TTK's Closer Look at the Bugera V22 Vintage 22 1x12 Tube Combo Amp Review Demo 

I don't care what a single person says here, I OWN this amplifier and it's been with me for 6 years or so now. Once the original valves were replaced with some quality Russian made ones it really opened up the sound. I've been playing for a long time and I've yet to find an amp that is completely perfect in every way. When I spent the money on a Mark V Mesa combo I found things that I didn't like. That's what pedals are made for. The long and short of it is, for the type of music this amp is directed at you cannot beat it. I'd take this over a Blues Junior or Marshall DSL. Actually I did, because I owned both and sold both. The Bugera is still getting played.

I own a DSL 100 tube half stack and I love it... As for a good combo amp I can carry around I bought a Blackstar 150 watt combo and returned because of the low quality speakers and inability for the amp to cut through a mix. I Then turned to a Fender Deville but had problems because of the soldering issues and melting of the pods. Also, my tubes were burning out much too quickly. I traded a guitar for a 130 watt Vox and although it was great on the clean channels it sounds a bit to nasally congested on its overall tone. So, finally I bought this Bugera and its great on the cleans and adds just enough gain for when I want to play hard rock. Its crisp and clean and clear. When I add my pedals delay, chorus its quality for studio recording projects. I think some listeners do not understand or can tell the difference when an amp on youtube is being reviewed through mixers. Most of these videos are actually produced by the companies themselves but try and pass them off as a regular guy in his bedroom trying out an amp. Dont make that mistake and learn the difference. Go to your music store and plug in before you buy.

UPDATE: after 3 months of many hours of play, I think the distortion channel is also golden. Keep the Gain between 1-4 to avoid shrill sound. This bad boy is a must for Zep, Who, and other classic rock.

I’ve just bought the Bugera V22 and it sounds great. The clean channel in pentode mode is excellent. It has a great twang sound with strats or tele. Thanks for this review.

nice demo tone king! I am researching amps right now, in this price range, and this amp looks great for the money, thanks for the run through all of the features, and the back options as well!

Ive toured with the V22 now for 6 months with zero problems or issues. Many times after shows, people have even used the "T" word to describe my sound, so thats great ~ I.E. "Your tone is awesome!" ~ The build quality is just fine. Ive never felt like it wasnt made well. Ive used this amp at shows with 5000 people mic'd up - we have in-ear monitors so its always loud enough. Total clean tube goodness. I use a Boss GT-8 into it and it drives the tubes just enough and yeah ~ very balanced sound

I just bought this, I play my 25th anniversary prs sc245 with 57/08 pups through it, I know what you are thinking, and you are wrong. This amp Is incredible. Bar none, one of the best of it's kind, I get compliments all the time now because of this amp and guitar combo, that's from Guys with their Mesa, orange, marshall, you name it. It's legit, seriously, and the best part is, you can't beat the price. Play it, I promise you won't go wrong

the clean setting is beautiful and the crunch sounded nice

This amp seems to have a good amount of picking dynamics, even with the gain dimed. That's a nice feature to have.

Thank you for the vid. As always, awesome job. I like this Bugera.

Excellent job! I just got mine a few hours ago!

That amp sounds killer! All the gain stages sounded very nice, especially when it was half way, that gave it such a crunchy tone. Love it!

I've had one of these for at least 6years and it's a total work horse, not sure why people give these amp's a bad name...mine sounds awesome and it takes pedals in the front really well...

excellent review TK, I've just ordered one..

This is exactly what i have been looking for. Tanks!!

Tone King is absolutely transfixed by this amp. He's in love!

your awesome dude! Show and tell me everything I needed to know in on simple video!

So yesterday i asked when the next bugera vid would be, and it turns out there is one today, Sweet!! I love me some bugera :) rocking a 1990 myself. Thanks ttk!

My college bought this amp recently, i used it for my exam and recital, it's a great amp!!~

Wow the V22 sounds great; very good review as well.

I have used a V22 for about 3 months now. I was using a Fender Jr. 15 watt. I sold the Fender. I just really like the softness of the overdrive with the Bugera. I think the sound is hands down better than the Blues Jr. Reliability is great so far. I just sold my multi effects pedal and use this amps overdrive only. Great job TK, I bought this after your demo with the Vox 15. I hope an extension 1X12 comes available soon.

Sounds good! 👍👍🎸😎

It's NOT an infinium amp! They have built in lights to show when tubes needs replacing. The V22 simply has an amber jewel lamp on more recent examples. Much nicer and more vintage looking than blue! I've just bought a second hand one, built in Jan 2012 and it has the amber jewel lamp. It also means that it probably won't have the issues plagued by earlier versions, although the tube cage may rattle. Best to get it removed, it's unnecessary! The V22 is a great, bluesy, cool looking amp! Cheers!

