@@JosePineda-jn8jksome Intel CPU's are made in China, as are all of AMD's CPU's and GPU's, all Nvidia GPU's that aren't made by Samsung in Korea, all Apple Silicon ARM chips whether in an iPhone or an M1/M2 Mac Studio, all Qualcomm, Mediatek, Rockchip, and Allwinner ARM CPU's... Ever hear of TSMC? The T stands for Taiwan, and almost all of their actual diffuser and manufacturing plants are in Shenzhen, or on the outskirts of Hong Kong or Maçao. It's easier to list chips that aren't made in China or from smaller parts or resources refined in China. It's a much shorter list.
Well done video. Interesting that you arrived at the settings I tend to use on the high gain channel. This is a somewhat "vintage voiced" amp. Per a former Line 6 employee it's a allegedly Dumble on the clean channel and a vintage Marshall on the dirty. The 20 watt setting simulates a variac increasing sag and the 40 watt is firmer. Some think it was intended to compete with the Mesa Recs and it does have a somewhat similar channel layout but it's voiced differently. "Misunderstood" is the best description. The association with Line 6, parallel effects loop, and sensitive controls really hurt its rep on the forums. Truth is it's got better quality components than most contemporary Chinese made amps. The 212 cabs are based on the matchless formula and sound really great. I currently own 3 of these amps and am always keeping an eye for a deal on another.
Thank you! Yes definitely misunderstood. Probably not the best amp to try and release at a lower price point also, I really feel if the control layout was more straight forward (like the archon for example) that it would have killed. It’s definitely a cool one to have though, because it’s so unique
Nice. I pricked up one of these a while back against most general sentiment. Tried it out myself and liked the feel of it so I brought it home. Definitely a temperamental amp and definitely more geared to lower gain tones but you can dial it downright mean with a little work. Plus it's a cool-looking amp.
Taylor thanks for making this video. A couple notes to add: 1. the amp was voiced for a split cab loaded with a Celestion G12H and Greenback G12M. 2.The effects were based on the Tonecore pedals. I've upgraded my Alchemist with better-quality tubes and find its response to be a little more refined now. It's so curious and interesting to see it through the lens of metal. Thanks for all that you put into making your videos engaging!
Hey Taylor! Glad to see you went ahead with this demo. I use my combo version (internal speaker disconnected) with a Mesa recto oversized 2x12. I feel like that gives it the right amount of tightness for heavy styles. And yeah it doesn’t cut like a 5150. But it’ll get you in the ball park with a boost. I think if you were in a heavy band with one guitar player, it could work. But I think where this amp shines, is it’s clean tone and lead tone. I play a variety of music and where this amp didn’t do it for me was the crunch channel. But it also should be taken into consideration that I don’t own a Strat. That could be the reason I couldn’t get what I was looking for. And it could be that I didn’t use pedals with it early on. Anyway, I think it’s a great amp for the right person.
@@weezerman2002 Oh my bad! I thought it was a Bogner like an uberschall or something, but still quite good amp, right? At least for heavy stuff it sounds good to me.
@@weezerman2002 Makes not much of a difference, really. US made Bogners use pretty much the same components, circuit was designed by Bogner. Does it matter in what country the solder joints were soldered?
I had an alchemist for a few months. It sounds fine but to me the feel is what irks me. Idk how to explain it, its like a saggy but immediate digital feel... ironic but thats how it felt for me. Also, i didnt keep it too long, i saw the guts and its a nightmare to repair. Had to dispose it asap
That spider valve amp was actually pretty killer. I had the 2x12 combo and it served me well for several years. Eventually traded it for a full sleeve haha
x2 the Spider Valve is definitely a great sounding amp. Granted, for high-gain stuff, I pretty much lived on the orange channel of the Metal mode and rarely, if ever, used the Insane mode. If you get the MkII it can also do looping with the footboard which is a huge boon.
I have one. It’s pants. The combo comes with good speakers and a weird size cab though if you like that. The gain will randomly go muffled for no reason. New valves, biased by a boutique builder. It’s the same horrible gain structure most people noted on release. The cleans are okay, but anything where you drive from the front gets a nasty tone. Not tried the parallel fx loop yet. To top it off these things have been riddled with qc issues from day one, things go wrong on them and i wish i had bought ANYTHING else. A 190 quid purchase turned into 420 by the end of week 1
I was looking at this amp on guitar center’s website, too! I thought about buying it but I’m glad I didn’t. I got a Bugera 333xl Infinium instead and I can say I’m very pleased. You should review that sometime :)
Finally landed the Alchemist twin combo with the original blended cab a while back. It arrived broken so I still have to get it fixed. Thanks for the new demo!
