E34L's. With those tubes plus the reverb unit, this amp may go from awesome to utter excellence.

We will see, but I feel confident.

We will see, but I feel confident that I won't every need to find out.

This is a bonafide, versatile and great sounding tube amp. The comparisons to the 5150, JSX, and or the XXX are misleading. Bugera is better. Channel 3 is that vibe, Channel 2 is JCM 800 with better grind, and channel 1 is as close to a blackface combo than any other high gain half stack out there for under 5000.00 bucks!!!!!!!

Clean channel sinics think about this, can you come up with a Half Stack between 700-1500 that sounds as close to a Fender combo as this.

I thought it was impossible (i.e. loaded EL34's, closed 4x12 half stack), but they did it very well! Not perfect but no one else is that good in that price range.

A brand new Bugera 333XL, purchased via the web. Features look great but no way of knowing since the stupid thing blew up after 30 minutes of use.... :-(

No idea. It's kinda dead...

Hmmmn, not that good. 30 minutes is a little short. I was hoping for several years.

Pathetic. They picked the amp up via UPS (who were very good... nice guy... speedy pick-up). I then waited... and waited... and waited. I had to contact them every time. And every time they kept apologising... we're so sorry. But after a month... NOTHING... and STILL nothing... still waiting... zzzzzzzz
My suggestion of another new one to replace the casualty was dismissed out of hand.
This really sucks. These people need a GIGANTIC lesson in customer service....

How can you rate something that doesn't work. From a company that doesn't give a monkeys about it's customers or it's products. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Behringer are useless.

made in 2008

2 inputs: high gain and low gain

3 footswitchable channels: clean, crunch, and lead.

XL buttons for the crunch and lead channels that beef up the sound at lower volumes but don't have much effect at higher volume levels

Each channel has it's own 3-band EQ. There is a global presence knob and global reverb

Noise suppression knob

120 watts

All tube

I play blues and classic rock, so I'm not the target market for this amp. I tried it out because it was all tube and priced right.

The feature set is great for this price range.

used a fender standard strat

Since I'm not much into the high gain thing, I used the low gain input most of the time. The high gain input created a lot more feedback than I normally use and it was hard to not get an over-the-top distortion sound through this input. Even the clean channel was gritty using the high gain input.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of useful tones in this amp. The XL switch really adds some beef when playing at less than half of the amps possible volume. The cleans have a nice sparkle and the crunch channel runs the gamut from slightly overdriven early Stones to early VH. The lead channel is very thick but still tight-sounding. I used it the least since the music I prefer doesn't use that much gain in general.

There was no more hum than any other tube amp I've ever played

It suits my style quite well. I was pleasantly surprised that something that looked like a one trick pony was able to cover old-school rock and blues tones so well.



The clean sounds

This is where the amp looks like it could let me down. All of that pretty chrome, including the knobs, is actually plastic. The input jacks do not inspire confidence. They are the same as what one would find on a cheap practice amp. The knobs do not feel like they are secured well to the faceplate. The buttons that turn the reverb on and off and select channels do not feel like they will work for long either. I do not own this amp, so I will not rate this. Just give these features a look when you test this amp and think about buying it.

The warranty is pretty sweet. If the amp breaks down in the first year you own it, bring it in to a behringer dealer and they will replace it, no questions asked. I don't know much about behringer's customer support past that.

I wrote this review because I've gotten tired of reading the hype on the forums and just wanted to see what these Bugeras were really like. The positive aspects are the tones--I was flat-out impressed with the honest tube-amp sounds and the fact that the amp displays the ability to go from a sweet clean sound to a pretty brutal modern overdrive--and the price of $549. The negative aspects are the construction and reliability issues. I did not buy this amp because it does not feel durable enough. I have visions of knobs getting snapped off during a load-in, setup, breakdown, or load-out. I am at a point in my life where I appreciate durability and am willing to pay a couple of extra bucks for it. If Bugera wants to get me to believe they are marketing a serious tube amp, they need to build it to last a little longer.

