Home › Forums › The Lounge › Best amp for Psychedelic Effects: Bogner Mephisto Head For Auction.
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October 9, 2013 at 4:40 am #83188CrowyoteParticipant
I’m selling my Bogner Mephisto head w/ a brand new Planet Waves Speaker Cable on Ebay w/ no Reserve.
I’ve only had it for two months and it has never left my smoke-free/pet-free etc studio. I’ve only put about 35-50 hours on the tubes-absolute max, since I played it about 3 hours a night 3 times a week for about 4-5 weeks.
I bought it brand new, and it has been handled only lightly. All tubes are stock and sound well matched. The head is cosmetically perfect as well, without a scratch or nick in the tolex. I have taken very good care that a speaker or my Loadbox was always connected when turned on. In the pics, I turned it on briefly in Standby mode just to show the lights/LEDs. Then, I tested it and can confirm that it still sounds perfect and that the Output Transformer and fuses are in perfect working order. This amp is quite likely in better shape than a lot of amps you will see at your local music store and seen listed as “new.”
I would say that this amp sounds like it has the best tones of a classic Vox, a classic Fender (Blackface or 50’s tweed) and even a low watt Marshall all available with a click of the footswitch. The 6V6 50’s side can yield Howlin’ Wolf to overdriven ZZ top- esque tones, while the Blackface side can evoke those sounds of “Her Satanic Majesty’s Requests” to “Seven Nation Army” etc. The 12ax7s in the 6v6 preamp can really growl, sing or create the impression of an envelope filter on the notes, especially those in the lowest range of the guitar.
With it’s circuit modeled after a classic AC15, the EL84 is so versatile that it can mimic almost any early 50’s, Beatles or the Who tone, smooth Scofield funk, or overdriven crunch tones of Foo Fighters style alternative and beyond. It has a 5879 tube in V1, which is a more stable EF86 style pentode and a 5751 in V2, which is a low noise 12ax7, combined w/ the 6 pos. schizo switch and the 3 pos. Top Boost switch (like a Vox with Normal, Top Boost, and UBER Top Boost) you can dial in an extremely broad palette of tones. When overdriven in the Top Boost mode of the EL84 side you may notice a envelope-follower quality for the higher notes, thus you get an amazing special effect when you overdrive the two in parallel mode and combine them (this may also be due to rectifier tube sag which is cool)! You can combine the seperate amplifier’s tones together in any proportion: clean EL84 and clean 6V6, Dirty EL84 and Dirty 6V6, Clean El 84 w/ Saturated 6V6, Overdriven EL84 w/ Clean 6V6. The tone combinations are practically limitless. If you’re like me and you want to be able to access Fender tone or a Vox tone at the drop of a hat or you want to explore mixing them, this is the amp for you!
Not only this the included attenuator allows you to vary the volume while adjusting the saturation of the output tubes. This way you can have clean preamp tube tone combined with saturated/overdriven output tubes, which is a very subtle, smooth and pleasing type of distortion, at “bedroom” volume levels.
I was so smitten with this amp’s luscious tubey tone goodness that I bought the combo a few weeks later. The head has the advantage of being less bulky and allowing you to use with a variety of speaker cabinets. I had paired this head with a V30 cab and it sounded amazingly clear and balanced. I imagine it would also sound great paired with a speaker like a Greenback or a Goldfinger cab, and likely quite remarkable with an Alnico speaker. It’s perfect for recording with a DI or Loadbox and yields an extremely balanced frequency response which is a great foil for dynamic playing as well as effects. As an owner of the combo, I feel that a G12H30 (included stock in the combo) is a very “peaky” and prone to feedback in the mid-high range w/ this amp, and for me it was a useless speaker without further attenuation.
It comes with the beautiful footswitch, the included power supply plug, and a brand new Planet Waves 5 ft. Speaker Cable.
Here’s the info from the Bogner site:Mephisto is an immortal entity possessing magical powers and abilities gained by manipulation of the forces of magic. Mephisto is capable of using his power for a variety of uses, including superhuman strength, shape and size shifting and projecting illusions….
Our Mephisto is truly a new concept in amplifier design. It’s not a channel switching amplifier, but rather, Parallel Amplifier Switching with two independent amplifiers found within one artful design.
Two vintage voiced Class-A amplifiers are at the heart of the Mephisto.
Your guitar input is shared and then splits into the two independent amplifiers with their own individual pre amp, phase inverter and power amp. The two amplifiers then merge, after their power tubes, into one output transformer and speaker output.
Features include:
shared low and high gain inputSpecs:
• Switchable dual amplifier design
• 6V – 50’s American
• 2x6V6 12W Class A cathode biased power amp
• JJ ECC83s single triode 1st gain
• JJ ECC83s 2nd gain stage and cathodyne phase inverter
• Volume and Tone controls
• 2 position Notch switch with black face mode
• 84 – 60’s British
• 2xEL84 18W Class A cathode biased power amp
• NOS 5879 pentode gain stage
• JJ 5751 long-tailed phase inverter
• Volume and Schizo 6 position rotary voice control
• 3 position bright switch
• Common features
• High and Low gain input
• 5Y3 tube rectifier (5AR4/GZ34 can
• 20W in parallel mode
• Variable power attenuator, footswitch-able
• Single 8 ohm speaker out
• Functions on footswitch: 6V6 or EL84, 6V6 and EL84 parallel mode, power attenuator
• Head
• Unique retro design in black comet with classis salt & pepper grill cloth
Head: 10.50” H 20.75” W 8.25” D 32 poundsI would also recommend viewing the incredible demo by RJ Ronquillo on the Bogner website & Youtube. He shows you the amazing things this amp can do way better than I can.
October 9, 2013 at 4:42 am #119385CrowyoteParticipantYou can hear my soundcloud clips using this amp w/ my Moog Guitar and tons of EHX effects here:
https://soundcloud.com/thecrimsonmoog/sets/moogphisto-variationsRJ’s demo for Bogner:
October 18, 2013 at 11:33 pm #119386CrowyoteParticipantOctober 23, 2013 at 6:31 am #119424CrowyoteParticipantBogner Mephisto Demos:
https://soundcloud.com/thecrimsonmoog/sets/mephisto-demos
I thoroughly go through nearly every tone setting with different guitar tones and playing styles.
October 24, 2013 at 11:30 pm #119435CrowyoteParticipantThe Auction is almost over. Thanks for all the views and bids!
I can’t wait to welcome someone new to the Bogner Mephisto club!
October 25, 2013 at 8:06 am #119437CrowyoteParticipantSOLD!!!!
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