@@TaylorDanley Bought it during the panny, they gave me partial refund but the cabinet basically needs to be rebuilt (the tubes were intact, which was crazy). I think the amp itself is fine but when it looks like that you can't just fire it up so it waits till I can go through it (I'm an eng tech in a different industry). I wanted something with the Bogner preamp in it of course but I had learned about blended cabs around that time and noticed they released a small stack with it and the combo was equipped same, so it's going to be fun to experiment with. When I get there lol Then again, Synergy happened along the way and has Egnater tech in it too, and another thing on my list to acquire and experience is a Tourmaster...I may just pull these projects out (I've got a lot of them already, list notwithstanding), look around the room, and say "you know, someone's really gonna love these projects while I'm playing my Synergy gear with the money they gave me". The only thing Synergy doesn't have yet that I want is Rivera tech, and he's still alive and producing amps, so it's actually something that could happen, gods and fates willing. That guy built some of the gnarliest rigs of the hair metal era; unholy beasts that should never have been. And that's coming from a guy who's sitting on a pair of Fender/Sunn 1200S monoblocks that my house doesn't even have the power to fire up so I can debug them. Well, now that I've written all that out, I want to delete it because I look insane...but nah. I bet you understand lol
I've played the Alchemist years back after it came out. Thought it was one heck of a great tone amp! Has great Rocking overdrive crunch distortion and sustain. Clean is pristine too! I rate it a very high end amp.
I have owned, fixed and modded a couple of these. Many reviewers got this amp wrong and compared it to things that it just isn’t. It’s not an Ecstasy, not a modded Marshall, no a Fender. Not from the schematic bit from the sound. Its clean channel has a Dumble tone stack, its drive channel has a Soldano cold clipper. It has none of the typical Marshall hallmarks - no EL34, no bright cap, no treble peaker, no cathode follower. Components and build quality are top notch. When it has issues, it can be old tubes pulling from the switching current or the rectifier being dead. Easy to fix. A couple of simple mods can also brighten it up and add gain. Bright cap on the gain knob and removing negative feedback on the first gain stage will make a difference.
IMHO, a boost pedal into the crunch channel sounds great, even better with an attenuator or a PPIMV for phase inverter distortion. Dirt channel is four gain stages, gain between 2 and 3, 40k cold clipping in stage 4. if one wanted to sound this more like an Ecstasy or a JCM800, on would have to turn stage 4 into cathode follower and lower the cold clipper to 10k. Dirt channel with punch turned off has a passive mid scoop between gain stages 1 and 2. Can be removed if you need more mids.
And, as Jason Tong/Headfirst points out in his XTC video, the Treble pot is linear - which is why it sounds bad with everything at noon. Treble at noon on this amp is what treble at 9 o clock would be on other amps. Treble needs to be at 2 o clock or higher to open up the amp.
I do believe that these are somewhat misunderstood amps, but I also believe after playing with another guitar player who used an alchemist for the better part of three years, that a lot of the hate is kind of justified and this is coming from not using it as a metal amp. It seems like, to my ears at least, the amp just lacks a lot of the harmonic complexity of most other tube amps. It’s like it makes the right noise and is loud, but most of the harmonic sound qualities we typically associate with tube amps just really wasn’t there. He ended up selling it and picking up a Mesa stiletto deuce and the difference was night and day better. I would say at this point, the most comparable product to this that I would take over an alchemist would be a katana artist or stretch the budget for an H&K Grandmeister deluxe if you are after an amp with built in effects. Egnater, by FAR had the best China built tube amps of the mid 2010’s era but the Jet City amps weren’t bad either.
I have the Bogner Alchemist head with the matching 2x12 cab. I picked it up off some rich lawyer in my area on Craigslist for dirt cheap and have used it most of my professional career. When I had the amazing opportunity of opening up for Steel Panther in Pittsburgh at Stage AE, Satchel commented on how good it sounded at soundcheck. I love that amp.
Taylor, two questions: 1. Is your cortex cloud free? 2. Will you make a “no cab” capture of this amp as well as some other “hidden gems”? Thanks for all you do in finding these hidden gems and making awesome content!
Thanks for watching! I haven’t done much with the Quad Cortex in a while, but I did make a pack with Amp Guru that includes this amp. All the captures are no cab. I also have some stuff up on the tone x tone net, but not this amp yet.
It's definitely one you really need to take your time with. It was an interesting choice though for a budget/beginner amp. I'd figure they'd do something closer in line with the ecstasy mini, just with tubes.