I think that most of these amps will be sold to teens and twenty-somethings who figure "if it breaks, I can just take it back and get another one so who cares if it's not built so sturdy. It sounds awesome!"

I give this amp a 7 overall because I just don't see it being that roadworthy, BUT it has excellent tones and is priced incredibly low for what it does.

2008 Bugera 333XL 120W Head - See Bugera's website for features list
***IN-STORE TEST DRIVE***
If you are of the (completely valid) mindset that you can't review any piece of gear without owning it 'til the honeymoon is over, then feel free to take this review with however many grains of salt as you see fit :)

I tried this thing through Bugera's 4x12 using a Samick LP copy (man, that store needs a better Gibson-style selection) and a Fender Tele Deluxe, plus a Godin w/ Seymour Duncan Humbuckers for just a few seconds.

Clean: Ehh. Impressive for a $600 high gain head, no doubt about it. More Fender than Vox; doesn't have the full on Fender "sparkle", but I would say it has about 1/2 of it, which was enough for me to enjoy. Response to EQing was also impressive, didn't push the gain too much so I can't comment on how it breaks up. Clean channel gets a 7.5

Crunch: Now here we have something to talk about. Let me just say - they got this one right! It is deninitely more of the lead-minus than the clean-plus variety of intermediate channel (in other words, if the 333XL were a 4 channel amp, this would be channel 3, not 2), but it ranks among the best I've heard, seriously. Nice and thick, but only has the slightest hint of that Marshall high-end fuzz that always turns me away. Not as tight and boomy as a Recto, but not too far off either. I'd put it at about 75% Boogie on the Marshall-Mesa distortion continuum. Really, the best word for the crunch channel is satisfying - its the kind of sound you could just sit and play and enjoy for hours on end. Crunch channel gets a 9.5!

Lead: Ehh. Pretty much just Crunch with more gain, which kind of screws it up if you ask me. Sure, it will work well for metal leads, and kudos to Bugera for not just blindly upping the gain to insane and unusable levels, but with the high-gain voicing they created, it just turns out that the crunch channel is magic and the lead winds up uninspiring and generic. Its not a BAD sound, it just ain't anything you're gonna remember. Lead channel gets a 6.5

The XL switches give each channel a gain kick; obviously you can tell I think excess gain is kind of counter-productive with this amp, so they don't really add anything in my opinion. I liked the reverb a lot actually, which is a feature I almost never use on my amps.

NOTE - the Samick squealed horribly when either the Crunch or Lead channel was on, which was why I tried the Godin. Thankfully, the Duncans didn't have the same problem, so it was just the crummy pickups on the Samick and not the amp.

In-store demo, so who knows. Everything seemed to be working fine though.

Again, in-store demo. Not sure what the warranty is.

Playing 14 years, main gear is a '93 LP Custom and Bogner Shiva, also have a Tele and Strat that get a lot of use. Thought about selling the Shiva recently, 'cause as nice an amp as it is, it is just NOT versatile enough for me. Been trying out everything I can find to decide what to replace it with and I think I've settled on a Mesa Mark IV, but when I start doing some seroius gigging and need a backup amp, the Bugera 333XL is DEFINITELY the front-runner for that position. Been thinking about an Egnater Tourmaster 4100, but its a lot of dough for what I would say is about the same quality of tone as the 333XL (and the Bugera wins in the cruch department, no contest). Overall - Won't convert any Diezel owners, but probably the best $600 you can spend on a rock amp head right now.

Brand new Bugera 333XL 120w Tube guitar head. el34 power section and 12ax7 preamps.
3 channels; clean, crunch and lead.
Noise gate,presence,digital reverb,adjustable fx loop(operates also as boost)
Features are already listed on previous reviews, so i won't bother adding them here again.
These features suit me fine, i think the crunch channel saturates too much too early,but replacing preamp tube should fix this "problem".
Noise gate is crap,similiar to jsx:s gate,luckily this amp is quiet even in high gain settings,so i won't consider this as a problem.