This sounds amazing! I want it! The only problem is my local guitar center doesn't have one for me to try out first hand.

Wow. I'm gonna have to try one of these bad boys out tomorrow...

My tube cage on this pedal broke. It's ridiculous how they cage it and it's a hassle when you want to change your tubes out. I put some EHX in there. Sounds cool

I had a Blackheart Handsome Devil with a 150 watt Eminence Swamp Thang instead of the stock speaker. Huge sound...handles bass frequencies and powerful humbuckers really well...and it's LOUD!! I got rid of the HD for a V22 because I prefer the "vintage" sound of the Bugera. I think the stock speaker is great; really bluesy. Depends what sound you're looking for but for a harder rock sound I can thoroughly recommend the Swamp Thang!

Nice Video! Good review. ;-)

Awesome review! thanks. I was wondering if you could do some review for the Suhr Badger 18 amp, which falls into the 1x12 category. Peace.

Yeah it works really well for me. i have the tone wicker model and i usually play with the tone and wicker knobs turned off. I think the only thing wrong with this amp is the speaker, it kind of crackles at high volumes a little but its not a big problem at all.

Bugera makes great amps at an affordable price. I really dig the V22

Looking to find out what your go to amp is in the tone lab…you know, when you are not demo-ing things, Robert

@lmsjr The V22 & V55 have a 15vdc supply that is used to power the flip - flop circuit that switches between the clean & gain stages (this eliminates and POP you get from switching DOL) The regulator that is used overheats and its internal thermal protection kicks in, shutting the regulator off. If you happen to be using the dirty stage when this happens the amp switches back to the clean stage.

Got this amp today. :o it's fucking amazing.

Oh, i thought that setting it to 8 Ohms on the amp would give out 22 Watts on the internal 8 Ohm speaker But still, I tried the amp out a couple of times at the music store, and fell in love with it, probably the best valve amp that you can get at this price, and it still seemed loud enough for me

I am glad you told us the volume of your instrument. People often leave that out not knowing it changes the sound. Awesome review. You were aiming to please: Bullseye Question: How is the tone when the amp volume high?

There's something about these Bugeras.... between 5:30 and 6:00 that's the spot. Beautiful tone brother. Cheers

sounds good

i own this amp. i also have a ptp jtm45 and other boutique gear. one thing to say, you had better get one now if you desire a high quality tube amp for garage sale price. i gig reguarly with this amp and it has never failed me. this thing is plenty loud enough for 90 % of gigs. if not mike it.

@HenkDynacord Hi, I've owned, and gig'ed this amp for about 5 months now. It is loud enough for small gigs without mic'ing it up. I've also played bigger gigs, and i just mic it and it sounds great. And the amp's speaker wont turn off when you plug in an extension cab.

Sounds like most your riffs are right out of the Southern Rock classics. Alittle Outlaws an a little Molly. I LIKE IT LOL.

Let me answer by own question - my amp has arrived and like many have said, the clean is golden. My SD-1 and TS-9 pedals rip with my Peavey. The amps distortion channel is shrill sounding, but for $300, tons of features. No regrets here.

The output impedance can be set to 4,8 or 16 ohms :)

I just love the tone of this amp, I find that the 333 and 626x series sound a little muddy, but I would take this or the 1990 in a second.

@ace69er I have a very early V22 and it doesn't have the problem. Even if you do have the problem, mounting a heatsink on the Votage Regulator will fix it.

I got one used from a friend for $250. It is an amazing amp!

I've had my V22 for over a year now. If you dime the gain on the gain channel it damn sure sounds like a good 80's hard rock/metal level of gain to me, but don't expect to sound like Pantera, lol. having that plus a clean channel so pretty sounding that it makes me cry is just tone heaven to me. BTW TTK has some really cool vids but this demo doesn't quite do the amp full justice, if you've never tried one FIND one and try it out first hand, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

just got mine from today thomann for $288 plus $36 s&h...however...dead on arrival.turns on but no sound nothing.. and once in a while the replace tube light would go on..i replace the tubes still nothing....every..i mean EVERY screw that holds it together was from half to a full turn and a half loose. found one was stuck the the speaker magnet after it had fallen out. last straw was getting a shock after reaching over to pluck guitar strings one more time to check for sound...

i was thinking about buying this amp but then i ended up spending a little extra dough for a fender blues deluxe. i think that in the long run, the fender will be more durable and give me more satisfying tones in the long run. But tip of the hat to Bugera for making affordable tube amps.