A lot of people said the Carvin Legacy wasn’t a great metal amp. Idk why they said that because I always was able to dial in a very articulate higher gain tone without any drive pedals (but it takes some time messing around with the middle and presence knob). People always asked me how and there was no secret sauce, just a good set of DiMarzio pickups and a good cable. I think people just don’t like their own playing sometimes and just think it’s someone else’s tone doing the work 😂
Its interesting in that it could be used in a band setting like natalie merchants for example for this clean on the edge of breakup tones that this amp seems to thrive on. So for a bluesier folk rock band it would make the guitarist interesting and poetic versus using a marshall(loud and buzzy) or fender(boomy broken jangles) tones this would be superior. Just an idea
I have this one for many years. The amp is great, but the cab has a lot of mids. Not my personal fave tbh. But I use it now with a XTC cab or Mesa cab and it sounds brutal! (I play mostly 80's style metal)
Have one, I don't play metal but it sure can handle lots of effects on the clean channel, the dirt channel with the gain knob way down gives an interestung crunchy/clean setting that noone uses. I wouldn't change it.
I am a blues rock guitarist and have this amp since it came out ! If you can dial this amp to your sweet spot it is a winner ! Made many recordings with it and the sound was always on par with a Fender or Marshall feel. I understand that it might not be a super Metal amp you are the Judges, but for someone looking for a cheap prices alternative amp this is something to consider.
😂 Yeah, I doubt Kyle wants to spend the hours needed to get a decent tone out of it. Plus I don't think the Bogner saturation is something he enjoys very much.
I have the combo. Clean channel was good with pedals. I kinda dug it - until it died. Lasted less than a year. So far Ive been turned down by 2 repair shops to get it fixed. They wont touch it. For the last 6 or so years, its been in the gear graveyard corner of my garage. Looks pretty cool covered in spiderwebs
Man I had the combo and the slighty dirty/clean on the mercury (right) side was the PERFECT pedal platform. I sold it and regret it. I wanna get one again
Lol nice!! Yet again buddy, you've helped me out with; not only, the specs, functionality, price tag, and answered questions I had on thar head lol. Been building my wet/dry amp (with rack mount units) and had (2) heads(amp) to choose from(This and a really old Randall)to go along w/ my Marshall mg100fx (head). Thanks again for another great vid, 👍🏻 and of course saving me from the migraine that is 'USED' Amp Head shopping/weeding through loads mistreated used gear 😂😂
I have both the head with cab AND I have the 1x12 combo. to be honest at volume they seem to come alive and I enjoy both very much. I kept the combo and sold the head and combo to a pal. Great rock amps! Something to also note is that the 20 watt mode has a more spongy low end and the 40 watt is a little tighter. That could just be a headroom thing and total sales fluff... I found myself setting this up like I would a Mesa Mark series, I used an eq in the fx loop.
Have a close friend who owns the combo version of the alchemist he got from a Best Buy close out sale for 300 dollars. I’ve played it a few times at his place, the effects loop is a little noisy and I can tell the pots on that unit needed to be cleaned. But I got some pretty sick tones out of it and so did my friend. It did take a minute or two to figure out what the switches do and how to dial in a good tone but we eventually got there. At one point I set up a good clean and plugged in my pedal board and got the amp to sound glorious. I think the “made in China” label and the mystery of those switches on the amp is kinda what gave it a bad name in the guitar community.
i had one of them but ended up selling it cause i went full axe fx. while i had it it was a great amp. it was the 1x12 combo with the stock speaker swapped for a tonker. sounded awsome with a boost and had that great fender-y clean with a lot of tonal options on both channels. dont know why ppl shat on them . they were really cheap as well
Sometimes I think it's the brand name and the overall looks of any piece of equipment that influences people's opinions, even if they've never actually used the gear.
@@nckhed dont know how they marketed it when it first came out cause i got it 2nd hand (actually chose it from a number of other available ones to trade a guitar for it-thats how much i liked the tone) but it surely isnt a 5150 style purely metal amp. thats for certain. i'd compare it more to a mesa mark 2 or 3
just to make a long story short, biggest mistake is to expect 4000€ bogner tones here. this looks like a bogner but is build and sounds like a line 6, the reliability is also a big downer here BUT for 350€ you just can`t go wrong with it! its tube, its versatile, its cheap and it has a bogner logo!! 😂greetings from germany 🎸🎸
I remember when these were newly released, I played one and while wasn't really my thing (never cared for that Bogner woollyness) I remember thinking it was a great amp for the price and sounded like a Bogner. But yeah, all the stores near me that had them, the same inventory just sat there collecting dust. It was sad.
Ive had 4 and still have 2. Killer tone. Occasionally does this weird thing where the delay gets stuck on. Rebooting has taken care of the issue during a gig and it does not return. Ive heard the footswitch is flawed. But honestly i love the gains and cleans, Better than the Blackstar orange and the Egnater renegade that I have although the Renegade is close.
I tried one of these at launch and really wanted to like it but just wasn't happy with the sound for metal...........until i plugged it into my custom oversized 2x12 (vertical aligned Celestion G12t-100s), then it came alive, with the right cab and a little tweaking can really scream and chug well.