I've mainly used Epiphone prophecy gx LP with this and ran it thru marshall 1960lead-a cab. I play psychobilly and somewhat punkrock in bands and mostly metal by myself.

Clean channel is warm and bright,pretty much from cheesy ballad cleans to incest goddammit country,i like it very much. Amp is el34 driven,so it breaks up nice whem volume is added.

Crunch sounds lots like jcm800 or dsl marshall,i think it distorts way too early so i won't be getting any ac/dc sounds from it.. Weaker tube here and it rocks like hell.

Lead channel has awesome amounts of distortion,the top end is little too fizzy for my tastes,some say it's close to a mesa, might be so, but it definetly needs a compressor unit in fx loop to deliver similiar punch. Great sound for metal and hc.

First one tripped fuse and burned after fifteen minutes of use.
Decided to give it a chance for a one more time and never regretted!!
This unit works great and it gains more trust every day.. I never take my own amps to a gig,so it won't be a problem. If Bugera sorts out the failure problems i start demanding these amps on stage for me.

Like i said, first amp popped and i sent it back for repairs.
Got new one in 4 days.

I've been playing guitar since 1990, mostly punk,rock and metal.
PRS soapbar and Epiphone prophecy GX LP guitars. I had many amps (fender,crate,marshall,laney,peavey) and this beats the **** out of them all! AND FOR WHAT PRICE!
Loads of FX:s and devices, acoustics, drums, PA:s and other ****.
If someone steals this amp, i would definetly go get another.
I bought it randomly,because it was cheap. Sold my peavey the day i got a working one,never looked back.
So i think in time these amps will be reliable and mostly important
thing is that you surely can get all kinds of sounds for modern music out of this amp. For a price this amp is full 10 and compared to others it is 8. It ain't Engl,mesa,framus or bogner but can stand up against them because of it's incredible ridiculous price tag.

07 or 08.
3 channel w/ boosts(XL) features on the cruch & lead
All tube 120 watts @ 4,8,16 ohms. High & low in`s.
Reverb
noise gate
effect loop which serves as a volume boost also.
Comes w/ el 34 but can be switched over to 6l6 w/ a flick o` the switch

I have many guitars. All but one armed w/ HOT humbuckers of different brands. My least hot having a dimarzio evolution in the bridge. Hottest being a flying V w/ an off brand pickup w/ 17K output & great tone as well. For referance we will use these 2.
(lead) 10
I think the amp liked the V better as the evolution just didnt drive it up front the way I wanted( I play METAL !) Not that the sound was weak, just not as heavy as I wasy after. Using the hotter pup it was perfect. Thick & full and very heavy (gain @ 2 o`clock) & loud as S***! Many compare this amp to the 5150. Having owned a couple of those I can say they dont sound alike at all!(If you want a 5150 clone check out the 6262) I feel this (333XL) amp has a more "marshall-like" character to it. May just be the EL34 tubes but none the less KILLER!
CRUNCH 7.5
Some good 80`s sounds here but near crank the gain on this one if you want to enter the british steel zone. ACDC easily done.
Clean 8.2
I think active tone pots would have really made this channel shine but it is still nice. No fender twin here but a better clean than any marshall or peavey I owned.

Jury is still out..

I have paid 3 time as much for amps that sound HALF as good as this head. I have had triple rects, marshalls , peaveys ,engl , bogner and a **** load of others.
Let your EARS be the judge. IMO this amp is the best sounding amp under 1200 bucks & actually sounds better than some that cost much more. It is thick, Full, Glassy & has enough gain on tap to play pantera or iced earth. It has all the bells & whistles.
I hope it is as well made as it is well sounding...

this amp is amazing, 3 fully independant channels each with own bass/treb/mid features. has reverb and get this....has a built in noise gate. XL model (which i have) has 6L6s which caters more to heavy rock, metal, as well as any other styles.