Hey tone king! I was wondering in this demo if you used a pedal or you ran it straight to the amp? One other question is would it sound good using a me pedal through it? Thanks and great bid.

Hello. Would you recommend this amp for apartment jams/practice. I haven't tried it yet to see how loud it actually gets.

So did you use the higher output mode or the lower output mode via Pentode / Triode switch on the back? I'm confused about that? I lvoe the sound, but I think I'd use an overdrive pedal for extra gain for leads, but otherwise I love the tone it'self. It reminds me of my old Peavey Classic 30 amp tonewise. Thanks so much. Love the reviews..

Great review! Any idea if my US Peavey Wolfgang will play nicely with this amp? In other words, can I get all sorts of EVH tones? (Own a Boss SD-1 and EVH Phase 90).

Hi Tone King - great review. The speaker can be disconnected, that's interesting, can one of the outputs then be used for headphones, or even for a 1/4" to USB lead and the tone be taken into a computer?. Sorry but I don't know my Ohms from my elbow and I wouldn't want to either fry my computer, my headphones or damage the amp. This looks like the perfect practice/small gig amp, it's got the tones and it certainly hits my budget, but I need a "silent" rig for late night practice.

hell yea... watch this in FULL HD!!! ITS A BOSS!!

The dirty clean sound is pretty cool, kinda reminds me of Bathory.

can someone tell me how they think this does with natural amp distortion. how about with tube screamers and other drive pedals ? great demo thanks

Amp sounds great. Bugera really are amazing amps forget the price thing, they rank with the top amps out there. Th price is the super bonus. Any word on when the Tri-Rec comes out?

It's because yours is the newer infinium model. The infinium models have the red light in stead of the blue one like the older models. And if you don't know what infinium is, it's pretty much a built in tube biaser in your amp and it makes your tubes last a lot longer. With no comprimis in sound.

Hey Tone King! I love your videos. This one convinced me to get a Bugera v22. I picked it up for $100 so it was a steal! I want to replace the stock speaker with something that breaks up a little earlier and isn't muddy. The mids on the stock speaker are muddy to me. I play blues rock. So I need cleans and then response later. Can you recommend me something? I've been liking the Eminence Governor, Cannabis Rex, and Swamp Thang. But can't choose. Help?

I have this amp and it is great I feel that you get more than you paid for out of this amp.

Hi - my apologies if this is a dumb question - but with the speaker disconnected can one of the outputs be used for a pair of headphones or for a 1/4" jack to USB lead to take the sound into a computer. I love the look, sound and price of the Bugera's but I need a "silent" rig for home practice as well as something for rehearsal room and small gig.

hey great review. u think one could use this baby as a modern high gain amp, if u put a decent distortion pedal in front of the amp? i think this sounds very warm and i would like that for a metal sound! =D

sounded good to me !

Since it had a 8ohm speaker will anything bad happen if I set it to 16ohms via the switch?

would be a great help if you just roll the guitar volume to 10

Would giving it an even higher wattage speaker (let's say 100 watts) make any changes to the sound and/or volume of the amp?

it has two speaker outputs though and these days you can buy a cab for like £150, so that's the best way to make it louder!

Hey there fellow you tubers, I was wondering if anyone can tell me why the jewel light on my V22 is red instead of blue? I've searched all over the net and can't find the answer. I just got the amp today, and still no channel switching or reverb fading problems. Keeping my fingers crossed. Back to the jewel light. I'm assuming that it could be because mine is a newer version. the date code on mine is 1209 which puts at being made in September, 2012. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Is it just the speakers I'm listening on or does the V22 sound like it has a lot of Vox influence? To my ears the drive channel sounds like a gainy version of a Vox AC. The clean channel is kind of it's own thing with a little Fender and a little British color and sounds great. But the overdrive sounds more like Vox than anything else I could compare it to. These amps have been around for a while. It seems like they have worked out the bugs and have been fairly consistent with build quality for a few years now. The reliability reports have been mostly good from what I see. I'm tempted to try one of these.

Hey tone king. How would I change the tubes in this one. Also how does this one sound with distortions? I am sure to run it through a distortion pedal even though there is a foot switch and stuff.

Can the FX Loop and the FootSwitch work together? What I mean is, am I able to run my pedalboard through the FXLoop and also access the dirty channel with the switch back and forth as needed? Thanks!