The Alchemist is a unique and incredibly toneful amp. Its not like any other ive played. It records well and is so fun to play but it only sounds right when its LOUD. Its for playing LEAD guitar, nothing else. This is from someone who primarily plays an egnater
So essentially, get this, get a precision drive and maybe a separate gate if that isn't enough and you got a H&K Black Spirit with a slightly worse clean channel.
It took exactly 10 seconds of hearing you play through this amp to know that i abso-fucking-lutely will buy one soon. Ho-lee shit i love how dark it sounds.
i tried this amp many years ago with the original cab, the reverb was pretty good, the rest was ok at best. i tried for few minutes only, maybe the original 2x12 cab was crap, i would have bought if i could get a sound like your video
I had one of these..and now I've got a Shiva..all I can say is you get what you pay for....maybe it would sound good with pedals...but there is a reason why the Shiva cost much more.
@@TaylorDanley I mean, it still has it's own sound, that a lot of people could find a little weird, but it's a lot more natural with a lot more headroom than the production ones. Not a "hidden gem" but neither a crappy amp.
As someone who doesn't own any Real amplifiers the gain channel without any boost in front and ton of high end was pure Bliss! I dont get the hate either
Two things: First, I don't think that metalheads can appreciate tonal possibilities of this amp, and second, the amps were unreliable, all amps we sold failed due to the digital board or the heater rectifier.
Sounded pretty good to me. I kinda wish more amps made people work for their tone, makes getting to know the amp more intimate. Also, maybe it is just my bad ears but it seemed like that amp tightened up a bit at 40 watts vs 20 watts and 40 watts seemed to take a little fizz out. It's almost unnoticeable, so maybe I am just hearing things.
There’s a clear difference between made in China/India and made in Mexico/Italy/Japan/Korea/Indonesia, etc. The former uses child slave labor. The latter uses the simple hard work of a middle-aged guitar enthusiast. Cool guitar dudes take way more care of quality control than child slave masters. Thanks to the US shipping our labor overseas, granting China more global market power and diminishing the US’.
this amp needs a lot of effort to achieve a very good tone IMO but it's capable of many different flavors 💎 the clean is the great asset of this tube head and you must take advantage of the // loop to fatten your tone (with the boost or the crunch mode but with a special trick) i put on mine a 7bands Fish'N'Chips EQ in the loop to cut all the Mids n boost some highs to add presence +++ an Orange compressor & a TC Dreamscape Chorus (Trichorus type) ...i've also dialed into some nice settings with the preamp tubes swapping the v2 with a 12At7 (JJ) to get more creamy toonzZ 🤓 n lower the noise level plus being able to achieve in Crunch mode a super warm jazzy tone (this is my secret trick 🎖) i run it thru a 212 plywood Cab with a V30 (MiUK) to add some punch & a Jensen C12K (to get da fendery tone) ......that way im able to dial one of the best clean tone ever ever found on a tube head (BTW i play Jazz n Fusion therefore some sort of high gain)
I’m hearing a lot of mush, not high gain note definition. Maybe I’m off-base. Over a decade ago, I did an in-store test of an Alchemist. I got the cleans like you got.
I’ve had this amp for over 10 years and it got the job done for a minute, but after a while reliability became a big issue. Tubes dying like crazy, and the distortion tone just straight up dying twice. I had it worked on multiple times and sent out once, and I want to sell it, but it’s got to get fixed, and it’s just been a hassle. I gotta say though the clean channel is really nice, spunky and bright, but after getting a blackstar and being able to dile in something faster, and just have no issues with it since I bought it a couple years ago, I see no reason to go back to the alchemist. It just want to get it fixed and sold at this point I think. Thanks for this vid though. This amp deserves a breakdown fs.
Be warned, I didn't include it in the video but the effects loop is weird too. Like I figured I could run an eq to get it dialed a bit more, but no. That just made the whole situation so much worse.
I've had my eye on these for awhile and been thinking about picking one up just because they're so cheap. The distortion has a super nasty fuzz characteristic to it that I love and reminds me of Electric Wizard.
Alchemist is good dialed in, a bit dark and I like that. Another amp that got no love and was a monster dialed in was the Genz Benz El Diablo. Both the 60 and 100. I also thought the Black Pearl was a sleeper and with a boost was shockingly good.
It does have a cheapness tone sound to it. Yeah it can have a high gain, but something it not sounding exactly right with it. I've never played Bogner before. But maybe an EQ on it?
P.S. Where the hell is Bogner himself these days? Anyone seen him OR the company? The website has been dead for years and I don't think they have much of a social media presence
It’s a little hard to tell what the amp sounds like in the full mix. The drums are WAY overpowering and overshadowing the whole mix. The amp itself sounds great though.
I have a Line 6 DT50 that’s seriously AWESOME! We live a world of stupid people who didn’t know how to utilize it. I think a lot of people didn’t know how to dial them in or how to take the time to learn how they work.