I use fender strat, schector omen 7-string, and a dean razorback which all sound great. You see tons of reviews on here saying "it sounds like a mesa dual/trip rect" which usually is from someone who's never even seen one!! Bottom line is that this is the closest amp i have ever heard to a mesa rec. You will call me crazy but i will even say this amp sounds better than the mesa. i paid 499 which is rediculous, i felt guilty not paying more. also matching 4x12 cabs are between 200-250 which means for about 900 you can have the whole stack. thats unbelievable! go try one and you wont be able to leave the store w/o it !! make sure its the XL model. sound quality = 11

dunno, just came out

dunno, just came out

overall is a 12...or better than 10. unbelievable sound, price, and features... hurry up because ive already heard rumors that the price will go up in near future.

Brand new 2008 model, Three channels with seperate eq controls for each, overall master volume and presence controls, foot switchable fx loop that can also be used as a volume boost and channel assignable reverb. Comes with a 4 button footswitch to change each channel and to turn the fx loop off or on. All Valve, 4-12AX7's and 4-EL34's, you can replace the EL34's with 6L6 style valves as there is a switch to do this as well as an easily accessible bias test point and adjustment knob. Easy to get a workable sound out of this amp without hours of knob turning. 120 watts loud but unlike a lot of high gain Amps actually sounds great at lower volumes as well, go figure. My amp arrived on Friday morning and I played a 4 hour club gig with it the same night (I like to live on the edge, HA),I put a delay pedal in the loop, my Wah in the front, plugged my Les Paul in and was good to go. For the "PRICE" there is no all Valve Amp that can touch the Bugera for features. I'm giving it a 9 in this category because hey nothings perfect!!!

OK, sound is a subjective thing so you really will have to hear any amp yourself to decide if it's got the sound that's for you or not. In saying that we can all hear a **** sound a mile away so I'll give you the run down on what "I" think of the sound that I get from this Amp.

Clean channel:
it's not a Fender Deluxe but it has a very nice snappy percusive tone on this channel, I can get a passable Jazz tone on the neck pickup of my Les Paul and even a decent country twang from the bridge, not that I use either of these sounds with my band but they're available if you want them. Better clean than most high gain amps i've had (Mesa Tremoverb, 5150, various Marshalls) with only a Carvin ValveMaster having a better clean tone, anyone who's played one of those will know what i mean.

Crunch:
Very Marshall sounding, think JCM800(always my benchmark dirty rhythm sound) with more gain, better eq control and fatter bottom end = NICE!!!

Lead:
They were definitely chasing the Peavey 5150 sound with this channel and to a certain degree they succeed but I don't think it's quite as tight as the Peavey when you play at shred speed, but still a great Metal sound and a lot of people will buy this amp for this channel alone.

Can't comment on the reliability of this amp as I've only had it for a couple of days, seems well made but only time and a couple of hundred gigs will tell. It has already done a 4 hour gig with no problems and I recieved a lot of positive comments about the sound. I can't believe some dicks rate items low because they're made in China even if the've had no problems, what the ****!! so for this reason alone I won't offer an opinion until I've giged it more.

Bugera give a 12 month replacement warranty on the Amp which is pretty good and a 90 day warranty on the Valves which is good as well. These Amps are distributed by Behringer so I would expect the customer support to be up to their usual standard which is excellent, I'm in Australia so I can only comment on the support we receive here. But seeing I haven't needed to contact them about this Amp I won't offer an opinion in this category.

I've been playing 20 years(I started early, HA) I've worked in music stores selling and repairing instruments for over 10 years, I've played, owned or fixed just about every type of Guitar, Amp and FX unit you can think of so these comments don't come from an inexperienced person who's played this Amp in a shop for 20 minutes then posted a review. This a great Amp "FOR THE PRICE" , I paid $879.00 AUS for this Amp so don't compare it too closly to Mesa, Framus, Engl, Hughes & Kettner etc but it will give most of them a scare in the quality of sound. The only reservation I have is like anthing you buy thats cheap is it's reliability, but we'll see how it goes. Overall a "FREAKIN GREAT AMP"