Hello Toneking. I live in Holland and have two questions. I am considering to buy the V22. I have a extra 1x12 cab with an Eminence legend 8 Ohms. When I plug in the extern cab, will the internal Bugera speaker then be switched off? I am asking that because I want to use both speakers similarly. How loud is this amp? Can it be used at small gigs (not in the open) or is it only for homeplaying and rehearselrooms? Regards, Henk

i reallly like mine but the reverb makes this weird pulsating sound and the reverb light on the footswitch also flickers when it gets warmed up...about to send it back for a new one hopefully i dont get another lemon

two questions, first in back column said 70w, and this is a 22w amplifier, 70w, it means what? the second one its there is a botton in the back to saying triode and pentode, what is that and used for? Ah and finnily the ohm´s u can choose is to input 2 cabinets its true?

Clean possibly, distortion definitely

Hello oh Thrice-Blessed Tone-King Person. I have enjoyed your videos immensely during my search for the perfect amp for me. I have an Epi Dot and an Ibanez SA260 but tend to favour old and dirty sounding blues on the Dot. I get the feeling that the Bugera v22 is a good amp for a Dot's humbucker sound, while the Vox is better for a clearer wailing single coil sound, such as comes out of Strat-type guitars like the Ibanez. Would I be right in that? What does everyone else think?

@HolyGfunnies I thot that had to be the case...Now, most EL-84-based amps ARE Class A, so I wondered if there was something inherent to that particular tube that way. My PV Classic 30 gets hotter than HOLY HELL, cos the Class A system won't let the power tubes rest...On cold days that amp will make the room it's in feel better ! Incidentally, is the V22 Class A?

Robin Trower was always heavily influenced by Hendrix and has always used Marshalls. He now uses Marshall Vintage Modern amps, for improved reliability. Depends on your budget but definitely go Marshall (and strat) for the Trower sound!

@skillcape99 1- The speakers work at 70w. The w of the speakers must always have more w than the amp. The amp is 22w the speakers 70w. 2- Pentode, the amp works at full power. Triode, the amp works at a half power ( 11w ) 3- Yes, it's true. PD: my english is not very good, so I'm sorry if I wrote a mistake.

@Kid0fThePast I use ot with the Big Muff and the amp really breaks the tone well.It gives the muff the fat,creamy,oldschool fullsound that muffs have on famous records. I use it on bright channel with boost on presenve up and the muff on low through an Epi les paul and it can bust balls every time! If you have doubts, don't . this amp can take on the muff !

Hey whats up TTK. I was just wondering if you could do a review of the Bugera 55v combo please because the 22v is awesome but the 55v is killer!!!

I'm looking at a cable like the artproaudio T Connect usb audio cable, but I don't believe these are designed to take an ammplified signal. I believe the problem with a straight 1/4" - 1/8" microphone input is the latency - certainly that's what I encountered when I tried with my existing gear. I realise this is probably a really dumb question to anyone who understands electronics, but I don't know my Ohms from my elbow and don't want to fry my PC's soundcard or damage the amp.

Is it possible to plug in a pair of headphones at the back?

tell me about durability? thanks

Hey man, what do think this vs laney cub12r? Which one would you prefer?

hey Tone King, i'm planning to buy a new amplifier so i decided to ask you about. I have 3 options: Orange Tiny Terror with BH112 cab, Bugera V22 and a Hot Rod Deluxe. Which one do you recommend ?

It would not effect the volume because it only outputs the power that the amp outputs but it would give more headroom so you would a cleaner sound.

how loud can it get? because i have to play in gymnasiums and fill it with nice guitar tones on some songs.

so there is no boost switch on the floorpedal? I would like that for a soloboost.

the tone king is awsome...tone king, do you know who robin trower is? i want an amp that gets his sound the best.

@lmsjr Have you had the customary "channel switching" problem yet?

I prefer it over my deluxe reverb.

Would this amp be good to get a hard rocking sound? Something like Guns N Roses, Skid Row, Metallica (Load/Garage inc era)... I have a Les Paul and I'm thinking to buy a valve amp, not much expensive, to get that Marshall + Les Paul kind of sound. I don't know if this amp would be good for that propose...

@lmsjr The amps are known for a flaw that causes the amp to switch channels. From what I've read it's heat related. Keep it on for a while and work it a bit and see if it happens.

Is it too loud for home playing ?

Please tell me you're going to do the TriRec when it's released. Oh please tell me you will.

@guitarbrain666 Yo ~ Thought id give my 2 cents on this one - basically, the reverb and the footswitch are buggy - the first V22 I got, the reverb would drop in and out when I had it turned up - it would just stop....then start again. Did some research and found the footswitch can cause problems and there guys out there making their own footswitches and mods for these amps because theres "some" problem ~ and there clearly is. Cuz many peoples V22's mess up when using the footswitch. Its weird

Because it is a tube amp and you need to x3 the amp wattage to find the output. (3x22=66 close to 70)

Bugera for the win